Autobiography of an Assassin:: The Family

by M. T. Hallgarth

  And that is why the Junior Foreign Service Officer had to die.

  ***

  Eight months later, when he had applied to be de-mobbed, I had beaten Sir Barry K…to the punch, and had invited Garry to join the Family.

  Garry, as well as occasionally driving a black cab, is also our pilot; flying helicopters or fixed wing aircraft throughout Europe and the rest of the World. He also provides invaluable support and backup for members of the Family and, when it comes to air cover and transportation, is extensively involved in covert operations. He also supports Chelsea Football Club.

  But you can’t hold that against him, can you?

  CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

  Carl, the clock maker – ‘Tick Tock’.

  Carl is first generation Israeli – and proud of it. He is also proud of his Italian heritage; for both his parents, Bruno and Esther, had come from a long line of Ashkenazi Jews, living in the North of the country. His parents having met in the spring of 1938, at the University of Verona, where they had both been Philosophy undergraduates there.

  But in 1938, things had begun to change for Italian Jews. Prior to 1938, the fascist Italian government had no anti-Semitic policies, and Jews had been, by and large, considered to be accepted members of society and regarded by most of the populace as being perfectly ‘normal’. It had been perfectly ‘normal’ to have them as friends and neighbours; work colleagues and associates; teachers and students. It had even been perfectly ‘normal’ for some of them, out of misplaced patriotic duty, to join the Fascist Party! It had also been perfectly ‘normal’ for them to marry Italian Catholics! In point of fact, despite having a Jewish forename, Carl’s mother had been an Italian Catholic at the time that she had first met his father, at Verona University – ‘love conquers all…’

  Then, in 1938, in an attempt to ingratiate himself with Hitler, Mussolini had implemented a raft of anti-Semitic policies and hard hitting miscegenation race laws, backed by an intensive propaganda campaign directed against the Jews. At first, this had little impact on Bruno, Carl’s father. It had not affected his relationship with Esther, far from it – their love for one another had grown even stronger. The same could have also been said regarding Bruno’s relationships with his fellow students and professors, at Verona University. These too had strengthened, becoming more resolute and supportive, as opposition against the anti-Semitic persecution had grown within the student and academic communities. However, one of the first victims of the anti-Semitism policies and stringent miscegenation race laws had been Bruno’s father. A successful rice grower, in Trino; a municipality situated on the Vercelli plain below the northern slopes of the Piedmontese hills, between Milan and Turin; he had been ‘denounced’ by a rival rice grower – who had also happened to be the municipality’s mayor, as well. Using the new draconian miscegenation race laws as dubious justification, the rich fertile paddy fields of his father’s estate had been legally confiscated and duly handed over to ‘Il suo Culto, il Sindacohis’ – his Worship, the Mayor. Bruno’s evicted family had been taken in by an old friend of his father, another rice farmer – an Italian Catholic, as it so happened – some twenty-five kilometres away, in Bianze. Bruno’s family; his father, mother and his two eldest brothers; had been introduced to the local community as being distant relations, left homeless after an air raid by the British RAF on the Fiat works, in Turin. And there Bruno’s family had stayed in comparative safety: sheltered, clothed, fed and very well cared for – even after 1943.

  The situation for the Italian Jews had considerably worsened in 1943, when Mussolini and his Fascist Government had been overthrown – and the Germans had occupied northern and central Italy. The SS, along with those fervent Italian Fascists who had not capitulated, had started to round up Italian Jews from Rome, Milan, Trieste and other central and northern cities. During this period, somewhere in the region of eight thousand Jews were deported to Nazi concentration camps – ‘Death Camps’. However, most Italians refused to cooperate with the Nazis, wilfully obstructing searches and hindering deportations – and some forty thousand Italian Jews, over eighty percent of the Jewish population, survived the Holocaust due to the brave actions of their fellow country men and women – including Bruno and his family.

  At the end of May 1945, the Germans had signed a treaty of unconditional surrender with the allies, effectively ending all hostilities in Italy. On Monday the 8th June 1945, Bruno and Esther had been married at a civil ceremony in the municipal hall of Bianze, carried out by the town’s registrar.

