2RHPZ
06-19-2004, 11:06 AM
The Israeli Intelligence Services; Deception and Covert Action Operations
In 1920 Charles Stienmetz said " There will come about an age of small
independent Nations whose first line of defence will be knowledge". This
statement sums up well the role of the Israeli intelligence services. Organised
espionage and deception has long been an honoured and recognised profession
among the Israelites with only the Chinese having an older history of espionage.
This long history coupled with an almost fanatical will to see the state of
Israel survive has led to the formation of one of the most successful
intelligence services of any country in the world. Modern Israel has been under
constant threat from hostile neighbours on its boarders and hostile minorities
within leading to a state of siege atmosphere which has encourage their security
service to indulge in regular and at times bloody covert actions. The Israeli
security services are made up of three main organisations, Aman, which is
military intelligence, Shin Beth, which deals with internal security and
counterintelligence and Mossad. Ha Mossad le Modiin ule Tafkidim Meyuhadum
translates as the Institute for Intelligence and Special Task is the Israeli
equivalent of the British SIS and deals with most of the covert operations.
Although almost consistently threatened by its neighbours either directly by war
or indirectly by terrorism, Israel remained somewhat aloof from the Cold War
which has given its covert operations a distinctive flavour and made them a
world leader in the post Cold War World of espionage and holds many lessons for
the intelligence services of the West who are slowly adapting to this very
different political environment. I have divided the Israeli Covert Operations
into three main areas, Counterterrorism, anti Nuclear Proliferation/ technology
acquisition and Humanitarian Relief.
CounterTerrorism
With the crushing Arab defeat in the 1967 war the Palestinians realised that
their 'Champions' in the Arab world would be unable or unwilling to help them.
Open warfare was out of the question so they turned to the traditional weapon of
the weak, terrorism. Unfortunately for the Palestinians , the IDF and especially
Shin Beth with its network of undercover agents in the refugee camps were more
than capable of not only limiting the effects of the terrorist attacks on Israel
but making such attacks very costly to the Palestinians. Since most attacks in
Israel were thwarted they turned their attention overseas, to attack not only
Israeli's in other countries but the western allies of Israel as well.
The Israeli's reacted fast and hard against this international terrorism, with
Mossad teams operating covertly in many foreign countries. Shin Beth trained
hidden guards armed with low velocity Beretta .22 handguns which were placed on
Israeli airliners ready to engage in airborne gun battles with any hijacker
foolish enough to try. Mossad and Shin Beth agents infiltrated the West Bank
camps so that warning of terrorist attacks could be received. They also operated
in Jordan, passing on information to King Hussein, some of these agents were
spies, others were acting in a covert diplomatic role, organising secret
meetings between Israeli leaders and King Hussein. From the 1970's onwards
Mossad took the policy of hitting back hard against the terrorists no matter
what country they might be in. Mossad did have its failures, like the disastrous
1972 Munich Olympics, where terrorists managed to seize nine members of the
Israeli Olympic team, which lead to a massacre. After Munich Israeli public
opinion called for action, Golda Meir's orders to the Israeli secret services
was clear, to go on the offensive, to allow this Mossads budget was doubled. As
Ronald Payne put it "Mossad was not only given a licence to kill (it had done
that in the past) but a licence to systematically hunt down those deemed
responsible for the Munich Massacre".
This lead to the formation of auxiliary Avenger or Goel squads, such as 'Masada'
or 'Wrath of God', irreverently called WOG by Mossad. These teams operated
covertly in other sovereign states to hunt down and exterminate Arab terrorists.
The Israeli's have a long historical tradition of such avengers based on the
right of vengeance against one who had killed kin, and who were allowed safe
refuge in certain cities. Mossad revived this idea, justifying it by saying that
it was done due to expediency and self defence. The Avenger squads were not
always successful, as in Lillehammer, Norway in 1973, were an Avenger team not
only killed the wrong man , but were captured.
