Mossad is responsible forintelligence collection,covert operations, andcounter-terrorism. Its director answers directly and only to theprime minister. Its annual budget is estimated to be around₪10 billion (US$2.73 billion), and it is estimated that it employs around 7,000 people, making it one of the world's largest espionage agencies.[1] The organization has orchestrated manyassassination plots across a variety of locations.[2]
History
Mossad was formed on December 13, 1949, as the Central Institute for Coordination at the recommendation of Prime MinisterDavid Ben-Gurion toReuven Shiloah. Ben Gurion wanted a central body to coordinate and improve cooperation between the existing security services—the army's intelligence department (Aman), the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet), and the Political Intelligence Service (Mossad).[3][4][5] The central body governing the three security services was Va'adat;[5] today it is the Ministry of Intelligence.[6]
In March 1951, it was reorganized and incorporated into the prime minister's office, reporting directly to theprime minister of Israel.[4] Due to Mossad's accountability directly to the prime minister and not to theKnesset, journalistRonen Bergman has described Mossad as a "deep state".[7]
The Mossad made an unusual move on Israel's 68th Independence Day by releasing a secret recruitment ad for its Cyber Division. The ad featured seemingly random letters and numbers, which turned out to be a hidden puzzle. Over 25,000 people attempted to solve it, and while most failed, dozens succeeded and were recruited.[9] In a rare 2012 interview with "Lady Globes," Mossad fighters talked about the recruitment of men and women to the Mossad, the screening tests, their work in the Mossad alongside starting a family, the relationship between the time to prepare for the actions and the actions themselves, working in teams, the emotional intelligence required of them, the nature of the activity, avoiding fame and omnipotence, and conversations with enemies.[10]
Organization
Divisions
The organizational structure of the Mossad is officially classified. Mossad is organized into divisions, each led by a director who is equivalent to amajor general in theIsrael Defense Forces.[11]
Tzomet: Mossad's largest division, staffed withcase officers calledkatsas tasked with conducting espionage overseas and running agents.[12] Employees in Tzomet operate under a variety ofcovers, includingdiplomatic andunofficial. The division was led from 2006 to 2011 byYossi Cohen[13] and from 2013 to 2019 by David Barnea, both of whom later served as Mossad directors.[14]
Caesarea: conducts special operations and houses the Kidon (Hebrew: כידון, "bayonet", "javelin" or a "spear") unit, an elite group of assassins.[15]
Keshet ("Rainbow"): electronic surveillance, break-ins, and wiretapping[11]
A special unit calledMetsada allegedly runs "small units of combatants" whose missions include "assassinations and sabotage".[16][better source needed]
Akatsa is a fieldintelligence officer of the Mossad.[19] The wordkatsa is a Hebrew acronym forHebrew:קצין איסוף,romanized: ktsin issuf, "intelligence officer", literally "gathering officer". A katsa is acase officer who runs agents to clandestinely collect intelligence.
Kidon
Thekidon are Mossad's elite assassins. Recruits receive two years of training at Mossad's training facility nearHerzliya.[12]
Sayanim
Sayanim (Hebrew:סייענים, lit.helpers, assistants)[20] are unpaid Jewish civilians who help Mossad out of a sense of devotion to Israel.[21] They are recruited by Mossad's field agents,katsas, to provide logistical support for Mossad operations.[12] Asayan running a rental agency, for instance, could help Mossad agents rent a car without the usual documentation.[22][23] The usage ofsayanim allows the Mossad to operate with a slim budget yet conduct vast operations worldwide.[24]Sayanim can have dual citizenships but are often not Israeli citizens.[25][26] According to Gordon Thomas, there were 4,000sayanim in Britain and some 16,000 in the United States in 1998.[22] Israeli students calledbodlim are often used as gofers for Mossad.[27]
Motto
Mossad's former motto,be-tachbūlōt ta`aseh lekhā milchāmāh (Hebrew:בתחבולות תעשה לך מלחמה) is a quote from the Bible (Proverbs 24:6): "For by stratagems you wage war" (NJPS).
The motto was later[when?] changed to another Proverbs passage:be-'éyn tachbūlōt yippol `ām; ū-teshū`āh be-rov yō'éts (Hebrew:באין תחבולות יפול עם, ותשועה ברוב יועץ, Proverbs 11:14), translated as "For want of strategy an army falls, But victory comes with much planning" (NJPS).
