28 mar 2013
Australian Mossad agent eliminated?
Nearly six weeks after the Israeli regime confirmed that an Australian-Israeli Mossad agent had committed suicide in one of its maximum security prisons, it is still unclear whether his death was murder or suicide.
According to press reports in Australia and Europe, the agent, Ben Zygier, also known as Prisoner X, was originally dispatched to Europe in 2005 by his Mossad handlers with a mission to infiltrate companies that did business with Iran in an effort to be assigned to the country under a commercial cover.
Although he succeeded in getting hired by a midsize European company, Zygier failed in his mission to penetrate Iran and was ordered to return to Israel.
Zygier, described as “an enthusiastic Zionist who grew up in a prominent Jewish family in Melbourne and immigrated to Israel as a young man,” then won Mossad’s approval to return to his native Australia under the alias Ben Alon to continue his college studies.
The reports further emphasize that following his February 2008 return to Australia, he attempted to approach members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement at University of Melbourne in an unauthorized, freelance effort to recruit them for Mossad.
In an apparent bid to gain the trust of a key Hezbollah agent in Eastern Europe, the reports say, Zygier “unintentionally” exposed two important Mossad elements in Lebanon, leading to their arrest and imprisonment.
These press reports have further revealed that Zygier believed that he had recruited the Hezbollah agent to work for Mossad, but it was indeed the Hezbollah man that played a double game with him, relaying all the information furnished by Zygier back to Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon.
As a result, the two Mossad elements, Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, were arrested in Lebanon in May 2009 and sentenced to long prison terms.
According to the British daily Independent, Zygier’s leaking of Mossad secrets was regarded as the biggest “treason” by the notorious spy agency, eventually leading to his recall to Israel in February 2010 and immediate arrest and imprisonment in a maximum security facility.
It appears, however, that Zygier was killed in the Israeli prison since Mossad was convinced, and enraged, that he was feeding information to Hezbollah elements.
This is while the entire maximum security prison, except the toilets in solitary cells, is under a 24-hour video monitoring.
The Israeli regime claimed two months ago that Zygier had used a bed sheet to hang himself inside his cell’s toilet.
According to press reports in Australia and Europe, the agent, Ben Zygier, also known as Prisoner X, was originally dispatched to Europe in 2005 by his Mossad handlers with a mission to infiltrate companies that did business with Iran in an effort to be assigned to the country under a commercial cover.
Although he succeeded in getting hired by a midsize European company, Zygier failed in his mission to penetrate Iran and was ordered to return to Israel.
Zygier, described as “an enthusiastic Zionist who grew up in a prominent Jewish family in Melbourne and immigrated to Israel as a young man,” then won Mossad’s approval to return to his native Australia under the alias Ben Alon to continue his college studies.
The reports further emphasize that following his February 2008 return to Australia, he attempted to approach members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement at University of Melbourne in an unauthorized, freelance effort to recruit them for Mossad.
In an apparent bid to gain the trust of a key Hezbollah agent in Eastern Europe, the reports say, Zygier “unintentionally” exposed two important Mossad elements in Lebanon, leading to their arrest and imprisonment.
These press reports have further revealed that Zygier believed that he had recruited the Hezbollah agent to work for Mossad, but it was indeed the Hezbollah man that played a double game with him, relaying all the information furnished by Zygier back to Hezbollah leadership in Lebanon.
As a result, the two Mossad elements, Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, were arrested in Lebanon in May 2009 and sentenced to long prison terms.
According to the British daily Independent, Zygier’s leaking of Mossad secrets was regarded as the biggest “treason” by the notorious spy agency, eventually leading to his recall to Israel in February 2010 and immediate arrest and imprisonment in a maximum security facility.
It appears, however, that Zygier was killed in the Israeli prison since Mossad was convinced, and enraged, that he was feeding information to Hezbollah elements.
This is while the entire maximum security prison, except the toilets in solitary cells, is under a 24-hour video monitoring.
The Israeli regime claimed two months ago that Zygier had used a bed sheet to hang himself inside his cell’s toilet.
26 mar 2013
‘Anonymous’ hacks Mossad website, gains access to data of 30,000 spies
The Anonymous hacking group says it has hacked into the website of Israel‘s Mossad spy agency, gaining access to top-secret documents.
The Internet hacking group said on its twitter page that it gained access to the personal data of more than 30,000 Israeli officials, including military officials, politicians and Mossad agents, and that it will release the information gradually.
Hacking group Anonymous has launched a series of cyber attacks against Israeli websites since November 2012 in retaliation for Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Anonymous said it had launched the OpIsrael campaign following threats by Tel Aviv to cut all Gaza's telecommunication links.
OpIsrael campaign aims at wiping Israel off the cyber world by April 7.
Shortly after the pro-Palestinian campaign was launched, dozens of Israeli websites were defaced or attacked.
Many of the sites had their homepages replaced with messages in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.
The Internet hacking group said on its twitter page that it gained access to the personal data of more than 30,000 Israeli officials, including military officials, politicians and Mossad agents, and that it will release the information gradually.
Hacking group Anonymous has launched a series of cyber attacks against Israeli websites since November 2012 in retaliation for Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip.
Anonymous said it had launched the OpIsrael campaign following threats by Tel Aviv to cut all Gaza's telecommunication links.
OpIsrael campaign aims at wiping Israel off the cyber world by April 7.
Shortly after the pro-Palestinian campaign was launched, dozens of Israeli websites were defaced or attacked.
Many of the sites had their homepages replaced with messages in support of Hamas and the Palestinians.
Spy in Cell 15: The Real Story Behind Israel's 'Prisoner X'
Mossad agent Ben Zygier was found hanged in his cell and his case made headlines around the world. New information shows that Zygier, once a passionate Zionist, had become a turncoat who delivered sensitive information to Hezbollah. By SPIEGEL Staff
The guards found the Mossad agent at 8:19 p.m., his lifeless body hanging from a moist sheet. The sheet was tied to the window above the toilet in his prison cell.
ANZEIGE The cell in which Ben Zygier died was divided into two sections, one containing a bed, a seating area and a kitchenette, and a separate shower room with a toilet. There were three cameras monitoring the prisoner, but none of the security officers noticed that there had been no signs of life from Zygier in more than an hour. When the guards found him in the shower room, his body had already begun cooling. It was an undignified death for a Zionist who had set out to defend Israel's future. "Our job was to isolate him, not to keep him alive," one of the guards later said. The Ayalon maximum-security prison, where Zygier was imprisoned, is in Ramla, a suburb in northeast Tel Aviv. There are 700 prisoners and 260 guards at the facility, one of the best guarded prisons in all of Israel. The prisoners in the maximum-security wing are not allowed to use the synagogue or the fitness room, with its punching bag and exercise mats.
Cell No. 15, in which Zygier died, is reserved for enemies of the State of Israel. Yigal Amir, the murderer of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was held there. Enemy of the state is also the designation with which Zygier could enter the annals of Israeli history.
It has been two years since the prisoner died, but only now are bits of information coming to light. The case has made headlines around the world, putting both the governments of Israel and Australia on the defensive. In Tel Aviv, the affair has been treated as a state secret with a gag order, which has only recently been loosened, imposed on the media. Conspiracy theories about his fate have been plentiful, including speculation that Zygier was murdered in prison.
Shadow Intelligence War
Now, for the first time, it has become possible to describe what really triggered the agent's imprisonment. For months, a SPIEGEL team from Germany, Israel and Australia looked into the case, conducting interviews with Zygier's former friends and business partners, employees of various intelligence services and governments. The research shows that Zygier -- likely unintentionally -- became one of the most controversial spies in Israeli history, responsible for the arrests of several Lebanese informants who delivered information to the Mossad. He did what no Mossad agent had ever done before in this shadow war of intelligence agencies in the Middle East: He betrayed his country to its mortal enemies.
