Israel to kill on U.S., allies'' soil

UPI ^

[Dallas]

Israel is embarking upon a more aggressive approach to the war on terror that will include staging targeted killings in the United States and other friendly countries, former Israeli intelligence officials told United Press International.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has forbidden the practice until now, these sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Israeli statements were confirmed by more than a half dozen U.S. foreign policy and intelligence officials in interviews with UPI.

With the appointment of Meir Dagan, the new director Israel's Mossad secret intelligence service, Sharon is also preparing "a huge budget" increase for the spy agency as part of "a tougher stance in fighting global jihad (or holy war)," one Israeli official said.

Since Sharon became Israeli prime minister, Tel Aviv has mainly limited its practice of targeted killings to the West Bank and Gaza because "no one wanted such operations on their territory," a former Israeli intelligence official said.

Another former Israeli government official said that under Sharon, "diplomatic constraints have prevented the Mossad from carrying out 'preventive operations' (targeted killings) on the soil of friendly countries until now."

He said Sharon is "reversing that policy, even if it risks complications to Israel's bilateral relations."

A former Israeli military intelligence source agreed: "What Sharon wants is a much more extensive and tough approach to global terrorism, and this includes greater operational maneuverability."

Does this mean assassinations on the soil of allies?

"It does," he said.

"Mossad is definitely being beefed up," a U.S. government official said of the Israeli agency's budget increase. He declined to comment on the Tel Aviv's geographic expansion of targeted killings.

An FBI spokesman also declined to comment, saying: "This is a policy matter. We only enforce federal laws."

A congressional staff member with deep knowledge of intelligence matters said, "I don't know on what basis we would be able to protest Israel's actions." He referred to the recent killing of Qaed Salim Sinan al Harethi, a top al Qaida leader, in Yemen by a remotely controlled CIA drone.

"That was done on the soil of a friendly ally," the staffer said.

But the complications posed by Israel's new policy are real.

"Israel does not have a good record at doing this sort of thing," said former CIA counter-terrorism official Larry Johnson.

He cited the 1997 fiasco where two Mossad agents were captured after they tried to assassinate Khaled Mashaal, a Hamas political leader, by injecting him with poison.

According to Johnson, the attempt, made in Amman, Jordan, caused a political crisis in Israeli-Jordan relations. In addition, because the Israeli agents carried Canadian passports, Canada withdrew its ambassador in protest, he said. Jordan is one of two Arab nations to recognize Israel. The other is Egypt.

At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said, "I have no intention of stopping the activities of this government against terror," according to a CNN report.

Former CIA officials say Israel was forced to free jailed Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmad Yassin and 70 other Jordanian and Palestinian prisoner being held in Israeli jails to secure the release of the two would-be Mossad assassins.

Phil Stoddard, former director of the Middle East Institute, cited a botched plot to kill Ali Hassan Salemeh, the mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre. The 1974 attempt severely embarrassed Mossad when the Israeli hit team mistakenly assassinated a Moroccan waiter in Lillehammer, Norway.

Salemeh, later a CIA asset, was killed in Beirut, Lebanon, in 1976 by a car bomb placed by an Israeli assassination team, former U.S. intelligence officials said.

"Israel knew Salemeh was providing us with preventive intelligence on the Palestinians and his being killed pissed off a lot of people," said a former senior CIA official.

But some Israeli operations have been successful.

Gerald Bull, an Ontario-born U.S. citizen and designer of the Iraqi supergun -- a massive artillery system capable of launching satellites into orbit, and of delivering nuclear chemical or biological payloads from Baghdad to Israel -- was killed in Belgium in March 1990. The killing is still unsolved, but former CIA officials said a Mossad hit team is the most likely suspect.

Bull worked on the supergun design -- codenamed Project Babylon -- for 10 years, and helped the Iraqis develop many smaller artillery systems. He was found with five bullets in his head outside his Brussels apartment.

Israeli hit teams, which consist of units or squadrons of the Kidon, a sub-unit for Mossad's highly secret Metsada department, would stage the operations, former Israeli intelligence sources said. Kidon is a Hebrew word meaning "bayonet," one former Israeli intelligence source said.

This Israeli government source explained that in the past Israel has not staged targeted killings in friendly countries because "no one wanted such operations on their territory."

This has become irrelevant, he said.

Dagan, the new hard-driving director of Mossad, will implement the new changes, former Israeli government officials said.

Dagan, nicknamed "the gun," was Sharon's adviser on counter-terrorism during the government of Netanyahu in 1996, former Israeli government officials say. A former military man, Dagan has also undertaken extremely sensitive diplomatic missions for several of Israel's prime ministers, former Israeli government sources said.

Former Israel Defense Forces Lt. Col. Gal Luft, who served under Dagan, described him as an "extremely creative individual -- creative to the point of recklessness."

A former CIA official who knows Dagan said the new Mossad director knows "his foreign affairs inside and out," and has a "real killer instinct."

Dagan is also "an intelligence natural" who has "a superb analyst not afraid to act on gut instinct," the former CIA official said.

