Mossad

by Michael Bar-Zohar

  Two other “tourists,” a man and a woman, were to wait inside the building lobby in case the hit team needed help. For instance, Mash’al might walk too fast toward the building, and the two Canadians may not be able to get to him. In such case, the “tourists” were supposed to get out of the building and bump into Mash’al, delaying him until the hit men reached him.

  That way, the Mossad planners believed, there would be no confrontation with the Jordanians.

  The key to success was the situation on the ground: target area clean of bodyguards, family members, acquaintances, police officers, Hamas militants, and others who could thwart the hit. And indeed, the instructions to the eight agents sent to Jordan were clear: carry out the operations only if all the above conditions are fulfilled. Danny Yatom maintains that he had told the agents: “If the conditions differ from the original planning, we can always execute at a later date.” As far as we know, that was what really happened. The agents came several times to the target area but aborted the hit because of unexpected problems—the presence of Jordanian police officers in the area, bodyguards who escorted Mash’al, or Mash’al’s last-minute decision not to go to the office that day.

  September 25, 1997, D-Day.

  The operation commander takes position across the street, in front of the office building. It has been decided not to use cell phones or electronic communication instruments in the target area, and the agents would communicate by manual and body signs. In case they needed to abort the operation, the commander would notify the two agents by removing his visor cap.

  Behind the building, the getaway car is waiting for the two hit men.

  Shawn and Barry are in place, and so is the couple in the lobby of the building.

  Everything is ready.

  In Mash’al’s home, it is almost a perfectly routine morning; but for a small, last-minute change. Mash’al’s wife asks him to take the two children to school today. Usually she takes care of that. The children get in the SUV with their father, but the Mossad surveillance team does not notice them, and reports to the Kidon people that Mash’al is on his way, alone in the car with the driver. The agents fail to notice the two kids who are sitting in the back. The car windows are tinted and the children cannot be seen from the outside.

  Mash’al arrives to the Shamia Center, gets out of the car, crosses the sidewalk, and starts climbing the stairs leading to the building entrance. The two hit men approach him—ten meters, five, three . . . Suddenly Mash’al’s little girl emerges from the SUV. “Baba! Baba!” she calls and starts running toward her father. The driver jumps out of the car and follows the child. The operation commander, who is positioned across the street, notices the child. He removes his hat and tries to signal to his men to abort. But in these critical seconds, the two agents are getting around one of the concrete pillars at the building entrance and for a moment they lose contact with their commander. And even worse—they don’t see the little girl and the driver who runs after her.

  The hit men proceed with their mission. They reach Mash’al, and Shawn shakes the Coke can and pulls the tab. But today, for the first time, the tab tears but the can does not open. The diversion fails. Barry nonetheless raises his hand, to spray the poison on Mash’al’s neck. But Mash’al’s driver, who runs after the child, sees the stranger’s raised hand and thinks he is trying to stab his boss. He starts to shout, darts toward Barry, and tries to strike him with a folded newspaper. Mash’al hears his driver’s shouts and turns back. At this moment, Barry sprays the poison and a few drops fall on Mash’al’s ear. He feels only a light prick, but realizes that something is wrong, and runs away as fast as he can. Shawn and Barry rush toward the getaway car.

  At this point, another character enters the scene: Muhammad Abu Seif, a Hamas militant who is on his way to deliver some documents to Mash’al. He hears the shouts and sees the confrontation between his leader and the two agents. While Mash’al is running for his life, Abu Seif tries to stop Shawn and Barry, who are about to get into the getaway car, a third snag in the ill-fated mission. He struggles with Shawn, who hits him with the unopened Coke can. Shawn and Barry manage to jump into the car. It darts off.

  But then they make the most critical mistake in the operation. The driver tells Shawn and Barry that he has seen Abu Seif writing down the car’s license plate number. The two hit men decide on the spot to abandon the car. They fear that Abu Seif would alert the police, and if they get to the hotel with that car, as planned, they will be arrested there. They have no address of a safe house, no other escape route. Barry and Shawn get out of the car after a few blocks, and the driver speeds away to get rid of the car.

