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The sin and its lesson (opinion piece in Maariv by former Mossad head) - translation
Maariv (Hebrew Edition) ^ | 8/28/2004 | Ehud Yatom (current Likud MK)

Posted on 08/28/2004 2:57:26 PM PDT by yonif

Edited on 08/28/2004 3:10:50 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]

Translation from Hebrew to English by me

"And the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, Send thou men, that they may search the land of Canaan, which I give unto the children of Israel" (Numbers 13:1-2). This was as it is seen the first Hebrew spying mission and the first spying mission in the history of intelligence that has led to the development of a complex system by all countries of the world in order to guard their existence and to serve as a vital organ for their own policy crafting towards the world.

Allan Dulles who headed the CIA between the years 1953 and 1961 wrote a book by the name "The Craft of Intelligence." The writer notes in his book, "the founding of a permanent intelligence organization in the United States in 1947 brought to the world's air a new profession: an intelligence officer that sees his job within a permanent daily routine. This is a profession that is crafted for special individuals, which recommends a career and way of life for men and women who have been chosen rigorously."

This morning we were told that the FBI organization believes that a Pentagon employee by the name of Larry Franklin passed, in one way or another to the State of Israel, using workers at the pro-Israel organization (AIPAC), classified material - therefore spying for Israel. I myself am wondering how could this happen? I bring forth two main reasons why one needs to invalidate this possibility:

First and foremost, the lesson from the Pollard incident was learned. Since that dreadful incident blew up, I see it hard to believe that there could be an official state source that would dare approve of a spying mission by Israel in the US. Any such spying mission from Israel against its ally and world leader - the US, even if it were the most important mission in the world, would not be worth the risk that a mess up would blow up the trustful relations and cooperation that have been going on for many years between us and them, especially these past few years.

Secondly, the US, in fact, does have important and valuable information that could influence the existence of the State of Israel, such as the information the US and British intelligence had about the nuclear capabilities of Libya. However, the type of intelligence relations and cooperation on this level and even in other operational ones, are from the best that these two countries have ever known. Even if we "gave up" on this important information, where we wouldn't see it but if we spied on our ally, we should be sure that the strategic cooperation between the countries will make Israel informed with this related information, surely if it were relevant to its existence.

We shouldn't degrade the FBI

Even with all of this, we should not degrade the FBI and its capabilities, who according to the media has been managing an investigation for many months and has "hard evidence" against Franklin. The story that has been leaked could have a number of explanations. It could be that Franklin operated on a private initiative by himself, an immature and unseen one, where he passed on documents hoping they would get to Israeli hands. If this is the case, this is not the first time in the spying world that a man has decided to make such a move without being asked for it. The reasons could be many and complex, from an ideological drive to a want of money.

A second possibility that rises from known printed information in the spy world is the use countries do with a "foreign flag" to gather necessary information. In this case, it could have been an unidentified country trying to get information in the Pentagon "in the name of Israel" so to hide its true identity because of different and justifiable reasons. This operational way is accepted in many of the world's countries which deal with intelligence gathering in need of a direct and independent link between the operators of the spies to the spy at the operation's goal.

I will conclude that I don't at all levels believe that the State of Israel's intelligence wing is involved with these suspicions against Franklin. The US authorities should end the investigation quickly and publish its findings quickly so to minimize the damages already made with the first hand publishing of this controversy.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Israel; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: controversy; israel; mossad; yatom

1 posted on 08/28/2004 2:57:27 PM PDT by yonif
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To: SJackson; Yehuda; Nachum; Paved Paradise; Thinkin' Gal; Bobby777; adam_az; Alouette; IFly4Him; ...

Ping.


2 posted on 08/28/2004 2:57:51 PM PDT by yonif ("So perish all Thine enemies, O the Lord" - Judges 5:31)
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