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Article Health And Fitness | Mossad And Their Martial Arts articlehealthandfitness.c... |
For the organization that coordinated pre-state Jewish immigration, see Mossad Le'aliyah Bet.
The Mossad (HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim) (Hebrew: המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים - Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations) is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution. The Mossad is responsible for intelligence collection, and covert operations including paramilitary activities. 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. Its role and function is similar to that of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). The Mossad seal and symbol is the Menorah Temple as seen in Arch of Titus, under the subtitle:
The Mossad known slogan is:
[edit] Prior to Israel's formationThe "Mossad Le'aliyah Bet" was a small, unorthodox Zionist organization whose mission in 1938 was to bring Jews to Israel. This was done to subvert the British quotas on Jewish immigration. The Mossad's modes of operation, its ideology, and politics resulted in the creation of the intelligence agency for the Israeli government once it was established in 1948. The agency consisted of several of the existing members who had worked to establish Israel as a Jewish nation and to bring the Jewish people to it. [edit] Organization[edit] Executive officesFrom its headquarters in the Israeli city of Tel Aviv, the Mossad oversees a staff estimated at 1,200 personnel, although it may have numbered up to 2,000 in the late 1980s.[2] The Mossad does not use military ranks, although most of its staff have served in the Israel Defense Forces as part of Israel's compulsory draft system, and many of them are officers. It is assumed to consist of eight different departments. The largest 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.[2] Their field intelligence officers, called katsas, are similar to case officers of the CIA. Thirty to forty operate at a time, mainly in Europe and the Middle East.[3] The Political Action and Liaison Department is responsible for working both with allied foreign intelligence services, and with nations that have no normal diplomatic relations with Israel.[2] Among the departments of the Mossad is the Special Operations Division or '"Metsada" (see Kidon), which is involved in assassination, paramilitary operations, sabotage, and psychological warfare.[2] Psychological warfare is also a concern of the Lochamah Psichologit Department, which conducts propaganda and deception activities as well.[2] Additionally, the Mossad has a Research Department, tasked with intelligence production, and a Technology Department concerned with the development of tools for Mossad activities.[4] [edit] Directors of Mossad
[edit] Organizational historyThe Mossad was formed on December 13, 1949 as the "Central Institute for Coordination", at the recommendation of Reuven Shiloah to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Shiloah wanted a central body to coordinate and improve cooperation between the existing security services – the army's intelligence department (AMAN), the General Security Service (GSS or "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. Its current staff is estimated at 1,200. 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, and in abundance of counselors there is victory" (NRSV). (In Hebrew, "tachbūlōt" - "wise guidance" in English - can also be translated as "cunning", "trick", or "deception", all of which are appropriate for an intelligence agency.) The motto was changed recently as part of the Mossad's public 'coming out' 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." [edit] Known Activities
[edit] North America[edit] United States of AmericaThe Mossad informed the FBI and CIA in August 2001 that 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 that it had picked up indications of a "large-scale target" in the United States and that Americans would be "very vulnerable." A month later, terrorists struck at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.[5] [edit] South America[edit] ArgentinaIn 1960, the Mossad discovered that Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann was in Argentina and through surveillance, they confirmed that he had been living there under the name of Ricardo Klement. He was captured by a team of Mossad agents on May 11, 1960, and subsequently smuggled to Israel 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."[6][7] Mossad abandoned a second operation, intended to capture Josef Mengele. [edit] Europe[edit] BelgiumThe Mossad is commonly understood to be responsible for the assassination of Canadian engineer and ballistics expert Gerald Bull outside his Brussels apartment March 22, 1990. He was shot multiple times in the head outside his apartment. [8] Bull was at the time working for Iraq on the Project Babylon supergun expressedly against the wishes of Israel.