His story is that of a young man who dreamed of becoming an Israeli hero, one who wanted to prove himself no matter how high the cost. One who failed and saw no other way out than to commit suicide.
There were no indications of this dramatic end when Benjamin Zygier was growing up in a neighborhood in southeast Melbourne. His father Geoffrey, known as a conservative Jew, ran a successful muesli business and was involved in the Jewish community. Ben Zygier attended the best Jewish schools in the city, and joined the leftist Zionist youth organization Hashom Hatzair.
After graduating from high school in 1993, he began studying law at Monash University and eventually announced his intention to move to Israel. "I wasn't very surprised that he had the guts to try something bigger in life than just working as an attorney in a Melbourne law firm," Carolyn Creswell, a friend of the family and Zygier's former English teacher, told Australian reporters.
In 1994, he made his dream reality and moved to the Gazit kibbutz in Israel to find out if the country could become his new homeland.
The kibbutz is in northern Israel, on a road lined with eucalyptus trees as it winds through the hills of Galilee. About 500 people live in Gazit, where low houses with tiled roofs stand in the shadow of Mt. Tabor. In the main office at the kibbutz creamery stands Daniel Leiton, 40, a man with strong hands and an Australian accent. "Ben was an incredible person," says Leiton -- happy, friendly and warm. Leiton says Zygier was one of his best friends.
Tense or Worried?
Zygier and Leiton met in Melbourne in the late 1980s. Though both were still teenagers, they were already Zionists at the time. It was clear to Ben at an early age that he would make Aliyah, says Leiton. Aliyah is the term used by Jews in the diaspora to describe moving to the Holy Land.
Leiton was there when Zygier married his Israeli girlfriend, and he knows the family well. The last time Leiton saw Zygier was in early 2010, in Melbourne, shortly before his arrest.
Was there anything odd about his behavior? Did he seem tense or worried? No, says Leiton. He was the same as always. The notion that his friend committed suicide is "unimaginable," Leiton says quietly, noting that Zygier was not suicidal at all. He can't imagine his friend being kept in isolation, in a maximum-security cell at Ayalon Prison.
What about as a Mossad agent? Leiton swallows and says nothing.
In the kibbutz, Zygier always raved about the Zionist dream, recalls Lior Brand, who lived with Leiton and Zygier in the kibbutz at the time. According to Brand, Zygier was clever, educated and worldly. He was also prepared to defend Israel at all costs. Indeed, he could have been the perfect man for the Mossad.
For decades, the legendary intelligence service has been waging a shadow war against enemies who threaten to obliterate Israel. Mossad agents killed Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 and Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in 2010. They have liquidated Iranian nuclear scientists, sabotaged Hezbollah hideouts in Lebanon. The Mossad constantly needs new recruits for this war, which has no beginning and no end.
At the beginning of the new millennium, the agency for the first time ran public ads under its own name. "The Mossad is open. Not to everyone. Not to many. Maybe to you," read the slogan in the agency's campaign for "the job of your life."
The Search for Instability
Men like Zygier, who hold a passport from a country that is above suspicion and can travel without attracting attention, are worth their weight in gold for the intelligence service. Furthermore, under Australian law, citizens may change their names several times and apply for new passports. According to the Australian government, Zygier had three passports. He sometimes traveled as Ben Allen or Ben Alon.
The young Australian travelled back and forth between Israel and Australia. He graduated from law school in Melbourne and began working for a law firm there. He quit his job in 2003 and moved to Tel Aviv, where he began work as a trainee at Herzog, Fox & Ne'eman, one of the country's top law firms. In truth, however, he had applied in response to the Mossad advertisement and also, just to be sure, sent a fax to the Defense Ministry as well.
The Mossad's selection process includes both the background check, which delves deeply into a candidate's family history, and psychological interviews. "We try to ferret out mentally unstable individuals," says one of the doctors who conducts the tests for the Mossad. Motti Kfir, a former Mossad trainer, adds: "Our people should be self-starters but not aggressive, courageous but not without fear, open-minded but tight-lipped."
One of the exercises consists of touching the center of a circle with one's eyes closed. This is impossible, and anyone who does manage to do it must have blinked. It's a test to determine how honest the candidate is. A lie-detector test is also administered at the end of the selection process. The next phase began in December 2003. Zygier had passed all tests, and the Mossad had accepted him and sent him to an intensive training program that lasts about a year. There, trainees learn various manipulation techniques and how to falsify documents, among other skills.
The Mossad sent him to Europe in early 2005, on his first mission. Zygier was to infiltrate companies that were doing business with Iran and Syria. His target was a company in southern Europe.
The firm did business with Iranian companies, and it provided the perfect cover to establish contact with Iran and recruit potential informants. The company was not initiated in the Mossad's plans; Zygier got a job in the bookkeeping department. "It was soon clear to us that he had no experience in this area," says the head of the company in a meeting at a London law firm in mid-March 2013. "But he was so talented that he had soon acquired the necessary skills."
Zygier quickly rose up through the ranks, and he was soon negotiating directly with customers. The head of the company remembers that the Australian was usually the fastest of the employees. "By 11 in the morning, he had finished tasks that would have taken others the entire day." But the head of the company also noticed something else: Zygier quickly lost interest with certain things, he seemed unmotivated and alienated business partners. Indeed, he almost lost one of the company's most important clients. "We had to let him go in late 2006," says the company head. Zygier apparently reacted calmly to the news.
He had similar experiences with other companies. From southern Europe, the Mossad sent him to Eastern Europe, but things never quite clicked. Zygier couldn't deliver, at least not enough. Officials at Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv were disappointed and recalled him in the summer of 2007.
He was "neither especially good nor especially bad, just mediocre," says a security official familiar with the case. Zygier went from being a field agent to a desk jockey in Tel Aviv.
The Mossad is divided into three large departments. The first one is called "Keshet" ("Rainbow") and is responsible for surveillance and observation operations. The "Caesarea" department, named after the ancient city, is the Mossad's strike force; it carries out attacks abroad. The largest department is called "Tsomet," a Hebrew works meaning "crossroads." It manages sources and analyses information. Zygier was sent back to Tsomet's desks at headquarters.
Vulnerable to Treason
Former Mossad employees describe the work in the Tsomet department as bureaucratic, with the routines like those seen in any government agency. In a change from earlier procedures, when Tsomet was divided into small units, Tsomet employees now have access to far more information. This makes it vulnerable to treason, as the Mossad would soon realize.
In the early morning hours of May 16, 2009, Lebanese special units stormed into the house of Ziad al-Homsi in the western Bekaa Valley and arrested pulled the 61-year-old out of his bed. The arrest warrant accused Homsi of being an Israeli agent. The arrest came as a shock to many Lebanese, not just because Homsi had been the mayor of his town for years. He was also treated as a war hero, because he had fought against Israel during the Lebanese civil war. His supporters could hardly believe what the weeks of subsequent interrogations brought to light: that Homsi had worked as a spy for archenemy Israel since 2006 and was paid about $100,000 (€78,000) for his services.
Homsi's Mossad code name was "Indian," and a detail from his interrogation shows how important he was: He was trying to provide the Israelis access to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who lives in hiding. He was likely paving the way for the next assassination.
The indictment against Homsi revealed the elaborate lengths to which the Mossad went to recruit foreign agents. A Chinese man named "David" had apparently introduced himself to Homsi as an employee with the city government in Beijing and as a representative of a Chinese company that wanted to establish business ties. At a meeting in Lebanon, "David" then invited Homsi to Beijing to attend a trade fair, telling him that the invitation had come directly from the Chinese government. Additional meetings in Bangkok followed, and the Chinese enticed the Lebanese with a monthly salary of $1,700. Then they began asking questions. For instance, they asked, what did Homsi know about three Israeli soldiers who had been missing since the 1982 war with Lebanon, in which Homsi had fought on the side of the Arabs?
