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hist2004

05-07-2004, 11:07 AM

By Gordon Thomas
August, 2003

Standing on a canteen table in down-town Tel Aviv, Israel's spymaster studied the men and women of Mossad.

In the few weeks since taking over Mossad, Meir Dagan knew he already commanded something his recent predecessors never managed. Respect.

Barely raising his voice he spoke.

"When I was fighting in Lebanon, I witnessed the aftermath of a family feud. The patriarch's head had been split open, his brain on the floor. Around him lay his wife and some of his children. All dead. Before I could do anything, one of the murderers scooped up a handful of brain and swallowed it. This is how you will all now operate. Otherwise someone will eat your brain."

His every word held them in thrall - even if they sent a shudder through some of his listeners, hardened as they were.

In the canteen were those who had killed many times already. Killing enemies who could not be brought to trial because they were hidden deep inside Israel's Arab neighbours.

Only Mossad could find and kill them. Rafi Eitan, the legendary former Operations Chief of Mossad told me when we sat together in his living room in a north Tel Aviv suburb:

"I always tried to kill when I could see the whites of a person's eyes. So I could see the fear. Smell it on his breath. Sometimes I used my hands. A knife, or a silenced gun. I never felt a moment's regret over a killing."

Meir Amit, when he had been director of Mossad, later insisted "we are like the official hangman or the doctor on Death Row who administers the lethal injection. Our actions are all endorsed by the State of Israel. When Mossad kills it is not breaking the law. It is fulfilling a sentence sanctioned by the prime minister of the day".

We spoke as he walked me through Mossad's own unique memorial in Tel Aviv to the dead - a concrete maze shaped in the form of a brain. Each name engraved on the concrete was of an agent who had been killed while trying to destroy Israel's enemies.

Some of those agents had one thing in common. Amit had sent them to their deaths.

"We did all we could to protect them. We trained them better than any other secret service. Sometimes, out on a mission, the dice is against you. But there will always be brave men ready to roll the dice," he said.

Dagan, his listeners in the canteen knew, was cast in the same mould. He would protect them with every means he knew - legal or illegal. He would allow them to use proscribed nerve toxins. Dum-dum bullets. Ways of killing that not even the Mafia, the former KGB or China's secret service use. But he would not hesitate to expose them to death - if it was for the greater good of Israel.

That was the deal those in the canteen had accepted when they were recruited. They, too, were ready to roll the dice.

Dagan, only the tenth man to head Mossad and bear the title of memune - "first among equals in Hebrew" - reminded his listeners sat on their plastic-form chairs what Meir Amit had once said. Then Dagan added:

"I am here to tell you those days are back. The dice is ready to roll."

Dagan jumped down from the table and walked out of the canteen in total silence. Only then did the applause start.

Shortly afterwards came the Mombasa massacre of eleven days ago. An explosive-laden land-cruiser drove into the reception area of the island's Israeli-owned Paradise Hotel.

Fifteen people died and 80 were seriously injured. Two shoulder-fired missiles nearly downed an Israeli passenger plane bringing tourists back to Tel Aviv from Kenya. Two hundred and seventy-five barely missed a Lockerbie-style death.

Meir Dagan immediately suspected it was the work of Osama bin-Laden's al-Quaeda and that the missiles had come from Iraq's arsenal.

But to suspect and prove would be the greatest challenge Mossad had faced since the War on Terrorism was launched by President Bush.

"Mossad would not be operating in its own backyard against suicide bombers. It would be working 1,500 miles away in a hostile environment. There would only be lip-service support from the authorities on the ground. Other intelligence services would be trawling through the evidence looking for clues that would fit their agendas. The CIA for a fix on bin-Laden. MI6 for a lead back to a threat to Britain. The same for the Germans," a senior intelligence man in Tel Aviv told me.

But for Meir Dagan it was time to roll the dice. Every person with proven field experience was on a plane to Kenya within an hour of the massacre.

They would sift and search the wreckage, using sophisticated equipment to do so. Detectors that could detect a sliver of metal deep inside a corpse - metal that would show where the explosives came from. And much else.

The team who would "roll the dice" travelled separately - as they always did. They had their own aircraft, their own pilots. They were the men and women of kidon, Mossad's ultra-secret assassination unit.

Their sole job in Mombasa was to find and kill the perpetrators of the massacre: those behind the three bombers who had gone to their deaths laughing. The kidon would kill the planners of the massacre after they had traced them to their lair - wherever it was. It might take months - as it had with avenging the murder of the Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics. But the kidon would find the men behind the Mombasa outrage and kill them.

They would use a small laboratory of poisons, sealed in vials until the moment came to strike. They had long and short-blade knives. Piano wire to strangle. Explosives no bigger than a throat lozenge capable fo blowing off a person's head. An arsenal of guns: short-barrel pistols, sniper rifles with a mile killing range.

The team chosen to go to Mombasa had local language skills. They could pass for Arabs or for Indian traders. Between them, they spoke Swahili and other dialects. They dressed the part; they looked the part. They also understood the closed language of their world.

They had learned how to memorise fibres - precise physical descriptions of people. Neviof , how to break into an office, a bedroom, or any other given target and plant listening bugs - or a bomb. Masluh, the skill of shaking off a tail.

The women had learned how to use their ***. To be ever ready to sleep with someone to obtain vital information. The link between intelligence work and ****** entrapment is as old as spying itself. Meir Amit had said when he was Mossad's chief:

"*** is a woman's weapon. Pillow talk is not a problem for her. But it takes a special kind of courage. It is not just sleeping with an enemy. It is to obtain information."

The kidon team had passed the two years course at the Mossad training school at Henzelia, near Tel Aviv. They had been sent to a special camp in the Negev desert. There they had learned to kill.

"They are taught how to use the weapon appropriate for the target. Strangulation with a cheese-cutter if the victim is to be killed at night. A handgun fitted with a silencer. A nerve agent delivered by an aerosol or injection," explained Victor Ostrovsky, a former member of kidon.

Ostrovsky, who today lives in Arizona, will not say who he has killed. But he quit Mossad - saying he could not "stomach the way they did things".

My sources in Mossad say he is "long past his sell-by date. We do things differently now".

And, by all accounts, more ruthlessly.

The man known to Mossad as "The Engineer" was a top Hamas bomb-maker. He lived on the West Bank, protected by gunmen.

One day he received a visitor - a distant cousin from Gaza. The young man spoke like so many from that hotbed of Islamic fanaticism.

Over mint tea, the two men spoke far into the evening. Finally, The Engineer invited his guest to stay over. The offer was accepted. The youth asked if he could use The Engineer's mobile phone to call his own family to say they should not worry.

He asked if he could make the call from outside the house to improve reception. The Engineer nodded. The call over, the two men fell asleep on the floor.

Next day, the youth left to return to Gaza. That morning, The Engineer received a call on the mobile. As he put the phone to his mouth and started to speak, his head was blown off.

The youth had been recruited by Mossad to plant a powerful explosive inside the phone. The detonation signal had come from a kidon half a mile away.

No one had seen him arrive. No one saw him go.

Over the past years, Mossad have killed scores of Israel's enemies by such methods.

"We try to never use the same method twice. Our technicians spend all their time devising new ways to kill," a Mossad source told me last week.

Their roll-call of Mission Successful includes; Fathi Shkaki, the leader of Islamic Jihad, and Gerald Bull, the rogue Canadian investor of Saddam's supergun.

The usual composition of a hit team is four. One is the "target locator". His task is to keep tabs on the victim's movements. Another is the "transporter", to get the team safely away from the killing area.

The remaining two men perform the execution. In the case of Gerald Bull they knocked on his front door late in the evening. The ballistic expert had just moved in. He had been assured he was safe by his Iraqi minders. But they had been lured away by some of the kidon back-up team.

These are known as sayanim - the Hebrew word for helpers. Throughout the world there are tens of thousands. Each has been carefully recruited to provide the kind of help that the kidon unit required to kill Bull.

The assassination was simple. Both kidon wore FedEx courier uniforms. One carried a package. The other knocked on the door. When Bull opened it, the package was thrust at him. As he stepped back he was shot - once in the forehead and once in the throat. He flew backwards into the hall. The package was retrieved, the door closed behind the dead Bull. Both men calmly walked away to where the "transporter" was waiting. In hours, the team was back in Tel Aviv.

Preparation for an assassination can take weeks, even months. The hit team, once selected, is moved to a Mossad safe house, one of many in Israel.

Eli Cohen, a former Mossad agent, told me that "a safe house looks like it was furnished from a car boot sale".

It was in one such safe house that the plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein was prepared.

It was elaborate even by Mossad standards. It revolved around killing Saddam during a visit to one of his mistresses.

Mossad agents in Baghdad had discovered that the woman, the widow of a serving Iraqi officer who had died mysteriously, would be driven from the palace to keep a tryst with Saddam in a desert villa outside the city.

Heavily guarded, the villa would be a hard target to hit.

But Mossad believed there was a window of opportunity between the time Saddam would land in his helicopter near the villa and enter its well-protected compound.

The plan to kill Saddam has long been on Mossad's agenda. But previous attempts had failed due to Saddam's obsession with changing his movements at the last moment.

Mossad believed he would not do so this time.

"The woman is irresistible," said a report from one of its Baghdad undercover agents.

Mossad had scouted an air corridor through which it believed a kidon could be flown in below Iraqi radar.

A final rehearsal was held in the Negev desert. Israeli commandos doubled as Saddam and his bodyguards - a party of five.

As they landed close to a replica of the villa, the kidon were in position. They were equipped with specially adapted shoulder-firing missiles. But their weapons were to only fire blanks for the rehearsal.

In a tragic mistake, one of the missiles had been replaced with a live one. It killed the make-believe Saddam and his bodyguards.

The operation was cancelled.

But last week Meir Dagan was said to be considering adapting it to once more try and kill Saddam.

After eleven days investigation, his teams in Mombasa confirmed the massacre had all the hallmarks of being an Iraqi-sponsored act carried out by al-Quaeda.

How and when Mossad will strike against Saddam is, understandably, a closely guarded secret.

But an intelligence sources suggested to me that a successful assassination of Saddam could see the looming threat of war recede.

"With Saddam out of the way there is no reason to invade Iraq. The people themselves will rise," said the source.

Dagan, the Mossad chief who could possible achieve that was born on a train between Russia and Poland. He speaks several languages. He is an action man, working 18 hour days. His private life is simple: he eschews the trappings of power that goes with the job of running MI6 or the CIA. His salary is a fraction of what their directors get. Three months into the job, he is adored by his staff.

