Prepare for moral confusion

George Jonas
National Post
16 June '10

On Jan. 19 this year a man named Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, described as a terrorist by Israel, was throttled in a Dubai hotel room. His killers, say Dubai officials, were Israeli agents. Dubai alleges that a travelling circus of Mossad assassins, 26 or more, participated in the hit, utilizing British, French, Irish, German and Australian passports.

Whether or not it takes a village to raise a child, it certainly seems to take one to put down a terrorist. A hit team of 26 sounds like overkill, though we should assume most were only roadies, pitching tents and picking up after the elephant. Given all the paperwork involved, 26 may not even have been the full complement.

On June 4, an Israeli citizen travelling under the name of Uri Brodsky was arrested by Polish border guards on arrival at Warsaw airport. The Poles were acting on German information that Brodsky had assisted the hit team in Dubai by helping to obtain a German passport for one of their members. Now the Germans want Poland to extradite the Israeli, so they can put him on trial for whatever role he played, if any, in obtaining a passport in Cologne for another person under the name of Michael Bodenheimer to travel to Dubai for the alleged purpose of participating in the hit.

The Israelis oppose the request for all the obvious reasons, but especially because they fear that Brodsky may end up being tried in Dubai. Indeed, news agency reports this week indicate that Dubai, after initially saying it had no interest in seeking Brodsky's extradition, is now changing its tune. The Gulf News quotes Dubai Police Chief Lieutenant-General Dahi Khalfan Tamim saying that a request for extradition may follow evidence showing a "direct link to the assassination on our soil."

There was a time when Dubai's request wouldn't have had a snowball's chance in hell, but hell offers air conditioning these days and modern snowballs are heat-resistant. In our topsy-turvy times of global warming and infernal cooling, an allegation of counterterrorism can get a person extradited faster than an allegation of terrorism. It's still unlikely that Germany would send an Israeli to an Arab country to be tried, but it's no longer unthinkable.

(Read full story)

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