"This is the moment at which the defendant becomes aware that he is dealing with Israelis, who work for the Mossad and have nothing to do with import-export companies or services that search for missing people," the indictment reads.
Cracking Israeli Spy Rings
The Mossad provided Homsi with a computer and a doctored USB flash drive, as well as a device that looked like a stereo system but was in fact a transmitter for sending messages. According to the indictment, the spy sent reports to Tel Aviv every five days. The technology was found during his arrest in May 2009. Homsi, says General Ashraf Rifi, the head of the Lebanon intelligence service, was one of the most important catches his agency had ever made. Homsi was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor, though was later amnestied.
During that spring of 2009, the Lebanese cracked several Israeli spy rings in Lebanon. Among those arrested was Mustafa Ali Awadeh, code name "Zuzi," another important mole within Hezbollah.
For the Israelis, it was the biggest intelligence setback in the region in decades. Officials at Mossad headquarters were baffled. How did the Lebanese manage to track down the Israeli sources?
Then a tip was received from Lebanon: There had been talk within Hezbollah of a Mossad agent who was in Australia at the time. It was soon clear that the agent had to be Ben Zygier.
Zygier, frustrated by his desk job, had requested leave so that he could go back to school to earn a master's degree in management. The Mossad even continued to pay the agent's salary. In October 2008, Zygier enrolled at Monash University in Melbourne again, this time under the name "Ben Allen." He explained that he had worked for a consulting firm in Geneva and that he occasionally had to return to Switzerland for the firm. It explained his many trips.
On a Sunday in October 2009, SPIEGEL employee Jason Koutsoukis, who was working as a Middle East correspondent for the Australian newspapers The Age and Sydney Morning Herald at the time, received an encrypted email apparently from an Australian government employee. "Intelligence investigations have uncovered one particular Israeli agent of Australian birth who is currently living back in Australia. There is even the suspicion that he is involved in an active Mossad operation in this country," the email read. Another email mentions the company where Zygier worked in 2005. The Australians had apparently been observing Zygier's activities for some time.
Koutsoukis called Zygier in early December 2009 and confronted him with the accusations. "That's a total fantasy," Zygier replied before hanging up. There was a second conversation a few weeks later, in mid-January 2010.
A Shock to the Mossad
"I have information to the effect that you worked for a European company. Can you tell me what you did there?" Koutsoukis asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Zygier replied. "You must have me confused with someone else."
Ten days later, the Israeli domestic intelligence service arrested Zygier after the Mossad had asked him to return to headquarters to discuss the warning received from Beirut.
The story revealed by internal investigations came as a shock to the Mossad. Apparently Zygier, frustrated by the setbacks and what he felt was a demotion, tried to find new sources -- presumably in an effort to rehabilitate himself and prove how valuable he was. According to the investigation, Zygier admitted during several interrogations that, prior to his departure for Australia, he had without authorization met with a Hezbollah associate in Eastern Europe to recruit him as a source.
What Zygier didn't know: The Hezbollah associate reported the meeting to Beirut and began playing a double game. He persuaded Zygier that he was interested in working with him, but he coordinated every step he took with the Hezbollah intelligence service. Even Nasrallah himself was informed.
The contact between Zygier and Hezbollah went on for months, and at some point it was no longer clear who was managing whom as a source. The Lebanese official lured Zygier, and he asked for proof that the Australian was indeed working for the Mossad. The investigation report indicates that Zygier began supplying the Lebanese with intelligence information from Tel Aviv, including information relating to the spy ring of Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, the Mossad's two top informants in Lebanon, who were exposed as a result.
When he was arrested, the agents found a CD with additional classified information that was apparently from the Tsomet department, say Israeli officials with access to the investigation. Zygier never managed to deliver the CD.
The Dark Side
Tel Aviv, early March 2013. "Zygier wanted to achieve something that he didn't end up getting," says a senior government official who is familiar with the investigation. "And then he ended up on a precipitous path. He crossed paths with someone who was much more professional than he was." At some point, says the Israeli, Zygier crossed a red line and went to the dark side.
The Australian government also launched an investigation. If it was true that Zygier had used his passport "for the work of the Israeli intelligence service," it would raise "significant questions," a report by the Australian Foreign Ministry reads.
Israeli informants have certainly changed sides in the past. But a regular Mossad employee has never done what Zygier did. It is a bitter defeat for Israel, but for Hezbollah it is one of the rare instances in which an Arab intelligence service prevailed over its Jewish counterpart. Zygier's betrayal is also a heavy blow to the Mossad because it raises doubts as to the integrity of the agency's own people -- and the manner in which it recruits employees.
Lior Brand, one of Zygier's friends from the Gazit kibbutz, believes that Zygier simply wasn't up to the task. The lies, the silence and the loneliness were too much. The Mossad "made a big mistake" by recruiting him, says Brand, adding that he cannot forgive the agency.
Israeli intelligence agencies wanted to set an example and indicated to Zygier's attorney that they wanted him to spend at least 10 years in prison. While he was in custody, in the summer of 2010, Zygier's second daughter was born, and the family was permitted to visit him. Zygier was allowed to talk to his mother Louise on the phone on Dec. 15, 2010. He was dead a few hours later.
One can only speculate over the true reasons for Zygier's suicide.
what truly motivated Zygier. Wounded pride? Shame? Revenge? His parents could perhaps answer these questions, but they are saying nothing. Money, all involved seem to agree, did not play a role in the case.
After the Israeli security officials had released Zygier's body, the family invited his closest friends to the funeral, including Daniel Leiton from Gazit. Leiton went to the cemetery and asked why Zygier, just 34 years old, had to die, but he received no answer. He loved Israel, Leiton says, adding that something went terribly wrong.
The parents had an inscription engraved on the polished black tombstone: "May his soul be bound in the bundle of life." Zygier was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Springvale. In Australia, not in Israel.
BY RONEN BERGMAN, JULIA AMALIA HEYER, JASON KOUTSOUKIS, ULRIKE PUTZ and HOLGER STARK
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
The guards found the Mossad agent at 8:19 p.m., his lifeless body hanging from a moist sheet. The sheet was tied to the window above the toilet in his prison cell.
ANZEIGE The cell in which Ben Zygier died was divided into two sections, one containing a bed, a seating area and a kitchenette, and a separate shower room with a toilet. There were three cameras monitoring the prisoner, but none of the security officers noticed that there had been no signs of life from Zygier in more than an hour. When the guards found him in the shower room, his body had already begun cooling. It was an undignified death for a Zionist who had set out to defend Israel's future. "Our job was to isolate him, not to keep him alive," one of the guards later said. The Ayalon maximum-security prison, where Zygier was imprisoned, is in Ramla, a suburb in northeast Tel Aviv. There are 700 prisoners and 260 guards at the facility, one of the best guarded prisons in all of Israel. The prisoners in the maximum-security wing are not allowed to use the synagogue or the fitness room, with its punching bag and exercise mats.
Cell No. 15, in which Zygier died, is reserved for enemies of the State of Israel. Yigal Amir, the murderer of former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, was held there. Enemy of the state is also the designation with which Zygier could enter the annals of Israeli history.
It has been two years since the prisoner died, but only now are bits of information coming to light. The case has made headlines around the world, putting both the governments of Israel and Australia on the defensive. In Tel Aviv, the affair has been treated as a state secret with a gag order, which has only recently been loosened, imposed on the media. Conspiracy theories about his fate have been plentiful, including speculation that Zygier was murdered in prison.