Directors
Directors of the Mossad with Benjamin Netanyahu in 2015
About half of the Mossad's leaders rose through its ranks, while the rest are retiredIDF soldiers appointed to head the agency. The Prime Minister personally appoints the head of the Mossad for Intelligence and Special Duties without needing government or other supervisory body approval (unlike the Chief of Staff or theShin Bet's head). The appointment undergoes review by the advisory committee for appointing senior civil service officials. The term is five years, extendable by the Prime Minister for another year without conditions.[28]
Until 1996, the head of Mossad's name was kept confidential. Mossad argued that secrecy allowed the head to move freely worldwide. In response to public criticism, the government began revealing the head's name whenDanny Yatom assumed office.[29]
Together withShurat HaDin, Mossad[when?] started Operation Harpoon, for "destroying terrorists' money networks".[30][31]
Africa
Egypt
Provision of intelligence for the cutting of communications between Port Said and Cairo in 1956.[citation needed]
Mossad spyWolfgang Lotz, holding West German citizenship, infiltrated Egypt in 1957, and gathered intelligence on Egyptian missile sites, military installations, and industries. He also composed a list of German rocket scientists working for the Egyptian government, and sent some of them letter bombs. After the East German head of state made a state visit to Egypt, the Egyptian government detained thirty West German citizens as a goodwill gesture. Lotz, assuming that he had been discovered, confessed to hisCold War espionage activities.[32]
After a tense confrontation withCIA Tel Aviv station chief John Hadden on May 25, 1967, who warned that the United States would help defend Egypt if Israel launched a surprise attack, Mossad directorMeir Amit flew to Washington, D.C. to meet with U.S. Defense SecretaryRobert McNamara and reported back to the Israeli cabinet that the United States had given Israel "a flickering green light" to attack.[33]
A letter bomb sent to the Heliopolis rocket factory killed five Egyptian workers, allegedly sent byOtto Skorzeny on behalf of the Mossad.[34]
Heinz Krug, 49, the chief of a Munich company supplying military hardware to Egypt disappeared in September 1962 and is believed to have been assassinated byOtto Skorzeny on behalf of the Mossad.[34]
Morocco
In September 1956, Mossad established a secretive network inMorocco to smuggleMoroccan Jews to Israel after a ban on immigration to Israel was imposed.[35]
In early 1991, two Mossad operatives infiltrated the Moroccan port ofCasablanca and planted a tracking device on the freighterAl-Yarmouk, which was carrying a cargo ofNorth Korean missiles bound forSyria. The ship was to be sunk by theIsraeli Air Force, but the mission was later called off by Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin.[36]
The alleged killing ofSalah Khalaf, head of intelligence of thePLO and second in command of Fatah behindYasser Arafat, in 1991.[38]
The 2016 alleged killing ofHamas operativeMohamed Zouari inSfax. Known to Israel's security echelon as "The Engineer", he was a Hamas-affiliated engineer who was believed to be constructing drones for the group. He was shot at close range.[39][40]
In the late 1990s, after Mossad was tipped off to the presence of twoIranian agents inJohannesburg on a mission to procure advanced weapons systems fromDenel, a Mossad agent was deployed, and met up with a local Jewish contact. Posing as South African intelligence, they abducted the Iranians, drove them to a warehouse, and beat and intimidated them before forcing them to leave the country.[36]
Sudan
After the1994 AMIA bombing, the largest bombing in Argentine history, Mossad began gathering intelligence for a raid by Israeli Special Forces on the Iranian embassy inKhartoum as retaliation. The operation was called off due to fears that another attack against worldwide Jewish communities might take place as revenge. Mossad also assisted inOperation Moses, the evacuation ofEthiopian Jews to Israel from a famine-ridden region of Sudan in 1984, also maintaining a relationship with the Ethiopian government.[citation needed]
Americas
Argentina
In 1960, Mossad discovered that theNazi leaderAdolf Eichmann was inArgentina. A team of five Mossad agents led by Shimon Ben Aharon slipped into Argentina and, throughsurveillance, confirmed that he had been living there under the name of Ricardo Klement. He was abducted on May 11, 1960 and taken to a hideout. He was subsequently smuggled to Israel, where he wastried and executed. Argentina protested what it considered as a violation of its sovereignty, and theUnited NationsSecurity Council noted that "repetition of acts such as [this] would involve a breach of the principles upon which international order is founded, creating an atmosphere of insecurity and distrust incompatible with the preservation of peace" while also acknowledging that "Eichmann should be brought to appropriate justice for the crimes of which he is accused" and that "this resolution should in no way be interpreted as condoning the odious crimes of which Eichmann is accused."[b][46] Mossad abandoned a second operation, intended to captureJosef Mengele.[47]
Shortly afterRafael Eitan visitedInslaw in February 1983, the software PROMIS was allegedly stolen and copied by theUnited States Department of Justice, which triggered years of litigation.[48] Earl W. Brian andEdwin Meese, two men with close ties toReagan, are said to have sold or given the software to over 80 countries, with a “back door” built into the program, which allowed for espionage.[49][50] Two versions of the software are said to have been sold: an American one for the CIA and an Israeli one for the Mossad. The software with the built-in back door is said to have reached theKGB via the British publisherRobert Maxwell, a Mossad agent. Maxwell was also able to sell the bugged Israeli version of PROMIS toSandia National Laboratories andLos Alamos National Laboratory, two of the most important nuclear research and national security facilities in the United States. He is said to have been assisted byJohn Tower.[51]
