Perhaps it has less to do with his intelligence service and more to do with subsequent Mafyia connections. This is total speculation, and I do not want to impeach the character of a dead man I don't know. But as I understand it, the government and the mob go hand in hand at times over there.
One never knows.
If he were a 'Middle East' specialist this would have the same look and feel as having a bunch of top biotech/disease/microbiology specialists dropping dead did a while back.