What's wrong with this Canada - Mossad story?

This story originated with the Sun chain in Canada and is now turning up in Israeli media. It's got all the elements of a good spy thriller; assassination, secret identities, false passports, and, wouldn't you know it, a shady Iranian right in the middle of it.

The way the story is presented is obvious hokum. The Mossad agent in question is hiding out in Canada after the assassination of Hamas big Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai back in 2010. Hiding out from what? Hamas hit teams roaming Haifa and Tel Aviv looking for revenge?

That's beyond silly. That's even sillier than the original assassination plot which involved a team of no less than 26 killers! That's what I call overkill! And while they did get their man, they also got most of their team ID'd by Dubai security. Oops!

But just because our Mossad chappie has no need to be hiding out in Canada doesn't mean the accommodating folks in Harper's Ottawa didn't fix him up with a new Canadian identity. In 1997 Israel admitted to using fake Canadian passports in a botched assassination attempt in Jordan and promised not to be so naughty again.

With the current PM of Canada and most of his cabinet having sworn eternal love for Netanyahu, they won't have to. They can pick up real passports at the nearest Canadian consulate. The Canadians are only doing God's will; right there in the Book of Revelations it says "and the Canadianites shall shelterest them from the anti-semites with papers bearing the Seal of Stephen", a clear reference to Canadian passports.

As for the Iranian Don Juan charming state secrets out of a lonely gal at the passport office, that's a nice touch too. Gives the story a human element.

The sanction-busters' dilema

Turkish traders have roamed Asia and the Middle East for a thousand years, but modern politics are giving them pause.

Seems that contemporary Turkish entrepreneurs can't go to Iran once they've got an Israel stamp in their passport, and they can't go to Israel once they've got a stamp from the Islamic Republic in their passport.

Apparently this turn of events causes enough discomfort to enough Turkish businessmen that it has become front page news in Turkey.

Luckily they have proposed a solution; two passports!

Brilliant!

And I think this plan will have the full support of the Israeli security establishment.

When those Turkish businessmen are busy in Israel, they can leave their other passport with Mossad for safe-keeping! This will go a long way to remedy the problem created by the Canadians when they closed their Tehran embassy.

Till then, the Canadian document was Mossad's passport of choice for clandestine visits to the Islamic Republic.

Since then, that's become a bit of a problem.

But these dual-passport Turks are about to solve it.