The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection and covert operations which are suspected to include targeted killings and paramilitary activities beyond Israel's borders, bringing Jews to Israel from countries where official Aliyah agencies are forbidden, and protecting Jewish communities worldwide. It is one of the main entities in the Israeli Intelligence Community, along with Aman (military intelligence) and Shin Bet (internal security), but its director reports directly to the Prime Minister.
Organization
Executive offices
The largest department of the Mossad is Collections, tasked with many aspects of conducting espionage overseas. Employees in the Collections Department operate under a variety of covers, including diplomatic and unofficial. Their field intelligence officers, called katsas (Hebrew: acronym, meaning "Collections Officer"), are similar to case officers of the CIA. Thirty to forty operate at a time, mainly in Europe and the Middle East. The Political Action and Liaison Department is responsible for working with allied foreign intelligence services, and nations that have no normal diplomatic relations with Israel. Additionally, the Mossad has a Research Department, tasked with intelligence production, and a Technology Department concerned with the development of tools for Mossad activities.
Mossad was formed on December 13, 1949 as the "Central Institute for Coordination" at the recommendation of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to Reuven 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 foreign office's "political department". In March 1951, it was reorganized and made a part of the prime minister's office, reporting directly to the prime minister.
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 wise guidance you can wage your war" (NRSV). The motto was recently[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). This is translated by NRSV as: "Where there is no guidance, a nation falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety."
Directors
Reuven Shiloah, 1949–52
Isser Harel, 1953–63
Meir Amit, 1963–68
Zvi Zamir, 1968–73
Yitzhak Hofi, 1973–82
Nahum Admoni, 1982–89
Shabtai Shavit, 1989–96
Danny Yatom, 1996–98
Efraim Halevy, 1998–2002
Meir Dagan, 2002–2011
Tamir Pardo, 2011–present
Alleged operations
Americas
Argentina
In 1960, the Mossad discovered that the Nazi leader Adolf Eichmann was in Argentina. A team of five Mossad agents slipped into Argentina and through surveillance, 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, where the agents put an SS cap on him and compared him to a photograph of Eichmann in SS uniform, confirming that it was Eichmann. He was subsequently smuggled to Israel aboard an El Al flight where he was tried and executed. Argentina protested what it considered as the violation of its sovereignty, and the United Nations Security 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." Mossad abandoned a second operation, intended to capture Josef Mengele.
United States
During the 1990s, the Mossad discovered a Hezbollah agent operating within the United States in order to procure materials needed to manufacture IEDs and other weapons. In a joint operation with U.S. intelligence, the agent was kept under surveillance in hopes that he would betray more Hezbollah operatives, but was eventually arrested.
The Mossad informed the FBI 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."
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," The Mossad has a history of credibility issues, before and after 9-11 which continue to influence the perceptions of the reliability or veracity of information provided to U.S., and other intelligence agencies around the world.
A month later, terrorists struck at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
Uruguay
Mossad assassinated Latvian Nazi collaborator Herberts Cukurs in 1965.
Europe
Austria
The Mossad gathered information on Austrian politician Jörg Haider using a mole.[17]
Belgium
The Mossad is alleged to be responsible for the killing of Canadian engineer and ballistics expert Gerald Bull on March 22, 1990. He was shot multiple times in the head outside his Brussels apartment.[18] Bull was at the time working for Iraq on the Project Babylon supergun.[19] Others, including Bull's son, believe that the 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 and Iran are also candidates for suspicion.
Bosnia and Herzegovnia
Assisted in air and overland evacuations of Bosnian Jews from war-torn Sarajevo to Israel in 1992 and 1993.
Cyprus
The killing of Hussein Al Bashir in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1973.
France
The alleged killing of Zuheir Mohsen in 1979.
The alleged killing of Atef Bseiso 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.
The killing of Yehia El-Mashad in 1980.
The killing of Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari with an exploding telephone in his Paris apartment in 1972.
The killing of Dr. Basil Al-Kubaissi in Paris in 1973.
The killing of Mohammad Boudia in Paris in 1973.
On April 5, 1979, Mossad agents are believed to have triggered an explosion which destroyed 60 percent of components being built in Toulouse for an Iraqi reactor. Although an environmental organization, Groupe des écologistes français, unheard of before this incident, claimed credit for the blast, most French officials discount the claim. The reactor itself was subsequently destroyed by an Israeli air strike in 1981.
The Mossad allegedly assisted Morocco's domestic security service in the disappearance of dissident politician Mehdi Ben Barka in 1965, in exchange for the safety of Moroccan Jews.