In the past years, Mossad has experienced many publicised failures, a loss of morale and, worst of all, growing public criticism among its own people.

All that Meir Dagan is determined to change.

In his open neck shirt and chain store pants and sneakers, Dagan is no James Bond. The only spy fiction he is known to read is John Le Carre - because, he has told friends, he can at least empathise with its hero, Smiley.

Meir Dagan is also an avid reader of history of other intelligence services. It is said he knows more about the CIA and MI6 than many of its current employees.

He constantly reminds his staff that action cannot wait for certainty. That motive and deception are at the centre of their endeavours. That they must create situations which seek to draw fact out of darkness. For him the art of informed conjecture is an essential weapon.

Since Mombasa, Dagan has virtually worked and slept in his office. Its windows look eastwards to the Judean Hills. Beyond are the tribal badlands of Pakistan - where Dagan is convinced Osama bin-Laden is hiding - and the desert of Iraq through which Dagan believes Saddam will try and escape if war starts. The Mossad chief will be waiting.

Meantime, he is preoccupied with the latest news from Mombasa - and all those points east where his kidon team are tracking the planners of the outrage.

Some have gone to the Philippines. Others to Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Mossad's scientists and pathologists, as well as field agents, katsas, have combed and bagged the clues from the Paradise hotel disaster area.

Every day an El Al plane has flown northwards to Israel with the evidence despite behind-the-scene protests by the Kenyan intelligence service.

Mossad agents in Nigeria have provided important details on al-Quaeda in that country. Katsas in South Africa have joined colleagues in Mombasa. From Rome, Malta and Cyprus, other Mossad agents sped down through Africa into the country's fierce heat.

Dagan's men are polite to the counter-intelligence officers from the CIA, MI6 and European services.
"But these are Israelis who are dead or injured. This is Mossad's job. And everybody had better remember that," said one Mossad source.

Mossad has made no friends on the ground. They rarely do. That is their style: go it alone. They believe they know more than anyone else in fighting terrorism. And they may be right.

In Tel Aviv, having done all he could for the moment, Meir Dagan waits.

The 57 years-old, battle-hardened hero of past wars in Lebanon, in all those places in the Middle East where the alleys have no names, has earned his reputation as a no-holds barred leader. In those days, with a handgun in his pocket and his dog at his heel, he had led from the front. Twice he had been wounded, so that nowadays he sometimes uses a walking stick. He dislikes doing so. He detests any sign of weakness in himself or in others.

Dagan is a blunt man, proud and imperious and prepared to stand on his record. He crushed the first Intifada in Gaza in 1971. Two years later he fought in the Yom Kippur War.

For him, Mossad, and ultimately Israel, the Mombasa massacre is a test - to show that Mossad is back on centre stage with a vengeance.

No other intelligence service has a better history of operations in Central Africa. In the 1960s Mossad drove out the vaunted Chinese Secret Intelligence Service. It stopped Cuba's Fidel Castro exporting his revolution into Africa. It beat the KGB at its own plans to turn the Congo into its playground. It was a dirty and deadly war.

A terrorist group ambushed a Mossad katsa in the Congo and fed him to the crocodiles. They filmed his last, threshing moments in the water - and sent the footage to the local Mossad station chief. He retaliated by placing a two-pound bomb under the toilet seat of the terrorist leader. It blew the villa apart. Twelve terrorists died.

Mossad built up a relationship with BOSS, the security service of the South African apartheid government. It sent a team to Pretoria to teach BOSS the art of sophisticated methods of interrogation. Israeli instructors showed them the black art of sleep deprivation, hooding, forcing a suspect to stand facing a wall for long hours, and mental tortures such as mock tortures.

"The one certainty is that if the Mombasa killers are caught Mossad won't bother with mock executions," said a Mossad source.
The methods Mossad uses are often outside the law. They have a unit that specialises in burglary - using far more sophisticated means than those employed by the infamous Watergate burglars. Their ineptitude led to the downfall of President Nixon.

They have a special team of scientists working at the Institute for Biological Research in Tel Aviv. They prepare the deadly toxins for the kidon.

Where other intelligence agencies no longer allow their agents to kill, kidon have no such restraint. They remain fully licensed to assassinate in the name of Israel once they have routinely convinced the incumbent prime minister of the need to do so.

Ariel Sharon needs little convincing.

Mossad's assassins routinely witness some of Israel's leading forensic pathologists at work so as to better understand how to make an assassination look like an accident.

They learn how a pinprick or small blemish left on a victim's skin can be a give away. They are shown how to ensure against this.

It makes them probably the most sophisticated lawfully-approved killers in the world.

This morning (Sunday) Meir Dagan, as he has done every day since the Mombasa attack, will awaken from a combat veteran's light sleep. This squat, barrel-chested man will take his customary cold water shower and eat his daily breakfast of natural yogurt, toast spread with honey washed down with several cups of strong black coffee.

Next he will study the latest reports from not only East Africa - but from all those areas where his team of hunters have now moved.

After briefing the prime minister on the scrambler phone that links Dagan to Ariel Sharon, the memune may spend an hour at an easel in the corner of his office - touching up one of the watercolour paintings which are the only known passion in his life.

But like everything else about him, they will remain under lock and key. Just as with his plan to assassinate Saddam Hussein, the first the world will know, if Mossad is successful, will be after it has happened.

Regards,
Hist2004

Falco

05-07-2004, 11:40 AM

Intersting

IDFM203

05-07-2004, 11:54 AM

Just a few points, while I enjoyed that article, the author Gordon Thomas has some major credibility issues, At least in my opinion.

I read his book on the Mossad and man a lot of things there are extremely unfounded, especially his linking of the Mossad with some connection to princess Diana’s death (and no I am not joking that there is this discussion in his book).
Besides that there are a lot of other “expulsive” discovieres or “scoops” that I just don’t see how he can prove nor how its possible or plausible or more so how he would know if indeed they were true.

Secondly the killing of the engineer that he writes about in this articles, well I thought was done by the “shin bet” and not the Mossad, in fact I am not even sure the Mossad operates in the west bank at all.

Lastly his writing style is a bit over the top to say the least and it comes off as embellishing and exaggerating what is normal operating procedure amongst most spy agencies but somehow he tries to highlight that only the Mossad do it.........perhaps I am reading waay too much in this but after seeing his articles copied in a lot of anti Semitic news sites (and no I am not in any way saying he is one himself), well I guess you can understand why I might take issue with the way he writes.

Anyways just some thoughts.......

Shalom :D

Javehn

05-07-2004, 12:08 PM

Who is this monkey and who let him write this **** ?

First of all , he mixing so many issues here , like confusing Mossad with Shabak , and relating all the deads of Sayeret rimon to Mossad (which he doesn't even reminds ) , he mixes the wing where Raful did his Mossad "service" . He also makes it all sounds so dramatic . I read only first paragraph on it , and from only first paragraph it seams someone did very few research and covered it with drama .

Ah , and the story with brain eating ? Nice one . Wonder where did he learned the hebrew to understand what he said . :roll: :roll: :roll:

alphabet

05-07-2004, 12:18 PM

Great article. woot

hist2004

05-07-2004, 12:49 PM

Sorry if I’ve angered our Israeli friends on this forum. I thought the article was
interesting, I’m pro-Israel, I have a great deal of respect for the IDF and the
Mossad in particular. I only wish our own CIA was as efficient. The Kidon is
a necessary arm of the Mossad, without it or the political will to use it, Israel
would be at a disadvantage against the terrorists who wish to destroy her.

Regards,
Hist2004

Javehn

05-07-2004, 12:53 PM

Who is here said that it or you angers us ?

This article is full of fiction , that's all i said . It seams that the writter didn't made actual research . The article perhaps good , but it's just full of half truth . That doesn't mean i don't agree with .

You want me to analise it chapter by chapter ? Tommorow .

JiJoMacLE45

05-07-2004, 12:57 PM

I though Jack Mehoff was the world's most effective killing machine. Hmmm.

Javehn

05-07-2004, 12:58 PM

Oh , great . Here is one of the reviews that i found on his book (Gideon spies) . Sounds pretty much familiar ...

"First of all, any reviewer or potential reader of this book who expects to find pure, untainted historical truth in a popularized account of classified intelligence work like "Gideon's Spies" is suffering from a laughable case of naivete. Obviously, no layman author is going to have much verifiable inside dirt on the "katsas" and their intelligence coups, especially an amateur such as Thomas who has no particular expertise in Israeli affairs and is better known as a journeyman author on a wide range of non-fiction subjects. So, if you're looking for some kind of exhaustively researched bible of Mossad history, then I'm afraid this is the wrong book for you. Thomas is more interested in luring the casual reader's interest with shocking allegations, like the Princess Diana/Mossad connection, than he is in providing some kind of chronological encyclopedia of the Mossad's deeds, as several of the other reviewers have made us aware in just a bit too much detail. Well, sorry guys, we're all very impressed with your stinging criticisms about the proper date of the Entebbe rescue and the book's lack of footnotes, but they ring a little hollow considering that "Gideon's Spies" is a blatant piece of entertainment non-fiction and nothing more. I'm sure that Thomas himself would be the first to admit this. I've read other books on the Mossad, such as "Inside Stories" by Eisenberg, and I have to say that Thomas' book is just as well-researched as any of the others, if a bit meandering at times, and is quite excellent if you're in the market for a casual and entertaining look at the world's most fearsome spy agency."

IDFM203

05-07-2004, 01:00 PM

Like Javehn said, none of us are angry (well yet ;) ) though the authors credibility in these matters, well he has no credibility.

I read his book and while it was indeed an entertaining read, to classify it as non-fiction would be a grave insult to that term.

Also the language and tone and words and sometimes his injection of snide comments not to mention SOME of his absurd allegations (for indeed at the same token some of what he writes do seem true) but mostly its half truths or no truths at all that are completely unfounded, well all that makes him IMO leave much to be desired.

P.S. Its become my experince that everyone is Pro Israel....havent met too many that say they areant............you figure it out ;)

Shalom :D

IDFM203

05-07-2004, 01:09 PM

The Kidon is
a necessary arm of the Mossad, without it or the political will to use it, Israel
would be at a disadvantage against the terrorists who wish to destroy her.

Regards,
Hist2004Indeed though doesn’t the CIA also have stuff like that, I mean that missile attack on that car in Yemen was the same type of thing p-)

But yeah they (the CIA) can use a bit more help in humanint (sp?) , don’t you think?

Shalom :D

Javehn

05-07-2004, 01:10 PM

humint ;) , and that's what i read also .