Shadow Intelligence War
Now, for the first time, it has become possible to describe what really triggered the agent's imprisonment. For months, a SPIEGEL team from Germany, Israel and Australia looked into the case, conducting interviews with Zygier's former friends and business partners, employees of various intelligence services and governments. The research shows that Zygier -- likely unintentionally -- became one of the most controversial spies in Israeli history, responsible for the arrests of several Lebanese informants who delivered information to the Mossad. He did what no Mossad agent had ever done before in this shadow war of intelligence agencies in the Middle East: He betrayed his country to its mortal enemies.
His story is that of a young man who dreamed of becoming an Israeli hero, one who wanted to prove himself no matter how high the cost. One who failed and saw no other way out than to commit suicide.
There were no indications of this dramatic end when Benjamin Zygier was growing up in a neighborhood in southeast Melbourne. His father Geoffrey, known as a conservative Jew, ran a successful muesli business and was involved in the Jewish community. Ben Zygier attended the best Jewish schools in the city, and joined the leftist Zionist youth organization Hashom Hatzair.
After graduating from high school in 1993, he began studying law at Monash University and eventually announced his intention to move to Israel. "I wasn't very surprised that he had the guts to try something bigger in life than just working as an attorney in a Melbourne law firm," Carolyn Creswell, a friend of the family and Zygier's former English teacher, told Australian reporters.
In 1994, he made his dream reality and moved to the Gazit kibbutz in Israel to find out if the country could become his new homeland.
The kibbutz is in northern Israel, on a road lined with eucalyptus trees as it winds through the hills of Galilee. About 500 people live in Gazit, where low houses with tiled roofs stand in the shadow of Mt. Tabor. In the main office at the kibbutz creamery stands Daniel Leiton, 40, a man with strong hands and an Australian accent. "Ben was an incredible person," says Leiton -- happy, friendly and warm. Leiton says Zygier was one of his best friends.
Tense or Worried?
Zygier and Leiton met in Melbourne in the late 1980s. Though both were still teenagers, they were already Zionists at the time. It was clear to Ben at an early age that he would make Aliyah, says Leiton. Aliyah is the term used by Jews in the diaspora to describe moving to the Holy Land.
Leiton was there when Zygier married his Israeli girlfriend, and he knows the family well. The last time Leiton saw Zygier was in early 2010, in Melbourne, shortly before his arrest.
Was there anything odd about his behavior? Did he seem tense or worried? No, says Leiton. He was the same as always. The notion that his friend committed suicide is "unimaginable," Leiton says quietly, noting that Zygier was not suicidal at all. He can't imagine his friend being kept in isolation, in a maximum-security cell at Ayalon Prison.
What about as a Mossad agent? Leiton swallows and says nothing.
In the kibbutz, Zygier always raved about the Zionist dream, recalls Lior Brand, who lived with Leiton and Zygier in the kibbutz at the time. According to Brand, Zygier was clever, educated and worldly. He was also prepared to defend Israel at all costs. Indeed, he could have been the perfect man for the Mossad.
For decades, the legendary intelligence service has been waging a shadow war against enemies who threaten to obliterate Israel. Mossad agents killed Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyah in Damascus in 2008 and Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in 2010. They have liquidated Iranian nuclear scientists, sabotaged Hezbollah hideouts in Lebanon. The Mossad constantly needs new recruits for this war, which has no beginning and no end.
At the beginning of the new millennium, the agency for the first time ran public ads under its own name. "The Mossad is open. Not to everyone. Not to many. Maybe to you," read the slogan in the agency's campaign for "the job of your life."
The Search for Instability
Men like Zygier, who hold a passport from a country that is above suspicion and can travel without attracting attention, are worth their weight in gold for the intelligence service. Furthermore, under Australian law, citizens may change their names several times and apply for new passports. According to the Australian government, Zygier had three passports. He sometimes traveled as Ben Allen or Ben Alon.
The young Australian travelled back and forth between Israel and Australia. He graduated from law school in Melbourne and began working for a law firm there. He quit his job in 2003 and moved to Tel Aviv, where he began work as a trainee at Herzog, Fox & Ne'eman, one of the country's top law firms. In truth, however, he had applied in response to the Mossad advertisement and also, just to be sure, sent a fax to the Defense Ministry as well.
The Mossad's selection process includes both the background check, which delves deeply into a candidate's family history, and psychological interviews. "We try to ferret out mentally unstable individuals," says one of the doctors who conducts the tests for the Mossad. Motti Kfir, a former Mossad trainer, adds: "Our people should be self-starters but not aggressive, courageous but not without fear, open-minded but tight-lipped."
One of the exercises consists of touching the center of a circle with one's eyes closed. This is impossible, and anyone who does manage to do it must have blinked. It's a test to determine how honest the candidate is. A lie-detector test is also administered at the end of the selection process. The next phase began in December 2003. Zygier had passed all tests, and the Mossad had accepted him and sent him to an intensive training program that lasts about a year. There, trainees learn various manipulation techniques and how to falsify documents, among other skills.
The Mossad sent him to Europe in early 2005, on his first mission. Zygier was to infiltrate companies that were doing business with Iran and Syria. His target was a company in southern Europe.
The firm did business with Iranian companies, and it provided the perfect cover to establish contact with Iran and recruit potential informants. The company was not initiated in the Mossad's plans; Zygier got a job in the bookkeeping department. "It was soon clear to us that he had no experience in this area," says the head of the company in a meeting at a London law firm in mid-March 2013. "But he was so talented that he had soon acquired the necessary skills."
Zygier quickly rose up through the ranks, and he was soon negotiating directly with customers. The head of the company remembers that the Australian was usually the fastest of the employees. "By 11 in the morning, he had finished tasks that would have taken others the entire day." But the head of the company also noticed something else: Zygier quickly lost interest with certain things, he seemed unmotivated and alienated business partners. Indeed, he almost lost one of the company's most important clients. "We had to let him go in late 2006," says the company head. Zygier apparently reacted calmly to the news.
He had similar experiences with other companies. From southern Europe, the Mossad sent him to Eastern Europe, but things never quite clicked. Zygier couldn't deliver, at least not enough. Officials at Mossad headquarters near Tel Aviv were disappointed and recalled him in the summer of 2007.
He was "neither especially good nor especially bad, just mediocre," says a security official familiar with the case. Zygier went from being a field agent to a desk jockey in Tel Aviv.
The Mossad is divided into three large departments. The first one is called "Keshet" ("Rainbow") and is responsible for surveillance and observation operations. The "Caesarea" department, named after the ancient city, is the Mossad's strike force; it carries out attacks abroad. The largest department is called "Tsomet," a Hebrew works meaning "crossroads." It manages sources and analyses information. Zygier was sent back to Tsomet's desks at headquarters.
Vulnerable to Treason
Former Mossad employees describe the work in the Tsomet department as bureaucratic, with the routines like those seen in any government agency. In a change from earlier procedures, when Tsomet was divided into small units, Tsomet employees now have access to far more information. This makes it vulnerable to treason, as the Mossad would soon realize.
In the early morning hours of May 16, 2009, Lebanese special units stormed into the house of Ziad al-Homsi in the western Bekaa Valley and arrested pulled the 61-year-old out of his bed. The arrest warrant accused Homsi of being an Israeli agent. The arrest came as a shock to many Lebanese, not just because Homsi had been the mayor of his town for years. He was also treated as a war hero, because he had fought against Israel during the Lebanese civil war. His supporters could hardly believe what the weeks of subsequent interrogations brought to light: that Homsi had worked as a spy for archenemy Israel since 2006 and was paid about $100,000 (€78,000) for his services.
