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."

[krodriguesdc]

again refrain from name calling you are showing your hatred again!

:)

[Beenliedto]

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.

You got that right!!

I am incensed by this... is there any sovereignty remaining?

or are we simply to allow Israel to operate as they wish and when they wish.

Chilling.

[krodriguesdc]

Nothing to concern yourself with though.

I am not concerned for they too are being watched as you are :)

[lonewacko_dot_com]

Holy gawd. If the CIA/FBI aren't doing a good job, let's not reform them. Let's just declare martial law, and let Israeli tanks roll in the streets.

[krodriguesdc]

hamas?

israel has not done a very good job at destroying them - I am sure you will agree for the bombimngs go on and all you do is kill again and again...

perhaps The USA or russia or china will have to go in and stop this foolish madness by making parking lots all over the middle east - do you agree with that?

[swarthyguy]

Whatever criticisms can be fairly hurled at the alphabet soup groupings, one thing is clear, there have been no arabyislami jihadi attacks on US soil since last year's.

One can argue about flt 587, the snipers, the exploding FedEx truck but doesn't seem as if any jihadis have been successful. So i think the FBI, etc et al have done their jobs in prevention.

[krodriguesdc]

obl is not at issue here - stick to the facts...

israel said they are coming to US soil to kill at will and without a trial - that is illegally...

that is the issue here...

all American citizens should be concerned but more so israel because somehow this foolish plan has gotten out into the public domain and now everyone knows so if anyone gets killed they can blame israel!

is anything secret nowadays? :)

[Walkingfeather]

err yea right.... Well too late. Many countries do this on our soil, you just don't know about it. Tell me something Mr. Monger .... if there was a known terrorist cell living next door to you, who would you want to exterminate that problem...??? Your homeowners association???? or about as effective the FBI maybe??? BAWAHHAA (tap tap tap Foot tapping sound.)
No, I would be pretty confident that the Mossad could do this bit of Neghborhood cleanup quite effectively without you ever realizing it was done. The netherlands does this all the time. Couple vans pull up to a house or Flat they run in and hose the place and have a nice little clean up crew that patches and paints and spiffs up the place nicely. No trouble no mess ... no press.

[lonewacko_dot_com]

"Just protection from the Jihadis. Apparently this is too much to ask."

Well, I want protection from the anti-war protesters. And, I want protection from the labor unions. And, those prop comics really piss me off. Maybe we could get a fund going to buy more bullets for foreign assassins.

[cactusSharp]

I'll tell ya point blank, it will be the UN who lands here
just like in RED DAWN....

[Walkingfeather]

wrong not illegal. By presidential order a couple weeks ago we are able to go anywhere in the world to kill our enemies that would include isreali soil. You can bet there is a agreement between our countries. Run to the ACLU it will not change a thing.

[AgentEcho]

So it's okay if we take out specific targets in other countries but they can't do it? Sounds pretty eliteist to me. An enemy of Isreal is my enemy as well.

Æ

[krodriguesdc]

again refrain from your name calling, sir...

I never said any such thing - I am merely saying that if israel kills people on our soil then they are to be held accountable just as the jihadists who have killed illegally on our soil...

[Mr. Mojo]

Israel has killed plenty of Hamas vermin. Wiping ALL of them out is like killing roaches...quite difficult.

You actually want us to nuke Israel along with their evil neighbors. If so, that's about the sickest thing I've read on FR.

[krodriguesdc]

that's right - israel has no right to come to our country to kill people they deem are terorists without first claering it wit the UN :) :) :)

[Cachelot]

We should actively participate.

And you don't think that this is the case? Really?? ;))