P.S : Just now for a second my eyes stoped on his text and i found this . Gaza intifada in 1971 ?? :roll: What's he rolling there ? The events there on that 2 years didn't called in any way intiffada .

hist2004

05-07-2004, 01:15 PM

P.S. Its become my experince that everyone is Pro Israel....havent met too many that say they areant............you figure it out

I'm from the United States, Israel is our ally, we're fighting the same enemy...you figure it out. :)

Regards,
Hist2004

IDFM203

05-07-2004, 01:17 PM

hist2004

05-07-2004, 01:19 PM

No, this article by Thomas is the first I've heard of him.

Regards,
Hist2004

Mr Gently Benevolent

05-07-2004, 01:49 PM

citizen-k

05-07-2004, 01:59 PM

rofl

Oh man... some people drink too much!

Mossad's main goal is to protect Jews outside Israel and bring them "home" in case of emergency - accept for a few times, Mossad is not dealing with such cases at all. (Once every few years, maybe...)

Other then that, Mossad is handeling Israel's unofficial foreign affairs.

It was very funny though when an Irish guy who shared a room with me (and another friend) in Amsterdam fleet when he suspected I had something to do with Mossad... rofl

(Never did, but he thought I did because I was from Israel and wouldn't talk to him about my military background...)

IDFM203

05-07-2004, 02:01 PM

For the record I thought Victors book was much better. ;)hehe :D of course you would...... ;)

I actually liked his book (well SOME of it), you know the training part, but the other things I found unfounded, you know since he was there a short time, not to mention, its not possible that one person can know about a lot about other operations, let alone from years past.........you know even for Mossad agents, other then what you yourself are doing, its usually a need to know and I don’t see how he got that for the things he wrote about.

But indeed his book has at last some true parts unlike the work of fiction that Gordon Thomas wrote….yeah we had a part in princes Diana’s death :cantbeli: :roll: (and there is a lot more of that type but I will just point that one out for now)

Shalom :D

oldsoak

05-07-2004, 02:03 PM

Hmm...read the book, its a sort of average fairly readable book on intel nothing more I take most books on intel agencies with a pinch of salt.
For the record I thought Victors book was much better. ;)

just the one pinch ? :lol:

I agree with you. I cant see an intelligence agency like Mossad letting much out - one can make educated guesses but no-one is going to admit to anything much.

hist2004

05-07-2004, 02:08 PM

Mr Gently Benevolent

05-07-2004, 02:17 PM

IDFM203

05-07-2004, 02:24 PM

I actually liked his book (well SOME of it), you know the training part,
Its the training part that I took most interest in myself you do know I have deep interest in Israeli government agencies methodology. ;)Yeah you told me that before (though I am not sure you explained why you have this deep interest or perhps you did though a little reminder if so would be nice ;) ).....well what did you think of that part (the training part) of the book, did you like it, not, thought it was very harsh, professional etc..etc..???

On a side note, did you see the movie Spy Game (http://imdb.com/title/tt0266987/) for there was a scene that was almost exact from “victors” book, you know the scene where in training he needs to get into an apartment and go to the window and etc…..

Now I am not saying they got it from there or that only the Mossad does this, but man that scene look almost exact and well I have to wonder ;)

Shalom :D

One?

05-07-2004, 02:53 PM

that guy is a james bond wannabe. He wants to be involved in every single operation...

Doesn't the mossad only operate outside Israel, like the CIA?

S'13

05-07-2004, 03:24 PM

that guy is a james bond wannabe. He wants to be involved in every single operation...

Who are you referring to?

Doesn't the mossad only operate outside Israel, like the CIA?

Yes, or just like British MI6.

The Shin Bet is responsible for internal security, like MI5...

Mr Gently Benevolent

05-07-2004, 03:46 PM

.....well what did you think of that part (the training part) of the book, did you like it, not, thought it was very harsh, professional etc..etc..???
From what I can remember I thought the training was thorough I particularly liked the way a trainee had to come up with a theory or story and his fellow trainees had to demolish it and apparently this exercise was conducted many times. The training seemed to be conducted over a longer period than other agencies AFAIK which would enable trainers to weed out unsuitable field agents and the mock surveillance and anti surveillance operations seemed to be quite complex and were run for long periods of time. There was a comment in the book to the strict adherence to the formatting, structure and wording of intelligence reports there seemed to be no room for ambiguity something two western intel agencies should take note of. <cough WMD's cough> As I do not have a copy of the book at hand I am only going by memory, but I believe the length and structure of the training would give any field agent that made it to the end of the course great self belief.
I did see the Spy Game and the tasks set seem to be a recurring theme in the training of field agents, there has been at least two or three corporate training companies that use similar techniques.

citizen-k

05-07-2004, 04:06 PM

Mossad's main goal is to protect Jews outside Israel and bring them "home" in case of emergency - accept for a few times, Mossad is not dealing with such cases at all. (Once every few years, maybe...)

And of course you would know this? ;)

Regards,
Hist2004

No, I made the whole thing up.

It wasn't Mossad agents who took care of the Jews in Ethiopia and managed their transfer to Israel...

AVZ

05-07-2004, 04:11 PM

in fact I am not even sure the Mossad operates in the west bank at all.

rofl :cantbeli:

citizen-k

05-07-2004, 04:15 PM

in fact I am not even sure the Mossad operates in the west bank at all.

rofl :cantbeli:

Nothing funny... Mossad got nothing to look for over there...

The Shabak is doing that.

IDFM203

05-07-2004, 04:15 PM

in fact I am not even sure the Mossad operates in the west bank at all.

rofl :cantbeli: rofl :cantbeli: trust me the joke is on you ;) rofl rofl

Shalom :D

AirZone

05-07-2004, 04:55 PM

in fact I am not even sure the Mossad operates in the west bank at all.

rofl :cantbeli: rofl :cantbeli: trust me the joke is on you ;) rofl rofl

Shalom :D

hmm yeah.. Shin Bet not known as mossad but i think they are more feared in the arb world.. you dont want to mess with those (and thanks to them i sleep quietly) woot

S'13

05-07-2004, 05:03 PM

CAG 147 has brought a good articale about Shin Bet:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=14208

IDFM203

05-08-2004, 12:34 PM

there has been at least two or three corporate training companies that use similar techniques. The business world can indeed learn a lot and incorporate a lot that’s taught in this type of training or in general military training (well certain aspects of it), also real actual experience in those situations can at times be applied to certain aspects of the business world as well.

As a matter of fact when I read your last line I was reminded of this book that was supposedly written by a former Mossad agent (well that’s the claim but impossible to verify nor are his Mossad exploits easy to verify) and the book is divided in that each chapter has a real life mission or training event and then the rest of the chapter takes those examples and uses it in a business sense or rather makes those stories or training parts as business case studies and how one can apply what’s learnt there and apply it in the business world.

I personally was very very skeptical if the Mossad stories were real but then I am skeptical about most of the published books on it ;) so I guess each to his own on what he believes or not.

However I will say that while not the best book out there, it does have its parts and it was interesting to read and seeing that you are a “fan”, well I guess I should mention the books name for perhaps you might be interested.

In Hostile Territory : Business Secrets of a Mossad Combatant (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0887309011/qid=1083985694/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/104-4035056-6554368?v=glance&s=books)
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0887309011.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

Shalom :D

MaDuce

05-08-2004, 01:05 PM

Mossad has ninjas.

Mr Gently Benevolent

05-09-2004, 04:59 PM

In Hostile Territory : Business Secrets of a Mossad Combatant (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0887309011/qid=1083985694/sr=1-8/ref=sr_1_8/104-4035056-6554368?v=glance&s=books)
http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0887309011.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
Thanks again IDFM203 I will check this one out. :)

OldRecon

05-09-2004, 05:12 PM

Well, Mossad have also had its blunders. The "Wrath of God" campaign against Palestinian militants or militant sympathisers based in Europe during the early 70's, ended up killing several Arabs who had nothing to do with the PLO or any other Palestinian organisations. The "Lillehammer killing", where a Morrocan citizen with no connections to the PLO were mistakenly killed instead of the guy they really wanted, being one such case.
Wonder if Mossad had a better idea about the location of Leila Andrawes (only terrorist survivor of the GSG-9 hostage release in Mogadishu), before she was discovered here though :roll:.

IDFM203

05-09-2004, 05:32 PM

Thanks again IDFM203 I will check this one out. :)Your welcome :D but again I caution you in that I must say that this isn’t one of the best books on the Mossad, just remember that ;)

Well, Mossad have also had its blunders. The "Wrath of God" campaign against Palestinian militants or militant sympathisers based in Europe during the early 70's, ended up killing several Arabs who had nothing to do with the PLO or any other Palestinian organisations. The "Lillehammer killing", where a Morrocan citizen with no connections to the PLO were mistakenly killed instead of the guy they really wanted, being one such case.
Yes despite all its great success that is known (and much more that is unknown ;) ) indeed the Mossad has had its Share of blunders and mistakes (Like every other spy agency) though that campaign you talk about was OVERALL a great success and not a blunder or any serious of blunders as you falsely insinuate

Indeed that one person was a MISTAKE and a tragic one at that but everyone else on their list were terrorists that planned the murders or they themselves had blood on their hands and the Mossad got most of them.

Btw I am just curious on your use of calling them militants, I mean those pali people that were targeted were implicated in the planning and murdering of civilians which was their main target and as such IMO terrorists would be a more appropriate term!!

Shalom :D

hist2004

05-09-2004, 07:21 PM

Wrath of God: The Israeli Response to the 1972 Munich Olympic Massacre
By Thomas B Hunter
"Vengeance is mine; I will repay, sayeth the Lord."
Romans 12:19

Overview
In September 1972, the world was shaken with the kidnapping and murder of eleven Israeli athletes at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. Images of the incident were emblazoned across television screen around the world, and the incident brought immediate global condemnation. While the world mourned, however, group of senior Israeli officials met secretly to discuss retribution for the murders. What followed was one of the most aggressive and deadly covert assassination campaigns ever conducted by a government intelligence agency against known terrorists. It would become known as Operation Wrath of God.

Black September Strikes
In the early morning hours of 05 September 1972, eight men clad in civilian clothing scaled fences surrounding the Olympic Village in Munch, Germany. Unseen by security officers, they quietly made their way to the apartments housing Israeli athletes and coaches participating in the XXth Olympiad. At the first apartment, one of the men slid a passkey into the door control and passed the word to his compatriots that he had unlocked the door. The Arab voices startled Yossef Gutfreund, a 275-pound wrestling referee who threw himself against the now-unlocked door. This action enabled one of his roommates to escape; however, he was quickly subdued and taken hostage. Similar actions took place in the neighboring apartments. One hour after the attack began, the eight members of the Black September Organization had taken nine hostages, and killed two. Two athletes who managed to escape quickly alerted the authorities.