  Three years later, after Esther had converted to Judaism, they would have a religious marriage conducted under the auspices of the rabbinate, in Jerusalem.

  For a while, Esther and Bruno had continued with their post-graduate studies at the University of Verona. But then, on the 14th May 1948, and with the emergence of the fledging State of Israel, they had both made a monumental life changing decision – they would migrate and start a new life in ‘ha-Aretz ha-Muvtachat’ – the Promised Land. But, before his parents could settle in the Promised Land – they first had to fight for its very survival!

  The very next day, immediately after the proclamation of independence, the fledgling State of Israel had found itself attacked by the armies of four of its Arab neighbours. Carl’s parents, Bruno and Esther, had then spent the next nine months fighting, not only for the existence of the State of Israel but, at times, for their very lives as well. His parents had been involved in some of the heaviest fighting. Firstly, along the main Jerusalem to Tel Aviv Road, in an attempt to break the Arab siege of Jerusalem, and then – in and around Jerusalem, itself. Along with other volunteers, they had attached themselves to the Etzioni Brigade, also known as the ‘Jerusalem Brigade’ – an infantry unit of the Haganah and the newly formed Israeli Defence Force. Neither of Carl’s parents had taken up arms, though. They had both been academics; and the very thought of killing another human being had been truly abhorrent to them. Instead, they had literally run ammunition and supplies to those who had been directly involved in the fighting – even acting as stretcher, or ‘ladder’ bearers, bringing back the wounded – Israeli or Arab – for medical treatment. Both Esther and Bruno had received serious injuries during the long months of bitter fighting, which had followed; Esther losing two fingers of her left hand to shrapnel; and Bruno losing his right eye from a flying wooden splinter. Nevertheless, as soon as they had been patched up, both of Carl’s parents had been straight back out into the very thick of the fighting. In and out of the narrow streets and shelled alleyways of western Jerusalem, under constant fire they had continued to ‘run’ their hazardous missions. For months, from dawn right the way through to and past dusk, Carl’s parents had run ammunition and supplies to the Israeli front line. Seemingly, never tiring or faltering, they had soon gained the admiration and applaud of both the regular and irregular Israeli combatants, fighting in and around Jerusalem. Such had become the reputation of these two non-combatants, in their unswerving and seemingly tireless efforts to support the battle for Jerusalem, in the September of 1948; they had both been summoned to Command headquarters to be formally recognised for their bravery. Their bravery was to be recognised by the new regional commander of Jerusalem – Moshe Dayan, who had burst into instant laughter when he had seen the black patch over Bruno’s right eye socket.

  Pointing to his trademark black patch, placed over his own left eye socket, he had joked: “At least if we put our heads together, we’ve got a good pair of eyes between us – even if they are a different colour!”

  And, from that very first initial meeting, the two had remained firm friends up to Dayan’s death in 1981

  The 1948 Arab–Israeli War had resulted in Jerusalem being a divided city between Israel and Jordon. Being in East Jerusalem, the Jewish Quarter and the old walled city had come under the jurisdiction of Jordan; being formally annexed and placed under Jordanian rule in 1950.

  After the War, Carl’s parents had both become Professors in Hu
manities and Philosophy, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, which, for a very short brief period, had been housed in the University buildings in Mount Scopus, an Israeli enclave within East Jerusalem. Then, in 1949, contrary to the Armistice agreement, the Jordanians had denied access to Mount Scopus and its University, to the Israelis. Displaced from Mount Scopus, Carl’s parents had moved with their faculty to the Terra Sancta buildings, in Rehavia, which had been rented from the Franciscan Custodians of the Latin Holy Places. After the Six day War of June 1967, and the reunification of Jerusalem, they had been able to return to Mount Scopus, where they had both remained until their retirement, in the late seventies.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

  Carl had been Bruno and Esther’s last child.

