Ben Rogaczewski

Moles, Spies and Terrorists

Prof. Gray
December 2, 2009

Shadows of Mossad

"WITHOUT GUIDANCE DO A PEOPLE FALL, AND DELIVERANCE IS IN A

MULTITUDE OF COUNSELLORS." Proverbs XI/14

Within the realm of international intelligence gathering, many rise to the

many challenges presented by our world. Organizations such as the American

Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, strive for excellence around the globe and often

times can be considered as some of the finest intelligence gatherers of our espionage

history. However, one group rivaled the CIA and even established hostility against

what seemed to be an invincible agency. The group I speak of is none other than the

Israeli Central Intelligence Agency, Mossad. The Mossad for decades established

itself as a force to be reckoned with, from its humble origins, to its secret works of a

darker nature. Through this extensive study of Mossad, we shall discover what

makes this intelligence agency the cream of the crop with Middle Eastern relations.

Our first stop shall be the origins of Mossad, then turning to the early

accomplishments, and finally turning to the dark side of Middle Eastern intelligence.

Part I: Genesis Beneath the Sand

 After WWII, many Jews, often survivors of the Holocaust, wished to return to

Palestine, but were barred by the British government that controlled Palestine. It

was the Israeli underground, called the Haganah that the Jews turned to. Many of

these Jews were smuggled into Palestine using Haganah ships, and several were able

to make it into Palestine, but many were discovered by the British and thus sent to

internment camps on the island of Cyprus. Soon Haganah leaders realized that the

British had to be removed from Palestine in order to see drastic changes within the

present system. Controlled attacks were placed against Arab around Palestine,

specifically in Jerusalem. It was there within Jerusalem, that many bombings took

place, and very soon Jews were blaming Arabs for the attacks, and vice versa. It was

not until May of 1948 that the British would leave Palestine, and with their absence,

bring about the creation of statehood within Israel. However, peace would not last

for long with the celebration.

Soon after the proclamation of Israel’s statehood, Arabs neighboring Israel

began to attack the new nation. The Israel-Arab War would continue for several

months, but would not bring down the new Israeli nation. Once the war had ended,

Israel saw a newfound peace and like the United States after WWI, found that they

too had too many intelligence agencies.

David Ben-Gurion, the new prime minister of Israel, disbanded the Israeli

Central Intelligence agencies used during the Israel-Arab War, and even before. He

split the functions between three agencies: Aman, the Political Department, and Shin

Bet. Aman was in charge of intelligence within Israeli military and Israeli affairs. The

Political Department was in charge of gathering intelligence on affairs outside of

Israel, and Shin Bet was in charge of security within Israel, and later on was involved

with counter-terrorism. Isser Harel, a man who came from Slavic origins, originally

headed Shin Bet. When Isser was establishing the intelligence agencies of Israel, he

was influenced slightly by other intelligence agencies around the world, especially

that of the American CIA. In 1952, Isser Harel became the head of Mossad. We now

have access to the original charter that was written up by Ben-Gurion back in the

late 1940’s. It relates to the foreign ministry about the present formation of Mossad,

and Shin-Bet. Nevertheless, under Isser Harel, Mossad began to raise eyebrows

amongst all around the world. This of course leads us to the early accomplishments

of Mossad.

Part II:

Beginning with 1956, networks all around the work began gather intelligence

that could be used by Mossad. It was these networks that allowed Mossad to get a

copy of a secret speech given by Nikita Kruschev denouncing Stalin at a Communist

Party Congress. Mossad was able to get this information to the CIA, which

established a strong alliance between Israel and the United States. Mossad and CIA

now knew that they could work together to amount to a major intelligence

movement. This however would never come to true fruition, as we shall see later.
 Of course, field agents hired by the Mossad did the main intelligence

gathering during the early stages of Mossad’s espionage. These agents were selected

due to their specific traits and heritages (Jewish). Of course, as one can see from the

lives of many of the spies, danger looms wherever they go, and so many have

destroyed lives by their espionage ways. Two of these were some of the earliest

Mossad agents: Wolfgang Lotz, and Eli Cohn.

Wolfgang Lotz originally migrated from Germany to Palestine when Hitler

came to power in the 1930’s, fought alongside the Haganah. The Mossad saw him as

a top asset seeing that not only did he speak German, but he also looked German. He

was told to infiltrate the highest ranks of the Egyptian government in order to

obtain intelligence on Egypt’s military. However, Wolfgang’s cover was blown when

suspicions began to rise among Nasser’s Soviet military advisors. They claimed that

a spy had infiltrated the Egyptian military. Lotz’s radio transmissions were traced to

Cairo, and Lotz was soon arrested. During his trial however, the Egyptians could not

understand that this German would work for the Israelis. Lotz was convicted and

sentenced to life in prison in 1965, but was released in 1968 in exchange for nine

Egyptian generals who had been captured during the 6 Day War.

Eli Cohn was rather a different story of espionage, but still extremely

important to Mossad’s gathering of intelligence. The Mossad placed Eli originally in

an Arab society within Buenos Aires, and then when he had convinced everyone that

he was in fact an Arab, Mossad sent him to Damascus, Syria to be a “business man”.

