NO MORAL BARRIERS
 
The world of spies and terrorist is back in the news with reports out of Israel that the Australian Federal Police team, investigating the illegal use of Australian passports in a Middle East assassination, have been involved in a hit-run accident in Tel Aviv. If all this weren’t so serious it would start to sound like something out of the Keystone Cops.

Apparently, a four-wheel drive carrying the Australian coppers ran over a woman cyclist near the Australian Embassy and took off. The armoured vehicle was being driven by an Israeli employed by the Embassy.
 
The victim, 22-year-old Oshra Bar, suffered a cut knee and a wrecked bike.
She said; ‘The car just sped away without stopping. There is no doubt they knew he had hit me.’
 
The Federal Police officers are in Israel investigating the theft and misuse of Australians’ passports in the assassination in Dubai of Hamas terrorist Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Allegedly by the Israeli Secret Service Mossad.
 
Australia has protested to the Israeli Government about the dangerous fraud but it all does raise an important moral issue.
 
How far should, or would, a Government go in the war on terror? Do you the public wants to know?
 
And the issue has been raised, specifically with Australia in mind, by one of the most famous lawyers in the world. Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard professor is best known internationally for his involvement in such celebrity case as Patty Hearst, the O.J. Simpson murder trial, and Claus von Bulow whose conviction he had overturned for the attempted murder of his wealthy wife, Sunny.
 
He has just written in his blog:
 
‘The complaints leveled against Israel by European countries and Australia, regarding the alleged misuse of passports by Mossad in the assassination  ring hollow and smack of blatant hypocrisy. Whoever did kill Mahmoud al-Mabhouh—whether it was the Israeli Mossad or someone else—clearly did have their agents use stolen or forged passports. Big deal.

Every good intelligence agency uses stolen and forged passports. The British have been especially adept at this means of spycraft.’
 
Dershowitz claims that shortly after the Bali bombings he met with then-Prime Minister John Howard and asked him if he would have ordered a pre-emptive attack on the terrorists who killed Australian tourists if such an attack would have saved lives.
 
Howard said that Australia would have done anything it could to prevent those attacks.
 
So where do you draw the line? The terrorist have no rules. No moral barriers. Should we?
 
Friday, March 5, 2010

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2010