Mossad

The Mossad or Mossad (full name in Hebrew, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים‎ HaMosad leModiin uleTafkidim Meiuhadim, Institute of Intelligence and Special Operations) is one of Israel's intelligence agencies, responsible for intelligence gathering, covert action, espionage and counterterrorism worldwide, excluding Israel and the Palestinian territories. Intelligence and counterintelligence inside Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are handled by the Shabak.

Despite the territorial differences between the different services, their operations sometimes overlap. Thus, the Shin Bet has provided surveillance services in Mossad missions abroad (in operations such as the Eichmann kidnapping in Argentina or the seduction of Ulrich Schnaft in Frankfurt), while Aman has been useful in Mossad operations in Arab countries, among others.

Organization

The service was created on December 13, 1949, as the Central Institute for Coordination, on the recommendation of Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion to Reuven Shiloah. For this, a budget of twenty thousand Israeli pounds was entrusted, of which five thousand were reserved for exclusive missions required by the prime minister. Its original name is due to the fact that Ben-Gurion initially wanted to have a central institution that would coordinate to all the existing security services, that is, the Directorate of Military Intelligence (Aman), the Internal Security Service (Shin Bet) and the "Political Department" of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In March 1951 it was reorganized as a civil service reporting directly to the Prime Minister. Although many of its personnel have served in the Israeli military, as part of Israel's conscription, and many of them are officers, the Mossad does not use military ranks. Its headquarters are in Tel Aviv and it has eight departments.

Departments

The Mossad's largest department is Information Gathering, which would be in charge of managing spies abroad. Employees of this department operate under a wide variety of covers, including diplomatic and unofficial covers. These officers are called katsas (acronym for "information officer" in Hebrew), which they are similar to CIA case-holder agents. Approximately thirty to forty operate continuously, mostly in Europe and the Middle East. The Department of Political Action and Liaison is responsible for working with allied intelligence services (such as US agencies) and for affairs in those countries that are not they have a "normal" diplomatic relationship; with Israel. In addition, the Mossad has a Research Department, dedicated to the production of Intelligence, and the Technology Department, which is in charge of the development of devices that help in Mossad missions. 20% of Mossad agents Mossad are women.

Mossad's motto for most of its existence was a quote from the Bible (Proverbs 24:6):

ה ה ה ה ה ה ה ה
Because with wise leadership you will make war.

In February 2011, the motto was changed to another biblical quote from the same book (Proverbs 11:14):

אה ה ה ה ה ה ה ה ה אה ה ה אה אה ה
Where there is no good advice, the people fall, but in the abundance of counselors there is victory.

Katsa

Mossad field officers are called Katsa.

Sayanim

According to the writer, and former Mossad katsa, Victor Ostrovsky and other sources, Sayanim is the term used to name a Jew who lives outside of Israel as a foreign citizen and who voluntarily provides assistance to the Mossad.

Mossad Operations

The Mossad has long earned a reputation as a highly effective intelligence agency; Among its most notorious operations are (in chronological order):

• The capture in Frankfurt by Ulrich Schnaft, an Israeli ex-military officer, formerly a member of the Waffen-SS who became a Jew after the war and immigrated to Israel, later becoming an Egyptian agent.
• The capture in Argentina of the Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, also known as Operation Garibaldi, thanks to the collaboration of Nazis Simon Wiesenthal, in which several more people collaborated until reaching the first circle of the fugitive.
• Obtaining the plans of the French hunt Mirage 5 for the development of the hunt IAI Kfir, although some sources say that Marcel Dassault (of his true name Marcel Bloch, of Jewish descent) delivered them directly without the intervention of the Mosad.
• Operation Entebbe, which resulted in the release of passengers abducted at Entebbe Airport (Uganda). (A film called Rescue in Entebbe. It is also known as "Operation Entebbe").
• The Cholera of God Operation, consisting of the murder of Palestinians who were the perpetrators or accomplices of the Munich massacre, carried out by the September Negro terrorist group during the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.
• Between 1979 and 1983, Israeli secret services carried out a large-scale bombing campaign that killed hundreds of Palestinians and Lebanese, mostly civilians. Israeli General David Agmon says that the objective was to "create chaos between Palestinians and Syrians in Lebanon, without leaving an Israeli mark, to give them the impression that they were constantly under attack and to inculcate a sense of insecurity." "The Israeli military columnist Ronen Bergman points out that the main objective was to "press the Palestine Liberation Organization to use terrorism as a justification for an invasion of Lebanon."
• Operation Plumbat which consisted of subtracting uranium oxide from a German ship for Israeli military use.
• Operation Vanunu: Mordejái Vanunu is a Moroccan scientist who worked at the Néguev Nuclear Research Centre, south of Dimona. As an employee of that nuclear power station, he discreetly took photographs and when he was fired, he changed religion and went to London, England. He contacted the newspaper The Sunday Times and sold them the photographs despite having signed documents with the State of Israel which stipulated that divulging the contents of his investigations could result in high treason. The English newspaper decides to contrast the information before publishing the news of the nuclear weapon. MI6 receives a notice from the newspaper informing about the documents that had come to their hands. After an investigation, the MI6 contact the Mosad. He sends an intelligence agent who contacts Vanunu and seduces him, producing what is called in the slack of espionage sexpionagethat is to say, to exchange sexual relations for information or to fulfill an objective without the victim becoming aware of it. The agent asks you to accompany her to Rome on a trip and Vanunu accepts. At the Italian airport there is a false taxi that takes you to a supposed hotel. When they arrive in the room, Vanunu, seeing that it is completely dark starts to suspect, but before you can embark on the escape the agent applies an injection and reduces it. He would later be taken to a port where he would take a boat that would take him back to Israel.
• In the 1980s they created a diving resort in the Red Sea, in Sudan, which worked for four years, as a screen for the rescue operation of Jews fleeing from Ethiopia, called Operation Moses.
• On 5 July 1984, at the request of the Nigerian military regime of Muhammadu Buhari, a Mosad agent kidnapped and drugged Nigerian politician Umaru Dikko near his home in London, with the intention of hiding him in a diplomatic pouch to clandestinely extradite Nigeria. However, the British authorities finally frustrated the abduction, before the diplomatic pouch in question left London on board a flight to Lagos.
• In 1997, two Mosad agents were captured in Jordan after attempting to kill Khaled Meshaal, leader of the Hamas group in that country. The failed operation and the public violation of Jordanian sovereignty caused a bitter encounter between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Hussein, whose own intelligence service had been working closely with the Mosad for decades in covert operations.

Mossad Directors

• 1946-1952 - Reuven Shiloah
• 1952 to 1963 - Iser Har'el
• 1963 a 1968 - Meir Amit
• 1968-1974 - Zvi Zamir
• 1974-1982 - Yitzhak Hofi
• 1982-1989 - Najum Admoni
• 1989-1996 - Shabtai Shavit
• 1996-1998 - Dani Yatom
• 1998-2002 - Efraim Halevi
• 2002 to 2010 - Meir Dagan
• 2010 to 2016 - Tamir Pardo
• 2016 to 2021 - Yossi Cohen
• From 2021 - David Barnea

Known Agents

• Tzipi Livni, former Israeli Foreign Minister

• Isaac Shamir, former Israeli Prime Minister