‘Can we get her out?’
‘Feldman seems to think there’s a good chance, and if you give us the green light, he will fly in to oversee the operation.’ The Prime Minister listened attentively as Regev outlined the plans for Rabinovich’s extraction.
‘Things are going to get very hot in the kitchen if this goes wrong,’ Rosenfeld observed. For Regev, it was an unnecessary statement of the obvious.
‘Completely deniable, Prime Minister,’ he said, reading his leader’s mind. ‘Feldman will be there as a British businessman and if he gets caught, we will deny we ever knew him. You will be completely at arm’s length.’
The prime minister grunted. ‘Is she as good as these reports? We’re not doing too well down at Dimona.’
‘Again, as far as we can tell, Prime Minister, she is. Rabinovich is very highly regarded, particularly by her international peers, and she would be a great asset to Israel. I would, however, sound a note of caution. Until we’re one hundred per cent certain, I would not recommend her clearance into the Dimona compartment. Instead, we have a plan both to test her loyalty to her new country, and to give us another string to our bow with Dimona.’
The prime minister again listened carefully as Regev outlined the plan for Rabinovich to go to Los Alamos in an attempt to recruit Bartók.
‘Jesus Christ!’ the prime minister swore. ‘That’s more risky than Pollard, and we all know how well that one went – a fucking disaster from start to finish.’
Regev nodded. He had anticipated his prime minister’s reaction. In 1984, despite a chequered career in US intelligence agencies, Pollard was hired as an analyst with the US Naval Intelligence Command. Shortly afterward, he met Aviem Sella, an Israeli veteran fighter pilot. Pollard boasted to Sella that he was working in naval intelligence and that he could spy for Israel against the United States. The Israeli government flew him and his fiancée to Paris, paid him $10 000 in cash and presented him with an expensive diamond and sapphire ring. But Pollard, as much as he liked to fantasise about spying, was not particularly good at it, accessing highly classified intelligence that had nothing to do with his area of interest, and taking it home on a weekend. By November 1985, Pollard had passed tens of thousands of highly sensitive United States documents to the Israelis, but the game was up. When Pollard sought asylum at the Israeli embassy on International Drive in Washington DC, things got messy and very quickly became public. Israel wiped their hands of him and refused him entry, and as soon as Pollard left the Israeli embassy compound the FBI were waiting to arrest him. He was sentenced to life in prison, and only after he had served 30 years was he released in November 2015. The Pollard saga caused acute embarrassment and publicity, involving various US presidents including Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama; Israeli prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Benjamin Netanyahu; and advisors of the profile of Henry Kissinger.
‘I appreciate your concern, Prime Minister,’ Regev responded, ‘although of course, Pollard was not a Mossad operation,’ he added pointedly. It hadn’t been. Pollard’s controller was Rafi Eitan, a veteran Israeli intelligence officer whose career went back to the first Arab–Israeli war in 1948. And although Eitan had served with the Mossad and in 1960 had gone to Argentina to capture Adolf Eichmann, Eitan had run Pollard from another Israeli intelligence agency, Lekem. It was an acronym for the innocuously named ‘Bureau of Scientific Relations’, whose real task was to gather scientific intelligence, and especially that which was relevant to Israel’s nuclear program.
‘I’m aware of that, Regev.’ Rosenfeld gave the Director of the Mossad his ‘don’t push your luck’ look over his glasses. ‘The question is, what are you doing to avoid another debacle?’
‘First and foremost, deniability, Prime Minister. Rabinovich will leave Russia as a British citizen, but by the time she leaves for the United States, she will have been given a complete makeover, including a change of name to Lisa Cohen. She will also have received intensive training . . . something that was lacking with Pollard.’
‘And the purpose of her visit to the United States?’
‘Simple tourism . . . she’s taking a break.’
‘Tourism? What the fuck is there to see in a dump like Los Alamos?’ the prime minister grumbled irritably. ‘Have you ever been there?’