It would be wrong to characterize all Mossad covert counterterrorism operations
as brutal search and destroy missions, (Although an attempt to kill and
decapitate the head of the PLO Abou Jihad in Tunis does little to contradict
this view). Mossad have also used more discreet methods for example although
strictly illegal under the German constitution, Israeli agents gained unofficial
authorization to interrogate Arab suspects held in German prisons. Also the
famous operation Jonathan, the hostage rescue in Entebbe on 4th July 1976 were
the Israeli's attempted to rescue more than a hundred hostages detained by
President Idi Amin of Uganda, after they had been hijacked by Palestinian
terrorists. The often brutal tactics of Mossad have brought few criticisms from
the Israeli public who used to suffering terrorist attacks against themselves
shed few tears for those killed by Mossad teams in other countries.
Technology Acquisition/ Counter Proliferation.
Among those secret services involved with trying to purloin industrial and
technical secrets the Israeli's have a track record second only to the KGB. In
the 1960's a special and highly secret organisation called the Lekem was
established attached to Mossad. Lekem's function is the collection of scientific
and technical intelligence. Its agents travel aboard covertly as businessmen and
scientists or are seconded to the staff of Israeli embassies all over the world.
Traditionally Lekem has focused on two areas, that of military technology and
that of nuclear technology, with some notable success in both areas. Mossad has
also worked to circumvent arms embargoes placed on Israel.
During the Six Day War the Israeli's lost about 10% of their aircraft and many
more were in need of repair. Many Western nations banned the sale of arms to
Israel after the war , in particular the French President De Gaulle. This led to
several successful operations by the Israeli secret service. The first involved
the theft of plans of the French Mirage III fighter. The Israelis relied on
French aircraft and although their own aircraft project was underway it was far
from complete. Mossad and Lekem decided to steal the plans for the Mirage III
which they did via a contact in Switzerland paying the measly sum of ?85,000 for
the plans. These enabled the Israelis to build their own aircraft the Kfir which
was heavily based on the Mirage III.
Another example of Israeli covert operations being used to circumvent an arms
embargo was in 1968, when Mossad stole five gunboats which were being built for
the Israeli's at Cherbourg, the French had refused to deliver them so Mossad
stole them and sailed them to Haifa. During the Six Day War the Arab airforces
had made a great deal of use of the Mig 21 fighter, during the early 1970's the
Israeli's were determined to get hold of one to examine its weak points. Since
they could not buy one they had to steal one, to do this they offered an Iraqi
pilot ?8,000 to steal one, he refused and demanded ?80,000 or he would go to the
authorities. The pilot was picked up by the Iraqi secret service (probably on an
Israeli tip off) and executed. The Israelis become more careful and made
dossiers of Arab pilots likely to steal a Mig for them. Finally their hard work
paid off and they got their Mig 21 in time for the 1973 war.
One of the most important functions of Lekem and Mossad was the acquisition of
nuclear technology for Israel. In a similar way to the Chinese who have
recruited scientists from all over the world, the Israeli's have made a point of
recruiting non-Israeli Jews who are either scientists or students in nuclear
physics to help them attain the ability to make a nuclear bomb. That the
Israeli's have the capability to do so is without doubt as the Mordicai Vanunu
affair showed. Early on in the project Israel needed material from nuclear
reactors and Mossad helped obtain this. This has been one of the areas where
Chinese and Israeli governments have actually covertly helped each other using
their secret services to pass information between them.
In preventing the Arab states from developing or obtaining nuclear weapons the
Israeli secret service has been very active and fairly successful, although as
in most covert operations success is difficult to detect although failure is
often public. In the 1970's Iraq decided to buy two nuclear reactors from
France, to be named Osiris and Isis. Construction of these started in 1979. A
Mossad team blew up reactor parts in the factory in France, carefully avoiding
damaging reactor parts being built for the Belgium's and West Germans, setting
Iraq's nuclear program back by two years. In 1980 a Mossad hit team was thought
to have killed Professor Yahia El-Meshad who was found dead in his Paris
apartment, he was a leading nuclear physicist who had just agree to work for
Iraq.