After the 1987 arrest of Israeli spyJonathan Pollard, wiretaps pointed to a high-level Israeli spy in the U.S. known as “Mega.” Mega may have been a group of people (possibly theMega/Study Group, alleged to be connected to Israeli intelligence).[52][53][54]
During the 1990s, Mossad discovered that aHezbollah agent was operating inside the United States to procure materials needed to manufactureIEDs and other weapons. In a joint operation with U.S. intelligence, the Hezbollah agent was kept under surveillance in hopes that his communications would expose additional Hezbollah operatives. The agent was eventually arrested.[36]
According to journalistDaniel Halper, Israel blackmailed US PresidentBill Clinton in 1998 with the release of incriminating conversations withMonica Lewinsky in order to secure the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. Israel is said to have obtained the Lewinsky recordings by monitoring White House phone lines.[55]
Mossad informed theFBI and CIA in August 2001 that, based on its intelligence, as many as 200 terrorists were slipping into the United States and planning "a major assault on the United States". The Israeli intelligence agency cautioned the FBI that it had picked up indications of a "large-scale target" in the United States and that Americans would be "very vulnerable".[56] However, "It is not known whether U.S. authorities thought the warning to be credible, or whether it contained enough details to allow counter-terrorism teams to come up with a response." A month later, terrorists struck at the World Trade Center and the Pentagonin the largest terrorist attack in history.[56]
In May 2014, a NSA document obtained byEdward Snowden and published by journalistGlenn Greenwald revealed that the CIA was concerned that Israel had established an extensive espionage network in the United States.[57]
The US journalistsDylan Howard, Melissa Cronin and James Robertson linked the Mossad to American sex offenderJeffrey Epstein in their bookEpstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales. They relied for the most part on the former Israeli intelligence officerAri Ben-Menashe.[58][better source needed] According to him, Epstein's activities as a spy served to gather compromising material on powerful people in order toblackmail them.[59] There is also a possible connection to the Mossad viaGhislaine Maxwell, whose father Robert Maxwell is said to have had contacts with the Mossad.[60] Epstein's victimVirginia Giuffre also alleged Epstein to be an intelligence asset, linking onTwitter to aReddit page, that alleged Epstein being a spy, running a blackmail operation.[61]
A report published on the Israeli military's official website in February 2014 said that Middle Eastern countries that cooperate with Israel (Mossad) are theUnited Arab Emirates,Afghanistan, theRepublic of Azerbaijan,Bahrain andSaudi Arabia. The report claimed that Bahrain has been providing Israel with intelligence onIranian and Palestinian organizations. The report also highlights the growing secret cooperation with Saudi Arabia, claiming that Mossad has been in direct contact with Saudi intelligence about Iran's nuclear energy program.[63][64]
Iran
Prior to theIranian Revolution of 1978–79,SAVAK (Organization of National Security and Information), the Iraniansecret police and intelligence service was created under the guidance of United States and Israeli intelligence officers in 1957.[65][66] After security relations between the United States and Iran grew more distant in the early 1960s which led theCIA training team to leaveIran, Mossad became increasingly active in Iran, "training SAVAK personnel and carrying out a broad variety of joint operations with SAVAK."[67]
A US intelligence official toldThe Washington Post that Israel orchestrated the defection of Iranian generalAli Reza Askari on February 7, 2007.[68] This has been denied by Israeli spokesmanMark Regev.The Sunday Times reported that Askari had been a Mossad asset since 2003, and left only when his cover was about to be blown.[69]
Le Figaro claimed that Mossad was possibly behind a blast at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Imam Ali military base, on October 12, 2011. The explosion at the base killed 18 and injured 10 others. Among the dead was also generalHassan Tehrani Moghaddam, who served as the commander of the Revolutionary Guards' missile program and was a crucial figure in building Iran's long-range missile program.[70] The base is believed to store long-range missiles, including theShahab-3, and also has hangars. It is one of Iran's most secure military bases.[71]
Mossad has been accused of assassinatingMasoud Alimohammadi,Ardeshir Hosseinpour,Majid Shahriari,Darioush Rezaeinejad andMostafa Ahmadi-Roshan; scientists involved in theIranian nuclear program. It is also suspected of being behind the attempted assassination of Iranian nuclear scientistFereydoon Abbasi.[72]Meir Dagan, who served as Director of Mossad from 2002 until 2009, while not taking credit for the assassinations, praised them in an interview with a journalist, saying "the removal of important brains" from the Iranian nuclear project had achieved so-called "whitedefections", frightening other Iranian nuclear scientists into requesting that they be transferred to civilian projects.[33]
In 2024, former Iranian PresidentMahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed that Iran's intelligence service had established a unit to counter Mossad operations, only for its leader to have been exposed as a Mossad agent in 2021. He also claimed that around 20 Iranian operatives had been acting asdouble agents, supplying intelligence to Israel.[75][76]
Assistance in the defection and rescuing of the family ofMunir Redfa, anIraqi pilot who defected and flew hisMiG-21 to Israel in 1966: "Operation Diamond". Redfa's entire family was also successfully smuggled from Iraq to Israel. Previously unknown information about the MiG-21 was subsequently shared with the United States.