Germany
Operation Plumbat (1968) was an operation by Lekem-Mossad to further Israel's nuclear program. The German freighter "Scheersberg A", disappeared on its way from Antwerp to Genoa along with its cargo of 200 tons of yellowcake, after supposedly being transferred to an Israeli ship.
The sending of letter bombs during the Operation Wrath of God campaign. Some of these attacks were not fatal. Their purpose might not have been to kill the receiver. Some of the more famous examples of the Mossad letter bombs were those sent to Nazi war-criminal Alois Brunner.
The alleged targeted killing of Dr Wadie Haddad, using poisoned chocolate, in 1978. The PFLP-EO movement dissolved after his killing[citation needed].
The Mossad discovered that Hezbollah had recruited a German national named Steven Smyrek, and that he was travelling to Israel. In an operation conducted by the Mossad, the CIA, the German Internal Security agency Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz, and the Israeli Internal Security agency Shin Bet, Smyrek was kept under constant surveillance, and arrested as soon as he landed in Israel.
Greece
The killing of Zaiad Muchasi by an explosion in his Athens hotel room in 1973.
Italy
The Mossad abducted nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu in Rome and smuggled him to Israel in 1986 after American-Israeli Mossad agent Cheryl Bentov lured him from the United Kingdom.
The killing of Wael Zwaiter.
Malta
The killing of Fathi Shiqaqi. Shiqaqi a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was shot several times in the head in 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta.
Norway
Lillehammer affair
On July 21, 1973, Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, was killed by Mossad agents while walking with his pregnant wife. He had been mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the leaders of Black September, the Palestinian group responsible for the Munich massacre, who had been given shelter in Norway. The Mossad agents had used fake Canadian passports, which angered the Canadian government. Six Mossad agents were arrested, and the incident became known as the Lillehammer affair. Israel subsequently paid compensation to Bouchiki's family.
United Kingdom
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In 1986, Mossad used an undercover agent to lure nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu from the United Kingdom to Italy where he was abducted and transported to Israel where he was tried for treason because of his role in exposing Israel's nuclear programme.
Mossad assisted the UK Intelligence organisation MI5 following the 7/7 bombings in London. According to the 2007 edition of a book about the Mossad titled “Gideon’s Spies,” shortly after the 7/7 London underground bombings, MI5 gathered evidence that a senior al-Qaeda operative known only by the alias Mustafa travelled in and out of England shortly before the 7/7 bombings. For months, the real identity of Mustafa remained unknown, but in early October 2005, Mossad told MI5 that this person was, in fact, Azhari Husin, a bomb-making expert with Jemaah Islamiyah, the main al-Qaeda affiliate in Southeast Asia. Husin studied in Britain and reports claim that he met the main 7/7 bomber, Mohammad Sidique Khan, in late 2001 in a militant training camp in the Philippines (see Late 2001). Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad, apparently also told MI5 that Husin helped plan and recruit volunteers for the bombings. Mossad claimed that Husin may have been in London at the time of the bombings, and then fled to al-Qaeda’s principal haven in the tribal area of Pakistan, where he sometimes hid after bombings. Husin was killed in a shootout in Indonesia in November 2005. Later official British government reports about the 7/7 bombings did not mention Husin.
Switzerland
In February 1998, five Mossad agents were caught wiretapping the home of a Hezbollah agent in a Bern 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.
Soviet Union/Russia
The Mossad was involved in outreach to Refuseniks in the Soviet Union during the crackdown on Soviet Jews in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's. 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.
Ukraine
In February 2011, a Palestinian engineer, Dirar Abu Seesi, was allegedly pulled off a train by Mossad agents enroute to the capital Kiev from Kharkov. He had been planning to apply for Ukrainian citizenship, and reappeared in an Israeli jail only 3 weeks after the incident.
Middle East
Egypt
Provision of intelligence for the cutting of communications between Port Said and Cairo in 1956.
Mossad spy Wolfgang 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 his cold war espionage activities.
Provision of intelligence on the Egyptian Air Force for Operation Focus, the opening airstrike of the Six-Day War.
Operation Bulmus 6 – Intelligence assistance in the Commando Assault on Green Island, Egypt during the War of Attrition.
Operation Damocles - A campaign of assassination and intimidation against German rocket scientists employed by Egypt in building missiles.
Iran
Prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79, SAVAK (Organization of National Security and Information), the Iranian secret police and intelligence service was created under the guidance of United States and Israeli intelligence officers in 1957 to protect the regime of the shah by arresting, torturing, and executing the dissidents (especially Leftists). After security relations between the United States and Iran grew more distant in the early 1960s which led the CIA training team to leave Iran, Mossad became increasingly active in Iran, "training SAVAK personnel and carrying out a broad variety of joint operations with SAVAK."