After dumping the body of one of the hostages onto the street near the apartments, the terrorists released a list of demands. The demands included the release from prison of 234 Arab and German prisoners held in Israel and West Germany, including two leaders of the infamous German-based Baader-Meinhof Gang. They also demanded that three planes be fueled and made ready for takeoff at nearby Furstenfeldbruck airport. Upon their arrival with the hostages, the terrorists stated, they would then select one of the planes to fly them to Cairo where they would meet up with the released prisoners.

Rejecting offers from Israel to send a team of veteran hostage rescue commandos, the German Police instead deployed five officers to the airfield equipped with sniper rifles, one for each of the terrorists. The plan was to wait until the Arabs were a "safe" distance from the hostages, then to open fire simultaneously, killing all the terrorists before they could harm the hostages.

This plan, however, quickly began to unravel. When the terrorists arrived with the hostages, the Germans realized that there were eight gunmen, not the five they had planned for. With only five snipers there was no way for the sharpshooters to engage all the terrorists at the same time. Remarkably, none of the men selected had sniper training or experience in engaging live targets. The shooters also lacked vital equipment such as nightvision devices, helmets, and flak jackets. German soldiers who were to hide in the airplane demanded by the gunmen and open fire when they entered decided that the mission was too dangerous and left the scene without telling their commanders.

The order was given to open fire. One of the terrorists lobbed a grenade into the helicopter where it exploded and ignited a catastrophic fire. When the smoke finally cleared, the full scope of the failure-to-rescue operation was clear. All nine of the remaining hostages, one German police officer, and five of the eight terrorists were dead.

Later investigations would reveal that agents attached to the East German Olympic team deployed to the airport to observe the operation. One such report indicates that the agents communicated the movements of the German police to the terrorists, possibly betraying the security plan.

Israel Responds
Israeli retaliation was swift and massive. Three days later, an air strike was launched involving approximately 75 aircraft, the largest such attack since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. Fighter-bombers struck guerrilla targets in Lebanon and Syria, killing 66 and leaving hundreds injured. Israeli fighters even managed to shoot down three Syrian planes over the Golan Heights, with a loss of two of its own. Israeli troops were also ordered into Lebanon to engage Palestinian terrorists who had been mining Israeli roads.

Despite this aggressive military response, a select group of high-ranking Israeli officials felt that more had to be done. They decided that a message had to be sent not only to those who participated in the Munich massacre, but also to those who might be considering terrorist attacks against their country in the future. Designated "Committee X" and chaired by Israeli Premier Golda Meir and Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, the group authorized the assassination of all individuals involved - directly or indirectly - in the Munich attack. There would be no captures, no arrests. The goal was to kill those they could find, and in so doing, terrorize those they could not.

In order to carry out this task, Mossad activated its assassination unit, known as the kidon - Hebrew for "bayonet." Kidon teams have been responsible for a number of high profile assassinations, including Dr. Gerald Bull, designer of the Iraqi supergun, and Nasser Issa, also known as "The Engineer," a master bombmaker for the terrorist group HAMAS. These teams would be commanded by Mike Harari, a senior Mossad agent.

At the time of the Munich attack, the kidon were housed within Mossad's Metsada department, known today as Komemiute. The kidon was composed of approximately 36 operators divided into three 12-man teams. Typically, two of these teams were undergoing training in Israel at any given time, with the remaining team out on a "real-world" operation. Payment for these personnel was deposited into Swiss bank accounts and would be made available to the operators upon completion of their assigned mission.

These teams were unique from those fielded previously by Israel. Instead of informing all operators involved in the operation of the goals, team structure, and other information, the teams were instead tightly compartmentalized: no team was aware of the existence of the others. Additionally, Mossad covertly supported the assassination teams, both operationally and financially. In this way, they would be able to operate with complete autonomy, completely outside the Israeli governmental structure. The only mutual point of contact between all the personnel was Harari. He would provide the list of target names and all other information necessary to achieving the group's goal of hunting down and killing the terrorists.

Harari allowed his men great latitude in their operations, removing rank structure and encouraging them to be creative with their assassinations. Harari didn't just want his targets eliminated, he wanted the terrorists to feel that there was nowhere - absolutely nowhere - that they could go and feel safe from Israeli reprisal. He wanted them to experience the same terror they had inflicted on the Israeli athletes and their families, and would settle for nothing less.

Harari did have one rule, however, about which there could be no doubt: targets would only be acted against after the team had attained one hundred percent identification. If this could not be achieved, no matter how much time or energy had been devoted to a target, the hit was to be called off. He would not permit any "collateral damage."

The List
There were thirty-five targets for whom death warrants had been issued, so the terrorists were divided amongst the teams. On the list of one such team were eleven terrorists known to have played a role in the Munich massacre.

Operating from a covert location in Geneva, this team set out to track down their eleven targets. These included the following:

Adwan, Kamal - Chief of sabotage operations for Al Fatah in Israeli occupied territories
Al-Chir, Hussein Abad - PLO contact with KGB in Cyprus
Al-Kubaisi, Dr. Basil Paoud - Responsible for logistics within the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)
Boudia, Mohammed - Linked with European PLO
Daoud, Abu - Admitted member of the Black September Organization
Haddad, Dr. Wadi - Chief terrorist linked with Dr. George Habash
Mahshari, Mohmoud - PLO member and coordinator of Munich incident
Nassir, Kamal - Official PLO spokesman and member of the PLO Executive Committee
Salameh, Ali Hassan - Developed and executed the Munich operation
Yussuf, Abu - High ranking PLO official
Zwaiter, Wael - Cousin to Yassir Arafat, organizer of PLO terrorism in Europe
The first selection from the list was Wael Zwaiter, who was then living in an apartment near Rome. The group's weapons specialist facilitated the delivery of five Beretta .22-cailber pistols from Geneva to Italy via a clandestine arms supply network. These were then distributed to the action team that had taken up residence in three separate locations.

The decision to move against Zwaiter was made on 16 October 1972. A support team delivered two shooters to a location near Zwaiter's apartment, while support personnel took up observation posts within visual range of the hit team. Acting according to plan, one of the support vehicles pulled away from the curb and drove off. This clandestinely signaled the shooters that Zwaiter was approaching.

The two men assigned to kill the Palestinian entered the apartment lobby ahead of their quarry. Zwaiter stopped off at a pub across the street in order to make a phone call. The action team expected this, as it had learned that his phone service had been turned off by the local telephone company for lack of payment. His phone call concluded, Zwaiter then walked toward the lobby.

Acting in accordance with Harari's edict, one of the shooters turned on additional lights in the dimly lit space in order to ensure they could positively identify their target. When Zwaiter walked through the door and into the lobby, a voice asked, "Are you Wael Zwaiter?" The answer gave the shooters the confirmation they needed. Simultaneously they drew their Berettas and fired eighteen shots into the terrorist. He died instantly. The action team quickly disappeared, traveling by van to a prearranged safe house.

Israel's second attempt at revenge would differ slightly from the first in that special attention was given to instilling fear into the terrorists that it was stalking. It was becoming clear through the first killing that Israel was capable of conducting assassinations far from the streets of Beirut or Lebanon. The decision was made to make the Palestinian extremists feel that they were not safe, even in the safety of their own homes.

Mahmoud Hamshiri was selected as the second target. For this action, a third party was directed to phone him at home, posing as an Italian journalist. Hamshiri agreed to the "journalist's" request for a telephone interview, which was set for 8 December 1972. Unbeknownst to the terrorist, however, members of the action team had visited his apartment the previous day while their target was out.

So, when the phone rang that afternoon, Hamshiri answered. The voice on the other end asked him to identify himself. When he did, an action team member depressed a button on a remote control device. This sent a silent signal to a detonator and the explosive charge placed in the telephone ignited. Hamshiri, like Zwaiter before him, died quickly and violently.

Four more terrorists, Dr. Basil al-Kubasi, Abad al-Chir, Zaid Muchassi, and Mohammed Boudia met similar fates, and were dead within the next few months at the hands of the Israeli kidon. Muchassi, not on the original list, was included when he assumed the position of PLO contact with the KGB in Cyprus, a position recently vacated by Abad al-Chir. Acting in accordance with their autonomous nature, the kidon personnel determined that if al-Chir had been a target due to the nature of his position, then his replacement would be considered an equally viable selection.

This decision, while proper from the perspective of an clandestine Israeli operator tasked with eliminating a known terrorist, clearly went beyond the mandate laid down by Committee X. Nonetheless, Muchassi was deemed a "target of opportunity" and plans were made to eliminate him. And while the action team did soon achieve its objective, it nearly violated Harari's second mandate covering collateral damage. This occurred when the hit squad attempted to leave the scene of Muchassi's assassination. It found its escape route blocked by his KGB contact. The Israelis shot and killed the Russian when he reached under his coat, a move that signaled he was possibly reaching for a weapon. There was apparently no retaliation against the action team by Harari for this incident, most likely because the KGB agent, though not a terrorist, was not deemed to enjoy same level of innocence as a unwitting civilian.

Having successfully eliminated five of their eleven assigned targets (not including Muchassi), the action team was ordered to return to Israel. Upon their arrival, the team was notified that three original members of the list--Kemel Adwan, Mohamed Youssef Al-Najjar, and Kamal Nasser--had been removed from the list for unspecified reasons. Despite this, the Israeli government still wanted them dead. The three, along with known terrorists, were expected to be present at a meeting in Beirut. Harari wanted the kidon personnel on hand to provide support for a Mossad-directed military action targeting the meeting participants. This joint operation, though a clear departure from the independent covert action conducted previously, proved successful.

On 10 April 1973, Israel launched Operation Spring of Youth. This involved the participation of approximately forty elite commandos from Sayeret Matkal, Sayeret T'zanahim, S-13 (the Israeli equivalent of the U.S. Navy SEALs), and Unit 707 (a since-disbanded Navy special operation unit). The commandos covertly came ashore across a Beirut beach and were delivered to their targets by Mossad drivers. Some of these personnel were assigned specifically to go after Adwan, Al-Najjar and Nasser. These terrorists were killed when their apartments were raided during the assault. Some reports indicate that the current Foreign Minister in Israel, Ehud Barak, took part in this operation while dressed as an Arab woman. By the time Operation Spring of Youth was over, one hundred Palestinians were killed, along with two Israeli commandos.