Operation Sphinx[77] – Between 1978 and 1981, obtained highly sensitive information about Iraq'sOsiraknuclear reactor by recruiting an Iraqi nuclear scientist in France.
In what is thought to have been a reprisal action for a Hamas suicide-bombing in Jerusalem on July 30, 1997 that killed 16 Israelis, Benjamin Netanyahu authorised an operation againstKhaled Mashal, the Hamas representative in Jordan.[78] On September 25, 1997, Mashal was injected in the ear with a toxin (thought to have been a derivative of the synthetic opiateFentanyl called Levofentanyl).[79][80] Jordanian authorities apprehended two Mossad agents posing as Canadian tourists and trapped a further six in the Israeli embassy. In exchange for their release, an Israeli physician had to fly to Amman and deliver an antidote for Mashal. The fallout from the failed killing eventually led to the release ofSheik Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of the Hamas movement, and scores of Hamas prisoners. Netanyahu flew into Amman on September 29 to apologize personally to King Hussein, but he was instead met by the King's brother, Crown Prince Hassan.[79]
Mossad was suspected of establishing a large spy network in Lebanon, recruited fromDruze,Christian, andSunni Muslim communities, and officials in the Lebanese government, to spy onHezbollah and its IranianRevolutionary Guard advisors. Some have allegedly been active since the1982 Lebanon War. In 2009, Lebanese Security Services supported by Hezbollah's intelligence unit, and working in collaboration withSyria,Iran, and possibly Russia, launched a major crackdown which resulted in the arrests of around 100 alleged spies "working for Israel".[90]
Eli Cohen infiltrated the highest echelons of the Syrian government, was a close friend of the Syrian President, and was considered for the post of Minister of Defense. He gave his handlers a complete plan of the Syrian defenses on theGolan Heights, the Syrian Armed Forces order of battle, and a complete list of the Syrian military's weapons inventory. He also ordered the planting of trees by every Syrian fortified position under the pretext of shading soldiers, but the trees actually served as targeting markers for the Israel Defense Forces. He was discovered by Syrian and Soviet intelligence, tried in secret, and executed publicly in 1965.[93] His information played a crucial role during theSix-Day War.
On April 1, 1978, 12 Syrian military and secret service personnel were killed by a booby trapped sophisticated Israeli listening device planted on the main telephone cable between Damascus and Jordan.[94]
The alleged death of General Anatoly Kuntsevich, who from the late 1990s was suspected of aiding the Syrians in the manufacture of VX nerve-gas, in exchange for which he was paid huge amounts of money by the Syrian government. On April 3, 2002, Kuntsevich died mysteriously during a plane journey, amid allegations that Mossad was responsible.[94]
The uncovering of a nuclear reactor being built in Syria as a result of surveillance by Mossad of Syrian officials working under the command ofMuhammad Suleiman. As a result, the Syrian nuclear reactor was destroyed by Israeli Air Forces in September 2007 (seeOperation Orchard).[94]
The alleged killing of Muhammad Suleiman, head of Syria's nuclear program, in 2008. Suleiman was on a beach inTartus and was killed by a sniper firing from a boat.[96]
On July 25, 2007, the al-Safir chemical weapons depot exploded, killing 15 Syrian personnel as well as 10 Iranian engineers. Syrian investigations blamed Israeli sabotage.[94]
The decomposed body ofYuri Ivanov, the deputy head of theGRU, Russia's foreign military intelligence service, was found on a Turkish beach in early August 2010,[98] amid allegations that Mossad may have played a role. He had disappeared while staying near Latakia, Syria.[99]
Mossad was accused of being behind the assassination of Aziz Asbar, a senior Syrian scientist responsible for developing long-range rockets and chemical weapons programs. He was killed in a car bomb inMasyaf on August 5, 2018.[100]
United Arab Emirates
Mossad is suspected of killingMahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander, in January 2010 atDubai,United Arab Emirates. The team which carried out the killing is estimated, on the basis ofCCTV and other evidence, to have consisted of at least 26 agents traveling on bogus passports. The operatives entered al-Mabhouh's hotel room, where Mabhouh was subjected to electric shocks and interrogated. The door to his room was reported to have been locked from the inside.[101][102][103][104][105] Although the UAE police and Hamas have declared Israel responsible for the killing, no direct evidence linking Mossad to the crime has been found. The agents' bogus passports included six British passports, cloned from those of real British nationals resident in Israel and suspected by Dubai, five Irish passports, apparently forged from those of living individuals,[106] forged Australian passports that raised fears of reprisal against innocent victims of identity theft,[107] a genuine German passport and a false French passport. Emirati police say they have fingerprint and DNA evidence of some of the attackers, as well as retinal scans of 11 suspects recorded at Dubai airport.[108][109] Dubai's police chief has said "I am now completely sure that it was Mossad," adding: "I have presented the (Dubai) prosecutor with a request for the arrest of (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu and the head of Mossad," for the murder.[110]