The Mossad discovered Iran's covert nuclear program before it officially became known, and conducted espionage operations against nuclear facilities in the country.
A US intelligence official told The Washington Post that Israel orchestrated the defection of Iranian general Ali Reza Askari on February 7, 2007. This has been denied by Israeli spokesman Mark 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.
Le Figaro claimed that the Mossad was possibly behind a blast at the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's Imam Ali military base, on 12 October 2010. The explosion at the base killed 18 and injured 10 others. The base is believed to store long-range missiles, including the Shahab-3, and also has hangars. It is one of Iran's most secure military bases.
Iranian Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi has accused Mossad of assassination plots and killings of Iranian Physicists in 2010. Reports have noted that such information has not yet been evidently proven. Iranian state TV broadcast a stated confession from Majid Jamali-Fash, an Iranian man who claimed to have visited Israel to be trained by the Mossad.
The Mossad is believed to have assassinated Masoud Alimohammadi, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, Majid Shahriari, and Darioush Rezaeinejad, scientists involved in the Iranian nuclear program. It is also suspected of being behind the attempted assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Fereydoon Abbasi.
Iraq
Former Iraqi MiG-21, currently on display at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim
Assistance in the defection and rescuing of the family of Munir Redfa, an Iraqi pilot who defected and flew his MiG-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 – Between 1978 and 1981, obtained highly sensitive information about Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor by recruiting an Iraqi nuclear scientist in France.
Operation Bramble Bush II – In the 1990s, the Mossad began scouting locations in Iraq where Saddam Hussein could be ambushed by Sayeret Matkal commandos inserted into Iraq from Jordan. The mission was called off due to Operation Desert Fox and the ongoing Israeli-Arab peace process.
Jordan
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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 against Khaled Mashal, the Hamas representative in Jordan. On September 25, 1997, Mashal was injected in the ear with a toxin (thought to have been a derivative of the synthetic opiate Fentanyl called Levofentanyl). 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 of Sheik 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 was met instead by the King's brother, Crown Prince Hassan.
Lebanon
The provision of intelligence and operational assistance in the 1973 Operation Spring of Youth special forces raid on Beirut. The sending of letter bombs to PFLP member Bassam Abu Sharif. Sharif was severely wounded, but survived.
The targeted killing of Ali Hassan Salameh, the leader of Black September, on January 22, 1979 in Beirut by a car bomb.
The killing of Ghassan Kanafani, also by a car bomb, in 1972.
Providing intelligence for the killing of Abbas al-Musawi, secretary general of Hezbollah, in Beirut in 1992.
Allegedly killed Jihad Ahmed Jibril, the leader of the military wing of the PFLP-GC, in Beirut in 2002.
Allegedly killed Ghaleb Awwali, a senior Hezbollah official, in Beirut in 2004.
Alllegedly killed Mahmoud al-Majzoub, a leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, in Sidon in 2006.
The Mossad was suspected of establishing a large spy network in Lebanon, recruited from Druze, Christian, and Sunni Muslim communities, and officials in the Lebanese government, to spy on Hezbollah and its Iranian Revolutionary Guard advisors. Some have allegedly been active since the 1982 Lebanon War. In 2009, Lebanese Security Services supported by Hezbollah's intelligence unit, and working in collaboration with Syria, Iran, and possibly Russia, launched a major crackdown which resulted in the arrests of around 100 alleged spies "working for Israel". Previously, in 2006, the Lebanese army uncovered a network that allegedly assassinated several Lebanese and Palestinian leaders on behalf of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.
Pakistan
In a September 2003 news article, it was alleged by Rediff News that General Pervez Musharaf, 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 January 2009 it was alleged by Indian news agencies that Mossad officers lead a rescue mission to extract an Indian former member of parliament and an Israeli cultural attache who where arrested on the charges of producing methamphetamine.
Syria
Eli Cohen, a spy for the Mossad, 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 Mossad handlers a complete plan of the Syrian defenses on the Golan 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 in 1965. His information played a crucial role during the Six Day War.
The alleged killing of Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil, a senior member of the military wing of Hamas, in an automobile booby trap in September 2004 in Damascus.
The alleged killing of Muhammad Suleiman, the alleged head of Syria's nuclear program, in 2008. Suleiman was killed by a sniper firing from a boat while on a beach in Tartus.
The alleged killing of Imad Mughniyah, a senior leader of Hezbollah complicit in the 1983 United States embassy bombing, with an exploding headrest in Damascus in 2008.