  Born in 1963, he was the youngest of six, sharing the family home in the Talbiyeh district of Jerusalem, with his three older sisters – his two eldest brothers having already left home to start families of their own. As a child, Carl’s parents had encouraged him to freely mix and play with children of his own age, within all ethnic groups…Jew, Christian, Moslem; all had been welcomed in the household of Bruno and Esther – without preference or prejudice. Carl had been brought up in a household that had been extremely liberal in its beliefs and its attitudes to others – their fellow man. All had been equal in the eyes of Carl’s parents: all had equal rights to live their lives as they had wished, without hindrance – all had the equal rights to worship in the manner as determined by their own conscience and belief, not by the dictate of others. And, as a young boy, Carl had emulated his parent’s liberalism – his childhood best friend being a Jordanian Arab, a friendship that is still strong and true today.

  Carl’s education had been temporarily interrupted when he had been called up for National Military Service, with the Israeli Defence Force, the IDF. After a period of lengthy training, Carl had been assigned to the 35th Brigade – the ‘Hativat HaTzanhanim’ – the Paratroopers Brigade. With rapid promotion to Sergeant, Carl had served with the 101st ‘Cobra’ Airborne Battalion, which had been primarily involved in counter-terrorism operations, on the West Bank. Carl had excelled in combat, quickly coming to the attention of his senior officers and the solitary watchful eye of one other…Moshe Dayan!

  With the rank of Lieutenant, Carl had been transferred to the Sayeret Matkal, the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit, ‘The Unit’, an elite Special Forces Unit of the IDF – its main roles being counter-terrorism, intelligence gathering and deep reconnaissance. With his fluent Arabic, in conjunction with a deep profound understanding and empathy of Arab issues, Carl had demonstrated an uncanny natural ability in the role of counter terrorism and intelligence gathering. His placid cool temperament and liberal tolerance had lent itself to the role; his interrogation techniques had been humanely effective and efficient…as had been his killing techniques – but probably not so humane, though. Carl also had involvement with a number of hostage rescue missions, including the infamous ‘Kav 300’ affair, the high jacking of a bus in Tel Aviv, where one passenger was shot dead and seven others were wounded. Two of the four Palestinian hijackers had also been killed. Carl was suppose to have interrogated the two surviving Palestinian gunmen, who had been captured at the scene; but they had both died shortly after their capture in suspicious circumstances, before he could interview them…both men had suffered fatal head injuries – their skulls had been caved in!

  On completing his National Service, Carl had returned to his studies at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, in Beersheba, where he obtained an MA in Middle Eastern Studies; providing him with an in-depth academic knowledge of Middle Eastern history, its societies, its cultures, its economics and its politics. It was there that he had been recruited into Kidon, the ‘Bayonet’, a department within Israel’s Mossad Special Operations Division, also known as Metsada – a department responsible for covert operations, sabotage and targeted killings! Carl’s previous military training and experience had been extensively supplemented by intensive Mossad instruction in sabotage and assassinations, especially in the preparation and use of explosive devices and booby traps. A previous teenage passion of tinkering with clocks, watches and all things mechanical and electrical; had provided Carl with the digital deftness and dexterity to handle the diminutive components of timers, detonators and miniature circuit boards – and an aptitude to construct sophisticated explosive devices. These devices, along with the bullet and the blade, had quickly established Carl as one of Mossad’s most deadly field agents. As a rule, once a ‘target’ had been located and identified, Mossad agents would set up ‘models’; something that had resembled the location of the kill, so that they could train and practice. With a nominal ‘hit’ team of four agents: one acting as a ‘target’ locator, monitoring the movements of the intended victim; one acting as a ‘transporter’ for the team, getting the team in and away safely; the remaining two members of the team had carried out the killing. But Carl did not work as part of a Mossad ‘hit’ team – he had been a lone agent who worked alone.