Homsi's Mossad code name was "Indian," and a detail from his interrogation shows how important he was: He was trying to provide the Israelis access to Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, who lives in hiding. He was likely paving the way for the next assassination.
The indictment against Homsi revealed the elaborate lengths to which the Mossad went to recruit foreign agents. A Chinese man named "David" had apparently introduced himself to Homsi as an employee with the city government in Beijing and as a representative of a Chinese company that wanted to establish business ties. At a meeting in Lebanon, "David" then invited Homsi to Beijing to attend a trade fair, telling him that the invitation had come directly from the Chinese government. Additional meetings in Bangkok followed, and the Chinese enticed the Lebanese with a monthly salary of $1,700. Then they began asking questions. For instance, they asked, what did Homsi know about three Israeli soldiers who had been missing since the 1982 war with Lebanon, in which Homsi had fought on the side of the Arabs?
"This is the moment at which the defendant becomes aware that he is dealing with Israelis, who work for the Mossad and have nothing to do with import-export companies or services that search for missing people," the indictment reads.
Cracking Israeli Spy Rings
The Mossad provided Homsi with a computer and a doctored USB flash drive, as well as a device that looked like a stereo system but was in fact a transmitter for sending messages. According to the indictment, the spy sent reports to Tel Aviv every five days. The technology was found during his arrest in May 2009. Homsi, says General Ashraf Rifi, the head of the Lebanon intelligence service, was one of the most important catches his agency had ever made. Homsi was sentenced to 15 years in prison with hard labor, though was later amnestied.
During that spring of 2009, the Lebanese cracked several Israeli spy rings in Lebanon. Among those arrested was Mustafa Ali Awadeh, code name "Zuzi," another important mole within Hezbollah.
For the Israelis, it was the biggest intelligence setback in the region in decades. Officials at Mossad headquarters were baffled. How did the Lebanese manage to track down the Israeli sources?
Then a tip was received from Lebanon: There had been talk within Hezbollah of a Mossad agent who was in Australia at the time. It was soon clear that the agent had to be Ben Zygier.
Zygier, frustrated by his desk job, had requested leave so that he could go back to school to earn a master's degree in management. The Mossad even continued to pay the agent's salary. In October 2008, Zygier enrolled at Monash University in Melbourne again, this time under the name "Ben Allen." He explained that he had worked for a consulting firm in Geneva and that he occasionally had to return to Switzerland for the firm. It explained his many trips.
On a Sunday in October 2009, SPIEGEL employee Jason Koutsoukis, who was working as a Middle East correspondent for the Australian newspapers The Age and Sydney Morning Herald at the time, received an encrypted email apparently from an Australian government employee. "Intelligence investigations have uncovered one particular Israeli agent of Australian birth who is currently living back in Australia. There is even the suspicion that he is involved in an active Mossad operation in this country," the email read. Another email mentions the company where Zygier worked in 2005. The Australians had apparently been observing Zygier's activities for some time.
Koutsoukis called Zygier in early December 2009 and confronted him with the accusations. "That's a total fantasy," Zygier replied before hanging up. There was a second conversation a few weeks later, in mid-January 2010.
A Shock to the Mossad
"I have information to the effect that you worked for a European company. Can you tell me what you did there?" Koutsoukis asked.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Zygier replied. "You must have me confused with someone else."
Ten days later, the Israeli domestic intelligence service arrested Zygier after the Mossad had asked him to return to headquarters to discuss the warning received from Beirut.
The story revealed by internal investigations came as a shock to the Mossad. Apparently Zygier, frustrated by the setbacks and what he felt was a demotion, tried to find new sources -- presumably in an effort to rehabilitate himself and prove how valuable he was. According to the investigation, Zygier admitted during several interrogations that, prior to his departure for Australia, he had without authorization met with a Hezbollah associate in Eastern Europe to recruit him as a source.
What Zygier didn't know: The Hezbollah associate reported the meeting to Beirut and began playing a double game. He persuaded Zygier that he was interested in working with him, but he coordinated every step he took with the Hezbollah intelligence service. Even Nasrallah himself was informed.
The contact between Zygier and Hezbollah went on for months, and at some point it was no longer clear who was managing whom as a source. The Lebanese official lured Zygier, and he asked for proof that the Australian was indeed working for the Mossad. The investigation report indicates that Zygier began supplying the Lebanese with intelligence information from Tel Aviv, including information relating to the spy ring of Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, the Mossad's two top informants in Lebanon, who were exposed as a result.
When he was arrested, the agents found a CD with additional classified information that was apparently from the Tsomet department, say Israeli officials with access to the investigation. Zygier never managed to deliver the CD.
The Dark Side
Tel Aviv, early March 2013. "Zygier wanted to achieve something that he didn't end up getting," says a senior government official who is familiar with the investigation. "And then he ended up on a precipitous path. He crossed paths with someone who was much more professional than he was." At some point, says the Israeli, Zygier crossed a red line and went to the dark side.
The Australian government also launched an investigation. If it was true that Zygier had used his passport "for the work of the Israeli intelligence service," it would raise "significant questions," a report by the Australian Foreign Ministry reads.
Israeli informants have certainly changed sides in the past. But a regular Mossad employee has never done what Zygier did. It is a bitter defeat for Israel, but for Hezbollah it is one of the rare instances in which an Arab intelligence service prevailed over its Jewish counterpart. Zygier's betrayal is also a heavy blow to the Mossad because it raises doubts as to the integrity of the agency's own people -- and the manner in which it recruits employees.
Lior Brand, one of Zygier's friends from the Gazit kibbutz, believes that Zygier simply wasn't up to the task. The lies, the silence and the loneliness were too much. The Mossad "made a big mistake" by recruiting him, says Brand, adding that he cannot forgive the agency.
Israeli intelligence agencies wanted to set an example and indicated to Zygier's attorney that they wanted him to spend at least 10 years in prison. While he was in custody, in the summer of 2010, Zygier's second daughter was born, and the family was permitted to visit him. Zygier was allowed to talk to his mother Louise on the phone on Dec. 15, 2010. He was dead a few hours later.
One can only speculate over the true reasons for Zygier's suicide.
what truly motivated Zygier. Wounded pride? Shame? Revenge? His parents could perhaps answer these questions, but they are saying nothing. Money, all involved seem to agree, did not play a role in the case.
After the Israeli security officials had released Zygier's body, the family invited his closest friends to the funeral, including Daniel Leiton from Gazit. Leiton went to the cemetery and asked why Zygier, just 34 years old, had to die, but he received no answer. He loved Israel, Leiton says, adding that something went terribly wrong.
The parents had an inscription engraved on the polished black tombstone: "May his soul be bound in the bundle of life." Zygier was buried in the Jewish cemetery of Springvale. In Australia, not in Israel.
BY RONEN BERGMAN, JULIA AMALIA HEYER, JASON KOUTSOUKIS, ULRIKE PUTZ and HOLGER STARK
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
25 mar 2013
Ben Zygier’s Betrayal Led to Worst Mossad Debacle in Decades
Jason Koutsoukis has published a follow-up piece to Ronen Bergman’s, which I posted about yesterday. He and Bergman cooperated together on a piece for Der Spiegel which either has just come out or is about to. Koutsoukis reveals much information not included in the Yediot piece of yesterday. I imagine Bergman’s piece, which is four times longer, will expand knowledge of this case even further.
In his Sydney Morning Herald story, he establishes that Zygier from his teenage years, like many Jewish children involved in Zionist youth groups, intended to make aliyah to Israel. He would’ve been filled with the heady exploits of the IDF and Israel’s storied intelligence agency, the Mossad. After arriving in Israel and seeing that newspaper ad recruiting agents for the Mossad, Zygier would’ve been intrigued. He would’ve seen it as a chance to prove his loyalty and devotion to his new homeland. It also would’ve intrigued him as a chance to prove his manhood and make a mark for himself in life.
