Western Concerted Effort to Hamper Hunt for Mabhouh Mossad Hit Men, Reports Wall Street Journal

[ 10/10/2010 - 10:50 AM ]

WASHINGTON, (PIC)--

Politics from some pro-Israel countries in the West have placed obstacles in the way of capturing the perpetrators in the Mahmoud al-Mabhouh assassination, the Wall Street Journal reported in an investigation on Friday.

All of the suspects in the crime that took place in Dubai last January 20 used counterfeit passports from Europe, except Christopher Lockwood, 62, who was actually a citizen of England, the American daily added.

Lockwood’s cell phone was recently switched on in France, when security authorities stumbled upon his address in London and discovered that he changed his name in 1994 from Yehuda Lustig to Christopher Lockwood.

The findings reached by investigators raised hope of finding one of the coordinators of the Mabhouh hit, or at least evidence to substantiate charges of the Mossad’s involvement.

But the findings disappeared, and London police surveyed his residence in London but to no avail.  Police also could not find him in France.

Investigators said Yahuda Lustig, a soldier in the Israeli army, was killed in the 1973 October war, according to the Israeli obituaries, a finding that increased uncertainty about Lockwood’s identity.

After eight months of hard security work and political outrage over the use of forged passports, the investigation reached a dead end.

Investigators added that despite “tough talk” from several governments whose passports were forged, politics may have hindered necessary cooperation from governments that support Israel.

Two of the suspects traveled with forged passports and apparently fled to the United States a short time after the Mabhouh killing. Their passport details appeared on the U.S border and immigration data system. The system saves prior lists of passengers who travel abroad and compares them to wanted persons lists.

Investigators hoped to find the two men, but the U.S  Department of Homeland Security said it did not find any records of the suspects on its systems or databases.

In Germany, prosecutors in Cologne suspected an Israeli man of espionage and accessory to murder. Germany recovered the man in Poland over the lesser charge of counterfeiting an official document. But last August a German court released the suspect on bail, and he immediately flew to Israel, a move that will make it difficult to recover him for the spy charges.