[9] [edit] Bosnia and HerzegovinaAssisted in air and overland evacuations of the Jews from war-torn Sarajevo to Israel in 1992. [edit] CyprusThe assassination of Hussein Al Bashir in Nicosia, Cyprus, in 1973.[10] [edit] FranceThe alleged assassination of Zuheir Mohsen in 1979.[11] The alleged assassination 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.[12] The assassination of Yehia El-Mashad in 1980.[13] The assassination of Dr. Mahmoud Hamshari in his Paris apartment in 1972.[10] The assassination of Dr. Basil Al-Kubaissi in Paris in 1973.[10] The assassination of Mohammad Boudia in Paris in 1973.[10] [edit] GermanyOperation 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.[14] 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.[15] The alleged assassination of Palestinian terrorist Dr Wadie Haddad in 1978. The PFLP-EO movement dissolved after his assassination.[16] [edit] GreeceThe assassination of Zaiad Muchasi in Athens, 1973.[10] [edit] ItalyThe abduction of nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu in 1986 after American-Israeli agent Cheryl Bentov lured him from the United Kingdom.[17] The assassination of Wael Zwaiter.[18][19] [edit] MaltaThe assassination of Fathi Shiqaqi. Shiqaqi a leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, was shot multiple times in the head in 1995 in front of the Diplomat Hotel in Sliema, Malta.[20] [edit] NorwayMain article: Lillehammer affair On July 21, 1973, Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, was killed by Mossad 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.[21][22][23] [edit] United KingdomIn 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 weapons programme.[24] [edit] Soviet Union/RussiaIn February 1956, a friendly member of the Politburo provided the Mossad with a copy of Nikita Khrushchev's speech denouncing Joseph Stalin. The Mossad passed it on to the United States, which published the speech, embarrassing the USSR. This was a major intelligence coup that raised the prestige of the organization.[25] In the summer of 2009 the Mossad was reported to have been involved in the case of the MV Arctic Sea, allegedly carrying Russian missiles to Iran in the Baltic Sea.[26] [edit] Middle East[edit] Egypt
[edit] Iran[edit] Iran 1960sPrior to the Iranian Revolution of 1978–79 in Iran, 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."[27][28] [edit] Iran 2007It was alleged by private intelligence agency Stratfor, based on "sources close to Israeli intelligence", that Dr. Ardeshir Hosseinpour, a scientist involved in the Iranian nuclear program, was killed by the Mossad on January 15, 2007.[29] A US intelligence official told The Washington Post that Israel orchestrated the defection of Iranian general Ali Reza Askari on February 7, 2007.[30] 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.[31] [edit] IraqAssistance 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 Sphinx[3] - Between 1978 and 1981, obtained highly sensitive information about Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor by recruiting an Iraqi nuclear scientist in France. On April 5, 1979, the Mossad destroyed 60 percent of the Iraqi reactor components being built in France; "[An] environmental organization named Groupe des écologistes français, unheard of before this incident, claimed credit for the blast."[3] The reactor was subsequently destroyed by an Israeli air strike in 1981.[3][32] The alleged assassination of Canadian scientist Gerald Bull, developer of the Iraqi supergun, in 1990. The most common theory is that the Mossad was responsible, and its representatives have all but claimed responsibility for his assassination. 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.[33] [edit] PakistanIn a September 2003 news article, it was alleged by Rediff News that General Zia-ul-Haq, the then President of Pakistan, decided to establish a clandestine relationship between Inter-Services Intelligence and Mossad via officers of the two services posted at their embassies in Washington, DC. The article further claimed that the ISI had offered Mossad information about Libyan, Syrian, Jordanian and Saudi Arabian military which it had acquired through officers on official military deputations on those countries.[34] George Crile, of the ‘Sixty Minutes’ program, presents the story of a congressman who became the foremost champion of the CIA campaign against the Soviets in Afghanistan. A closer reading tells of how Mossad actually used Charlie Wilson to penetrate the CIA’s Afghan campaign, and thereby the ISI and the Pakistani government at all levels.[35] Charles “Nesbitt” Wilson is a 1956 Annapolis graduate who worshipped Winston Churchill and entered politics in 1961 at the age of 27 as the Texas State Representative. Wilson won a seat to Congress in 1973 as a Liberal. He regularly voted against Vietnam and eventually became a strong defender of Israel. Wilson’s appointment to the House Appropriations Committee and a strategic alliance with CIA veteran Gust Avrakotos ignited the covert actions that gave Mossad the opportunity to infiltrate the ISI.