Once he completed the extensive training course, he was sent to Europe to infiltrate a number of companies doing extensive commercial trade with the Arab world. He worked for one such company in Milan, which had no idea of his affiliation. Though he mastered his job quickly, he never came close to learning the company’s secrets and penetrating any trading network with Iran, though this had been his assignment. He remained with this company for 18 months until he was fired for losing the company one of its major clients. Zygier worked for at least one other such company, perhaps more, having no more success.
As I wrote yesterday, he was called home and assigned a desk job in the portion of Mossad called Tsomet, which involved primarily intelligence analysis. Because he must’ve felt a sense of failure as a result of the European venture, and because of his frustration with a back office position, Zygier decided to freelance. Without knowledge of his superiors, he made contact with a Hezbollah agent having the intent of “turning” him for the Mossad. He even traveled to Eastern Europe and met with him. But the Hezbollah operative was far more skilled at his job than Zygier.
When the Arab demanded proof of his bona fides as a Mossad agent, Zygier offered him intelligence about Israel’s spy network in Lebanon. While Bergman and Koutsoukis each present this as a good-faith attempt by Zygier to prove to his bosses that he had what it took to return to being a field operative, it’s possible this was a deliberate betrayal by Zygier. If it was, it would be even more embarrassing to the Mossad.
As a result of Zygier’s failed effort, two high-level Lebanese officials were exposed. Afterward, even more Israeli spies were identified by Lebanese intelligence, though it’s not clear that these further exposures resulted from what Zygier started. This put Israel in the dark as far as knowing the intentions of one of its most implacable enemies, Hezbollah. All this happened just as a major civil war was beginning in Syria, in which Hezbollah might play a major role.
Koutsoukis’ article reveals the extraordinary lengths to which the Mossad went to recruit these agents. In order to put off any suspicion of Israeli involvement, Ziad al Homsi was approached in his village by a Chinese who claimed he represented the City of Beijing. The town mayor was invited, supposedly by the Chinese city government to a trade fair there. That was followed by another trip to Bangkok at which the Mossad revealed itself and its true intent. They sweetened the offer with a $100,000 payment to him to spy for them. This, of course, means that Israel maintains a well-developed network in these cities and uses these countries to recruit its agents. I can’t imagine that this will go over well with either of these governments. That is, unless the Chinese knew about and implicitly condoned the activity because of some prior arrangement/quid pro quo between the two.
There are many reasons Israel clamped down hard on this scandal and refused to allow word of it to leak. Perhaps primary, is that this would’ve been the first time a Mossad agent would’ve deliberately betrayed Israeli intelligence assets. Such betrayal, even if accidental, would pierce the agency’s reputation of fierce loyalty and impenetrable discretion.
Another primary motive would’ve been to eliminate any questioning of the Mossad’s recruitment methods. How would a needy, unstable, grandiose individual who wasn’t even able to keep a secret accepted into the Mossad? Compare the abject failure of this incident to the heroic exploits and bravery chronicled in story after story of Mossad derring-do. It just wouldn’t do to have such embarrassment circulating with Mossad’s name and reputation attached.
The secrecy has worked its desired effect. Even though it has now been exposed and we have a much clearer picture of what happened, there is no clamor for anyone’s head to roll. There is no call for boards of inquiry to examine how this could’ve happened and prevent it from happening again. Meir Dagan’s reputation remains intact.
This is the impact of secrecy and the national security state. Citizens are denied their right to know what’s done in their name. These same citizens accept this bargain as the price of protecting them from unsavory enemies. Meanwhile, the intelligence agencies are allowed to make such egregious errors and no one is called to account. Though harm may be done to Israel and its reputation in the process, everyone accepts it as the price of doing business in this so-called nasty part of the world.
In his Sydney Morning Herald story, he establishes that Zygier from his teenage years, like many Jewish children involved in Zionist youth groups, intended to make aliyah to Israel. He would’ve been filled with the heady exploits of the IDF and Israel’s storied intelligence agency, the Mossad. After arriving in Israel and seeing that newspaper ad recruiting agents for the Mossad, Zygier would’ve been intrigued. He would’ve seen it as a chance to prove his loyalty and devotion to his new homeland. It also would’ve intrigued him as a chance to prove his manhood and make a mark for himself in life.
Once he completed the extensive training course, he was sent to Europe to infiltrate a number of companies doing extensive commercial trade with the Arab world. He worked for one such company in Milan, which had no idea of his affiliation. Though he mastered his job quickly, he never came close to learning the company’s secrets and penetrating any trading network with Iran, though this had been his assignment. He remained with this company for 18 months until he was fired for losing the company one of its major clients. Zygier worked for at least one other such company, perhaps more, having no more success.
As I wrote yesterday, he was called home and assigned a desk job in the portion of Mossad called Tsomet, which involved primarily intelligence analysis. Because he must’ve felt a sense of failure as a result of the European venture, and because of his frustration with a back office position, Zygier decided to freelance. Without knowledge of his superiors, he made contact with a Hezbollah agent having the intent of “turning” him for the Mossad. He even traveled to Eastern Europe and met with him. But the Hezbollah operative was far more skilled at his job than Zygier.
When the Arab demanded proof of his bona fides as a Mossad agent, Zygier offered him intelligence about Israel’s spy network in Lebanon. While Bergman and Koutsoukis each present this as a good-faith attempt by Zygier to prove to his bosses that he had what it took to return to being a field operative, it’s possible this was a deliberate betrayal by Zygier. If it was, it would be even more embarrassing to the Mossad.
As a result of Zygier’s failed effort, two high-level Lebanese officials were exposed. Afterward, even more Israeli spies were identified by Lebanese intelligence, though it’s not clear that these further exposures resulted from what Zygier started. This put Israel in the dark as far as knowing the intentions of one of its most implacable enemies, Hezbollah. All this happened just as a major civil war was beginning in Syria, in which Hezbollah might play a major role.
Koutsoukis’ article reveals the extraordinary lengths to which the Mossad went to recruit these agents. In order to put off any suspicion of Israeli involvement, Ziad al Homsi was approached in his village by a Chinese who claimed he represented the City of Beijing. The town mayor was invited, supposedly by the Chinese city government to a trade fair there. That was followed by another trip to Bangkok at which the Mossad revealed itself and its true intent. They sweetened the offer with a $100,000 payment to him to spy for them. This, of course, means that Israel maintains a well-developed network in these cities and uses these countries to recruit its agents. I can’t imagine that this will go over well with either of these governments. That is, unless the Chinese knew about and implicitly condoned the activity because of some prior arrangement/quid pro quo between the two.
There are many reasons Israel clamped down hard on this scandal and refused to allow word of it to leak. Perhaps primary, is that this would’ve been the first time a Mossad agent would’ve deliberately betrayed Israeli intelligence assets. Such betrayal, even if accidental, would pierce the agency’s reputation of fierce loyalty and impenetrable discretion.
Another primary motive would’ve been to eliminate any questioning of the Mossad’s recruitment methods. How would a needy, unstable, grandiose individual who wasn’t even able to keep a secret accepted into the Mossad? Compare the abject failure of this incident to the heroic exploits and bravery chronicled in story after story of Mossad derring-do. It just wouldn’t do to have such embarrassment circulating with Mossad’s name and reputation attached.
The secrecy has worked its desired effect. Even though it has now been exposed and we have a much clearer picture of what happened, there is no clamor for anyone’s head to roll. There is no call for boards of inquiry to examine how this could’ve happened and prevent it from happening again. Meir Dagan’s reputation remains intact.
