Once again, the Mossad has struck. This is claimed by anonymous sources to the Reuters news agency and the New York Times newspaper. Several were killed and thousands were injured when explosives planted in Hezbollah members’ pagers went off on Tuesday. On Wednesday there were new explosions in “walkie talkie’s” in Lebanon. Although Israel has not commented on the attacks, in all likelihood they join the series of deadly operations planned and carried out by the country’s intelligence service Mossad: The hunt for Adolf Eichmann One of the first and biggest feathers in Mossad’s cap was the tracking down and kidnapping of the German SS officer Adolf Eichmann. Eichmann was central to the Nazi extermination of Jews during the Second World War. In the chaos of the final days of the war in 1945, Eichmann managed to escape from Germany to Argentina. Here, in 1960, he was tracked down by Mossad agents. Adolf Eichmann pictured during the trial in Israel in 1961. Photo: HO/GPO / AP At the head of the operation was Peter Malchin, the head of the service’s special operations. On a street in the Argentine capital, he sought out Eichmann. With the words “one moment, sir,” Malchin diverted his attention and pushed Eichmann into a waiting car. He was then brought on to Israel where he was put on trial. The passport Adolf Eihcmann fled with from Germany to Argentina. Photo: CEZARO DE LUCA / EPA In December 1961, the Nazi officer was found guilty of serious crimes against Europe’s Jews, sentenced to death and executed. Super spy and legend The man who in the early 1960s infiltrated Syria’s government and defence, is often referred to as a super spy and legend in Israel. After his death, Eliyahu Ben-Shaul “Eli” Cohen has had streets, parks and synagogues named after him. Born in Egypt to Syrian-Jewish parents, he was “the perfect agent” for the Mossad in Syria. At the time, Syria was the biggest threat along the Golan Heights to the north of Israel. Israel needed an agent inside Syria to report on the latest diplomatic and military developments. Eli Cohen worked his way into the Syrian political environment so well that he was for a time considered a candidate for the job of Secretary of State in the Syrian Ministry of Defense. Special stamps were made in Israel to honor Mossad spy Eli Cohen Photo: JIM HOLLANDER / REUTERS One of Cohen’s biggest coups was that he was allowed to join a top-secret tour of the Syrian defense along the Golan Heights. There he recommended the Syrian military to plant trees to provide shade for the soldiers. This meant that during the Six Day War in 1967, Israel was able to find Syria’s fortifications. In 1965, Cohen was arrested while sending messages to Israel. After being tortured, he was sentenced to death. He was allowed to write a letter to his wife before he was hanged in front of 10,000 spectators in Damascus. Subsequently, many have heard about Cohen’s life as an agent via the Netflix series “The Spy”. Olympic massacre and fatal mistake During the summer Olympics in Munich in 1972, 11 Israeli athletes were kidnapped and killed by the Palestinian liberation group Black September. Israel’s Prime Minister Golda Meir gave Mossad orders to track down and kill the perpetrators. The plans that were laid – and which spanned several years – were named Operation Bayonet, Operation Youth Spring and Operation God’s Wrath. In a coordinated action on 10 April 1973, the first three Black September members were killed. In July of the same year came the blunder, internationally known as the Lillehammer case. In the belief that the supposed leader of the terrorist group, Ali Hassan Salameh, had been hiding in Lillehammer, a death squad was sent to Norway to kill him. Ali Hassan Salameh was not caught in Lillehammer, but was later killed by a car bomb in Beirut. Photo: Archive / news It turned out to be a fatal error. Because it was Moroccan Ahmed Bouchiki who was murdered in the open street on the evening of 21 July, walking with his pregnant Norwegian wife. 15 shots were fired, by a man and a woman. 14 of them hit Bouchiki. Six Mossad agents were arrested and put on trial charged with complicity in murder. Nine others, including the presumed killers, escaped. A reconstruction of the murder of Ahmed Bouchiki in Lillehammer in 1973 – one of the biggest blunders in the history of the Israeli intelligence organization Mossad. Photo: NTB In the trial, one was acquitted and five were sentenced to prison terms of one to five and a half years. But the convicts were released by pardon after a short sentence and could leave the country. The car bomb in Beirut Ali Hassan Salameh himself, also known by the nickname “The Red Prince” because of his extravagant lifestyle and upper-class background, ended up the victim of a car bomb in the Lebanese capital Beirut. It happened in January 1979 – six years later. Salameh is