Combining military force and covert ops again in 1980 two Phantom jets disguised
as Iranian planes but thought to be Israeli attacked a nuclear research centre
near Baghdad. Finally in 1981 a massive fifteen plane raid bombed an Iraqi
reactor. A Mossad agent had placed a homing device near the reactor allowing the
planes to home in directly. The raid took out the reactor just before it became
operational, doing maximum damage but producing no fallout.
Mossad has also been linked to the murders of several other top scientists who
were helping Arab WMD (Weapons of mass destruction) programs, including the
famous Dr Gerald Bull and Alan Kidger in 1991. Kidger was the marketing director
of Thor Chemicals and was found in the boot of his car near Johannesburg, he was
thought , by South African police to have been murdered by the Israelis because
he was selling chemicals for the manufacture of nuclear weapons to Arab states.
The English Dr Bull an expert in artillery, was working what was to become known
as the Iraqi 'Supergun' which would have gave the Iraqis a method of delivering
nuclear, biological or chemical weapons into Israel and beyond.
Humanitarian Operations.
It is strange to think of Israeli covert action which has a bloody reputation
being involved with operations which can only be classed as Humanitarian. The
first of these I shall look at is the kidnapping and trial of the Nazi war
criminal Otto Adolf Eichmann. During the 1960's things were going badly for the
Israelis Suez had seen them let down by the French and British, President Nasser
of Egypt had views of an Arab Empire and many felt that world opinion was
turning against Israel. They felt what was needed was a public trial of a Nazi
war criminal, to demonstrate the horror of the Nazi's to the world once more.
Eichmann was chosen because millions of deaths were directly attributed to him.
Operation 'Eichmann' was a covert operation in the sovereign territory of a
friendly country and although ethically justifiable it was far from legally
justifiable. After a long search Eichmann was tracked down to Buenos Aires and
fearing that he would escape extradition by fleeing to Peru or Uruguay a Mossad
team kidnapped him, checked his identity medically and flew him to Israel where
he was tried and hanged in 1962. This was a clear use of covert operations as
politics by another means as Clausewitz would have illustrated, with the
operation furthering Israelis political goals by improving world opinion and
forefilling a police role in carrying out justice. The second example I shall
use is more strictly humanitarian, that of 'Operation Moses'. This was a covert
operation to rescue thousands of Black Ethiopian Jews or Falahas from starvation
and fly them to Israel. The Israeli operation was thinly disguised as a holiday
resort on the Red Sea, by the time it was closed down in January 1986 it had
rescued 18,000 Jews, 13,000 directly via the Red Sea operation and 5,000 via an
official chartered jet. The operation was highly successful and caused an
outrage in the Arab World, it have rescued more but a press leak forced it to be
closed down. This was not the first time that Mossad had done rescue missions,
in the 1950's Operation 'Magic Carpet' involved flying Jews fleeing the Yemen
into Israel by Hercules transport plane. This rescue of Jews in danger has
always been seen as part of the Israeli national interest and has been repeated
in many countries including Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia and in some former
Soviet states during civil unrest.
Conclusions
As this article shows Israeli covert operations have been a diverse and
effective part of their statecraft. Being a small nation beset by enemies and
lacking the political or economic leverage of larger more powerful nations, the
Israeli's have used covert operations to achieve foreign policy goals such as
helping to prevent nuclear proliferation(while aiding their own weapon
development). They have influenced world opinion as in the Nazi hunts and even
provided humanitarian assistance as in the case of operation 'Moses' . Any
questions over the brutal methods employed have been to a large extent mitigated
by the unquestionable success of the Israeli Secret Services. Now as we enter
the 21st century Israel is still beset by enemies although mainly internal , the
phrase "The ends justifies the means " remains the defacto motto of the Israeli
security services. The only question is, as western post cold war security
services move towards more accountability how long before the Israeli's follow
suit?
Bibliography
Mossad. Ronald Payne 1990.
By Way of Deception. Victor Ostrovsky 1990.
Israels Secret Wars. Ian Black, Benny Morris 1991.