South Asia and East/Southeast Asia
India
ARediff story in 2003 revealed that Mossad had clandestine links with theResearch and Analysis Wing (R&AW), India's external intelligence agency. When R&AW was founded in September 1968 byRameshwar Nath Kao, he was advised by then Prime MinisterIndira Gandhi to cultivate links with Mossad. This was suggested as a countermeasure to military links between that of Pakistan and China, as well as withNorth Korea. Israel was also concerned that Pakistani army officers were training Libyans and Iranians in handling Chinese and North Korean military equipment.[111]
Pakistan believed intelligence relations between India and Israel threatened Pakistani security. When young Israeli tourists began visiting the Kashmir valley in the early 1990s, Pakistan suspected they were disguised Israeli army officers there to help Indian security forces with anti-terrorism operations. Israeli tourists were attacked, with one slain and another kidnapped. Pressure from theKashmiri Muslim diaspora in the United States led to his release. Kashmiri Muslims feared that the attacks could isolate the American Jewish community, and result in them lobbying the US government against Kashmiri separatist groups.[111]
India Today reported that the two flats were RAW safe houses used as operational fronts for Mossad agents and housed Mossad's station chief between 1989 and 1992. RAW had reportedly decided to have closer ties to Mossad, and the subsequent secret operation was approved by then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.India Today cites "RAW insiders" as saying that RAW agents hid a Mossad agent holding an Argentine passport and exchanged intelligence and expertise in operations, including negotiations for the release of an Israeli tourist by the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front militants in June 1991. When asked about the case Verma refused to speak about the companies, but claimed his relationship with them was purely professional. Raman stated, "Sometimes, spy agencies float companies for operational reasons. All I can say is that everything was done with government approval. Files were cleared by the then prime ministerRajiv Gandhi and his cabinet secretary. Balachandran stated, "It is true that we did a large number of operations but at every stage, we kept the Cabinet Secretariat and the prime minister in the loop."[112]
In November 2015,The Times of India reported that agents from Mossad and MI5 were protecting Prime MinisterNarendra Modi during his visit to Turkey. Modi was on a state visit to the United Kingdom and was scheduled to attend the 2015 G-20 Summit in Antalya, Turkey. The paper reported that the agents had been called in to provide additional cover to Modi's security detail, composed of India's Special Protection Group and secret agents from RAW and IB, in wake of theNovember 2015 Paris attacks.[113][114]
Malaysia
In 2018, Hamas and the family of Malaysian-based Hamas engineer and university lecturerFadi Mohammad al-Batsh have accused the Mossad of assassinating him. In April 2018, al-Batsh was shot dead by two men on a motorbike inKuala Lumpur. Malaysian Deputy Prime MinisterAhmad Zahid Hamidi described the suspects as Europeans with links to an unidentified foreign intelligence agency. In response,Israeli Defense MinisterAvigdor Lieberman denied that Mossad was involved in al-Batsh's assassination and suggested that his death was the result of an internal Palestinian dispute.[115][116] Hamas also issued a statement describing Batsh as a "martyr" and "distinguished scientist who has widely contributed to the energy sector."[117]
In October 2022, theNew Straits Times andAl Jazeera Arabic reported that several Malaysian Mossad operatives had attempted to kidnap two Palestinian computer experts in Kuala Lumpur in late September 2022. Though they managed to kidnap one of the men, the second escaped and alertedMalaysian police. The operatives allegedly assisted Mossad officials via video call in interrogating and beating their captive, who was questioned about the computer programming and software capabilities of Hamas and itsIzz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades. With the aid of the second Palestinian man, Malaysian police were able to track down the car registration plates to a house where the alleged kidnappers were arrested and the man was freed. According to Al Jazeera Arabic, a "well-informed Malaysian source" claimed that an investigation had uncovered an undercover 11-member Mossad cell in Malaysia that was involved in spying on important sites including airports, government electronic companies, and tracking down Palestinian activists. This Mossad cell allegedly consisted of Malaysian nationals who received training in Europe.[118][119][120]
North Korea
Mossad may have been involved in the2004 explosion of Ryongchon, where several Syrian nuclear scientists working on the Syrian and Iranian nuclear-weapons programs were killed and a train carrying fissionable material was destroyed.[121]
Pakistan
In a September 2003 news article,[122] it was alleged by Rediff News that GeneralPervez Musharraf, the then-president of Pakistan, decided to establish a clandestine relationship between Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and Mossad via officers of the two services posted at their embassies in Washington, DC.