said to have been duped by a British-born female Mossad agent called Erika Chamers. Through acquaintance she got close enough to learn his daily routines. On his way to his mother’s birthday party, he was killed by a 100kg bomb, hidden in Chambers’ car and detonated as Salameh drove past. Gunmen surround the blown-up car of PLO security chief Ali Hassan Salameh. Hassan and seven other people were killed in what the PLO believes was an attack by the Mossad in 1979. Photo: Ap Salameh’s four bodyguards were killed instantly, as were four people who were nearby. Salameh himself died in hospital shortly afterwards. Three Mossad agents, including Chambers, left the country without a trace. By the time Salameh died, a total of eight Black September members had been wiped out. With chocolate as a weapon In 1978, the intelligence service took the life of the Christian Palestinian activist Wadie Haddad with a method that could have been taken from an Agatha Christie novel. Haddad led the PFLP-EO, a rival group to the PLO, which was behind attacks on Israeli civilians and hijackings. Haddad was, according to the Times, a chocolate lover of rank and was sent boxes of Belgian chocolate, injected with a slow-acting and difficult-to-trace poison. After eating the chocolate, the Palestinian became ill, but the doctors were unable to make a diagnosis. He died in a hotel room after several weeks of hospitalization. Poison in the ear In September 1997, Mossad tried to get hold of one of Hamas’s leading members, Khaled Mashal, who took care of the Islamist group’s finances. He lived in the Jordanian capital Amman with his family. Due to the failed operation against Khaled Mashal, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin was released. Photo: Caren Firouz / Scanpix/Reuters Disguised as Canadian tourists, two Mossad agents tried to inject poison into Mashal’s ear. Mashal was taken to hospital before the poison had time to work fully, and the assassination attempt failed. Jordan’s King Hussein, who was one of the few Arab leaders who had signed a peace treaty with Israel, was furious and demanded that the Israelis release the antidote they had planted. He was supported by US President Bill Clinton, and Israel and the Mossad had no choice but to come to Amman with the antidote, so that Mashal’s life was saved. The two Mossad agents and six aides were arrested. Jordan demanded the release of a dozen Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the agents, who risked prosecution and the death penalty. Among the Palestinian prisoners was Hamas’s spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and his release was a major prestige loss for Israel. Yassin was also killed in an Israeli helicopter attack on the Gaza Strip in 2004. Doped nuclear scientist In 1986, the then Prime Minister of Great Britain, Margaret Thatcher, demanded that the Mossad office in London had to close. The background was that the Israeli agent Cheryl Bentov had drugged the nuclear scientist Mordechai Vanunu and flown him from London to Rome, and on to Israel. Vanunu had revealed that Israel had nuclear weapons, in violation of the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty. Mordechai Vanunu holds up a copy of the newspaper report in which he revealed that Israel was developing nuclear weapons. Photo: AP He was brought before a closed court in Israel and sentenced to 18 years in prison for treason. 11 of these years he served in solitary confinement. He was released in 2004, but with strict speech and travel restrictions. In 2015, he married Norwegian theology professor Kristin Joachimsen. Two years later, he was granted family reunification in Norway, but Mordechai Vanunu has still not received permission to leave Israel. Two murders in one day This summer too, the Mossad has insisted on wiping out those whom the authorities in Israel believe are enemies of the country. First, Hezbollah’s military leader Fuad Shukr was killed in an Israeli airstrike south of Lebanon’s capital Beirut. One day later, on the night of Wednesday 31 July, the Hamas movement’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed with a projectile into a home for war veterans in Iran’s capital Tehran. Pilgrims sit down by a picture of the slain Hezbollah leader Fuad Shukr and the Hamas movement’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed a day after Shukr. Photo: AFP Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has gone to great lengths to confirm that Israel was behind the murders of the two leaders. Ever since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 last year, Israel has been open that their goal is to wipe out Hamas. Interested in more foreign news? Listen to the podcasts from Urix: Published 19.09.2024, at 19.06
ttn-69
Mossad’s killing and working methods – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