Tragedy in Lillehammer
After one full year of searching, Israeli hit squads were able to locate an individual they were convinced was Ali Hassan Salameh, a senior PLO official and commander of Force 17, Yassir Arafat's elite personal security squad.

Acting on previously gained intelligence, a small surveillance team was dispatched to Lillehammer, Norway to investigate a lead that Salameh had been seen in the city. On 21 July 1993, the surveillance team watched the individual as he entered a local public swimming pool. The man appeared physically identical to Salameh, so much so that the surveillance team called in the group's action team, which arrived soon thereafter and registered under assumed names at the Oppland Tourist Hotel.

The man soon left the pool, with a pregnant woman not previously identified, and later attended a film at a nearby theater. When the movie ended, at approximately 10:35 p.m., the assumed Salameh and his female friend took a bus to a stop a short distance from his apartment. As they approached the building, two kidon personnel exited their Mazda automobile, pulled out their .22-caliber pistols and opened fire. Their target dropped to the ground, dying in a pool of blood. Tragically, the man targeted by the kidon was not Salameh, but a man who looked remarkably like him; Moroccan-born waiter Ahmed Bouchiki.

Unaware of their mistake, the action team immediately drove to a predetermined location and switched to a rented Peugeot. In the hours and days that followed, however, Norwegian police managed to track down the hit team as it attempted to board a plane at a nearby airport. The following investigation led to the arrests of six Israelis, all of whom went on trial for their actions. One of the operators was acquitted, but five would receive sentences ranging from two years to five and half years. Despite this, Norwegian authorities would release all within twenty-two months.

The Hunt for Salameh
In January 1974, the kidon action team deployed covertly to Switzerland after receiving word that Salameh was scheduled to meet other POL leaders in a church on 12 January. When two shooters entered the church at the time of the meeting, however, three men who appeared to be Arab met them. One of these men made a move for his weapon and the Israelis opened fire, killing all three. Despite the commotion caused by the gunfire, the kidon personnel continued into the church, looking for Salameh. In a short time, however, the decision was made to abort the mission and escape.

It was not long, however, before the Israelis acted on another lead regarding the whereabouts of Salameh. Three kidon members traveled to London to meet with a source who agreed to meet to provide information on the elusive terrorist. When the source failed to show for the meeting, however, the team began to believe that they were under surveillance by unknown parties.

These concerns may have been well founded. One night, a team member met a woman in the bar of the Europa Hotel. Time passed, and after a brief conversation, he excused himself and headed back to his room for a short time. On the way, he passed his partner in hallway as he walked down to the bar for a drink. Shortly thereafter, he returned to the bar to find that both his partner and the woman had disappeared.

In time, he retired to his room, which shared a common foyer with the room of his compatriot. Oddly, he noticed that his room smelled of the same perfume worn by the woman in the bar. He also noticed the sound of a woman laughing from his partner's room, though he thought no more about it. The following morning, his partner failed to meet him for breakfast, so he went up to the room and knocked. There was no answer, so he let himself in. There, on the floor, was his partner, naked with a bullet wound to his chest.

Remarkably, the woman was located three months later, living just outside Amsterdam. Covert inquiries into her identity were provided by local sources. It was revealed that she was a freelance assassin, working for anyone who could afford her services. On 21 August, kidon team members avenged their partner's death by shooting and killing the woman near her home. Later, the kidon team leader would be reprimanded for acting outside the assigned scope of their mission. It was never learned who contracted the assassin to kill the kidon agent.

Following this incident, the third failed attempt to kill Salameh, Harari gave the order to abort the mission. The kidon team, however, elected to ignore the order and instead planned one more time to kill Salameh.

Intelligence placed the terrorist at a house in Tarifa, on the westernmost point of Gibraltar's Atlantic coast. As three action team members made their way toward the house, they were again intercepted by an Arab security guard. The guard raised his AK-47 and was gunned down. The operation was aborted and the team exited back to the safe house.

The final assassination of the Wrath of God campaign came in 1979. Ironically, the final target would be the individual that was the subject of the very first kidon assassination operation: Ali Hassan Salameh. Mossad finally caught up with their elusive quarry on the streets of Beirut. Following a short period of surveillance, the team was able to positively identify the long-sought terrorist. As he passed a vehicle while walking down a street, he passed a car that had been placed there by Mossad operatives. The car contained a high explosive charge, which was remotely detonated by kidon personnel. The blast killed Salameh and ended the six-year long campaign to kill and terrorize those responsible for the 1972 Munich massacre.

Postscript
While the Wrath of God operation had been successful in terms of both eliminating those the Israelis had deemed reponsible as well as striking fear into the heart of the PLO, one important target remained: Jemel Al-Gashey, the only gunman involved in the Munich operation that was still alive.

In 1999, a documentary film crew managed to accomplish something that Israeli intelligence could not: it located Al-Gashey and managed to arrange an interview. Largely by learning from the mistakes of his compatriots, Al-Gashey severed all ties with his relatives and disappeared. During the interview, the heavily disguised terrorist remained unrepentant and proud of his actions and those of his compatriots in September of 1972.

It is not known if the Israeli government is still actively seeking Al-Gashey; however, if the labors of those who hunted Nazi war criminals following World War II is any indication of resolve, it is likely that Al-Gashey will remain a man on the run. And if Israel's goal was to terrorize those that it could not kill, appears that they succeeded.

Regards,
Hist2004

IDFM203

05-10-2004, 10:12 AM

Good overall article there Hist2004, but again I see the same mistake being made (and I believe another one as well).

Mossad activated its assassination unit, known as the kidon - Hebrew for "bayonet." Kidon teams have been responsible for a number of high profile assassinations, including Dr. Gerald Bull, designer of the Iraqi supergun, and Nasser Issa, also known as "The Engineer," a master bombmaker for the terrorist group HAMAS. These teams would be commanded by Mike Harari, a senior Mossad agent.

I know almost everything to foreigners is Mossad no matter what (especially in the Arab world ;) ), but in reality mostly all the intelligence operations done in the borders of Israel are not done by the Mossad at all but by the Shin Bet and it was them that did that operation that killed “the engineer”…its as if all these articles are just copying the same false source that originally mistakenly refereed to it as a Mossad operation.

Secondly I thought the engineer’s name was Yehiya Ayyash, so what’s up with the name Nasser Issa here? (I think thats a mistake as well)

In fact there is a book titled, The Hunt For The Engineer: The Inside Story of How Israel's Counterterrorist Forces Tracked and Killed the Hamas Master Bomber” and it was written by Samuel Katz and it’s a book on the Shin Bet's operation here.
(hehe :D Bacilluspolymyxa, here’s another book recommendation ;) )

Anyways perhaps I am missing something here so if there is anyone that can contradict what I said then great, but somehow I think I am right here and well that author needs some explaining to do ;)

Shalom :D

hist2004

05-10-2004, 11:04 AM

Thanks for the update, the article came from specialoperations.com

I saw a Discovery Channel episode on the hunt for the engineer, they made
it clear it was a Mossad operation, but then again, there is hardly going to
be a press conference about the details.

Regards,
Hist2004

big80a2

05-10-2004, 11:19 AM

idfm203,

wath is your view on Samuel Katz his books/articles?
reliable? I quite like them.

if your looking for a worse book on facts etc. Take a look at
Shield of Zion by Netanel Lorch ISBN 0-943231-47-7

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0943231477.01.MZZZZZZZ.jpg

in a photo caption he calls the M113 a halftrack rofl

chears

W(M)D

05-10-2004, 11:28 AM

in a photo caption he calls the M113 a halftrack rofl

That is what happens when you write books about military matters and you have not served in the forces (a bit of a 'wannabe').
However, on the flip side he wrote a good book about (IDF) Flotilla 13, it probably also contained technical mistakes but it was a good read.

IDFM203

05-10-2004, 11:28 AM

Hist2004,

yes and they too I believe got it wrong..........that book that I brought down before (the author has written many books on Israel and its military and intelligence organizations and is generally well respected) plus Jewish and Israeli sites on the matter, all refer to it as a Shin Bet operation and not a Mossad operation and indeed it makes sense it is the Shin Bet as I explined before.

Its only foreigners and non Israelis that simply say Mossad.

And frankly I can understand that for most "average joes” when anything has to do with intelligence operations from Israel, the Mossad is all anyone knows, and when outside of Israel you say "shin bet" you hear what? who? ;)

Anyways do you have a link to that discovery show for I would love to check it out.

Lastly I know you got it from specialoperations.com for I typed in the author of that article and it led me to that, though again I think he got it wrong on who’s operation it was and also the name of the engineer which was not what he said it was.

idfm203,

wath is your view on Samuel Katz his books/articles?
reliable? I quite like them.
I like him a lot :D ......his book in 1993 on Israeli special forces IMO was excellent.....(Now it might be a bit outdated for since then there have been many equipment changes as well as training and tactical improvements since 1993, but back in 1993 I thought it was a excellent book written in English on Israeli special forces and I thought for that time it did a pretty accurate job on it)

he also has a great book on Shayetet 13 which was very good as well.

Yes I think he has some respect.

what books of his have you read?

Shalom :D

IDFM203

05-10-2004, 11:30 AM

Javehn

05-10-2004, 11:36 AM

The best books about Shayetet 13 and Shayetet 10 are Mike Eldar books . I am not shure if they are exist on English , but those books were a matter of strong controversy in a time . It has indirect touch about Mossad in his books .

UoUo

05-10-2004, 11:37 AM

2 nice books....IDFM203..try them.

http://img63.photobucket.com/albums/v193/oplo1/Mossad.jpg

http://img63.photobucket.com/albums/v193/oplo1/ssss.jpg

hist2004

05-10-2004, 12:00 PM

Anyways do you have a link to that discovery show for I would love to check it out.

Unfortunately I don’t have a link for it. It was on about 2 or 3 years ago. The show
covered the “Engineers” brutal bombing campaign, how he was identified, and finally
the steps it took to track him down. The show said the end came for him from a cell
phone that had an explosive charge placed in it. The irony was that his father was calling
him at the time, a “real time” voiceprint was confirmed, and it was then detonated
while he was talking. Again, this is according to the producers of the show and is of
course subject to scrutiny.

Regards,
Hist2004

IDFM203

05-10-2004, 12:03 PM

Hist2004,

Indeed he died from his cell phone (though I don’t remember if his father was on the line……….), just it was the Shin Bet that did it and not the Mossad ;)

That is all that I am saying (again ;) )

Shalom :D

Javehn

05-10-2004, 12:36 PM

Mossad don't operate inside the country (and territories for that matter) , you can compare Shin Beit (or Shabak) to MI5 , and Mossad to MI6 . The operation on Yehia Ayish , "engineer " , was performed by Shin Beit and not Mossad .