  Having obtained his PhD, in Middle Eastern Studies, Carl had used his Doctorate as a cover, leaving him free to travel Europe and the Middle East as a visiting university professor and lecturer…free to roam – free from suspicion. Who would ever have believed that this polite, mild mannered academic had been one of Mossad’s finest assassins! Being able to integrate and blend into the hustle bustle of university campus life, he would arrange field trips for his students; field trips that just so happened to coincide with being in close vicinity to the location of his intended target. Under the guise of these ‘field’ trips, Carl would establish the habits and routine of his target, and determine a mode of assassination and subsequent evasion. Whenever possible, his preference had always been to get in close to his target, completely minimising the risk of collateral casualties. When he could not get in close enough to use a knife or a gun, and had to use explosives instead, Carl had used just sufficient explosive to only cause the fatality of the target. Using small cleverly shaped charges: concealed in car seats or in the headrests; under steering columns or dash boards – he had even utilised the phones and personal radios, belonging to the target, turning them into deadly explosive booby traps. In our ‘profession’ – and I use the word loosely – Carl had gained the reputation as being something of a ‘clinician’…a caring assassin, who went to the utmost lengths to prevent collateral damage – the killing of ‘innocents’.

  From time to time, Carl had been seconded to ‘Sherut haBitachon haKlali’, the General Security Service, also known as ‘Shabak’, but more commonly known as the infamous ‘Shin Bet’. Carl had also carried out assignments for ‘Aman’, the Military Intelligence Service of the Israeli Defence Force.

  Carl had been assigned to Aman, when I had first met him.

  CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE

  The intelligence meetings had been the inspired idea of His Royal Highness Prince H…, prior to him leaving as head of the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate, the GID, and taking up the position of Military Secretary, to King Hussein of Jordan.

  One of the most notable things to emerge out of the Gulf War had been how deficient the Arab Coalition Forces had been in military intelligence and its gathering. Prior to the war, there had been little, if any, cooperation between the members of the Arab League in terms of intelligence gathering – or its sharing! Suddenly, the Arab members of the Coalition Forces had found themselves vulnerable, having to rely on the West, in particular the Americans, for all their military intelligence. Old hatreds and suspicions had been quickly put to one side – and the intelligence agencies of several of the Arab Coalition Forces had started to co-operate and work alongside each other…knowledge, after all, is power! At the end of the Gulf War, His Royal Highness Prince H…had seen the benefit of joint intelligence sharing between the Arab nations, especially if it had meant that they did not have to rely upon the Americans.

  There had been a general widespread distrust of th
e American Intelligence community; their hidden agendas, and the integrity and the value of the information that they chose to pass on to their Arab allies.

  Most of the Arab League Nations, who had been approached, had indicated their general support of His Royal Highness Prince H…’s concept of holding regular joint intelligence meetings. However, all, except one, the Egyptians, had balked at the Prince’s idea to invite the Israelis! The rationale behind this controversial idea had been straightforward…the Israelis had one of the best intelligence agencies in the Middle East – or perhaps it was simply a case of ‘keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.’ But the Israelis had shown enormous restraint when Iraq had commenced its missile strikes on them, directly into the heart of their country. For six weeks, Iraq had continued to launch missile strikes at Israel – and, for six weeks, most uncharacteristically of them, Israel had shown great restraint and had not retaliated. Retaliation would have resulted in the ‘Mother of all Wars’ that Saddam Hussein had promised, and many members of the Arab Coalition Forces had been sincerely grateful to the Israelis for their restraint, in not striking back. Even so, while a number of the Arab League Nations had appreciated the restraint and cooperation of the Israelis, and could see the merit in having closer intelligence and military ties with them, they had recoiled from being publicly seen to cooperate with their arch Zionist nemesis – at any level! However, His Royal Highness Prince H…had not let a little matter like that get in the way. With his persistent skilful lobbying, it had been informally agreed within the League that, in conjunction with the Egyptian Secret Service, the General Intelligence Service, the GIS; and the Jordanian General Intelligence Directorate, the GID, these two intelligence agencies would jointly represent the interests of all the other League members. The only caveat had been that, while they had been prepared to enter into informal intelligence briefings with the Israelis, they had not wanted the direct participation of the Americans. Instead, they had wanted a third party to liaise with the Western Intelligence Agencies, including the Americans; a third party to act as an impartial broker on their behalf.