[35] Wilson had a close relationship with the Israeli embassy’s congressional liaison officer, Zvi Rafiah. According to George Crile, “Rafiah is a short, very smart Israeli who Wilson always believed was a highly placed Mossad agent... [he, Rafiah] had always acted as if he owned Wilson’s office. One of the staffers kept a list of people he needed to lobby. He would use the phones, give projects to the staff, and call on Charlie to intervene whenever he needed him.”pg 159 Crile’s account suggests that Rafiah was the dominant figure in this partnership.It can be said that events unfolding before our eyes today usually have roots deep in the past. Wilson’s loyalty to Israel and his association with Mossad made him closer to the sympathizers of Israel in the United States. Dick Cheney, who stands accused by a growing number of analysts for his involvement in the 9/11 attacks, played a key role in having Wilson appointed to the White House Select Committee on Intelligence. This fact may suggest that Cheney was also an important player in the pro-Israeli network.In summary, the Israelis became major players in the exchange of information and commodities with Afghanistan and Pakistan, not by interfacing with the CIA, which opposed their involvement, but via Mossad, the Israeli lobby in the United States—using Congressional delegations to establish their own direct connections—and by direct interaction with the ISI in Pakistan. The Israeli/Pakistan connection was crucial for infiltrating the ISI and providing Israeli intelligence with a very secure footing inside Pakistan’s intelligence agency.In her second term in power, Benazir Bhutto also intensified the ISI’s liaison with Mossad in 1993, and she too began to cultivate the American Jewish lobby. Bhutto is said to have had a secret meeting in New York with a senior Israeli emissary, who flew to the U.S. during her visit to Washington, DC in 1995. Since his days as Bhutto’s Director-General of Military Operations, Pervez Musharraf has been a keen advocate of Pakistan establishing diplomatic relations with the state of Israel.After Musharraf overthrew Nawaz Sharif’s government, the ISI-Mossad relationship deepened. This close interaction set the tone for Israeli-Pakistani relations until 2001, regardless of who was the incumbent in Israel, or whether a civilian or military regime ruled Pakistan. The most important contacts were between Mossad and the ISI, and the traffic the information. Pakistan passed intelligence about the Gulf States and the nuclear ambitions of Iran and Libya, whose programs Pakistani scientists had helped to build.[35] [edit] Palestinian territories
[edit] LebanonThe provision of intelligence and operational assistance in 1973's Operation Spring of Youth special forces raid on Beirut. The targeted assassination of Ali Hassan Salameh on January 22, 1979 in Beirut by a car bomb.[38][39] The assassination of Ghassan Kanafani.[40] The assassination of Abbas Musawi, secretary general of Hezbollah, in Beirut in 1992.[10] [edit] SyriaEli 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 was captured and executed in the first half of the 60s.[41] The assassination of Hamas leader Izz El-Deen Sheikh Khalil in Damascus in 2004. The possible assassination of Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008.[42] [edit] Africa[edit] EthiopiaAssistance in Operation Moses, the immigration of Ethiopian Jews to Israel in 1984, and has a relationship with the Ethiopian government. [edit] MoroccoAccording to Time, the Mossad was involved in what is known as the Ben Barka Affair (see Mehdi Ben Barka). [edit] TunisiaTunis Raid - The assassination of Abu Jihad from the Fatah in 1988. The assassination of Khalil al-Wazir. [43] The alleged assassination of Salah Khalaf.[44] [edit] UgandaThe provision of intelligence regarding Entebbe International Airport and grant of refueling rights in Kenya for Operation Entebbe in 1976. [edit] Oceania[edit] New ZealandFurther information: 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.[45] 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.[46] [edit] CriticismMossad has often come under criticism for perceived excessive actions against Israel's enemies.[47] It has been criticized for carrying out assassinations, abductions and torture.[48] It has also been accused of violating international law.[49] [edit] Popular Culture[edit] Movies
[edit] TelevisionNCIS features a prominent main character named Ziva David, who is the Mossad Liaison assigned to NCIS as well as the control officer of one of the show's antagonists, rogue Mossad operative Ari Haswari. Ziva David is the daughter of the Director of Mossad, Eli David. As of Season 6, Episode 25, Aliyah, Officer David no longer works at NCIS. This is later changed as the NCIS team comes to the rescue in a prison in Somalia in the NCIS season premiere that aired September 22, 2009. In the beginning of Season 7, Ziva leaves Mossad and becomes an American citizen and NCIS agent. [edit] Literature
[edit] See also
[edit] Books
Max, written by Sam green, about Sam Wolfman, a Mossad agent who quites the organization. [edit] References
[edit] Further reading
[edit] External links
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