TDP, 22 August 2001
In 1920 Charles Stienmetz said " There will come about an age of small
independent Nations whose first line of defence will be knowledge". This
statement sums up well the role of the Israeli intelligence services. Organised
espionage and deception has long been an honoured and recognised profession
among the Israelites with only the Chinese having an older history of espionage.
This long history coupled with an almost fanatical will to see the state of
Israel survive has led to the formation of one of the most successful
intelligence services of any country in the world. Modern Israel has been under
constant threat from hostile neighbours on its boarders and hostile minorities
within leading to a state of siege atmosphere which has encourage their security
service to indulge in regular and at times bloody covert actions. The Israeli
security services are made up of three main organisations, Aman, which is
military intelligence, Shin Beth, which deals with internal security and
counterintelligence and Mossad. Ha Mossad le Modiin ule Tafkidim Meyuhadum
translates as the Institute for Intelligence and Special Task is the Israeli
equivalent of the British SIS and deals with most of the covert operations.
Although almost consistently threatened by its neighbours either directly by war
or indirectly by terrorism, Israel remained somewhat aloof from the Cold War
which has given its covert operations a distinctive flavour and made them a
world leader in the post Cold War World of espionage and holds many lessons for
the intelligence services of the West who are slowly adapting to this very
different political environment. I have divided the Israeli Covert Operations
into three main areas, Counterterrorism, anti Nuclear Proliferation/ technology
acquisition and Humanitarian Relief.
CounterTerrorism
With the crushing Arab defeat in the 1967 war the Palestinians realised that
their 'Champions' in the Arab world would be unable or unwilling to help them.
Open warfare was out of the question so they turned to the traditional weapon of
the weak, terrorism. Unfortunately for the Palestinians , the IDF and especially
Shin Beth with its network of undercover agents in the refugee camps were more
than capable of not only limiting the effects of the terrorist attacks on Israel
but making such attacks very costly to the Palestinians. Since most attacks in
Israel were thwarted they turned their attention overseas, to attack not only
Israeli's in other countries but the western allies of Israel as well.
The Israeli's reacted fast and hard against this international terrorism, with
Mossad teams operating covertly in many foreign countries. Shin Beth trained
hidden guards armed with low velocity Beretta .22 handguns which were placed on
Israeli airliners ready to engage in airborne gun battles with any hijacker
foolish enough to try. Mossad and Shin Beth agents infiltrated the West Bank
camps so that warning of terrorist attacks could be received. They also operated
in Jordan, passing on information to King Hussein, some of these agents were
spies, others were acting in a covert diplomatic role, organising secret
meetings between Israeli leaders and King Hussein. From the 1970's onwards
Mossad took the policy of hitting back hard against the terrorists no matter
what country they might be in. Mossad did have its failures, like the disastrous
1972 Munich Olympics, where terrorists managed to seize nine members of the
Israeli Olympic team, which lead to a massacre. After Munich Israeli public
opinion called for action, Golda Meir's orders to the Israeli secret services
was clear, to go on the offensive, to allow this Mossads budget was doubled. As
Ronald Payne put it "Mossad was not only given a licence to kill (it had done
that in the past) but a licence to systematically hunt down those deemed
responsible for the Munich Massacre".
This lead to the formation of auxiliary Avenger or Goel squads, such as 'Masada'
or 'Wrath of God', irreverently called WOG by Mossad. These teams operated
covertly in other sovereign states to hunt down and exterminate Arab terrorists.
The Israeli's have a long historical tradition of such avengers based on the
right of vengeance against one who had killed kin, and who were allowed safe
refuge in certain cities. Mossad revived this idea, justifying it by saying that
it was done due to expediency and self defence. The Avenger squads were not
always successful, as in Lillehammer, Norway in 1973, were an Avenger team not
only killed the wrong man , but were captured.
