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Kibbutznik tipped to head the Mossad By Amir Oren A slender, pleasant, 48-year-old kibbutznik, with light-colored eyes - newly retired from the Mossad, and totally unknown to the public and even to many senior officers in other security agencies - appears to be leading a pack of four contenders to become the next head of the Mossad. The contender, born and raised at Kibbutz Bet Alfa, left the Mossad a year ago at the end of a successful term as head of an operational unit. His identity should be made public, but for a variety of controversial security reasons,...

A video released by the Jewish Council for Education & Research which appeared to show several retired senior IDF and Mossad officials supporting Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama has proven to be misleading, with a number of officials who appeared in the video saying on Monday that their words were taken out of context. "It's not only misleading, it was an interview about what the next president was going to have to deal with," former deputy chief of staff Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan told The Jerusalem Post. "And to know that they used this interview and took five seconds, and...

TEHRAN -- On Monday, an official from Iran's Foreign Ministry denied claims made by the director of Mossad (the Zionist intelligence agency) on Iranian efforts to develop weapons of mass destruction and its support of terrorist groups. He said that these false accusations come at a time when the Zionist regime continues to develop weapons of this kind in violation of international regulations. The informed source also said, "Despite the growing concern of regional countries over Israel's nuclear threat, [which is] the main cause of instability and insecurity in the Middle East, it refuses to allow inspections to be made ...

Dsvid Littman, 75, was awarded the Order of "Hero of Silence" last Summer 2009 by the Israeli Mossad for having been an undercover volunteer helping 500 children leave Morocco clandestinely in 1963. The Order of "Hero of Silence" is a very rare award. Only nine people have received it, seven whose identities remain classified. "drzz.info" obtained exclusive photographs of this private event taking place at the heart of Israel's intelligence community and featuring Ephraim Halevy, the Mossad's former director general, and the current Mossad's deputy director whose face has been "blacked" for confidentiality restrictions.

Four years ago, I recommended that my friend, then prime minister Ariel Sharon, ask Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy to bring him the Israeli report that ought to be found in the dusty archives of the Israeli intelligence community proving that Yasser Arafat was directly involved in the murder of American diplomats in Khartoum, Sudan, in 1973. Sharon told me later that he had indeed asked to see the material but that he had never received it from Halevy. Last week it was reported in the United States that among the secret documents that the State Department recently released after 30...

The committees of inquiry into American and British intelligence failures may have left the West less secure, argues Efraim Halevy, an ex-chief of MossadWHEN commissions of inquiry investigate intelligence failures of extraordinary magnitude, their conclusions inevitably have an overwhelming influence on the conduct of intelligence chiefs and their political masters for generations to come. Whatever the practical steps taken by the powers-that-be to implement this or that recommendation of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the September 11th commission, and the British committee headed by Lord Butler, the language and rhetoric of these documents are destined to have an enormous impact on...

How the woman set to be Israel’s new leader earned her spurs as an agent working for a covert cell in an elite spy unit It is an eye-catching episode on the CV of any would-be prime minister: a dangerous, youthful stint as a spy in one of the world’s most respected and feared secret services. True to her training, Tzipi Livni, the Israeli leader-in-waiting, has maintained a Sphinx-like silence about her Mossad career in Paris in the early 1980s. Consequently, reports on her service have pegged her as anything from a frontline agent hunting down Arab terrorists across Europe...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Israeli army sharpshooters took up positions overlooking Yasser Arafat's compound on Tuesday amid reports some militants had slipped out after troops aborted a siege under U.S. pressure.Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, smarting from the humiliation of having to scrap the siege without arresting wanted men inside, predicted Israel would halt Palestinian "terror" within a few months and pave the way for political talks.Palestinian security sources said marksmen were seen taking over several buildings with clear views of the presidential compound in Ramallah in an apparent bid to stop more militants getting away. The army had no...

(December 20) – Measuring the different degrees of fraud Former CIA chief James Woolsey tells Jeff Barak why the next step in the US war on terrorism must be to bring down Saddam Hussein Former CIA chief James Woolsey has no doubt as to what should be the next objective in the war against terror: The destruction of Saddam Hussein. Fighting a global war against ter-rorism without targeting Iraq, he says, "is sort of like Hamlet with-out the prince." Woolsey was here this week for a 13-hour stay in Israel to give the keynote address at the opening of the ...

JERUSALEM - When the fighting is over, both Israel and Hezbollah are likely to declare victory. But the truth will be far more complicated. Hezbollah looks certain to be pushed back from Israel's border, but its standing in the Arab world will remain high. Israel appears set to achieve its goal of getting Hezbollah off its doorstep, but the guerrillas can say they stood up to Israel and lived to tell the tale. Because of each side's deep-seated need to appear victorious, a thunderous show of force is not unlikely in the time before a cease-fire deal is arranged —...

