Tannenbaum had not traveled from Israel to Switzerland, as has been intimated, but rather to Belgium, said the article, written by Roger Auque, an expert on terrorism who was one of several French hostages held in Beirut during the Lebanon War.
Belgian authorities believe the mistake is no accident.
They are convinced that he would not have been able to get through passport control at Ben-Gurion Airport with a spelling so different from the one in his passport without permission from Israeli security authorities, the paper said. On the same flight, a few rows behind Tannenbaum, sat an Israeli Arab by the name of Hassan Kamel Kees, who is described by the newspaper as the prime suspect in helping to kidnap Tannenbaum. The head of the Belgian police's division of anti-terror investigations, identified only by his first name, Eric, reportedly told Le Figaro that Israel had asked the Belgians for information about Kees as soon as Tannenbaum's kidnapping became publicly known. Hezbollah Secretary General Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah announced on October 15 that his Lebanese-based guerrilla group had kidnapped Tannenbaum and claimed he was an Israeli agent. In addition to Kees, her list had it on it the names Hussein Bira, Abu Fara and Ka'id Mohammed, also known as Abu Nasser.