Here is another book recomendation for you , IDFM203 . ;) It's written by former head of Shabak , Karmi Gilon , and it's called "Shabak between breaches" , where amongst others he is telling about the operation on Yehia Yaish .

http://www.yofi.co.il/books/pics/shabak.jpg

Hist2004 talking about other engineer , and no mistake there . Every member of palestinian group ,that had any specialties of explosives , called engineer (and there are way more engineers that one ;) ) . The one hist2004 talks about did got elliminated by Mossad .

Javehn

05-10-2004, 12:43 PM

IDFM203

05-10-2004, 12:51 PM

Yes thanks for further showing my point ;) :D

Hist2004 talking about other engineer , and no mistake there . Every member of palestinian group ,that had any specialties of explosives , called engineer (and there are way more engineers that one ;) ) . The one hist2004 talks about did got elliminated by Mossad .I must respectfully disagree with you ;) …….”the engineer” only refers to Yehiya Ayyash.

Secondly the one hist2004 article here mentions, is not referred to as Engineer and I typed in a search and it says he was arrested by the Shin Bet as well.

Now if I am wrong then bring an article that it was the Mossad who took him out or a artilce that he is also reffered to as "the engineer” , but as of yet I have not seen that at all.

Here is another book recomendation for you , IDFM203 . ;)
Hey no need for you (and UoUo) to recommend these books to me, I am quite familiar with them ;) :D

Its Bacilluspolymyxa (btw can you explain what your screen name refers to?) more then me that appreciates these recommendations ;) (and as for them being in Hebrew and that being a problem for him, well like he said to me before, he knows some Israelis or an Israeli girl? And they can translate it to him,……..well if it’s a girl she can treat it like a bed time story and read it to him at night p-) :P ).

Shalom :D

IDFM203

05-10-2004, 12:53 PM

hist2004

05-10-2004, 01:26 PM

Just for clarity, the show concerned the manhunt for Yehiya Ayyash ("the Engineer"). His campaign of terror
bombing spanned from 1994 to 1996. His reign of terror killed 150 Israeli’s and wounded at least 500 others. :(

Regards,
Hist2004

IDFM203

05-10-2004, 01:37 PM

Hist2004,

Yes I got that from the start, and as far as I know its ONLY him that is referred to as "the Engineer" and it was him that was taken out by the Shin Bet.

Actually the other name I believe was arrested by them as well, so either way, both names I don’t believe had anything to do with the Mossad and secondly, even if that second name did, well he is not “the engineer” so either way there are some mistakes in that article…I think ;)

Shalom :D

obd

05-10-2004, 01:45 PM

ROFLMAO.. Jojomacele415 wrote "I thought JackMehoff was the worlds most effective killing machine"

Yeah man, I support that.. After all, Jack Mehoff currently practices Billy Blanks Taebo system.......errr I mean Tai Boxing.... ROFLMAO

Longbranch

05-10-2004, 02:59 PM

http://www.journalnow.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=WSJ%2FMGArticle%2FWSJ_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=
1031775368961&path=!localnews&s=1037645509099

*****

Monday, May 10, 2004

Israeli men arrested after high-speed chase in Unicoi County

Associated Press

ERWIN, Tenn. - No bond was set Monday for two Israeli men who were arrested after leading the Unicoi County sheriff on a high-speed chase in a rented moving truck.

Shmuel Dahan and Almaliach Naor were in court Monday, but a bond hearing was not held because they are waiting for help from the Israeli consulate, according to Unicoi's deputy court clerk, Sheri Lunceford.

Dahan, 23, is charged with reckless driving, littering, false identification and evading arrest. Naor, whose age was not given, faces charges of false identification and evading arrest.

The truck, rented from a Ryder office in Mars Hills, N.C., was being held in the county garage pending an FBI investigation, officials said.

Police said they are also being investigated by the FBI. Phone calls left with the FBI's Knoxville office Monday were not immediately returned.

The incident began late Saturday afternoon when Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris noticed a rental truck traveling at a high speed along former U.S. Highway 23, a lightly traveled highway near the North Carolina state line.

"I was really concerned because the driver would not stop after I flashed my headlights for nearly three miles," Harris said. "He was weaving back and forth, and I was wondering what a large (rental truck) was doing on the two-lane highway late Saturday afternoon instead of the faster I-26 Interstate."

William B. Lawson, one of the lawyers appointed to represent the Israeli men, said they rented a truck and planned to haul furniture, but accidentally got off the interstate and got lost.

The sheriff said he saw the men throw something from the truck while they were being pursued. Officers scouring the area later found a vial containing an unknown substance along the roadway, he said.

Lawson said the vial contained a "fuel source," but he added that it hasn't been identified and authorities were treating it with caution.

Once the men were apprehended, officers also found a "Learn to Fly" brochure in the truck, leading Harris and others to express concern about security at the Nuclear Fuel Services plant in Erwin.

"I got a sick feeling when I saw it," Harris said.

Dahan also gave authorities a fake Florida driver's license issued in Plantation, Fla., he said, while Naor produced a fake identification card.

Lawson said the Naor is a young man who doesn't speak English and used the fake ID to get into a Miami nightclub. He said they were both in the country legally.

"We're trying to get these gentlemen released," Lawson said. "They were just traveling through, headed up north."

Harris subsequently contacted the FBI, the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and other local authorities to look into the situation.

"We're not overreacting," Harris said. "We have a responsibility to protect the citizens of Unicoi County and that's what I'm going to do at any cost. I'd rather overreact, if that's what you call it, than be sorry later."

hist2004

05-10-2004, 03:22 PM

Israel: Missions of Shin Bet Special Operations Unit Viewed

"Dipped His Head in Blood"
by Amit Navon

Ma'ariv (Sofshavu'a Supplement)
April 11, 2003

[FBIS Translated Text] A certain Palestinian terrorist who operated
from one of the West Bank villages in the 1980's was generally considered
a tough nut to crack. Shin Bet investigators tried unsuccessfully to
break him under interrogation. To uncover the information in his
possession about the terror organizations became the number one
assignment. However, arrests and interrogations notwithstanding, the man
never lost his cool.

At that point, the Shin Bet operations unit stepped in.

First, its members studied the daily routine of the "subject." After
a considerable period of time spent in following him and gathering
information, they came up with an idea on how to trip him up.

In a complicated move, the Shin Bet arranged for the man to be in a
certain place on a certain day. At the appointed time, the Palestinian
was walking along a dirt track; he had no idea that the Shin Bet had
arranged for IDF roadblocks to isolate the scene of events.

An unmarked car containing members of the operations unit wearing
kaffiyehs stopped in front of the man. Two agents climbed out and pushed
him into the rear seat, the car radio loudly playing Arab music all the
while. After the initial shock wore off the Palestinian tried to speak,
but was silenced by the masked men seated in front and on either side of
him. "Silence, traitor," one of them barked, "You are working with the
Zionists!" The stunned Palestinian, fearing he would be killed by the
unidentified terrorists who had accused him of being a collaborator,
hastened to tell them of his exploits as a hero of the Palestinian people
and of his ties with the arch-terrorists.

"This is just one small example of what the operations unit does,"
says Danny Bar, one of the men in the car. "The wilder your imagination,
the better the operation. You could call this the Matkal [an IDF elite]
reconnaissance unit of the service."

Of all the Shin Bet units and departments that shy away from public
knowledge, ranging from the Jewish division to the prime minister's
personal bodyguards, the operations unit has most managed to maintain its
anonymity.

There is a clear division of work in the various branches of the
service. "The professional units deal with the various spheres: Arabs,
the USSR, the Jewish division; all of them carry out operations," Bar
notes. "Their people don't go out into the field to operate; they work in
their offices or meet with agents, each according to his sphere. Once it
is decided that an operation is needed in a specific sphere, it is passed
on to the operations unit."

The unit caries out an extensive range of operations, from tailing
individual terrorists to spying on complex operations. Bar's years of
experience as a field man have helped him to write his new book "Shahid"
[martyr]. The book describes a situation where hollow bricks filled with
explosives, concealed for a terrorist pickup, were emptied out by the
unit and refilled with sand. It is enough to recall how the Shin Bet
"dealt with" the M16 rifle belonging to the Kahalani brothers from Qiryat
Arba, who had planned to kill the Palestinian Zayyad Shami, to realize
that such descriptions rest on solid ground.

[Bar] In this unit you never know ahead of time when your job is
due to start or when it is over. You set out at a moment's notice. You
could be seated around the table on Seder night and the phone might ring:
'Danny, someone has just arrived at the airport; he needs to be tailed.'
And then you are caught up in that for two weeks.

The unit has plentiful means at its disposal and is provided with
just about everything it asks for. I could say that I need a semi-trailer
truck for an operation, or an Arab taxicab -- not just one but several,
with a different cab waiting for me at two-hourly intervals, for a patrol
I am conducting in a refugee camp. You could really go wild; the
extraordinary becomes run of the mill. [end Bar]

Gambles With His Life

To say "extraordinary" is putting it mildly when you listen to Bar's
stories of the unit's clandestine activity; when in a matter of fact
manner he describes how he was almost killed in the Nabatiyah market,
with the muzzle of a Kalashnikov rifle digging into his stomach and a
howling mob surrounding him, you feel as if this is part of an espionage
thriller.

"We learned that the commander of a terrorist gang was expected to
leave Beirut and make his way to Nabatiyah to meet with a terrorist we
were following," Bar recounts. "They were supposed to meet in the market,
and I found myself a spot to watch them from there. I sat in a cafe and
waited. I had been in the unit for about six years by then and was pretty
much a veteran. I began to sense that something was wrong. The air around
me thickened; my surroundings sent out bad vibes. I radioed the man in
charge that I was leaving. I left the cafe, came to another street
corner, and sensed a movement close by. I decided to get out of there.
Less than a minute later I spotted from the corner of my eye a man armed
with a Kalashnikov approach, and suddenly he dug it into my stomach and
backed me against the wall. There must have been thousands of people in
the market, and they began to close in on us. Nabatiyah is a small town
of extremely devout Shiites. Everyone was yelling, I had this cocked
rifle sticking into my stomach and I realized that it would only take a
second for my life to be over. I had to decide what to do; so I had to
gamble.

"I tried to speak, but he was angry and shouted: 'I do the talking
here,' and prodded me even harder with the rifle. I said to him in
Arabic: 'I am with the IDF,' since, even if he were a terrorist, he would
presumably wish to take me prisoner, which would give the rescue team
time to do something. My problem was that I could not alert the rescue
team as I could not speak or use my radio. But when I said that to him he
sort of flinched and said: 'I am with the Christians. I'm sorry. You can
go.' 'No way,' I told him, 'not with what's happening around us; keep
walking, grab hold of me and tell them that you are going to kill me in
an alley.'