Axis of Evil' Countries Feeling the Heat By SONYA ROSS .c The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The heat generated by the speedy collapse of President Saddam Hussein's government is being felt not just by Syria, but also by Iraq's fellows in President Bush's ``axis of evil,'' Iran and North Korea. North Korea now says multilateral talks about its nuclear program - which the United States wants - are not necessarily a bad idea after all. Iran's former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, long allied with Islamic hard-liners against the ``Great Satan'' America, suggested over the weekend that Iran either hold a...

Poles seek closer links with Israel By Yossi Melman Poland's government wants to increase cooperation with the Mossad, says Mark Siwiec, head of the Polish National Security Bureau, who is currently visiting Israel. Siwiec will meet today with Mossad head Ephraim Halevy, and also with Foreign Minister Shimon Peres. Speaking with Ha'aretz, Siwiec said Poland's security services have "a relationship of trust and cooperation with Israel's Mossad and security services, but we are looking to strengthen it." The Polish National Security Bureau head reports directly to his country's president. Among other duties, Siwiec is responsible for coordinating civilian and military...

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - An increasingly isolated Syria said on Friday the U.N. report that accused Damascus of approving the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was false, unprofessional and politicized. Anti-Syrian Lebanese politicians applauded the U.N. findings, which did not directly implicate embattled President Bashar Assad, with one lawmaker saying the report was a "clear condemnation" of the joint Syrian-Lebanse security apparatus that controlled the country at the time of Hariri's Feb. 14 assassination. While Assad was not directly tied to the killing, the report does included a single reference to Assef Shawkat, Assad's brother-in-law and the...

MOSCOW Israel is concerned that the Palestinians will try to "set the ground ablaze" before a US attack on Iraq in an attempt to provoke an Israeli response and make it more difficult for the government to act, a senior official said. "The concern now is not about a few Scud missiles, but suicide bombers everywhere," the official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's entourage said Tuesday. He said there is also heightened concern about infiltration attempts from Lebanon and Jordan. The much-criticized siege of Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound was a signal to the Palestinians, after last month's...

Hamas appointed a new head to replace its assassinated spiritual chief yesterday as Israeli defence officials said they would step up their policy of targeted killings and wipe out the Islamist group's entire leadership. Dr Abdel Aziz Rantisi, an avowed militarist who is bitterly opposed to the existence of Israel, was named following the removal of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in a missile strike in Gaza City on Monday. Khalid Mashaal, the Syria-based leader of the Hamas political bureau, will remain as overall Hamas leader outside the Gaza Strip and is likely to be strengthened as a result of Yassin's death....

(snip) RM: I have documented the links between Iraq and Bin Laden extensively. How come the 9-11 Commission and some politicians ignore the links? I don't think they have ignored the links completely. 911 Commisioner Philip Zelikow told me that he bought dozens of copies of my book Losing Bin Laden--which includes a lengthy appendix on the Iraq-al Qaeda connection. I believe they were also familiar with the work of Stephen Hayes and the many government reports and volumes of congressional testimony--including that of CIA Director George Tenet. For some reason, they did not consider it fully relevant to the...

The former head of Mossad, the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service, says we are in the throes of a new world war where the objective of the terrorist is not regime change or territorial gains but despatching western civilisation into history. Efraim Halevy, who recently stepped down as the head of the Israel National Security Council and national security adviser to the Israeli prime minister, said we were in for the long haul and must brace ourselves for more that will follow. Halevy, who was also an Israeli ambassador to the European Union, warned: "Thursday's attacks on the London transport system...

DECEMBER 6, 2002 | current issue | back issues | subscribe | Bibi: Qaeda Tie to Kenya Blast Offers a 'Golden Opportunity'The SituationBy CHEMI SHALEVJERUSALEM — Israeli officials view last week's terrorist attacks against Israeli targets in Kenya, apparently by Al Qaeda or an affiliated group, as reinforcing their argument that Israel and the West are battling a single enemy.Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, meeting with ministry staff in the aftermath of the Kenya attacks, said that the incidents had presented Israel with a "golden opportunity" to strengthen its strategic ties with the United States and other Western countries.The attacks,...

Saturday night, November 30, Ariel Sharon’s secure direct line to the White House rang at the prime minister’s Sycamore Ranch in the Negev, northwest of Beersheba. It was US President George W. Bush calling to express his personal condolences for the deaths of two Israeli children and a tour guide in the al Qaeda attacks in Mombasa, Kenya two days earlier. Bush told Sharon that he understood that particularly tough times were ahead of Israel now that it faced a very real threat from al Qaeda. The president then paused and said he had a request. According to Debka’s sources,...

Over 1,500 police, Border Police and civil guard volunteers are providing security for the estimated 100,00 people attending the Saturday evening memorial ceremony for the eight anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Roads surrounding the central square in Tel Aviv named for the slain premier are being closed off to vehicles, with Police manning the entrances to the area. Police originally estimated that about 60,000 people would attend the ceremony ,and were surprised by the numbers who turned out. At just after 10pm, the thousands attending the ceremony observed a minute of silence in honour of the...