Ireland expels israeli diplomat over Hamas assassination - English
DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland announced Tuesday it's expelling an Israeli diplomat in punishment for the Mossad use of forged Irish passports to...
DUBLIN (AP) -- Ireland announced Tuesday it's expelling an Israeli diplomat in punishment for the Mossad use of forged Irish passports to assassinate a top Hamas official in Dubai.
israel has refused to confirm or deny its agents' involvement in the January slaying of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. Dubai police said Israeli agents posing as holidaymakers in the oil-rich Arab emirate killed Mabhouh in his hotel room.
They said assassins using 32 fake passports — including eight depicting fictional Irish citizens — participated in the hit squad. The Irish Department of Foreign Affairs and Ireland's national police force, the Garda Siochana, launched parallel investigations, but said their appeals for information from Israel fell on deaf ears.
"The misuse of Irish passports by a state with which Ireland enjoys friendly, if sometimes frank, bilateral relations is clearly unacceptable and requires a firm response," Irish Foreign Minister Micheal Martin said as he announced the expulsion.
Ireland's two investigations received no cooperation from the Israelis, but nevertheless reached "the inescapable conclusion that an Israeli government agency was responsible," he said.
The Israeli embassy in Dublin includes four diplomats and two security officials. Both Ireland and Israel declined to identify the official facing expulsion by name or position, but The Irish Times reported it was one of the security officials.
Martin said the official was chosen for expulsion to send a symbolic message, and the Irish investigations found no evidence that any of the embassy staff was involved in the conspiracy.
"The official concerned is not accused or suspected of any particular wrongdoing," Martin said. "The official concerned is a victim of the actions of the state they represent."
Martin condemned Israel's assassination of Mabhouh.
"Many allegations have been made against Mr. Mabhouh which, if true, would categorize him as a committed terrorist," Martin said. But Ireland "does not believe that states should fight terror with terror. As a matter of principle, Ireland opposes extra-judicial killings. We believe that states have a duty to operate according to the law and to respect that way of life that terrorists seek to destroy."
Martin's aides said this was the first time Ireland has expelled an Israeli official. It last took such action in the mid-1980s against Russian officials suspected of spying activity on behalf of the former Soviet Union.
Israel's ambassador to Ireland, Zion Evrony, said he was summoned Tuesday to the Department of Foreign Affairs to be told of the expulsion.
Earlier this month Israeli commandos seized an Irish-run vessel trying to run aid into Gaza Port. All the Irish citizens aboard, including former UN humanitarian official Denis Halliday and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Corrigan Maguire, were arrested and deported.
The Dubai assassins also used fake passports from Britain, Germany, France and Australia. British officials determined that Israeli officials stole the identities of real British citizens, but Martin said all eight Irish passports involved fake identities. He said six of the forged Irish passports used real numbers assigned to real Irish people with different names, while two others were total fabrications.
Australia expelled an Israeli diplomat May 24 after concluding that Mossad was involved in forging four Australian passports.
Britain expelled an Israeli diplomat in March after reaching the same conclusion about 12 fraudulent British passports used by the alleged assassins.
The governments of France and Germany have yet to announce conclusions of their own investigations.
Tehran Times
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[AL-QUDS 2012] Times Square, New York USA : Yusuf Abdul-Mateen of Blak...
International Day of Quds 2012, Times Square, NY
Al Quds Committee New York (www.alqudsday.org)
Master-of-Ceremonies: Radio Rahim...
International Day of Quds 2012, Times Square, NY
Al Quds Committee New York (www.alqudsday.org)
Master-of-Ceremonies: Radio Rahim (radiorahimonline.com)
Muslim MC Yusuf Abdul-Mateen is one-half of the elite Boston unit Blak Madeen. Born in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts to an Irish-American family in the late 70s, Yusuf's passion for hip hop culture was developed while attending a Catholic high school in Lawrence, MA. His interest in music was only superseded by his interest in Islam, which he started reading about as a child. He finally converted to Islam in 2003. By then his recording career had already begun but now his lyrics would take on a spiritual and political edge. His calm, dead-pan delivery consists of powerful words and contain a message with every song.
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[AL-QUDS 2012] Times Square, New York USA : Cyrus McGoldrick, CAIR - 17...
International Day of Quds 2012, Times Square, NY
Al Quds Committee New York (www.alqudsday.org)
Master-of-Ceremonies: Radio Rahim...
International Day of Quds 2012, Times Square, NY
Al Quds Committee New York (www.alqudsday.org)
Master-of-Ceremonies: Radio Rahim (radiorahimonline.com)
Cyrus "the Raskol Khan" McGoldrick is an artist and community activist, an American Muslim of Iranian and Irish descent. A recent graduate of Columbia University in New York City, he is the Civil Rights Manager at the NY chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, and serves on the Board of Directors for Getting Out & Staying Out, a program dedicated to helping young men coming out of prison to stay out of prison. As an independent world/hip-hop musician specializing in voice, beats and live instruments (tenor sax, violin, piano), he has been performing since 2004 with various groups around the country. He is a voice for Islam, human rights and cultural understanding, featured in hundreds of concerts, rallies, panels, and local, national and international media.
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[27 June 13] Banking scandal hits Ireland - English
The global banking crisis of 2008, caused by the reckless behavior of American lenders, spread shockwaves around the world that are still being...
The global banking crisis of 2008, caused by the reckless behavior of American lenders, spread shockwaves around the world that are still being felt today.
Banking giants such as Lehmann brothers & Bear Stearns collapsed and other banks scrambled to secure \'bailouts\' from their governments to avoid going the same way.
In Ireland, the downturn in the property market caused the Anglo Irish Bank to approach government regulators and the Central Bank.
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