In 1954, after Mossad received intelligence that an Israeli officer who had access to classified military technologies, Major Alexander Israel, had approached Egyptian officials in Europe and offered to sell Israeli military secrets and documents, a team of Mossad and Shin Bet officers was quickly sent to Europe to locate him and abduct him, and located him inVienna. The mission was code-namedOperation Bren. A female agent managed to lure him to a meeting through ahoney trap operation, and he was subsequently kidnapped, sedated, and flown to Israel aboard a waiting Israeli military plane. However, the plane had to make several refueling stops, and he was given an additional dose of sedatives each time, which ultimately caused him to overdose, killing him. Upon arrival in Israel, after it was discovered that he was dead, he was given aburial at sea, and the case remained highly classified for decades.[124]
Mossad is alleged to be responsible for the killing of Canadian engineer andballistics expertGerald Bull on March 22, 1990. He was shot multiple times in the head outside hisBrussels apartment.[126] Bull was at the time working forIraq on theProject Babylonsupergun.[127] Others, including Bull's son, believe that Mossad is taking credit for an act they did not commit to scare off others who may try to help enemy regimes. The alternative theory is that Bull was killed by the CIA. Iraq andIran are also candidates for suspicion.[128]
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Assisted in air and overland evacuations of Bosnian Jews from war-tornSarajevo to Israel in 1992 and 1993.[129]
On April 5, 1979, Mossad agents are believed to have triggered an explosion which destroyed 60 percent of components being built inToulouse for an Iraqi reactor. Although an environmental organization,Groupe des écologistes français, unheard of before this incident, claimed credit for the blast,[77] most French officials discount the claim. The reactor itself was subsequently destroyed byan Israeli air strike in 1981.[77][131]
The killing ofYehia El-Mashad, the head of the Iraq nuclear weapons program, in 1980.[133]
The alleged killing ofAtef Bseiso, a top intelligence officer of the PLO, in Paris in 1992. French police believe that a team of assassins followed Atef Bseiso from Berlin, where that first team connected with another team to close in on him in front of a Left Bank hotel, where he received three head-shots at point blank range.[134]
Germany
Operation Plumbat (1968) was an operation byLekem-Mossad to further Israel's nuclear program. The German freighter "Scheersberg A" disappeared on its way fromAntwerp toGenoa along with its cargo of 200 tons ofyellowcake, after supposedly being transferred to an Israeli ship.[135]
The sending ofletter bombs during theassassination campaign. Some of these attacks were not fatal. Their purpose might not have been to kill the receiver. A Mossad letter bomb led to fugitive Nazi war-criminalAlois Brunner's losing four fingers from his right hand in 1980.[136] Years earlier, on 25 September 1963, the Mossad tried to kill SS-Hauptsturmführer andconcentration camp doctorHans Eisele with a mail bomb. However, the bomb detonated early, instead killing a postal worker.[137][138]
The alleged targeted killing ofWadie Haddad, using poisoned chocolate. Haddad died on 28 March 1978, in theGerman Democratic Republic supposedly from leukemia. According to the bookStriking Back, published by Aharon Klein in 2006, Haddad was eliminated by Mossad, which had sent thechocolate-loving HaddadBelgian chocolates coated with a slow-acting and undetectable poison which caused him to die several months later. "It took him a few long months to die", Klein said in the book.[139]
Mossad discovered thatHezbollah had recruited a German national named Steven Smyrek, and that he was travelling to Israel. In an operation conducted by Mossad, theCIA, the German Internal Security agencyBundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), and the Israeli Internal Security agencyShin Bet, Smyrek was kept under constant surveillance, and arrested as soon as he landed in Israel.[140]
Greece
The killing of Zaiad Muchasi,Fatah representative toCyprus, by an explosion in his Athens hotel room in 1973.[85]
Ireland
Theassassination of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh – a seniorHamas military commander – inDubai, 2010, was suspected to be the work of Mossad, and there were eight Irish passports (six of which were used) fraudulently obtained by the Israeli embassy inDublin,Ireland for use by alleged Mossad agents in the operation. TheIrish government was angered over the use of Irish passports, summoned the Israeli ambassador for an explanation and expelled the Israeli diplomat deemed responsible from Dublin, following an investigation. One of the passports was registered to a residence on Pembroke Road,Ballsbridge, on the same road as the Israeli embassy. The house was empty when later searched, but there was suspicion by Irish authorities it had been used as a Mossadsafe house in the past.[141][142] Mossad is reported to have a working relationship with the Irishmilitary intelligence service[143] and has previously tipped the Irish authorities off about arms shipments from the Middle East to Ireland for use bydissident republican militants, resulting in their interception and arrests.[144]
In 1986, Mossad used an undercover agent to lureMordechai Vanunu, in ahoney trap style operation, from the United Kingdom to Italy. There, he was abducted and returned to Israel, where he was tried and found guilty oftreason because of his role in exposingIsrael's nuclear weapons programme.[147]