It would be wrong to characterize all Mossad covert counterterrorism operations
as brutal search and destroy missions, (Although an attempt to kill and
decapitate the head of the PLO Abou Jihad in Tunis does little to contradict
this view). Mossad have also used more discreet methods for example although
strictly illegal under the German constitution, Israeli agents gained unofficial
authorization to interrogate Arab suspects held in German prisons. Also the
famous operation Jonathan, the hostage rescue in Entebbe on 4th July 1976 were
the Israeli's attempted to rescue more than a hundred hostages detained by
President Idi Amin of Uganda, after they had been hijacked by Palestinian
terrorists. The often brutal tactics of Mossad have brought few criticisms from
the Israeli public who used to suffering terrorist attacks against themselves
shed few tears for those killed by Mossad teams in other countries.
Technology Acquisition/ Counter Proliferation.
Among those secret services involved with trying to purloin industrial and
technical secrets the Israeli's have a track record second only to the KGB. In
the 1960's a special and highly secret organisation called the Lekem was
established attached to Mossad. Lekem's function is the collection of scientific
and technical intelligence. Its agents travel aboard covertly as businessmen and
scientists or are seconded to the staff of Israeli embassies all over the world.
Traditionally Lekem has focused on two areas, that of military technology and
that of nuclear technology, with some notable success in both areas. Mossad has
also worked to circumvent arms embargoes placed on Israel.
During the Six Day War the Israeli's lost about 10% of their aircraft and many
more were in need of repair. Many Western nations banned the sale of arms to
Israel after the war , in particular the French President De Gaulle. This led to
several successful operations by the Israeli secret service. The first involved
the theft of plans of the French Mirage III fighter. The Israelis relied on
French aircraft and although their own aircraft project was underway it was far
from complete. Mossad and Lekem decided to steal the plans for the Mirage III
which they did via a contact in Switzerland paying the measly sum of ?85,000 for
the plans. These enabled the Israelis to build their own aircraft the Kfir which
was heavily based on the Mirage III.
Another example of Israeli covert operations being used to circumvent an arms
embargo was in 1968, when Mossad stole five gunboats which were being built for
the Israeli's at Cherbourg, the French had refused to deliver them so Mossad
stole them and sailed them to Haifa. During the Six Day War the Arab airforces
had made a great deal of use of the Mig 21 fighter, during the early 1970's the
Israeli's were determined to get hold of one to examine its weak points. Since
they could not buy one they had to steal one, to do this they offered an Iraqi
pilot ?8,000 to steal one, he refused and demanded ?80,000 or he would go to the
authorities. The pilot was picked up by the Iraqi secret service (probably on an
Israeli tip off) and executed. The Israelis become more careful and made
dossiers of Arab pilots likely to steal a Mig for them. Finally their hard work
paid off and they got their Mig 21 in time for the 1973 war.
One of the most important functions of Lekem and Mossad was the acquisition of
nuclear technology for Israel. In a similar way to the Chinese who have
recruited scientists from all over the world, the Israeli's have made a point of
recruiting non-Israeli Jews who are either scientists or students in nuclear
physics to help them attain the ability to make a nuclear bomb. That the
Israeli's have the capability to do so is without doubt as the Mordicai Vanunu
affair showed. Early on in the project Israel needed material from nuclear
reactors and Mossad helped obtain this. This has been one of the areas where
Chinese and Israeli governments have actually covertly helped each other using
their secret services to pass information between them.
In preventing the Arab states from developing or obtaining nuclear weapons the
Israeli secret service has been very active and fairly successful, although as
in most covert operations success is difficult to detect although failure is
often public. In the 1970's Iraq decided to buy two nuclear reactors from
France, to be named Osiris and Isis. Construction of these started in 1979. A
Mossad team blew up reactor parts in the factory in France, carefully avoiding
damaging reactor parts being built for the Belgium's and West Germans, setting
Iraq's nuclear program back by two years. In 1980 a Mossad hit team was thought
to have killed Professor Yahia El-Meshad who was found dead in his Paris
apartment, he was a leading nuclear physicist who had just agree to work for
Iraq.