  But it turns out that Abu Seif, a veteran of the mujahideen, who had fought in Afghanistan against the Russians, has not given up. The stubborn and agile man has been running after the Israelis’ car. Shawn and Barry, who have left the car and are now walking on both sides of the street, have not noticed him till he jumps Barry, grabs his shirt, and starts yelling that this man has tried to hurt Mash’al. Shawn, who is on the other sidewalk, across the street, rushes to his partner’s aid. He slams into Abu Seif, wounding him slightly in the head, and throws him into a roadside ditch. The struggle continues; a crowd quickly assembles around them and converges on the two foreigners who seem to be beating a fellow Arab. A police officer appears on the scene, disperses the crowd, stops a taxi, and makes the two strangers and the badly beaten Abu Seif get in. The taxi heads for the police station.

  At the police station, the officers at first thought that Abu Seif had attacked the two foreigners; but after he recovered from the beating, he accused them of assaulting Mash’al. The Jordanian investigators checked the passports of the two men, and when they realized they were Canadians, they alerted the Canadian consul. The diplomat spoke for a short while with Shawn and Barry, and told the Jordanians: “I don’t know who these guys are, but of one thing I am sure—Canadians they’re not!”

  The Jordanians, still unaware of the treasure that had fallen into their hands, decided to keep the two foreigners in custody and allowed them to make one phone call. The agents reached Mossad operational headquarters in Europe and reported their arrest. Simultaneously, a female agent, who had taken part in the operation and watched the scene in front of Shamia Center, understood that a serious failure had occurred, and decided to alert “the heart patient,” Mishka Ben-David, the senior Mossad officer in the Jordanian capital. She rushed to his hotel. Seeing her, he immediately understood that the worst had happened. The standing orders for the operation were that no one was to come near him, with one exception: if the operation had misfired and all agents had to be pulled out of the country at once.

  Ben-David discarded his robe, dressed quickly, and hurried to the secret meeting place that had been prepared beforehand. Soon after, the operation commander arrived as well. He, too, was aware of the failure. Yet none of them could imagine the chaos that was about to unfold.

  Mishka sent an immediate report to Mossad headquarters. Ramsad Danny Yatom discussed the situation with the department heads, and decided to order the agents to seek refuge at the Israeli embassy in Amman—and not use the escape route they had rehearsed beforehand. Back in Jordan, everyone left the meeting place and headed for the embassy. Only the doctor remained in the hotel.

  In the meantime, in a different Amman neighborhood, the poison had begun its deadly work on Mash’al. He collapsed and was taken to a hospital. The Israelis realized that if he did not get the antidote, he was going to die in a few hours.

  Netanyahu received the bad news in his car, while on his way to a Jewish New Year’s party at . . . Mossad headquarters—an amazing coincidence. Yatom briefed the prime minister. Netanyahu was appalled. He decided that the ramsad should fly to Amman immediately, meet with King Hussein, and tell him everything, without any diversion or lies. From Mossad headquarters, the prime minister called King Hussein and told him he was sending over the ramsad on a very important matter. The king agreed
right away, even though he had no idea what the meeting was about.

  Netanyahu’s aides, who were at his side at that time, maintain that he was overwhelmed with anxiety and instructed Yatom to agree to any demand of the king in exchange for the return of the agents to Israel. He also ordered Yatom to offer the antidote to the Jordanians and save Mash’al from certain death. Sharon would say later: “I saw Netanyahu in the Mash’al affair. He went to pieces completely and we had to assemble him again . . . He was under pressure and was ready to give up everything . . .”

  King Hussein, distraught, listened to Yatom’s report and ordered his people to find out what Mash’al’s condition was. The accurate diagnosis arrived right away: the man’s condition was quickly deteriorating. The king ordered him transferred immediately to the royal hospital, and accepted Yatom’s offer of the antidote that could save him. In an absurd twist in this harrowing affair, the Israelis and the Jordanians engaged in a race against time to save the life of their enemy, an arch-terrorist.