Regev kept his cool. Many of the Los Alamos locals would, he knew, strongly disagree, but with the international BDS, or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign gathering strength around the world as a protest against Israeli settlements, and Iran sabre rattling from across the Mediterranean, a cranky prime minister came with the Mossad territory. ‘Actually I have, Prime Minister. And you’re right – it’s a small company town that wouldn’t exist were it not for their national nuclear laboratory. Apart from museums and a small ski hill at Pajarito, there’s not much else, but Cohen will just be taking the scenic route around places like Santa Fe. The tourist scenario is credible, but the main thing is you’ve never heard of her, and as this is extremely tightly held, if she gets caught, no one in your government will have heard of her either.’
‘My secretary is aware, but she’s been with me for the last ten years. I’d trust her with my life.’
Regev controlled his irritation. It was not the first time a politician, no matter how highly placed, had failed to adhere to Regev’s exacting standards of security. For him, it was a case of trust no one. Only those who had an absolute need to know were ever allowed into one of Regev’s compartments. ‘As long as it goes no further, Prime Minister, there is every chance we can deny any knowledge. Apart from the usual declarations of consular assistance, Rabinovich will be on her own. And if we’re copping too much heat, we’ll muddy the waters through the back channels and we can blame Russia. Either way, it will have nothing to do with us.’
‘And if she’s successful?’
‘I have to admit, it’s a pretty big “if”. A long shot, but if it comes off, not only will we have prevented Bartók from falling into the hands of the Russians, but we’ll potentially have two more top scientists for Dimona.’
They were interrupted by a light knock on the door.
‘Come.’
Avigail entered quietly. ‘Prime Minister, just a reminder that the Palestinian delegation will be here in ten minutes. Our side is already in the cabinet room.’
‘Thanks, I’m finishing up here.’ Avigail left just as unobtrusively as she’d entered. ‘Bloody Arabs. Abba Eban was right: they never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.’ Abba Eban, the veteran Israeli diplomat and politician, had made the remark after yet more failed peace talks in Geneva in 1973. ‘They say one thing, and do the complete opposite the very next day.’
Again Regev held his tongue, well aware that the very same criticism could be levelled at his own side.
‘Get on with it,’ Rosenfeld said, pushing the Rabinovich file toward his Mossad chief. ‘And if it fucks up, it’s all yours. I will never have heard of her.’
Like the Israelis’ Mossad, the Russians had their own espionage ‘Institute’: Moscow’s training academy for spies.
‘This is a CIA manual which, together with ours, you’ll find useful when you have to evade airport security.’ Rabinovich’s spy trainer for the day, the stocky Stanislav Mikhailov, was a veteran of the old KGB. He’d spent more than six years at the Russian embassy on the shores of the Mediterranean in Tel Aviv, and when it came to the small Jewish State, he was one of Russia’s most knowledgeable agents. Mikhailov handed Rabinovich a copy of the latest CIA Secret NOFORN travel manual. It had come from ‘Checkpoint – Identity and Travel Intelligence’, a previously unheard of section in the CIA headquarters at Langley, Virginia, and the manual was entitled ‘Surviving Secondary – An Identity Threat Assessment of Secondary Screening Procedures at International Airports’.
‘Those manuals contain everything you will need to know about avoiding any advanced airport screening,’ Mikhailov said. ‘Some of it’s basic – avoiding eye contact
and other nervous behaviour or having baggage that doesn’t match your cover story – but it contains other information that may prove valuable. Many airports have positioned cameras to zoom in on passengers’ faces as they pick up their baggage. Budapest, for example, uses one-way mirrors.’
Rabinovich flicked through the document. Useful, she thought, and she added it to the growing list of papers she would need to memorise.
‘Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport, should you have to use it as a member of the travelling public,’ Mikhailov continued, ‘is one of the toughest you will encounter. It’s all in there, but to highlight another example, don’t ever wear a backpack through Ben Gurion. That will automatically mark you for secondary screening. And stay relaxed. While security officials at other airports might be concentrating on what’s in your bag, Israelis concentrate on the eyes and facial expressions – and they’re very good at it. If you are singled out for secondary screening, you can expect to encounter officials equipped with equipment for detecting traces of explosives and you may be strip-searched. It goes without saying that every single thing you carry – right down to what you’ve got in your pockets – has to match your cover.’