This is the impact of secrecy and the national security state. Citizens are denied their right to know what’s done in their name. These same citizens accept this bargain as the price of protecting them from unsavory enemies. Meanwhile, the intelligence agencies are allowed to make such egregious errors and no one is called to account. Though harm may be done to Israel and its reputation in the process, everyone accepts it as the price of doing business in this so-called nasty part of the world.
Prisoner X: Ben Zygier was 'Israel's biggest traitor' and 'betrayed prized Mossad agents to Hezbollah'
Prisoner X, the Mossad agent who hanged himself in Israel’s highest security prison two years ago, was the country’s “biggest traitor” according to a new investigation into why he was held in secret by the Jewish state.
Israel has consistently refused to comment on the case of Prisoner X, later identified as Ben Zygier, whose actions were deemed so serious that even his guards were unaware of his name when he was held in solitary confinement in 2010. But a new probe into his case has revealed that Zygier was a “Zionist turned into a defector” after he handed over the names of two prized Lebanese spies, who were also working for Israel, to Hezbollah.
The two men – Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awada – were arrested in May 2009 in Lebanon and are currently serving long prison sentences.
The investigation by the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, and Australia’s Fairfax Media, claims that an ambitious Zygier had grown tired and frustrated of his work with Mossad and had quit in 2008 after becoming tired of being placed in companies trading with Iran and Syria – a typical assignment for agents with dual nationalities. Zygier was born and grew up in Australia before moving to Israel in the late 1990s.
The unnamed official said that while Zygier was “extremely sharp”, he lacked focus. When Zygier’s work with one company became erratic and it was decided “to let him go,” which led him to a mundane desk job in Tel Aviv. At this point, in order to get back into favour, it is alleged that Zygier set about working on his own projects without the knowledge of his superiors.
“Zygier wanted to achieve something that he didn’t end up getting,” an Israeli official familiar with the probe into the Zygier case told Der Spiegel and Fairfax. “And then he ended up on a precipitous path. He crossed paths with someone who was much more professional than he was.”
It appears that despite having the intention of turning a high-level European Hezbollah operative into a double-agent, Zygier was himself played. To prove his credentials to his contact Zygier gave up classified and damaging Mossad intelligence – including the names of the two Lebanese agents. He thought he was providing as a way of encouraging the Hezbollah contact, but in fact the man had no intention of changing sides. It is not known if Zygier received anything in return.
Zygier, who left Mossad and moved back to Melbourne in 2008, was eventually arrested by the Israelis in February 2010, when he was charged with numerous security offences and placed in a solitary confinement cell originally designed for the killer of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Amir.
When he was arrested, Zygier was carrying a compact disc loaded with more intelligence files that he might have planned to pass on to his Hezbollah contact, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Zygier died in prison on 15 December 2010, hanging himself in his cell despite being monitored around the clock by prison staff. His lawyers have said that despite facing at least a decade behind bars the 34 year-old did not appear suicidal.
Bob Carr, Australia’s foreign minister, has confirmed Zygier was working for the Israeli government but stopped short of confirming he worked for Mossad.
Israel has confirmed Zygier’s identity but has refused to comment on any details in the case, including that he was a Mossad agent. In the six weeks since the story was broken by the Australian television network, ABC, various theories about Zygier’s proposed indiscretions have been suggested. None have elicited any response from the Israelis, including the latest investigation by Der Spiegel and Fairfax Media.
Israel has consistently refused to comment on the case of Prisoner X, later identified as Ben Zygier, whose actions were deemed so serious that even his guards were unaware of his name when he was held in solitary confinement in 2010. But a new probe into his case has revealed that Zygier was a “Zionist turned into a defector” after he handed over the names of two prized Lebanese spies, who were also working for Israel, to Hezbollah.
The two men – Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awada – were arrested in May 2009 in Lebanon and are currently serving long prison sentences.
The investigation by the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, and Australia’s Fairfax Media, claims that an ambitious Zygier had grown tired and frustrated of his work with Mossad and had quit in 2008 after becoming tired of being placed in companies trading with Iran and Syria – a typical assignment for agents with dual nationalities. Zygier was born and grew up in Australia before moving to Israel in the late 1990s.
The unnamed official said that while Zygier was “extremely sharp”, he lacked focus. When Zygier’s work with one company became erratic and it was decided “to let him go,” which led him to a mundane desk job in Tel Aviv. At this point, in order to get back into favour, it is alleged that Zygier set about working on his own projects without the knowledge of his superiors.
“Zygier wanted to achieve something that he didn’t end up getting,” an Israeli official familiar with the probe into the Zygier case told Der Spiegel and Fairfax. “And then he ended up on a precipitous path. He crossed paths with someone who was much more professional than he was.”
It appears that despite having the intention of turning a high-level European Hezbollah operative into a double-agent, Zygier was himself played. To prove his credentials to his contact Zygier gave up classified and damaging Mossad intelligence – including the names of the two Lebanese agents. He thought he was providing as a way of encouraging the Hezbollah contact, but in fact the man had no intention of changing sides. It is not known if Zygier received anything in return.
Zygier, who left Mossad and moved back to Melbourne in 2008, was eventually arrested by the Israelis in February 2010, when he was charged with numerous security offences and placed in a solitary confinement cell originally designed for the killer of former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Yigal Amir.
When he was arrested, Zygier was carrying a compact disc loaded with more intelligence files that he might have planned to pass on to his Hezbollah contact, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
Zygier died in prison on 15 December 2010, hanging himself in his cell despite being monitored around the clock by prison staff. His lawyers have said that despite facing at least a decade behind bars the 34 year-old did not appear suicidal.
Bob Carr, Australia’s foreign minister, has confirmed Zygier was working for the Israeli government but stopped short of confirming he worked for Mossad.
Israel has confirmed Zygier’s identity but has refused to comment on any details in the case, including that he was a Mossad agent. In the six weeks since the story was broken by the Australian television network, ABC, various theories about Zygier’s proposed indiscretions have been suggested. None have elicited any response from the Israelis, including the latest investigation by Der Spiegel and Fairfax Media.
Mossad's Prisoner X leaked secrets to Hezbollah: Der Spiegel
A prominent German magazine says the Australian-Israeli Mossad agent called Prisoner X had leaked confidential information to Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah before his death.
News weekly Der Spiegel said on Sunday that Ben Zygier, who was found dead in a high security prison in Tel Aviv in late 2010, had passed information to Hezbollah about Lebanese nationals who were spying for Israel.
According to the report, the arrest of Lebanese nationals Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh in May 2009 on charges of spying for Israel was a result of secrets leaked by Zygier.
Australian reporter Trevor Bormann on February 12 revealed the identity of the Prisoner X who had been “found hanged in a cell with state-of-the-art surveillance systems” near Tel Aviv in late 2010.
For two years, a gag order prevented journalists in Israel from telling the story of Prisoner X. The order was partially lifted by an Israeli court two days after the report by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Gag orders and military censorship are common in Israel.
Originally born in Melbourne, the 34-year-old man with a dual Australian-Israeli citizenship had worked for the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, since 2003.
Following the revelation, the Tel Aviv regime was forced to admit that Zygier had been jailed under a false identity “for security reasons.”
According to a report by The New York Times on February 14, Zygier was among the 26 suspects in a murder plot in which Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas official, was tracked and killed in his hotel room hours after his arrival in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in January 2010.
News weekly Der Spiegel said on Sunday that Ben Zygier, who was found dead in a high security prison in Tel Aviv in late 2010, had passed information to Hezbollah about Lebanese nationals who were spying for Israel.
