Third Man in passport case is ex-diplomat

By BRIDGET CARTER and AUDREY YOUNG

The suspected Mossad agent who is wanted in New Zealand for passport fraud has been confirmed as a former Israeli diplomat who was based in Europe.

Zev William Barkan, 37, was the Israeli who stole the identity of a tetraplegic Aucklander to fraudulently obtain a New Zealand passport.

He was jointly charged with the offence with Eli Cara, 50, and Uriel Kelman, 31 who were this month sentenced to six months in jail, and a fourth, unknown person, who police believe is in New Zealand.

When police arrested Cara and Kelman in March, Barkan had already fled the country.

Last night a spokesman for the Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said Barkan worked as a diplomat in both Austria and Belgium.

He worked from 1996 to 2001 in Vienna. Before that he worked as an Israeli diplomat in Brussels, the spokesman said. "We have been aware of this for some time."

It was information that came from investigations. The spokesman said he went by the name Zev Barkan in both countries.

The matter had not been raised with Israeli Government, he said. The only contact the New Zealand Government had with the Israeli Government was to ask for an explanation and an apology.

Barkan had visited New Zealand several times since November.

It has also emerged that regional Israeli intelligence officers paid an anxious visit to talk to New Zealand authorities soon after the passport fraudsters were arrested in Auckland.

The group of visiting officials from Singapore is likely to have included defence officers based in the Israeli embassy there.

They held talks with New Zealand security agencies about whether the offenders had only been attempting to get false passports for use outside New Zealand or whether Israeli agencies were involved in other covert activities in New Zealand.

In the event the two detained agents were charged only with attempting to obtain a passport fraudulently and have since pleaded guilty.

Israel has neither confirmed nor denied the men were Mossad operatives.

Prime Minister Helen Clark has said there was no doubt they were and that Israel knows how New Zealand knows.

Revelations about the visit, published in yesterday's Transtasman Wellington-based newsletter, suggest there was a private understanding, if not admission, that the offenders were operatives.

There was no response to a request to the Israeli embassy in Singapore for comment.

Meanwhile the Wall Street Journal has accused Helen Clark of "hyperventilating" in her strong response to the Israeli government.

The US business paper said governments usually dealt with these issues on the quiet but "not with Ms Clark, who seized the moment by taking to the airwaves" to condemn Israel's actions.

"When, just as day follows night, punks hours later vandalised a Jewish cemetery in Wellington, Ms Clark struck a defensive pose."

It concluded: "New Zealand has sorted out in its own way its disagreements with a people who also like to claim title to the land, namely the Maoris.

"One might expect greater sympathy for Israel when it resorts to desperate measures."