NEWS: Foreign spy charges whip up top-level security storm

The New Zealand Herald is reporting that the local authorities have arrested two men believed to be Israeli Secret Service Agents after trying to obtain a false New Zealand passport. The case is generating a lot of controversy about the possibility that MOSSAD spies may be masquerading as New Zealand travellers.



Prime Minister Helen Clark said last night she would not comment while the case was before the court, but confirmed the Government had raised the matter directly with the Israeli Government.

"There will be a strong and public response to this matter once the court action has concluded," she told the Weekend Herald.

Officials, lawyers, police and Helen Clark's spokesman refused to confirm or deny the Mossad link.

The acting Israeli Ambassador, Orna Sagiv, last night refused to comment.

The case is the first known example of foreign agents appearing in a New Zealand court since the 1985 arrest of the Rainbow Warrior bombers.

It is understood the Israeli Government wanted the case kept out of the New Zealand court system, and this issue is likely to have been a point of diplomatic friction.

Foreign spy charges whip up top-level security storm

The security of New Zealand passports is under the spotlight after two suspected Israeli spies were caught allegedly trying to obtain the documents here.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has said the Government would do everything it could to protect the reputation of New Zealand passports, while National Party immigration spokesman Wayne Mapp is calling for a review of the passport system.

"What the Government takes extremely seriously is any action which sets out to challenge the integrity of the New Zealand passport system and we will act in any way we can to protect the reputation of the New Zealand passport," Miss Clark told National Radio.

Last night, she said the matter had been raised directly with the Israeli government.

Israeli 'spy' case puts NZ passport security under spotlight

EXCLUSIVE - A quadriplegic, wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy sufferer was the victim of an alleged plot by Israelis looking to secure a New Zealand passport.



The clandestine plan unravelled in the Auckland District Court yesterday when two men appeared in a case fast-tracked in highly unusual circumstances.

Papers given to Judge Chris Field showed how suspicious Internal Affairs staff called in police who set a trap.

Defence lawyers Grant Illingworth, QC, and Nigel Faigan, representing Eli Cara and Uriel Zoshe Kelman, consented for the case to proceed to trial although they did not concede there was a prima facie case.

According to the police, a third Israeli man, Zev William Barkan, tried to get the passport in the name of the New Zealander.

How the trap was sprung

Israel's embassy in Australia in recent days dispatched a diplomat to New Zealand to deal with the arrests of two Israelis for allegedly trying to obtain a false New Zealand passport.




Wellington has asked Israel to explain why two of its citizens, reported by a newspaper to be Mossad secret service agents, were trying to procure the forged document, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark confirmed Saturday.

The case has set off alarm bells that Mossad agents may be masquerading as harmless New Zealand travelers abroad, the New Zealand Herald said. Clark refused to comment directly on the case in which the two Israelis appeared in court in Auckland on Friday.

But she issued a statement saying that, "the government takes seriously any action which challenges the integrity of the New Zealand passport system."

Diplomat sent to New Zealand to deal with Israeli arrests

THE nation's spy-catchers are investigating a suspected Israeli spy ring in Australia.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation has been investigating the suspected cell for up to a month.

Two Israeli citizens appeared in an Auckland court on Friday charged with passport fraud � one of them claimed to be a Sydney travel agent who had travelled to New Zealand 24 times since October 2000.

Sydney-based Eli Cara, 50, and Zoshe Kelman, 30, faced three charges each after being arrested in a police sting operation late last month.

Another Israeli, Zev William Barkan, 37, escaped from New Zealand while a fourth man is believed to be still hiding.

The men are suspected of being Mossad agents who were allegedly gathering fake New Zealand passports.

Israeli 'spies' caught in sting

Isnt that the Mossad motto? I think i read that somewhere, but i could be wrong.
Wasnt there some story about Mossad and 911 connections....ahhh, Here it is
Im sure this will go nowhere tho. It will fade quickly from the mass media, swept under the rug and shrugged off as a 'mistake' or an 'oversight'.



[Edited on 17-4-2004 by aware]

Originally posted by aware
Wasnt there some story about Mossad and 911 connections....?

Indeed there are. Here are links to some info on the MOSSAD and 9/11. They contains links to many other news sources.

THE FIVE ISRAELIS ARRESTED ON 9-11

THE ISRAELI SPY RING SCANDAL

Police made a public appeal on national television for a suspected Mossad spy two days after Israelis were arrested for allegedly trying to fraudulently obtain a New Zealand passport.

Zev William Barkan, 37, appeared on the reality programme Police Ten 7 last month as being wanted for fraudulently obtaining a New Zealand passport.

The photo of Barkan used on the programme was the one he submitted for an urgent passport last month in the name of a wheelchair-bound cerebral palsy sufferer, "Mr A", who has name suppression.

Have you seen this man?

Documents produced at the Auckland District Court show an Israeli man who allegedly tried to obtain a false New Zealand passport previously came to this country on a Canadian passport.

Uri Kelman - facing joint charges with fellow Israeli Eli Cara - entered New Zealand this year on his Israeli passport. But on a visit five years ago Kelman entered Auckland on his Canadian passport, leaving eight weeks later on a temporary replacement Canadian passport he had obtained in New Zealand.

Government officials probed the travel history of Cara and Kelman before their appearance in the Auckland District Court last Friday.

Israeli man entered NZ using Canadian passport, court told

I commend you again Ocelot. You are a fair and balanced reporter and your articles provide insight on news that is more often than not way under-reported.
So Mossad is sneaking around NZ, using various ways to obtain passports and thus entry into other countries.
No big deal im sure, after all they, like us, have the right to sneak around anywhere and do literally anything, all in the name of 'national security'. There are no rules when it comes to 'national security', and i use northwoods as my point of reference there.
Thanks for the links to the spying art students.
Im willing to THEORIZE that the 'middle eastern' conection to OKC probably had somthing to do with this as well. Who knows?

What's up with Israel's preoccupation with wheelchair-bound paraplegics? First, they offed Sheikh Yassin, the blind paraplegic known as the spiritual mentor of Hamas, with a few well-aimed shots from an Israeli helicopter gunship. Now the news out of New Zealand is that Israeli spies used yet another wheelchair-bound paraplegic to illegally procure a passport in his name for their own purposes.

Two of the spies have been caught red-handed, and arrested, while one has fled the country and police are still looking for a fourth Israeli who is believed to be still at large. While not admitting that the four are spies � but not denying it, either � New Zealand's Prime Minister, Helen Clark, is furious, and has vowed "a strong and public response once the court action has concluded."

What in heck is going on in New Zealand?

Israel Targets � New Zealand?

Is there any update as to why they were seeking NZ passports? Or does it appear that they just want to look like Kiwis on holiday?