Israel provided weapons to the Serbs during theBosnian War, possibly due to the pro-Serbian bias of the government of the time,[151] or possibly in exchange for the immigration of the Sarajevo Jewish community to Israel.[152] The Mossad allegedly was responsible for providing Serbian groups with arms.[153]
InSwitzerland the Israelis have an Embassy in Bern and a Consulate-General inZürich which provide cover for Collection Department officers involved in unilateral operations. These Israeli diplomatic installations also maintain close relations with the Swiss on a local level in regard to overt functions such as physical security for Israeli official and commercial installations in the country and the protection of staff members and visiting Israelis. There is also close collaboration between the Israelis and Swiss on scientific and technical matters pertaining to intelligence and security operations. Swiss officials have made frequent trips to Israel. There is a continual flow of Israelis to and through Switzerland. These visits, however, are usually arranged through the Political Action and Liaison regional controller at the Embassy inParis directly with the Swiss and not through the officials in the Israeli Embassy inBern, although the latter are kept informed.[citation needed]
In February 1998, five Mossad agents were caught wiretapping the home of aHezbollah agent in aBern suburb. Four agents were freed, but the fifth was tried, found guilty, sentenced to one year in prison, and following his release was banned from entering Switzerland for five years.[154]
Mossad was involved in outreach torefuseniks in the Soviet Union during thecrackdown onSoviet Jews in the period between the 1950s and the 1980s. Mossad helped establish contact with Refuseniks in the USSR, and helped them acquire Jewish religious items, banned by the Soviet government, in addition to passing communications into and out of the USSR. Many rabbinical students from Western countries travelled to the Soviet Union as part of this program in order to establish and maintain contact with refuseniks.
United Kingdom
In 1984, Mossad agents were caught attempting tokidnap Nigerian politicianUmaru Dikko from London. On July 4, 1984, customs officials atStansted airport discovered Dikko in a crate that was about to be flown to Nigeria. Agents Alexander Barak, Felix Abithol, and anesthetist Dr. Levi-Arie Shapiro were given prison sentences of between ten and fourteen years.
In 1986, a bag containing eight forged British passports was discovered in a telephone booth inWest Germany. The passports had been the work of Mossad and were intended for the Israeli Embassy in London for use in covert operations. The British government, furious, demanded that Israel give a promise not forge its passports again, which was obtained.[155]
On June 15, 1988, following the trial and conviction of a Palestinian post-graduate student, Ismail Sowan, who was studying atHull University, two Mossad agents were expelled from the UK. Sowan was found in possession of a large arms cache and sentenced to eleven years in prison. During his trial, it was revealed that he had been employed by Mossad for ten years. Mossad agents Arie Regev and Jacob Barad were Sowan's controllers. They had failed to informMI6 of Sowan's activities and that they were aware that a Palestinian (Abd al-Rahim Mustapha – who was believed to be involved in the assassination ofNaji al-Ali) had entered the country illegally.[156] The Mossad station in the UK remained closed until the1994 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in London.
Ukraine
In February 2011, a Palestinian engineer,Dirar Abu Seesi, was allegedly pulled off a train by Mossad agents en route to the capitalKyiv fromKharkiv. He had been planning to apply for Ukrainian citizenship, and reappeared in an Israeli jail only three weeks after the incident.[157]
In July 2004, New Zealand imposeddiplomatic sanctions on Israel over anincident in which two Australia-based Israelis, Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara, who were allegedly working for Mossad, attempted to fraudulently obtainNew Zealand passports by claiming the identity of a severely disabled man. Israeli Foreign MinisterSilvan Shalom later apologized to New Zealand for their actions. New Zealand cancelled several other passports believed to have been obtained by Israeli agents.[158] Both Kelman and Cara served half of their six-month sentences and, upon release, weredeported to Israel. Two others, an Israeli, Ze'ev Barkan, and a New Zealander, David Reznick, are believed to have been the third and fourth men involved in the passport affair but they both managed to leave New Zealand before being apprehended.[159]
International Criminal Court
According toThe Guardian, Mossad reportedly conducted an effort to derail the investigation by theInternational Criminal Court (ICC) of Israeli actions in thePalestinian territories.Fatou Bensouda,Prosecutor of the ICC, alleged that she and her family were victims of a campaign by Mossad directorYossi Cohen to dissuade her from opening prosecution of Israeli officials forwar crimes.[160] The reportage claimed that between late 2019 and early 2021, there were at least three encounters between Cohen and Bensouda, in which Cohen attempted at first to get Bensouda to co-operate with Israel and later to persuade her not to pursue a full investigation.[160] U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded to the Israel investigation by accusing the ICC of "only putting Israel in [its] crosshairs for nakedly political purposes" and Bensouda of having "engaged in corrupt acts for her personal benefit".[160]
In book 4 ofMark Greaney'sGray Man series,Dead Eye, Mossad and the CIA partner to capture the world's most feared and lethal rogue former black ops agent Courtland Gentry.