Rabinovich nodded. A lot of this seemed like common sense, but it was clear that to operate successfully in the dark world of international espionage, she would need to sweat the small stuff. One tiny error could bring her undone.
‘Now we turn to Israel’s top-secret nuclear research centre, just to the south-east of the town of Dimona.’ Mikhailov flicked on a small fraction of the satellite imagery Russia had acquired on Israel’s nuclear plant. ‘Dimona is a city of around 33 000 people and it’s located here, in the Negev Desert,’ he said, using his laser pointer. ‘It’s 150 kilometres from Tel Aviv by road and can be reached on Route 6, the Yitzhak Rabin Highway, and from there, on Route 25. It’s located 35 kilometres to the west of the Dead Sea and a similar distance south of Beersheba. The site was chosen when Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, ordered work to commence on a nuclear capability in 1949.’
‘It goes back that far?’
Mikhailov nodded. ‘Ben Gurion was determined there should never be another holocaust, and he was sure that what the Jewish scientists Einstein, Teller and Oppenheimer had done for the United States, their successors could do for Israel. Dimona was chosen because of its remoteness, and because of the availability of housing in the town.’
Rabinovich focused on the imagery, committing it to memory.
‘The Israelis have never admitted to developing nuclear weapons, but that charade collapsed in 1986 when an Israeli technician, Mordechai Vanunu, provided photographs and details of Israel’s nuclear weapons program, including evidence of the production of 30 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium per year, and details on the separation of lithium-6.’
Rabinovich nodded. Now they were in her area of expertise. Lithium came in many unstable configurations, but she knew well that naturally occurring lithium contained just seven per cent of lithium-6, and if the Israelis were separating that out, it could be for one reason only: nuclear weapons.
‘The Israelis were incensed over what they saw as Vanunu’s treason,’ Mikhailov said, ‘but Shimon Peres, the Israeli prime minister, was unwilling to allow the Mossad to kidnap Vanunu in London for fear of alienating the British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher. So the Mossad, and I have to admire them here, set the classic honey trap.’ Mikhailov’s tenor was wistful, almost fatherly. Was Mikhailov telling her everything, Rabinovich wondered.
‘The Mossad put Vanunu under intense surveillance and Israeli psychologists concluded the traitor was lonely, so they sent in one of their female agents who masqueraded as an American tourist on a false passport. She befriended Vanunu and then persuaded him to go to Italy with her on a holiday.’
‘No doubt a common tactic?’ observed Rabinovich with a wry smile.
‘All intelligence agencies do it, and the Mossad is no exception. In fact, they’re better at it than most. For them it’s kosher and if played carefully, the honey trap can be very effective. In Vanunu’s case, at the same time he was being lured to Rome, the Israeli Navy surveillance ship Noga, which was disguised as a merchant ship and employed to intercept Arab communications, was on her way back from Antalya in Turkey. The captain was ordered to change course for La Spezia on the Italian coast where he anchored just outside Italian waters.’
‘So even merchant ships are not always what they seem.’
‘Far from it, and no one employed that ruse better than the German Navy in World War Two. In this game, Colonel, you learn very early that you trust no one. No one. Once the Mossad agent got Vanunu to Rome, they caught a taxi to their accommodation in the Old City, where three more of the Mossad’s agents were waiting. After they’d drugged Vanunu, they carried him out on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance organised by the Israeli embassy. A speedboat had been positioned down the coast, and the Mossad spirited Vanunu out to the Noga in total secrecy. Not even the Noga’s crew were told, and they were assembled in their crew room while Vanunu was brought on board. It was a very well-run operation. Vanunu was blindsided by his lover and her false American passport just added to the Mossad agent’s authenticity.’
‘Well, I doubt I’ll ever need a false passport from the Israelis,’ said Rabinovich, partly out of curiosity, and partly to test how much Mikhailov had been told.