United Arab Emirates
Assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh
The Mossad is suspected of killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a senior Hamas military commander, in January 2010 at Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The team which carried out the killing is estimated, on the basis of CCTV 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. 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, forged Australian passports that raised fears of reprisal against innocent victims of identity theft, 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. 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.
Africa
Morocco
In September 1956, the Mossad established a secretive network in Morocco to smuggle Moroccan Jews to Israel after a ban on immigration to Israel was imposed.
In early 1991, two Mossad operatives infiltrated the Moroccan port of Casablanca and planted a tracking device on the freighter Al-Yarmouk, which was carrying a cargo of North Korean missiles bound for Syria. The ship was to be sunk by the Israeli Air Force, but the mission was later called off by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.
Tunisia
The 1988 killing of Khalil al-Wazir (Abu Jihad).
The alleged killing of Salah Khalaf in 1991.
Uganda
For Operation Entebbe in 1976, Mossad provided intelligence regarding Entebbe International Airport and extensively interviewed hostages who had been released.
South Africa
After the Mossad discovered the presence of two Iranian agents in Johannesburg on a mission to procure advanced weapons systems from Denel, 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.
Sudan
After the 1994 AMIA bombing, the Mossad began gathering intelligence for a raid by Israeli Special Forces on the Iranian embassy in Khartoum as retaliation. The operation was called off due to fears that another attack against worldwide Jewish communities might take place as revenge. The Mossad also assisted in Operation Moses, the evacuation of Ethiopian Jews to Israel from a famine-ridden region of Sudan in 1984, also maintaining a relationship with the Ethiopian government.
Zimbabwe
The Mossad secretly evacuated Zimbabwean Jews out of the country due to fears of persecution by the Zimbabwean government, which was allied with the Palestine Liberation Organization and Libya.[when?] The Mossad infiltrated the Zimbabwean government's Central Intelligence Organization, in response to the supply of uranium from the Congo via Zimbabwe to North Korea, Syria, and Iran.[citation needed]
Oceania
New Zealand
Israel-New Zealand relations
In July 2004, New Zealand imposed diplomatic sanctions on Israel over an incident in which two Australian based Israelis, Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara, who were allegedly working for Mossad, attempted to fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports by claiming the identity of a severely disabled man. Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom later apologized to New Zealand for their actions. New Zealand cancelled several other passports believed to have been obtained by Israeli agents. Both Kelman and Cara served half of their six-month sentences and, upon release, were deported 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.
Relations with other agencies
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The Mossad has experienced a mixed relationship with Western intelligence agencies. A secret addendum was promised to Anwar Sadat by the CIA if he agreed to the terms of the Camp David Accords. The CIA would supply Sadat with all of Israel's military secrets, as part of a covert intelligence liaison between Washington and Cairo. According to a former US army officer:
We gave Sadat everything. Satellite photos, intercepts, the location of Israel's nuclear force, everything he wanted. As it turned out, the Israelis discovered that we had bribed Sadat, but Begin told everyone to keep their mouths shut. America was the only ally Israel had left. Still, betraying all of Israel's secrets was a pretty shitty thing for us to do.
Starting in 1979, the CIA started sharing intelligence provided by the Mossad with Saudi Arabia. The CIA was "pouring intelligence about Israel into the Saudi's military headquarters." The Saudis lacked the skills to interpret and analyze most of the Israeli intelligence, so the CIA would provide the expertise, and in exchange, the Saudis would share US supplied-information about Israel's weak points with other Arab nations.
In the aftermath of the Six Day War, the French government and military terminated all weapons support for Israel in a "fawning attempt to please Arab oil kingdoms." Despite the ban, the Mossad was able to convince French intelligence to force their French contractors to finish construction on Israel's nuclear weapons project. Prior to the ban, the Mossad uncovered Charles De Gaulle's role in recruiting Fascist fugitives as French agents to fight the Communists in the Balkans. The Mossad revealed that several prominent members of de Gaulle's administration had been Nazi collaborators, among them André François-Poncet. The Israelis threatened to expose de Gaulle if he were to implement the weapons ban. No matter how furious French leaders became at Israel, their military intelligence continued to supervise the construction of the plutonium factory at Dimona.
During the Eisenhower administration, CIA director Allen Welsh Dulles was responsible for recruiting Nazi war criminals as intelligence agents and sponsored their immigration to the United States. United States Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and Allen Welsh Dulles actively betrayed British, French and Israeli military secrets to the Arab nations in order to gain the dominant role in the Middle East. In response to Eisenhower's policies, the Mossad temporarily abandoned intelligence sharing with the United States and switched allegiances to MI6 and French intelligence.
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