Combining military force and covert ops again in 1980 two Phantom jets disguised
as Iranian planes but thought to be Israeli attacked a nuclear research centre
near Baghdad. Finally in 1981 a massive fifteen plane raid bombed an Iraqi
reactor. A Mossad agent had placed a homing device near the reactor allowing the
planes to home in directly. The raid took out the reactor just before it became
operational, doing maximum damage but producing no fallout.
Mossad has also been linked to the murders of several other top scientists who
were helping Arab WMD (Weapons of mass destruction) programs, including the
famous Dr Gerald Bull and Alan Kidger in 1991. Kidger was the marketing director
of Thor Chemicals and was found in the boot of his car near Johannesburg, he was
thought , by South African police to have been murdered by the Israelis because
he was selling chemicals for the manufacture of nuclear weapons to Arab states.
The English Dr Bull an expert in artillery, was working what was to become known
as the Iraqi 'Supergun' which would have gave the Iraqis a method of delivering
nuclear, biological or chemical weapons into Israel and beyond.
Humanitarian Operations.
It is strange to think of Israeli covert action which has a bloody reputation
being involved with operations which can only be classed as Humanitarian. The
first of these I shall look at is the kidnapping and trial of the Nazi war
criminal Otto Adolf Eichmann. During the 1960's things were going badly for the
Israelis Suez had seen them let down by the French and British, President Nasser
of Egypt had views of an Arab Empire and many felt that world opinion was
turning against Israel. They felt what was needed was a public trial of a Nazi
war criminal, to demonstrate the horror of the Nazi's to the world once more.
Eichmann was chosen because millions of deaths were directly attributed to him.
Operation 'Eichmann' was a covert operation in the sovereign territory of a
friendly country and although ethically justifiable it was far from legally
justifiable. After a long search Eichmann was tracked down to Buenos Aires and
fearing that he would escape extradition by fleeing to Peru or Uruguay a Mossad
team kidnapped him, checked his identity medically and flew him to Israel where
he was tried and hanged in 1962. This was a clear use of covert operations as
politics by another means as Clausewitz would have illustrated, with the
operation furthering Israelis political goals by improving world opinion and
forefilling a police role in carrying out justice. The second example I shall
use is more strictly humanitarian, that of 'Operation Moses'. This was a covert
operation to rescue thousands of Black Ethiopian Jews or Falahas from starvation
and fly them to Israel. The Israeli operation was thinly disguised as a holiday
resort on the Red Sea, by the time it was closed down in January 1986 it had
rescued 18,000 Jews, 13,000 directly via the Red Sea operation and 5,000 via an
official chartered jet. The operation was highly successful and caused an
outrage in the Arab World, it have rescued more but a press leak forced it to be
closed down. This was not the first time that Mossad had done rescue missions,
in the 1950's Operation 'Magic Carpet' involved flying Jews fleeing the Yemen
into Israel by Hercules transport plane. This rescue of Jews in danger has
always been seen as part of the Israeli national interest and has been repeated
in many countries including Sarajevo in the former Yugoslavia and in some former
Soviet states during civil unrest.
Conclusions
As this article shows Israeli covert operations have been a diverse and
effective part of their statecraft. Being a small nation beset by enemies and
lacking the political or economic leverage of larger more powerful nations, the
Israeli's have used covert operations to achieve foreign policy goals such as
helping to prevent nuclear proliferation(while aiding their own weapon
development). They have influenced world opinion as in the Nazi hunts and even
provided humanitarian assistance as in the case of operation 'Moses' . Any
questions over the brutal methods employed have been to a large extent mitigated
by the unquestionable success of the Israeli Secret Services. Now as we enter
the 21st century Israel is still beset by enemies although mainly internal , the
phrase "The ends justifies the means " remains the defacto motto of the Israeli
security services. The only question is, as western post cold war security
services move towards more accountability how long before the Israeli's follow
suit?
Bibliography
Mossad. Ronald Payne 1990.
By Way of Deception. Victor Ostrovsky 1990.
Israels Secret Wars. Ian Black, Benny Morris 1991.
TDP, 22 August 2001