‘Probably not, but if you ever have to use one, you can have confidence that it will be professionally produced. We know the Mossad has a passport factory and they have a small number of highly skilled forgers who have access to very expensive machines and materials. They manufacture all types of papers and they use different authentic inks. As a result, the Mossad passport products are damn near perfect. With electronic recognition, technology is changing things, but the Israelis are ahead in that field as well.’
Rabinovich already knew not to probe how Russian intelligence might be certain of the Mossad passport factory, but she wondered if there might be a Russian mole inside the Mossad.
‘Mind you,’ said Mikhailov, ‘they’ve had plenty of practice. Agents from the Mossad can’t waltz around on Israeli passports – that would tip off any Arab in the Middle East. Instead, they steal identities and use other country’s passports. It’s known in the Mossad as a “false flag”, where their agents purport to be citizens of countries like Canada and Australia that are less bellicose toward the Arabs. Their agents either use real passports from other Israelis who have dual identities with another country, or they use forgeries from the Mossad factory.’
‘Have they ever failed?’
‘Not very often, and when they do, it’s not the passports that let them down. You might recall them using forged passports in a hotel in Dubai back in 2010. The Israelis deny it, but we’re certain the Mossad was behind the assassination of the Palestinian Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, who was wanted by Israel for the murder of two Israeli soldiers. The problem for the Mossad was their agents were all caught on CCTV, and the fact they were using stolen identities – British, Australian, Irish, French and German – very quickly became public. No intelligence agency wants any publicity, let alone the diplomatic firestorm that followed the Mossad operation in Dubai.’ Mikhailov paused to take a sip of water.
‘Now,’ he continued, ‘since Vanunu confirmed what we already knew about Dimona, we’ve carried out satellite passes over the nuclear facility, which is located here, and the Americans have conducted even more. The very latest satellite images are in, and this is what the research centre looks like today.’ Mikhailov flashed up another image marked SECRET and again, Rabinovich committed it to memory.
‘You can see the reactor dome quite clearly, and the laboratories and administrative buildings are close by. These images have a resolution of less than three feet, and you can see here how strong the perimeter fence is, and how far it is from the reactor itself. That gives the Israelis plenty of depth if the reactor is ever attacked by ISIS or other
terrorists.’ Mikhailov flicked up another image. ‘They’ve also planted a lot of vegetation to shield it from the road out of Dimona, but lots of vegetation in the middle of a desert is just another confirmation they don’t want people to know what’s there . . . although to be fair to them, the trees and vegetation were planted before we brought our satellite imagery into play.’
‘Do we have any estimates on how many nuclear warheads the Israelis have produced?’
‘The estimates from the CIA, MI-6 and other intelligence agencies vary,’ said Mikhailov, ‘but we think at least 200. We’re pretty confident of that, and it’s backed up by other sources.’
Other sources? Did that mean the estimates were coming from one or more Russian agents inside Israel, Rabinovich wondered.
‘Israel uses four kilograms of plutonium in each warhead and the source of that plutonium is their reactor at Dimona. We estimate that provides the Israelis with up to 40 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium a year. You would know far more than I, Colonel, as to how they might extract that from their reactor.’
Rabinovich nodded. ‘The Israelis have come a long way since David Ben Gurion vowed to ensure Israel could defeat any hostile neighbour.’
‘A long way,’ Mikhailov agreed, throwing up another map marked SECRET. ‘Our satellite imagery is very accurate, and their major missile base is Sedot Mikha, near the village of Zachariah which is located here, in the Judaean Hills to the south-west of Jerusalem. We know that 150, 199 and 248 missile squadrons are based there, and they’re equipped with Jericho II and Jericho III intermediate-range ballistic missiles. As you can see, Sedot Mikha has been constructed in a limestone region. The area is riddled with small hills and caves which have been adapted to hide the missiles and their mobile transporters, and we estimate the Israelis have at least 100 missile emplacements.’
‘The Jericho III is new?’ asked Rabinovich.
The Russian Affair Page 12