  Mishka Ben-David returned to the hotel. The ampoule of the antidote was in his pocket. “I was moving around with the antidote in my possession,” he said in a later interview with Ronen Bergman, “knowing that it is of no use anymore, as none of our men had been affected by the poison. Only our target was in critical condition. I decided to destroy the antidote, as I feared I might be caught with it. But then I got a call from the unit commander in Israel. He asked me if I still had the antidote, and when I said yes, he asked me to go down to the hotel lobby. A captain of the Jordanian Army was waiting there for me, he said, and he had to take the antidote to the hospital right away.”

  But at that moment, another unexpected problem arose: the doctor who was supposed to administer the antidote to the dying Mash’al refused to do it unless the ramsad ordered her to do so in person. Danny Yatom, who had left the royal palace and was on his way to the embassy, called her and ordered her to go with Mishka. But upon their arrival at the hospital, the Jordanians flatly refused to have an Israeli doctor inject the antidote. Perhaps they feared she would only try to finish the job . . .

  Complicating things further, the king’s physician, who was charged with saving Mash’al, refused to administer the antidote without knowing the chemical formulas of the poison and of the antidote. He did not want to assume responsibility for Mash’al’s life, lest the Israelis outsmart him and kill the man. A new crisis broke out. Both sides entrenched themselves in their positions, the Jordanians demanding the formulas and the Israelis refusing.

  Mash’al’s condition worsened rapidly. He stopped breathing and was connected to a respirator in the intensive-care unit of the royal hospital. It was clear to everybody involved that if Mash’al died, it would be disastrous for the fragile relations of the two countries. The king, who felt deeply hurt by the Israelis, even threatened to order his army to break into the embassy and arrest the four Mossad agents, who had found refuge there. He also said that he would put an end to any political and military cooperation with Israel.

  The hours ticked by and the tension kept growing. The king announced that if Mash’al died, he would sentence his killers—the two agents kept in custody by the Jordanian police—to death. He also placed an urgent call to U.S. president Bill Clinton.

  The Americans immediately started pressuring Israel to deliver the formula to the Jordanians. Netanyahu plunged into a marathon of meetings with various groups of advisers and cabinet ministers. He finally yielded and gave the formula to the Jordanians.

  The Jordanian doctor administered the antidote to Mash’al. The reaction was immediate. Mash’al opened his eyes.

  When the news about Mash’al’s recovery reached Israel, everybody let out a sigh of relief, as if their long-lost brother in Jordan was saved, thank God!

  Mishka Ben-David and the doctor were able to leave Jordan. Six Mossad agents remained in Amman—four at the embassy, and two held by the Jordanian police.

  In the intensive-care unit, Mash’al’s condition kept improving. Israel sent a high-level delegation to Amman, which included Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ariel Sharon, and Minister of Defense Yitzhak Mordechai. King Hussein, however, refused to receive the delegation and sent his brother Hassan to meet them.

  The cabinet also summoned Efraim Halevy, a former deputy ramsad and King Hussein’s personal friend. Halevy was now Israel’s ambassador to the European Union in Brussels. He traveled to Amman immediately, and offered the king a deal. In exchange for the four agents at the embassy, Israel would release from prison the charismatic founder and leader of Hamas, the Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. The king agreed, and the four agents returned to Israel with Halevy.

  The final negotiation was entrusted to Ariel Sharon, who maintained close relations with the king.

  Sharon demanded the release of the two Kidon agents who were still in custody. In exchange, the Jordanians demanded the release of twenty Jordanian prisoners held by Israel. Sharon agreed. But at the last moment, the Jordanians changed their mind, and demanded more concessions from Israel. Sharon lost his cool in the presence of the king. “If you continue like this,” he angrily said, “our people will remain in your hands, we’ll cut your water (which Israel was supplying to Jordan), and we’ll kill Mash’al one more time.”

  Sharon’s outburst turned out to be very effective, and the deal was closed. Two Israeli helicopters landed in Jordan. One of them took the two Kidon agents back to Israel, the other one brought over Sheikh Yassin, who had been released from prison.

  The Israeli and world media criticized and ridiculed the Mossad operation in Jordan. Netanyahu was also harshly attacked for his handling of the affair; he had no choice but to establish a board of inquiry, to investigate “the operational failure in Jordan.”

