ISRAEL: Journalist describes strange twists of 'German' suspect in Dubai hit
In Israel, much has been said and much more not disclosed about the fake European passports used by the assassins in Dubai.
On Monday, Ronen Bergman, an Israeli journalist specializing in intelligence issues, shed some light on the one passport that has so far been found to be genuinely issued, a German passport allegedly used by one of the suspected assassins. Part of the details had previously been published in Der Spiegel.
In an interview to Army Radio on Monday morning, Bergman says this is how it went:
A man walked in to the interior ministry in Cologne, Germany on June 16, 2009, and claimed that he was Michael Bodenheimer, an Israeli citizen, descended of a German family that had been persecuted by the Nazis.
He applied for German citizenship, saying he wished to leave Israel and emigrate to Germany. He presented documents, including his parents' German marriage certificate, said he lived in the community of Liman and also gave an address in Herzliya.
The documents must have been convincingly authentic, and two days later, in a model of bureaucratic efficiency that seems atypical (even for Germany), the passport had been issued.
The photograph on the passport is the one now in the papers as one of the assassins, but it is most definitely not that of the Michael Bodenheimer who does live somewhere else in Israel.
The Israeli one is a yeshiva master, an ultraorthodox Jew living in Bnei Brak. His parents were, in fact, born in Frankfurt, Germany, but that's where the similarity ends. He has Israeli citizenship and evidently American too, but not German.
The new Bodenheimer gave an address in Herzliya. Bergman said the German authorities didn't check it out. But had they done so, they would have found that he had an apparent shell company in his name with offices in Herzliya.
"Michael Bodenheimer Ltd." belonged to a group of offices opened by a different company called "Top Office" located on the same floor.
Top Office, says Bergman, is apparently a company that provides individuals and small businesses with an office and secretary at a respectable location.
Bergman said he paid the business address a visit on Friday night, together with the Der Spiegel correspondent in Israel, he told the radio.
He took a picture of the sign saying "Michael Bodenheimer Ltd," and called the number for Top Office. An American-accented woman answered, sounded very surprised and hung up after saying she didn't work on the Sabbath.
By Sunday morning, says Bergman, both companies were gone. The signs had been removed.
And the guard -- the same one from Friday night -- was awfully jittery and tried to shoo them away.
Bergman said clearly someone had given him instructions.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said to Irish Foreign Minister Micheál Martin in Brussels today that no report links Israel to the incident. He added that should alternate information, beyond media reports, emerge, then Israel would respond, says the foreign ministry.
-- Batsheva Sobelman in Jerusalem
Who cares? We all gentiles should really be scared of the Ashkenazies running the western parts of the world. The Israel firsters pulled off the sept 11 attyacks and thanks to the all Kosher media and political hacks--the phonie Jews have not been put to death.
USa and Israel are the most hated and infested states in the world. Do I have a hatred for so called phonie Jews--U-bet :^/
They killed JFK for acquiring nukes--many folks have died by MOSSAD--Freaks have taken over--satan's rejects
Posted by: george in toronto | June 23, 2010 at 08:43 AM
Listen the mossad didn't pull this op off.
1)too many officers were involved directly
2)too many things tie back into Israel
3)too many palestinians were involved directly
4)atleast 3 of them fled into Iran
Posted by: theinsaneo | February 25, 2010 at 04:22 PM
Angry, thats a crazy story. Who is Ronen Bergman endangering? If anything, its good to print that the real Michael Bodenheimer isn't the one who was on the hit squad. Hopefully, the real Michael Bodenheimer's life will be more secure for that fact being published.
Posted by: Kris Bendix | February 23, 2010 at 06:47 PM
Hi Angry,
It's not the responsibility of the American press to prop up dirty nonsense in the American government, much less the Israeli govt.
The truth shall set you free...
Posted by: sifta | February 23, 2010 at 09:48 AM
Who cares?, a schmo died. One down, many to go.
Posted by: Daniel Lion | February 22, 2010 at 10:09 PM
I do not know if the Mossad is behind this admirable killing or not and I do not care either. However, this Israeli journalist, Ronen Bergman, is a traitor. Can he be prosecuted?
It reminds me of the journalist who, many years ago, interviewed several of Idi Amin's wives. The Ugandan dictator had many wives and prided himself on fathering children with all of them. However, that journalist was surprised to find one young wife who did NOT have children. She also candidly admitted to him that she was not pregnant. When he wanted to know how she managed that, the naive young lady answered him that she accomplished that through sheer willpower. She explained that she DID NOT WANT to become pregnant. The journalist published this explosive story in his paper and the very next day the young lady's severed head was found in a refrigerator in the kitchen in Idi Amin's palace. (This was common practice in Amin's palace and was widespread knowledge.) This journalist knew full well that he was condemning the young lady to death by publishing his story. To me, this journalist was nothing less than a calculated murderer. Anything to publish a story!
Posted by: Angry | February 22, 2010 at 01:53 PM