Luckily for me, everyone around me was yelling and no one else
heard what I had said. But he did take hold of me then, and the rescue
team spotted me being led away with my hands in the air. I could hear the
commotion in my earphone, the orders how and from where to fire, and I
realized that they would start shooting in our direction at any minute. I
managed to say 'stop!' at the very last moment and they realized that
things were OK. The guy released me, and we made arrangements to pick him
up for questioning that evening. When we met later on he said to me:
'You dress like a Palestinian, you walk around the market in Nabatiyah
that is crowded with Shiites; what did you think they were going to do?
Someone called us and said that a Palestinian had been seen in the area
and was planning a bombing attack. I came to kill you. I never intended
to start negotiating with you. You Israelis will never understand
Lebanon.'"

Prays With Muslims

Undercover actions similar to that in Nabatiyah became part of the
unit's expertise long before the IDF formed the Duvdevan and Shimshon
units. The actions were conducted mainly in the Palestinian territories.
Bar, with his oriental features and his Jerusalem-accented Arabic, moved
through the casbahs, local schools, hospitals, and even entered the
mosques, a single Jew among hundreds of worshippers, kneeling with them
and piously praying to Allah.

[Navon] Did you ever overdo it?

[Bar] You frequently give yourself away in very minor ways. I had
several sets of clothing; for Gaza, for Nabulus, each set adapted to the
small disparities that exist between the regions. But when you enter a
village, the inhabitants can tell straightaway that you are foreigner.
All you need is go to the village center and enter a cafe. All eyes are
on you and you need to make some sort of immediate gesture explaining
that you are trying to conceal your foreignness; you begin to chatter,
you play the game, and they calm down. But in almost every case someone
will come up to you and ask for the time, to listen to your accent.

Once when I was working undercover, I was seated on a bench on an
avenue leading into Rafah. Perhaps my disguise was not too good; anyway,
a man came up to me and asked me in Arabic: 'What time is it, sir?' No
Arab will say 'sir ' to a fellow-Arab, only to a Jew. To be addressed as
'sir' means that you are not from these parts; besides, he was wearing a
watch and did not really want to know the time.

[Navon] What was your reply?

[Bar] I didn't reply. I made a sort of 'go away' movement with my
hand, but I got out of there fast as it was obviously a place where they
detain people.

The surveillance we did in the territories was quite different from
that in Tel Aviv. When you follow someone who is walking along Gordon
Street in Tel Aviv, someone else is following him on Frishman Street and
a third on Ben Gurion Blvd, and we all move parallel to the subject. But
when I followed someone in the casbah in Nabulus I stayed close, 20 to 30
meters behind. If you are discovered in the casbah, no one will come to
your rescue. You cannot make yourself heard on the radio because of the
surrounding noise. When you go in there, it's one on one.

[Navon] It sounds really scary.

[Bar] It is, but you don't dwell on it. You know it's dangerous but
acceptable, that's all there is to it.

But one incident that happened to the British caused genuine fear.
It happened in Ireland about 20 years ago. Two British sergeants
attending a Catholic funeral in Belfast were stuck and unable to get
away. People climbed onto the roof of their car, ripped it open with iron
bars and removed them by force. One of the sergeants foolishly fired his
pistol in the air. The two were lynched by the mob and their bodies
burned. As an undercover agent, I could not help cringing when I saw it
on television; it was hair-raising and you realize that it could happen
to you.

[Navon] Does the unit carry out liquidations in the territories?

[Bar] Now when you look at all the operations that are carried out,
they are modeled on the unit. But the operations people are not alone;
they lead and guide the army. True, you become bogged down sometimes and
then you need to shoot. In 1980, a handler named Musa Golan was attacked
by one of his Fatah sources, Bassam al-Habash, during one of their
meetings. Al-Habash threw pepper in his eyes and stabbed him to death
with a knife. The hunt for him began, the kind of hunt the service knows
how to mount. Not like in the movies, when you see a long line of men
with dogs checking the terrain. You wait. The key word is patience. We
set up an entire operation intended to bring the killer to a certain
place. That day, en route to the operation, we ran into him by chance in
the Balatah refugee camp near Nabulus. It was ten o'clock at night, and
everything was dark. Suddenly we spotted him walking towards the
rendezvous.. We closed in on him in an unmarked car. He knew he was a
wanted man and he fired immediately, without hesitating, using Musa's
pistol, a .45. I think he was able to get off six shots before we killed
him. [end Bar]

Surveillance in Tel Aviv

For many years the Shin Bet has had to focus its attention on the
struggle against Palestinian terror, but one of the service's original
and important tasks was to uncover foreign spies. The unit was assigned
to the task of physical surveillance of intelligence agents who had been
infiltrated into Israel. It is strange to think of the crowded cafes and
noisy streets of Tel Aviv serving, unbeknownst to the public, as a
backdrop to intelligence operations.

[Bar] Tel Aviv is a city for spies. It is central and has all the
commercial action and the foreign journalists. One very popular cafe near
Tel Aviv's He Be'Iyar square is an Israeli intelligence stronghold.. They
start their surveillance and training exercises there; everything begins
with a meeting in that cafe.

Assignments of that kind are very sensitive. The slightest mistake
could bring the whole team down. Take a simple situation: You are
following someone along Dizengoff Street and he enters a store. When he
leaves, he starts walking towards you. If you are inexperienced, this
could upset and confuse you. For instance, people suddenly and
instinctively duck their heads, feeling it makes them more inconspicuous.
The biggest joke that, as it happened, took place during a training
exercise, not an operation, was when someone ducked down, 'dropped where
he was' as you do in army training. He simply dropped into a crouch in
the middle of the street. He was a member of an elite reconnaissance unit
and was just acting on instinct. If a foreign agent had seen that, he
would simply have disappeared from sight.

Sometimes the unexpected happens even if you have thought of
everything. On one occasion we entered the apartment of a spy to
photograph certain papers. We checked the place out, rang the doorbell,
and no one answered. We went in, and then we suddenly saw the cleaning
woman Later we discovered that she was deaf and had not heard the
doorbell. Her back was turned to us and luckily she heard nothing as we
closed the door behind us and left. [end Bar]

Equal Opportunities

Women are also active in the operations unit alongside the men, and
they form an important part of the surveillance teams. "The girls do the
exact same jobs as the men. We were years ahead of the IAF [Israel Air
Force]; it took them far longer to accept women for their pilot training
courses; the same things are required of the girls; the same drills.
Sometimes working together makes for amusing situations. You frequently
change outfits during surveillance. For instance, a girl could be
following a foreign spy, wearing a school uniform, shirt, shorts, and
sandals, her hair braided. She can follow him dressed that way for about
20 minutes, but then she is out of the game. She dashes to the car and
often unthinkingly takes off her shirt and changes into a different
outfit. And you wonder whether to look in the rear mirror or not. There
was one funny incident on Gruzenberg Street in Tel Aviv. I was on
lookout and the girl in my team wanted to change her clothes and take off
her trousers, so she dashed into a backyard close by. A little boy
happened to be passing, holding onto his mother's hand. All of a sudden
he saw the girl, undressed from the waist down. He simply could not turn
his head away and kept on staring at her until, bang, he walked into a
wooden post. [end Bar]

Surveillance frequently entails long hours of waiting. But it also
has certain "pluses." "There was a Cypriot journalist, Paskalis
Panayotis," Bar says, "who was spying for the terrorists and was
subsequently sentenced to five years in prison. He spent most of his stay
in Tel Aviv at the Merkaz cinema, watching ****ographic movies. Some
member of the surveillance team was always faster than the rest,
informing us: 'That's OK. I'm already inside.'"

Colonel Klingberg

After more than a decade spent in the operations unit, Bar felt that
he had exhausted his capabilities. Therefore, in a move rare in the Shin
Bet, he underwent special training and began to run, or "handle,"
operatives. According to the allocation of work in the Israeli
intelligence community, the military 504 unit is responsible for running
agents in countries bordering on Israel; the Mosad runs agents abroad,
and Shin Bet recruits its agents in Israel and in the territories. But as
early as the 1970's the Shin Bet had also requested permission to run
agents overseas. This blurring of boundaries caused a fair amount of
disputes with its colleague, the Mosad.

[Navon] Why did you request a transfer from operations to running
agents?

[Bar] After spending 19 years in operations, it is wise to move
on. Everyone realizes that. Age also comes into it. To run, or handle,
agents you need to be more mature, with experience in life. It is totally
different from operations, where you try not to make contact with people.
I was fascinated by the psychological aspect of recruiting and running an
agent; the complexity of the human mind. After all, an agent operates
counter to his values, his society, and, at times, his family. Some of
them can live with that, even if it pains them, and some actually carry
out attacks while working with us, telling themselves: We will go on
working with the Israelis, but we will get them another way.

I had one agent whose recruitment process went on for two years.
There was some unclear problem with his behavior. He explained why he
had enlisted in the first place and said to me: "Look, my father is
really hard on me, always humiliating me. When I got a 5 grade in math,
he said: 'You are nothing, you are worthless; I was the class genius.'
When I dated the prettiest girl, he said she had no breasts, nothing."
This agent was no child, he was a man of 40. He told me that he had
visited his father's grave on the day he enlisted and cursed him and then
added: "You may have been better in everything than I was, but you were
not a Mosad agent." He thought that he was working for the Mosad;
everything is Mosad where they are concerned. It was the complex
relationship with his father that motivated him, not Israel or ideology.
Other agents, considered the black sheep of their families, covet the
special Mosad aura. We have also held staged ceremonies to bestow IDF
officer's rank on an Arab agent belonging to a terror organization, to
make him feel honored. Klingberg has also spoken of being made a colonel
by the Russians. These are familiar methods.

[Navon] Your book mentions a strange situation where a handler of
Shin Bet agents talks with an agent about the need to evacuate
settlements.

[Bar] As the handler, you are at one end and the agent is at the
other end. You need to help him bridge the gap, help him feel that what
he is doing is not all that bad, that we are both fighting for peace. We
both want the same thing. You can tell him whatever you like, provided it
sounds right. I had one young fellow who ran agents; he was working with
a likely candidate and it takes a long time, a year or even two years of
playing him along until you can actually recruit him. This fellow told
his recruit about himself; he said his parents had perished in the
Holocaust. That was ridiculous, because he was too young to be the son of
Holocaust victims. It's all a matter of experience; it's the little
things that count.

