The other passport scandal

An interesting piece in YNet about assassinated Hamas leader Mahmoud al Mabhouh's travel arrangements.

First, according to a Hamas spokesman from Damascus, Talal Nasser,

"He would take the bodyguards with him anywhere he went, but there was no room for them on the flight," said Talal Nasser, a spokesman for Hamas in Damascus. "Therefore he traveled alone, and the security guards were slated to join him the next day."

Sounds unlikely. No serious security team would let the man they are defending go it alone simply because they couldn't get plane tickets - they would stop him going. (And surely there are other flights to Dubai anyway.)

But then he adds,

Despite previous reports, the Hamas man said Mabhouh visited the emirate under his real identity. "He had five passports, one with his real name and the rest with different names, but this time he traveled under his real identity," said Nasser. "He had traveled to Dubai many times in the past in the same way, without any problems."

Were these other passports Palestinian Authority travel documents? Or did this terrorist travel on passports belonging to other countries as well?

If they can spare a minute during their investigation of Israel, perhaps it's something the international community should be looking into...