FALSE FLAG

Alleged Mossad agents imprisoned: Men convicted of trying to obtain fraudulent passports in New Zealand

The prime minister of New Zealand angrily denounced Israel and imposed diplomatic sanctions on it after two suspected Mossad agents were jailed for six months for trying on false grounds to obtain a New Zealand passport.
The plot, which involved obtaining a passport in the name of a tetraplegic man -- who had not spoken in years -- provoked a furious reaction. The Mossad plot was uncovered in March when a passport officer noticed that a passport applicant was speaking with a Canadian or American accent. The clue led to the uncovering of a complex conspiracy involving up to four Israeli agents, who had attempted to create a false identity for 36-year-old fugitive Zev Barkan using a fraudulent birth certificate, a fake voicemail message and letter box, and concocted medical symptoms.
Urie Zoshe Kelman, 30, and Eli Cara, 50, both admitted to the passport charges at an earlier hearing. They had faced a maximum sentence of five years.
Both men had gone to elaborate steps to conceal their identities: Kelman appeared at the court wearing a balaclava and covered his face throughout the two-hour hearing, while Cara had changed his hair colour, complexion and build since his first court appearance in March.
Mr Barkan and a fourth man believed to have been connected to the plot are still on the run. Mr Barkan lived in a house just a few hundred metres from his target, a wheelchair user who has not been named for legal reasons. Cara set up a false travel agency in Sydney to aid the deception. A birth certificate was obtained using details of the man's mother, who now lives in England
Lawyers for the two men told the court there was no evidence to suggest their clients were members of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad. "That allegation has never formed part of the prosecution case," defending lawyer Stuart Grieve said.
He said Cara -- a former Israeli air force pilot -- ran a bona fide tourism business in Sydney and that he only came to New Zealand on business and holidays.
However, Clark was clear about whom she blamed for the case.
"The Israeli agents attempted to demean the integrity of the New Zealand passport system and could have created considerable difficulties for New Zealanders presenting their passports overseas in future," she said.

This is not the first time Israel had sought fraudulently to obtain passports from another country. "Israeli agents caught in an unsuccessful assassination attempt in Jordan in 1997 were found to be carrying fraudulent Canadian passports," Clark said.