This caught my
eye while following a link by Eric or Bill off memes.org today (spycraft). Wanted to check that it originated at UPI. What do you think? Has anyone seen anything about this
elsewhere? . KWC Israel to kill in U.S., allied nations By Richard Sale, UPI Intelligence
Correspondent, From the Washington Politics & Policy Desk 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 former and currently serving U.S. foreign
policy and intelligence officials in interviews with United Press International. But an official at the Israeli
Embassy in Washington told UPI: "That is rubbish. It is completely untrue. Israel and the United States have such
a close and co-operative intelligence relationship, especially in the field of
counter-terrorism, that the assertion is ludicrous." With the appointment of Meir
Dagan, the new director of Israel's Mossad secret intelligence service, Sharon
is 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." Outgoing mail
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