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Brits Probe How Alleged Hit Team Members Got Fake Passports

The British government is investigating how six members of an alleged hit squad obtained expertly forged U.K. passports used in a plot to murder a prominent Hamas leader. Authorities in Dubai say members of the squad used the fake documents to enter the country, where they killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a hotel room on January 20.

Authorities in Dubai, the financial hub of the United Arab Emirates, have issued warrants for the arrests of 11 suspects they believe to be involved in Mabhouh’s death. Various publications in the Arab world are blaming the Israeli government for the murder. According to the Guardian newspaper, Mabhouh was wanted in Israel for the killing of two Israeli soldiers in 1989.

But Dubai’s police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, has been more cautious in his public statements: “It could be Mossad, or another party,” he told the Web site Arab News. “Personally, I don’t exclude any possibility. I don’t exclude any party that has an interest in the assassination.”

A spokesman for the British Embassy in Washington said that U.K. authorities were offering UAE authorities “assistance and support” in their investigation but that investigators in London had also opened their own investigation of how the bogus U.K passports might have gotten into circulation.

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs in Dublin said that the Irish government had not yet officially received evidence in the case from authorities in the Emirates. But the spokesman said that based on information released to the media by UAE authorities, the Irish government believes that the passports used by the alleged suspects were fabricated.

“We have no record of Irish passports corresponding to these,” the spokesman told Declassified. None of the bogus Irish passport numbers correspond to real Irish passports, the spokesman said.  “They’re certainly not genuine Irish passports.”   

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Mark Hosenball joined Newsweek as an investigative correspondent in November 1993, covering a range of issues for the National Affairs department. Most recently, he has written and reported numerous stories on terrorism and the Sept. 11 attacks on America. He has also covered campaign finance, the Monica Lewinsky controversy, the death of Princess Diana, Whitewater, the crashes of EgyptAir flight 990 and TWA flight 800, as well as related air safety issues.

Hosenball came to Newsweek from "Dateline NBC," where he worked as an investigative producer. He also worked extensively as a print journalist, writing for a number of British and American publications, including the London Sunday Times, the London Evening Standard, Time Out, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and The New Republic. In addition, he has done commentaries for American Public Radio.

Hosenball has been honored with a number of prestigious awards. Most recently, along with a team of Newsweek correspondents, he was awarded the Overseas Press Club's most prestigious honor, the 2002 Ed Cunningham Memorial Award for best magazine reporting from abroad for Newsweek's coverage of the war on terror. His reporting and that of his colleagues earned Newsweek the prestigious National Magazine Award for General Excellence in 2002 for its coverage of September 11 and its aftermath. And a story he co-authored was highlighted in a citation Newsweek received by the White House Correspondents' Association when it awarded the magazine the 2002 Edgar A. Poe Award for "excellence on a story of national or regional importance. "Newsweek's September 11 coverage started long before the attacks. An article in the magazine's February 19, 2001 issue warned with chilling accuracy: 'The threat posed by (Osama) bin Laden is growing -- and coming ever closer to home."

Hosenball was a contributor to the CANAL + TV documentary, "L'Argent de la Drogue" (Drug Money), which was awarded the "Sept D'Or," the French equivalent of an Emmy. He also contributed to NBC News' coverage of the BCCI scandal, which earned a 1991 Peabody Award.

He attended the University of Pennsylvania and Trinity College in Dublin. He lives in the Washington, D.C. area with his wife and son.

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