[Navon] You wrote about one Israeli handler who was familiar with
all the tiniest details, such as Palestinian slang.

[Bar] That is a true story. One of our handlers encountered a
Palestinian and asked him about himself, who he was, from where, and so
on, and the Palestinian answered in Arabic that he was a 'muhandas
shawari' which literally means 'road engineer.' The handler recommended
recruiting the man as an agent, noting that he was obviously educated and
had a profession. He did not know that 'muhandas shawari' is the term
used to refer to people who are unemployed and spend their time roaming
the streets. [end Bar]

Cocktails With the Queen

Bar, 48, joined the Shin Bet in May 1977 following his military
service with the Golani Brigade. He was one of a small group of 10
trainees beginning their training for the operations unit, not knowing
what duties would be assigned to them. Following a long course of
training that included surveillance, photography, undercover work, and
other intelligence activities, he became an active member of the
operations unit.

During that period, he was involved in almost every espionage
incident that reached the headlines. Bar took part in the operations that
uncovered Vanunu, the 'atom spy'; Prof. Marcus Klingberg, the KGB agent
who worked at the Israel Institute of Biology in Nes Ziyyona; as well as
less famous names such as a Nigerian colonel from the UN peacekeeping
forces, Alfred Gum, who smuggled suitcases packed with explosives from
Lebanon into Israel for the terrorists. Another spy exposed by Bar and
his unit was Styg Bergling [as transliterated], a member of the Swedish
Secret Service who headed the Soviet desk of the service's
counter-espionage section. The Shin Bet discovered that Bergling was
himself working for the Russians. He was arrested and extradited to
Sweden.

After eight years with the unit, Bar took a course of Middle East
studies at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, where he met his wife
Ne'ama. After his service in operations Bar moved on to become a handler
himself. In 1995 he and his family moved to Caracas, the capital city of
Venezuela, where he served as the embassy's security officer. After two
years in that violent place, the family moved to London, where he was in
charge of security for all Israeli institutions. In London he also met
the top members on the "liquidation target list" in the course of a
special evening planned by the British Secret Service for the VIP's it
was guarding. Thus Bar found himself having intimate cocktails with Queen
Elizabeth, Prime Minister Tony Blair, and the famous Salman Rushdie.

He retired in 2000. The vacuum left following his 25 years in the
service prompted him to write. His book, "Shahid" [Martyr], which
appeared this week, was written during that time. It describes a Shin Bet
pursuit of a group of suicide bombers who were planning to detonate
themselves at a peace rally in Rabin Square, and it contains genuine
experiences and incidents from the years of Bar's service. The censor
banned 40 pages of the book; another book he wrote was banned altogether.

Writing fulfilled him and Bar was enjoying his retirement until he
came across a small newspaper ad to the effect that the Ben-Shemen Youth
Village was seeking a director general. Born in Tiberias, Bar had gone to
school in Ben-Shemen as a boy. He decided to close the circle and,
together with his wife and three daughters, has been managing and living
in the village since July 2001.

Madness in the Beirut Hills

He did not start a family until the stormy chapter in his
operational activities was behind him. During his first years with the
unit, it was difficult to plan ahead, not knowing what the next day would
bring. During the Lebanon War he received a call from his commanding
officer, Ehud Yatom, ordering him to pack a bag sufficient for two days
and sending him to Beirut. He returned from there six weeks later.

He worked with another operations man. They were provided with a
villa in Bhamdun overlooking Beirut. "I still recall the surrealistic
paintings on the walls. We would return to the hills from the city; the
Phantoms would appear as the sun was setting in the background, and we
saw the fires blazing in Beirut as if we were watching a movie," he says.

The assignment was extremely compartmentalized. No one in the
service knew what the two were doing. The then-chief of the Shin Bet,
Avraham (Avrum) Shalom, was personally in charge of the action.

"We would go down to Tel Aviv for debriefing and re-briefing and
then drive back up into Lebanon. Those trips were madness," Bar recalls,
"until Avrum decided to come to us by helicopter. Once he asked us to
take him on a tour of the area where we were operating. At the time
Beirut was still divided into two zones and the terrorists controlled the
western part of the city. We used an unmarked car and drove to the port
area. We drove through narrow streets until we reached a grocery shop
that was filled with sand, blocking the road. Suddenly Avrum said: 'Turn
right here.' We looked at each other and I said: 'Avrum, if we make a
right here we will no longer be in our area.' I was practically
stammering, because Avrum was crazy; we were scared of him. Every shout
of his made us jump. The guy with me repeated that this wasn't our area,
but Avrum said: 'I know this area like the palm of my hand.' We turned
right and a second later we heard the 'ping' of sniper bullets hitting
our fuel tank. And then, with total indifference, Avrum said: 'I guess
things have changed since my time; better back up.'"

Bar speaks of Avraham Shalom with admiration, observing that Shalom
had greatly furthered the unit's operations.

"Avrum was an operational genius, but he was totally crazy and
unpredictable. One day I was driving past Tel Aviv University and saw
Avrum in his 504 Jeep trying to overtake some lieutenant colonel driving
a Karmel Dukas [a now defunct Israeli car first allocated to IDF officers
in the 1960's]. The officer was blocking him because he had nowhere to
turn and then he stopped the car and got out. Avrum climbed out of the
jeep and I saw my chief on the verge of coming to blows with a lieutenant
colonel in the middle of the road; so we left our car and went to his
rescue.

"A funny thing happened in Lebanon once. When I was not working in
Beirut with the unit, I also served there as an IDF reservist. We were
traveling in a convoy between Tyre and Sidon, when all of a sudden I saw
Avrum stuck in the middle of a huge traffic jam, his .22 in his belt,
vigorously directing the traffic in order to extricate his car. Around
him were masses of Lebanese trucks. I said to the soldiers in my vehicle:
'That's the chief of my service over there'; they laughed fit to burst
and did not believe me. He looked like such a dummy, standing there with
his shirttails half out, his hair over his eyes. They thought I was
joking."

Lesson of No. 300 Bus Affair

Eventually it was the unit he had nurtured for so long that was
involved the No. 300 bus affair and complicated things so badly for
Avraham Shalom. The unit's commanding officer Ehud Yatom and members of
his team fractured the skulls of the two captured terrorists.

"My heart grieves for Avrum. He was greatly affected by that. I
don't know where the truth lies in this story. I don't know whether he
had been given an order by [then Prime Minister] Shamir or not. Both of
them will take this secret to their graves."

[Navon] How did that affair appear from behind the scenes?

[Bar] Believe me, we were very naive; we had no idea of what was
going on. We were so preoccupied with our own affairs, and operations
were so extremely compartmentalized that we did not know what was
happening. We are all the best of friends and we sit in pubs and drink
beer for hours, and then I might say: 'I'm going to bed; I have to get up
early and go to work,' and it is obvious to my friends from the service
that I am not about to divulge the nature of the job. It's not about
being pompous, it's just ingrained so deeply in the unit.' That is why we
knew nothing of what had happened there. To this day I don't know exactly
what took place. All I know is what I read in the newspapers. We didn't
know what had gone on between Avrum and the other three in the room
(Peleg Rada'i, Re'uven Hazaq, and Rafi Malka, who had fought against
whitewashing the affair and demanded Shalom's resignation -- AN)

[Navon] Did the struggles of the service's top leadership have no
impact on the unit?

[Bar] For a very long time the service believed that it was above
the law. We are past that stage. We had a meeting with Shamir when he was
prime minister. After everything that had happened in the above incident,
he said something like: 'I expect you to do the things, but we cannot
always protect you.' One man from the unit got up and said: ' This is not
your private firm. If I were the owner of a grocery store I would realize
that I was responsible for it. But the responsibility in this case rests
with you. If it were illegal, I would not do it, so you have to back me
up.' But Shamir dismissed him with a few words, saying that it was OK and
that 'we all have great respect and affection for you.'

[Navon] Were you influenced by the clandestine actions in the heart
of the Palestinian territories?

[Bar] The power you have is sobering. You realize that it is
useless. OK, so we foiled yet another localized attack and killed another
Jihad leader, but it doesn't end, so what is the solution? True, you
can't suddenly lay down your arms and say that it's all over. But you
realize that power is not the solution; it has limitations. That is the
conclusion you reach after wandering around the refugee camps. I also
wrote the book at a time when it seemed that Baraq would sign a final
peace treaty with the Palestinians. I had to change the ending later.
History moves along a certain track; it seems that we need to dip our
heads in blood before we sober up.

[Description of Source: Tel Aviv Ma'ariv in Hebrew -- Independent, second
largest circulation Hebrew-language paper]

Regards,
Hist2004

786mine

05-11-2004, 12:50 AM

I though Jack Mehoff was the world's most effective killing machine. Hmmm.

You're joking right?

big80a2

05-12-2004, 04:57 AM

what books of his have you read?

Shalom :D

I have read that SF book really liked that one.

My book collection contains some of his books:

Israel's cutting edge (concord publications, isbn 962-361-005-x )

Israeli Defence Forces sinse 1973 (osprey, isbn 0-85045-687-8 )

Army's in Lebanon *Sam Katz and lee E Russell (osprey, isbn 0-85045-602-9)

also in special Ops serie of books from concord he has some articles.
I have Special Ops vol. 21 with an article about th Tzabar border Guard units.

big80a2

05-12-2004, 05:08 AM

However, on the flip side he wrote a good book about (IDF) Flotilla 13, it probably also contained technical mistakes but it was a good read.who? you mean Samaul katz, for indeed it was a good book.

The book that big80a2 brought was not written by him but it was written by Netanel Lorch and I don’t think he wrote any book on S13?

So I think you got them confused ;)

Shalom :D

No , he is actually talking about Samuel Kats , so he didn't got confused ;) .

no I ment the book Schield of Zion by Netanel Lorch.
the funny thing is that Yitzhak Rabin did the forword :D
while the book contains a lot of wrong information and gives the inpresion the IDF is the creme de la ceme.
I think Rabin didn't even read the book rofl

this is what he wrote:
"Netanel Lorch is the best-suited man for writing Shield of Zion.
His record as a fighting commander in besieged Jeruzalem during the war of independence; the variety of military assignments he has received- as ADC to the Chief of Staff, as first chief of Military history with foreign Service, and in the Knesset; and his wide academic background promise a thorough and trustworthy presentation of the IDF. I am convinced that this book does justice to the full capavility of the IDf today, and to its achievements in the past"

rofl I hope rabin enjoyed his box of choclades and the bottle of wine rofl

I think Sam Katz owns this credit