The Stolen Passport Iranians

The Stolen Passport Iranians

They had traveled from Tehran to Malaysia to get to Germany from Amsterdam. So why not fly direct??


from http://joshuapundit.blogspot.com/2014/03/the-mysterious-case-of-malaysia.html

two Iranians, 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad and 29-year-old Delavar Seyed Mohammadreza were traveling together on the plane with stolen passports and travel documents that would have allowed them to proceed from Beijing to Europe. According to Interpol, the two men knew each other and had traveled to Malaysia from Tehran using their Iranian passports, but obtained stolen Italian and Austrian passports,both of which were reported stolen by the real owners in Thailand.

This appears to be merely a coincidence. Both men were planning on relocating to Europe, had tickets purchased in Kuala Lumpur for their journey to Beijing and Amsterdam and planned to travel together. Nourmohammadi planned to proceed from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, Germany, where his mother lives and Seyedmohammaderza's intended final destination was Copenhagen, Denmark.

..

Stolen passports are a fairly common item in that part of the world, and these were probably purchased on the black market for cash.There is a large expatriate Iranian community in Kuala Lumpur.According to initial reports, the price for these was $10,000 American. 

That doesn't rule out terrorism in the least,but it does rule out these two as active participants.

..The two Iranians may have been transporting something other than drugs, knowingly or unknowingly - like volatile chemicals or explosive components. This could have been a 'work accident'.

The tickets for the two Iranians were purchased - in cash - in Thailand at the resort of the resort of Pattaya from a Thai travel agent on March 1 by an Iranian businessperson she knew only as 'Mr. Ali'.
According to what the travel agent told the Finncial Times, She had booked them on other airlines but those reservations expired and on March 6, Mr Ali had asked her to rebook them.

This sparks my interest because it comes right out of the terrorism 101 textbook - establish a relationship with a local travel agent willing to book flights for cash on short notice, no questions asked...and then do flights as dry runs to test airport security measures and to get jihadis familiar with the layout of targeted planes. 

As a matter of fact al-Qaeda has used this tactic several times. 

This could very easily have been such a dry run that ended up lowing up in someone's face a little prematurely. It would certainly be interesting to have authorities investigate 'Mr. Ali' thoroughly to see whom he's really is and look at other airline tickets he's purchased. And let's also remember that the tickets and the stolen passports both came from Thailand. I doubt that's a coincidence.