Dagan has already removed Mossad officials whom he regards as "being too conservative or too cautious" and is building up "a constituency of senior people of the same mentality," one former long-time Israeli operative said.

Dagan is also urging that Mossad operatives rely less on secret sources and rely more on open information that is so plentifully provided on the Internet and newspapers.

"It's a cultural thing," one former Israeli intelligence operative explained. "Mossad in the past has put its emphasis on Humint (human intelligence) and secret operations and has neglected the whole field of open media, which has become extremely important."

Regarding Mossad's new policy and budget increase, Kim Farber an Israeli Embassy official said, "There is so little information available on this, there is nothing I can add."

[freeeee]

A foreign government, sending hit squads to our sovereign nation, to kill anyone it damned well pleases, including American citizens, without the slightest bit of oversight, accountability, or due process.

Come to think of it, there's a word for that: INVASION.

And here I was thinking our military's job was to prevent precisely that from happening.

I had this crazy idea that the United States was a sovereign nation (anyone know what that means?!) and is the sole jurisdiction of, well... THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE HERE!!!

And in a surreal and bazaar turn of events, some of those who consider themselves the utmost patriots, and swore on their lives to never allow a foreign, armed force to operate in our land will cheer this, and scorn me for questioning it.

That's fine. Go right ahead and ignore the disastrous consequences of the PRECEDENT being set here. Because in a few years, with a new administration, the foreign hit squads, (and their targets) are going to be quite different...

[KneelBeforeZod]

Dentists better arm themselves...

[krodriguesdc]

ahh - it'll be easier than pulling teeth!

[HardStarboard]

>>>I sure don't want Israeli agents, protected by diplomatic immunity and unbound by the US constitution, free to run around murdering US citizens they don't like. <<<

Hey "Deathmonger"; doesn't your screen name imply that you condone going around selling death to your emenies. So what you got against Jews having the same privliges. You prejudiced or something?

[ExSoldier]

I agree. When somebody opens the door to violence...they have no legitimate beef if they get more violence than they bargained for! People can be gentle or I'll give them jungle all the way.

The Israelis did this same thing after the Munich Olympics and the Black September organization was the target. Black September was killed off all over the world and it was made to look like back alley robberies. They never recovered.

The operation resulted in a movie called "The Sword of Gideon." I highly recommend it for your viewing pleasure and as a taste of things to come. IT'S ABOUT TIME! We should actively participate.

[Mr. Mojo]

Good. If we're unwilling to kill Muslim terrorists on our own soil, I'm glad Israel is going to step up to the plate and take care of our business.

[krodriguesdc]

The Israelis did this same thing after the Munich Olympics and the Black September organization was the target. Black September was killed off all over the world and it was made to look like back alley robberies. They never recovered.

first I am hearing of this explain please...

[krodriguesdc]

you sir are a law breaker and a potential threat to the security of our nation...

we have courts for this purpose...

please refrain from your tyranical thirst for blood and have a christian heart and mind...

[chachacha]

yes I would close the borders!

We agree but, this is not going to happen.

The republicans and the Demo-rats will sacrifice the American citizens safety and allow them to be terrorised by robberies, rape, vandalism, theft of services for votes and labor. PERIOD

[Mr. Mojo]

Nothing to explain. The Mossad killed every single one of the Black Sept terrorists and terror organizers in the years following the Munich '72 massacre, and most of the hits took place in European countries. The History Channel has a show about this at least a few times a year.

[waxhaw]

I suspect Israel has been doing this in the U.S. for quite some time and it is only now being made public. Apart from that, why can't Bush dump CIA director Tenet and find somebody like Dagan to re-vitalize the CIA?

[krodriguesdc]

It is too bad that the Mossad has to do what the CIA/FBI cleearly cannot. Our law enforcement and intelligence agenices have not done a good job of protecting us.

I hope those agencies are monitoring this site :)

[krodriguesdc]

Nothing to explain. The Mossad killed every single one of the Black Sept terrorists and terror organizers in the years following the Munich '72 massacre, and most of the hits took place in European countries. The History Channel has a show about this at least a few times a year.

what about hamas?

[lonewacko_dot_com]

I'd say U.S. sovereignty trumps U.S. hypocrisy. And, if Israel wants to kill someone bad enough that they'd send a hit team, most likely that person can be arrested under some U.S. law, or at least surveiled.

For all I know Israel has already killed people in the U.S., and this is just a warning to jihadists. Any plot by Israel which is discovered will hopefully cause their funding and support to plummet.

And, to the Marine, how do you know that the U.S. and Israel have common enemies? If, for instance, Israel decides that some all-American columnist who's opposed to Israel must die, do you support their assassination by a foreign "ally?"

[Mr. Mojo]

LOLOL...Tyranical blood thirst? For wanting all Muslim terrorists in our country dead? You, sir, are a freakin' moron.

[krodriguesdc]

I suspect Israel has been doing this in the U.S. for quite some time and it is only now being made public.

damn rats!

[Mr. Mojo]

What about them? Articulate, fool.

[lonewacko_dot_com]

Furthermore, while most of those anti-war activists are pains in the butt, do you support Israel coming in and thinning their ranks a bit?