  The board completely cleared the prime minister, but blamed the ramsad for “faults in his performance” and for launching an operation that was bound to fail from the start. Yet they did not ask for Yatom’s resignation.

  Following the fiasco in Amman, Jordan’s relations with Israel reached a new low. Khaled Mash’al, who was still a minor figure in Hamas, gained stature in the organization and became one of its major leaders. After Sheikh Yassin’s death, Mash’al rose to the overall leadership of Hamas. The prestige of the Mossad in Israel and the world—and even in the eyes of its leaders and agents—was badly scarred. Danny Yatom, who had failed all throughout the operation, was openly criticized by many of the Mossad senior officers. Aliza Magen, Yatom’s deputy, bluntly said that he was not qualified to be a ramsad.

  In spite of the criticism, Yatom wouldn’t resign. The only one who assumed responsibility for the mishap was the head of Caesarea, who immediately submitted his resignation. It took five more months—till February 1998, when a Mossad agent was arrested in Switzerland while trying to tap the phone line of a Hezbollah member—for Yatom to finally give in. “I assumed a commander’s responsibility,” he said in an interview with the Haaretz newspaper, “and decided to resign because of the mishaps in Jordan and Switzerland.”

  He was replaced by Efraim Halevy, the former deputy ramsad who had successfully negotiated with King Hussein the release of the four agents involved in the Mash’al fiasco.

  Chapter Eighteen

  From North Korea with Love

  On a pleasant London evening in July 2007, a guest left his room in a Kensington hotel. He took the elevator to the lobby and went out to a car waiting for him by the entrance. He was a senior Syrian official who had arrived from Damascus that very afternoon. Now he was on his way to a meeting.

  As soon as he exited through the revolving doors, two men got up from armchairs in a far corner of the lobby. They knew exactly where to go. Reaching the Syrian’s room, they gained access with a special electronic device. They were ready to search the room methodically, but this time, their task was easy. A laptop computer was on the desk. The two men turned it on and, within moments, expertly installed a sophisticated version of a Tro
jan horse software. The program allowed them to monitor and copy from afar all the files stored in the computer’s memory. The job done, the two men left the hotel undetected.

  Mossad analysts in Tel Aviv studied the computer files and were stunned. At an urgent meeting of department heads, they described the priceless information that had fallen into their hands: a collection of files, photographs, drawings, and documents that exposed, for the first time, Syria’s top-secret nuclear program. The material was of supreme importance and included the construction plans for a nuclear reactor in a remote desert area; correspondence between the Syrian government and high-level officials in the North Korean administration; and photographs showing the reactor encased in concrete. Another photograph showed two men—one of them turned out to be a senior official in the North Korean atomic project and the other was Ibrahim Othman, the head of the Syrian Atomic Energy Commission.

  The findings confirmed several fragmentary reports that had reached the Israel intelligence community in 2006 and 2007. The reports indicated that the Syrian government was building, in utmost secrecy, a nuclear reactor at the desert site of Dir Al-Zur, in the far northeast of the country. The isolated site was adjacent to the Turkish border, and some hundred miles from Iraqi territory. Perhaps the most surprising revelation in the reports was the fact that the Syrian facility was being planned and supervised by North Korean nuclear experts and financed by Iran.

  The close cooperation between Syria and North Korea had started with the 1990 visit to Damascus of North Korea’s president, Kim Il-sung. During that visit, at the instigation of Syrian president Hafez Al-Assad, the two countries had signed an agreement on military and technological cooperation. Even though the nuclear issue was discussed in talks between the two heads of state, Assad decided to give it only secondary priority at that time and concerned himself mostly with the development of chemical and biological weapons. Moreover, he canceled plans to buy nuclear reactors from Russia. In February 1991, during Operation Desert Storm, a first shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea was unloaded in Syria. Reports on the existence of the missiles reached Moshe Arens, Israel’s minister of defense. Several army generals recommended a military strike be initiated to destroy the Scuds before they became operational. Arens dismissed the idea, wishing to avoid another conflagration in the region.