US Declined to Help in Dubai Probe of Mabhouh Assassination: Wikileaks

28/12/2010 A Wikileaks cable shows that the United States has declined a request from the United Arab Emirates to assist an investigation into the assassination of a top Hamas commander. A cable sent from the embassy in Dubai less than a month after the murder of Mahmoud al-Mabhoh in a Dubai hotel in January 2010 reveals that senior U.A.E. officials asked the American ambassador and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to probe urgently "cardholder details and related information for credit cards reportedly issued by a U.S. bank to several suspects" in the murder. The WikiLeaks cable not only proved that the request was indeed made but that it was recorded in a secret State Department cable. By not accepting the request, the Obama administration harmed the Dubai investigation efforts and assisted Israel instead. The U.S. last year denied reports that it had received a request for assistance from Dubai, but a recently released WikiLeaks cable proves otherwise. Following investigations Dubai authorities said the team that tracked and killed Mabhouh used fraudulent British, Irish, French, German and Australian passports to enter and depart from Dubai. More than half of the people responsible for the killing share the names of foreign-born Israeli nationals. Israel hasn’t confirmed a role in the Mabhouh murder, but a report published by the British daily Telegraph on Saturday said that the incoming chief of the Mossad, Tamir Pardo, will apologize to British officials for the use of forged United Kingdom passports in the assassination. The Telegraph report, which cited Mossad sources, also said that Pardo would promise that Israeli agents will never again use fake British documents in overseas operations. According to the report, Pardo is expected to meet in early January with British officials in London, including Foreign Secretary William Hague and Home Secretary Theresa May, in order to help repair relations with the British government. In March, the U.K. expelled an Israeli diplomat over the use of British passports in the Mabhouh assassination. Then-U.K. foreign secretary David Miliband told the British parliament in March that there were compelling reasons to believe Israel was responsible for the misuse of British passports in the case and said he had sought assurances that Israel would not misuse them again.