Eli rose in the ranks amongst the wealthiest people in Syria, and even soon found

favor of its leader. He provided Mossad with transmissions of Syria’s military

operations, and even battle plans and military formations. It was even said that Eli

told the Syrians that they should place certain trees near different military areas in

order to keep the troops from overheating themselves. In reality, he was giving the

Israeli air force a means of targeting Syrian hotspots. Soon however, Syrian

intelligence discovered him talking through his radio, and Eli was arrested. Within a

secret trial, Eli was convicted, and sentenced to a public hanging in Damascus; a

major sacrifice for the sake of intelligence.

Of course, without these pieces of intelligence, the Israeli bomber planes

could not have destroyed not only the Egyptian air force, but also the Egyptian and

Syrian armed ground forces as well. It was a clear disaster for the Egyptians and

Syrians, and a major victory for the Israeli forces, and Mossad.

Of course within this realm of espionage, intelligence agencies gathering

intelligence by means of stealing, but often times, the many people around them can

question their methods. Mossad was known for kidnapping and hiring hit squads to

remove political or national threats from the world. Two instances show the dark

side of Mossad very well: The kidnapping of Adolf Eichmann, and the assassinations

of PLO operatives, or Black September as they were called.

Part III: Secrets of Gideon

 During the post-WWII years, Israel wished to see many, if not all of the

leaders of the Nazi death camps to see a more tragic fate than their victims. Most

had been captured and tried during the Nuremburg Trials, but some like Adolf

Eichmann escaped during refugee movements. Eichmann was in charge of the

killing of many of the Jews within certain death camps, and Mossad wanted him

dead for it. Fifteen years later, Mossad located a German businessman within

Buenos Aires. Mossad agents were immediately sent to Argentina to watch this

businessman, and soon the agents made their strike. On May 11, 1960 on the way

home from work one day, the German was kidnapped by agents and taken to a

Mossad hideout. He was interrogated and the agents dressed him in a SS cap.

Mossad had located Eichmann. Eichmann was allowed to either have an instant

death, or to be flown to Israel for trial. Eichmann chose to stand trial, and went with

them to Tel Aviv, Israel. After several months of trial, Eichmann was sentenced to

hang, and Mossad had claimed its victim as a victory trophy. Soon many, including

the CIA, saw a twinge of fright for the unorthodox actions of Mossad, but all of that

was to be topped by events that would take place in the later years.

During the 1972 Olympics in Munich, a group of terrorists called the Black

September took nine Israeli athletes hostage. The Black September were terrorists

comprised of members within the PLO, or Palestinian Liberation Organization. The

terrorists negotiated with the German authorities and demanded for the release of

Palestinian captives within several countries, and also safe passage out of Germany.

The Germans agreed to the demands, and the terrorists were allowed to leave the
hotel with the hostages. An ambush had been laid to try and stop the terrorists, but

the ambush failed. The terrorists killed all of the hostages as soon as they realized

that it was a trap. Many of the Mossad saw this killing within Germany as a reminder

of the Holocaust. The Mossad quickly demanded revenge upon the Black September,

and a committee chaired by Prime Minister Golda Meir, and defense minister Moshe

Dayan was established. The committee X as it was called was formulated to created

hit squads in order to take down the leaders of the Black September, and it

performed its job well. Within that very year, ten prominent Palestinians were

assassinated, and their killers never found. Aharah Yariv, the head of Shin Bet at the

time and organizer of “Operation Wrath of God”, called the operations smooth and

precise. No mistakes were made. This would hold until an incident took place in the

regions of Lillehammer. Mossad agents were searching there for a leader of the

Black September called Ali Hassan Salameh. The agents believed that Salameh was

at a ski resort in Lillehammer, but when they gunned down the man they thought

was Salameh, they soon realized that they had killed the wrong man. Instead they

had killed a Moroccan waiter. The operation was a disaster and the hit squad was

arrested and placed in jail. Yariv had no idea what had gone wrong, but somewhere

there must have been an intelligence mix up.

Salameh would not last long however. He was placed in Beirut, Lebanon and

was working as bridge of peace brokering between the CIA and the PLO. The CIA

hoped that they could negotiate peace between the Mossad and PLO, before more

blood had been spilled. The Mossad was not interested in this peace and began to

set up a hit squad on Salameh, and this time there was to be no mistakes about it. A
bomb had been placed within a car that was parked on a street within Beirut that

Salameh passed with his convoy almost every day. As soon as he had passed the car,

a Mossad agent set of the bomb, instantly killing Salameh and his bodyguards.

Mossad had claimed its final victim of “Operation Wrath of God”, and when

questioned about it, Yariv simply stated that there was no other way with the killing

of Salameh, because he lead the Black September during the 1972 Olympic games

and therefore had to be taken out, peace or no peace.

We have finally reached the end of this in depth study within the dark

recesses of Mossad, and have found that they gathered intelligence with techniques

that may have seemed unethical, but still got what they wanted. They were able to

gain intelligence through all sorts of means, and now one within the intelligence

world must wonder: “Does the end justify the means?” The Mossad of course

answered from the shadows, but there is no way of hiding that this intelligence

agency is considered one of the top of its class, a characteristic possibly considered

dangerous by its rival, the CIA.

Works Cited
Aloni, Shlomo. Arab-Israeli Air Wars 1947-82. Osprey Publishing, 2001.
Bregman, Ahron. Israel's Wars: A History Since 1947. London: Routledge, 2002.
Spyweb: Mossad. Performed by History Channel.
Mossad. History. October 20, 2009.
http://www.mossad.gov.il/Eng/About/History.aspx (accessed December 1, 2009).
Thomas, Gordon. "Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad". Thomas Dunne
Books, 2007.