Passport Forgery: Ireland is not smiling

It seems that international spy rings are borrowing the luck of the Irish, and the Irish don't like it one bit.

Irish passports have become the document du jour for international spies and assassins, a trend that highlights the immense challenges facing those who wish to keep U.S. borders safe.

In 2005, Eunan Doherty, a fireman from the remote northwest Ireland county of Donegal, went to the Russian Embassy in Dublin to get a visa for a vacation trip to Russia. His holiday allegedly turned him into an unwitting participant in a now-famous international Russian spy ring.

Four years later, a Russian agent using the name Richard Murphy flew to Rome to pick up a forged passport bearing Doherty's name, and was told to bring it into the U.S. and give it to another Russian spy, according to an affidavit made public by the U.S. government in June. Murphy was told to identify the courier by uttering the line, "Excuse me, could we have met in Malta in 1999?" the affidavit said.

Irish news organizations reported that Doherty's wife's identity was also used by the spy ring, too.

Likewise, Catherine Sherry, a volunteer with the Irish orphan-aid organization To Russia With Love, had her identity used by the same spy ring, and a forged passport created in her name.

The spy ring unraveled in June, when American investigators exposed it with great fanfare, and 10 alleged Russian secret agents were expelled -- among them, the now infamous Anna Chapman, who began her career as pin-up model this month as the cover girl on Maxim magazine's Russia edition. During the investigation that followed, officials determined that forged Irish documents played a key role in the conspiracy.

This month, Irish authorities said as many as six Irish nationals had their identities stolen and used by the ring, an incident which had Irish commentators crying foul. But it's not the only recent incident in which Irish passports were used by agents of international intrigue.

When senior Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was assassinated in a Dubai hotel room in January by a hit squad, eight of the suspects held Irish passports. The investigation of that incident is ongoing, but an Israeli diplomat was expelled from Ireland in June as part of what the Irish government called a "protest action."

As a traditionally neutral and friendly nation, Irish passports are seen as desirable for would-be secret agents, as they can enable freer movement across borders, and the friendly relationship between Ireland and the United State typically invites few questions at crossings.

But Irish citizens are complaining that their neutrality and generally good name are being borrowed by foreign agents. You’ve heard of medical identity theft, or criminal identity theft? Call this national identity theft.

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