Daniel Silva's spy novel series is centered on fictional Mossad agent and assassin,Gabriel Allon. The term "Mossad" is never used in the novels, but the protagonist is described as working for Israel's intelligence service (which the characters refer to simply as "the Office").
In the TV seriesCovert Affairs (2010–2015), Mossad agent Eyal Lavin is a recurring character.
Since theNCIS season 3 episode "Kill Ari (Part 1)" (2005), Mossad has played an instrumental part. Mossad's presence includes one of the main characters, AgentZiva David, who is a former Mossad Agent. She originally filled the position of Mossad liaison to NCIS, until the end ofseason 7, when she became a full-time NCIS agent. Her father,Eli David, was the director of Mossad, until theseason 10 episode "Shabbat Shalom", when he was killed. Many other characters have been included in the show from Mossad, includingMichael Rivkin andAri Haswari. Some episodes of the show have taken place in Israel.
The Spy (2019) is a web television miniseries on the life of top Mossad spyEli Cohen.
^Argentina claimed that the "illicit and clandestine transfer of Eichmann from Argentine territory constitutes a flagrant violation of the Argentine State's right of sovereignty[.]"[43] In Eichmann's case, the most salient feature from the perspective of international law was the fact of Israeli law enforcement action in another state's territory without consent; the human element includes the dramatic circumstances of the capture by Mossad agents and the ensuing custody and transfer to Israel[.][44] At its most obvious level this means that the exercise of enforcement jurisdiction within the territory of another state will be a violation of territorial integrity. For example, after Adolf Eichmann [...] was abducted from Argentina by a group of Israelis, now known to be from the Israeli Secret Service (Mossad), the Argentine Government lodged a complaint with the UN Security Council [...] It is however unclear whether as a matter of international law the obligation to make reparation for a violation of territorial sovereignty such as that involved in the Eichmann case includes an obligation to return the offender.[45]
^abcThomas, Gordon (February 17, 2010)."Mossad's licence to kill".Daily Telegraph.Archived from the original on January 11, 2022. RetrievedNovember 5, 2020.
^Bass, Gary J. (2004.) The Adolf Eichmann Case: Universal and National Jurisdiction. In Stephen Macedo (ed,)Universal Jurisdiction: National Courts and the Prosecution of Serious Crimes. (ch.4) Philadelphia: U.Penn. Press.
^Damrosch, Lori F. (2004.) Connecting the Threads in the Fabric of International Law. In Stephen Macedo (ed,)Universal Jurisdiction: National Courts and the Prosecution of Serious Crimes. (ch.5) Philadelphia: U.Penn. Press. The principle of territorial integrity (in Art. 2(4) UN Charter)
^Higgins, Rosalyn and Maurice Floy. (1997).Terrorism and International Law. UK: Routledge. (p. 48)
^abcOstrovsky, Victor (1990),By Way of Deception – The making and unmaking of a Mossad Officer, New York: St. Martin's Press,ISBN978-0-9717595-0-3
^McGeough, Paul (2009)Kill Khalid – The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas. Quartet Books.ISBN978-0-7043-7157-6. Pages 126,127.
^McGeough, Paul (2009)Kill Khalid – The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas. Quartet Books.ISBN978-0-7043-7157-6. Page 184.
^Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem (HarperCollins Publishers, 1998, 2nd ed.), p. 118
^Ford, Peter S., Major, USAF, "Israel's Attack on Osiraq: A Model for Future Preventive Strikes?", INSS Occasional Paper 59, USAF Institute for National Security Studies, USAF Academy, Colorado, July 2005, p. 15
^Striking Back: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israel's Deadly Response,ISBN0-8129-7463-8
Central Intelligence Agency.Israel: Foreign Intelligence and Security Services: A Survey. Washington, D.C., 1979. (Included inDocuments from the US Espionage Den. Tehran: Center for the Publication of the US Espionage Den's Documents, 1982.)
Lapid, Ephraim and Amos Gilboa,Israel's Silent Defender: An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Israeli Intelligence (2012)
Libel, Tamir. "Looking for meaning: lessons from Mossad's failed adaptation to the post-Cold War era, 1991–2013."Journal of Intelligence History 14.2 (2015): 83–95.abstract
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
