It would be difficult to weave as intricate a web as the international spy thriller that first unraveled in Dubai in January. Yet another sinew has been threaded out of the ongoing, worldwide investigation on the killing of Hamas arms procurer Mahmoud Mabhouh. 

In recent days, the Australian foreign minister informed the Israeli Embassy that its Mossad station chief, whose identity remains secret, would be leaving the island continent within a week.

Stephen Smith spoke to the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, claiming that the officer in question was "involved in state intelligence." He argued that Australian passports "were deliberately counterfeited and cloned for use" and investigations had proved "beyond doubt" that Israel was involved, reported the Australian publication International Business Times.

Israeli authorities had a warrant out for Mabhouh's arrest, as did the Egyptians and Jordanians. In 1989, Israeli authorities had failed to arrest Mabhouh for his recently confessed participation in the murder of two Israeli soldiers.

Smith concluded that Australia "remains a firm friend of Israel." 

However, he lamented, "this is not what we expect from a nation with whom we have had such a close, friendly, and supportive relationship."

In the wake of the Dubai assassination controversy, the emirate's police chief, Lt. Gen. Dahi Khalfan Tamim, is keeping a steady hand on the faucet, carefully dripping out information for the media. Israel --widely suspected as being behind the slaying of a senior Hamas operative, but not busted -- is beginning to get a bit wet around the edges, though not drenched.

First, it was British investigators arriving in Israel to have a chat with Britons whose identities were borrowed in connection with the assassination. Next, Australians. Germany is conducting its own probe, and the FBI has been called on to look into the U.S.-issued credit cards used to purchase air tickets and book hotel rooms in connection with the alleged plot.

And in a recent U.N. vote on a resolution calling for further investigation of last year's Gaza offensive and war crime allegations, Australia shifted from supporting Israel's position to abstaining, Germany too; Britain and France (French passports were not abused) shifted from abstention to supporting the resolution. Ireland, whose passports also traveled to Dubai without their owners, voted against Israel.

A stunning report in this weekend's Sydney Morning Herald alleges that Australian counterintelligence officials are investigating at least three Israeli citizens suspected of using Australian passports to spy in the Middle East.

According to two unnamed Australian intelligence sources cited in the Morning Herald report, the Australian Security and Intelligence Organization, or ASIO, has for at least six months been investigating three Australian-Israeli dual nationals who allegedly have been working for the Israeli national intelligence agency the Mossad.

The three suspected Mossad spies are Australian nationals who emigrated to Israel at some point over the last 10 years, a relatively common step for Australian Jews. 

But these three might have aroused authorities' suspicions when they traveled back to Australia to change their names multiple times, turning their "European-Jewish" sounding names into more "Anglo-Australian" names, according to the report. 

Then the alleged operatives used their Australian passports to enter Iran, Syria and Lebanon, which do not recognize Israel, the report says. One even sought the help of the Australian Embassy in Tehran in 2004, the report says.  The Morning Herald contacted two of the men, who vehemently denied being involved in any espionage activities.