According to the report, the arrest of Lebanese nationals Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh in May 2009 on charges of spying for Israel was a result of secrets leaked by Zygier.
Australian reporter Trevor Bormann on February 12 revealed the identity of the Prisoner X who had been “found hanged in a cell with state-of-the-art surveillance systems” near Tel Aviv in late 2010.
For two years, a gag order prevented journalists in Israel from telling the story of Prisoner X. The order was partially lifted by an Israeli court two days after the report by Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). Gag orders and military censorship are common in Israel.
Originally born in Melbourne, the 34-year-old man with a dual Australian-Israeli citizenship had worked for the Israeli spy agency, Mossad, since 2003.
Following the revelation, the Tel Aviv regime was forced to admit that Zygier had been jailed under a false identity “for security reasons.”
According to a report by The New York Times on February 14, Zygier was among the 26 suspects in a murder plot in which Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas official, was tracked and killed in his hotel room hours after his arrival in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, in January 2010.
24 mar 2013
Zygier Case Revealed: In Failing to Penetrate Iran and Hezbollah, He Exposed Israeli Spies in Lebanon
Ronen Bergman, Israel’s leading intelligence correspondent published a new report in Der Spiegel today (this is a teaser and here a summary–in German) that details the cause of Ben Zygier’s arrest. I have confirmed through my own Israeli source that Bergman’s account of Zygier’s fate is correct.
According to Bergman, Zygier was dispatched to Europe in 2005, two years after he began his Mossad training and shortly after completing it, to recruit agents within companies that did business with Iran. Another Der Spiegel reporter has already revealed that one of the companies was located in Milan. Bergman claims that Zygier penetrated the company by taking a job as head of Accounts Payable. Zygier had no previous experience in the field, but picked up the routine quickly. However, he quickly lost motivation and almost cost the company the loss of one of its biggest clients. As a result, he was fired.
Zygier never succeeded in penetrating Iran. After two and a half years in Europe, the agency brought him home to a Mossad desk job. His new job embittered and frustrated him. He then decided to take a study leave (an arrangement provided in the standard Mossad contract). Study leaves usually do not provide for entering programs outside Israel. But the agency permitted him to do so. Bergman claims Zygier enrolled in law school, but all previous testimony I’ve read says it was business school.
One of the Israeli bloggers who’s written most extensively about Zygier is Yehuda Bello. I read his account (Hebrew) and found it to be dramatic, detailed, and vivid. For that reason, I thought it read like fiction. But Bello did get some key details of the Australian portion of this story correct. Bergman adds much more.
According to Bergman, Zygier was dispatched to Europe in 2005, two years after he began his Mossad training and shortly after completing it, to recruit agents within companies that did business with Iran. Another Der Spiegel reporter has already revealed that one of the companies was located in Milan. Bergman claims that Zygier penetrated the company by taking a job as head of Accounts Payable. Zygier had no previous experience in the field, but picked up the routine quickly. However, he quickly lost motivation and almost cost the company the loss of one of its biggest clients. As a result, he was fired.
Zygier never succeeded in penetrating Iran. After two and a half years in Europe, the agency brought him home to a Mossad desk job. His new job embittered and frustrated him. He then decided to take a study leave (an arrangement provided in the standard Mossad contract). Study leaves usually do not provide for entering programs outside Israel. But the agency permitted him to do so. Bergman claims Zygier enrolled in law school, but all previous testimony I’ve read says it was business school.
One of the Israeli bloggers who’s written most extensively about Zygier is Yehuda Bello. I read his account (Hebrew) and found it to be dramatic, detailed, and vivid. For that reason, I thought it read like fiction. But Bello did get some key details of the Australian portion of this story correct. Bergman adds much more.
|
Prominent Lebanese politician and Israeli spy, Ziad al-Homsi, betrayed by Ben Zygier
After enrolling, the Mossad discovered that Hezbollah had identified a Mossad agent at the school. It appears that Zygier himself was the source of the leak. He either befriended or was befriended by a source to whom he revealed that he was a Mossad agent whose assignment dealt with Iran. He also revealed false information to the source, saying he’d been to Iran and had been sent to other Middle Eastern countries by the organization. |
The Australian intelligence agency discovered this and was angered that the Mossad had sent an agent who was active on Australian soil.
As a result, Zygier was summoned back to Israel. His explanations of his conduct were unsatisfactory and the case was handed to the Shin Bet. In the course of this investigation, it discovered that while he was on desk assignment in Israel, in an attempt to prove himself worthy of being returned to the field, he established contact with a Hezbollah agent in a Balkan country. He attempted to “turn” the agent to work for Israel. But instead of leveraging information from the Hezbollah operative, Zygier himself revealed information to him. This information was used by Lebanese security to identity two high level spies who were working for Israel and captured with telecommunication and encryption devices. One of them was a prominent politician in the Hariri camp.
In 2009, Haaretz reporter Amos Harel wrote (Hebrew) a heavily censored article about the spy catastrophe in Lebanon. He used the term Eysek Bish (“Bad Business”) which is the colloquial phrase used to describe one of the Mossad’s most disastrous failures (also known as the Lavon Affair). In other words, the Lebanese mess was a major setback for Israeli efforts to penetrate Hezbollah. Former Haaretz editor, Hanoch Marmari, revealed this (Hebrew) in his own piece published by Seventh Eye.
Given all of this, it’s much easier to understand the tragedy that befell Ben Zygier and why he may’ve killed himself in prison. It’s a huge burden to know that you not only let your country down, but that your actions led to the imprisonment of Israeli intelligence sources. In light of this, the severity of his actions become more understandable.
This English-language report summarizes the account of the Israeli spy ring Zygier compromised. Here is a later report that summarizes the account of a number of other exposed spy rings.
As a result, Zygier was summoned back to Israel. His explanations of his conduct were unsatisfactory and the case was handed to the Shin Bet. In the course of this investigation, it discovered that while he was on desk assignment in Israel, in an attempt to prove himself worthy of being returned to the field, he established contact with a Hezbollah agent in a Balkan country. He attempted to “turn” the agent to work for Israel. But instead of leveraging information from the Hezbollah operative, Zygier himself revealed information to him. This information was used by Lebanese security to identity two high level spies who were working for Israel and captured with telecommunication and encryption devices. One of them was a prominent politician in the Hariri camp.
In 2009, Haaretz reporter Amos Harel wrote (Hebrew) a heavily censored article about the spy catastrophe in Lebanon. He used the term Eysek Bish (“Bad Business”) which is the colloquial phrase used to describe one of the Mossad’s most disastrous failures (also known as the Lavon Affair). In other words, the Lebanese mess was a major setback for Israeli efforts to penetrate Hezbollah. Former Haaretz editor, Hanoch Marmari, revealed this (Hebrew) in his own piece published by Seventh Eye.
Given all of this, it’s much easier to understand the tragedy that befell Ben Zygier and why he may’ve killed himself in prison. It’s a huge burden to know that you not only let your country down, but that your actions led to the imprisonment of Israeli intelligence sources. In light of this, the severity of his actions become more understandable.
This English-language report summarizes the account of the Israeli spy ring Zygier compromised. Here is a later report that summarizes the account of a number of other exposed spy rings.
20 feb 2013
Israel denies Prisoner X had contacts with Australian intelligence services
The file photo of Australian-Israeli Mossad agent, known as Prisoner X, on a newspaper
Israel has denied that Australian-Israeli Mossad agent Ben Zygier, known as Prisoner X, who was found hanged in his prison cell in Israel, had contact with Australian intelligence services.
“The Prime Minister's office stresses that the late Mr. Zygier had no contact with the Australian security agencies,” a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed on Tuesday.
Netanyahu's office, which supervises Israel’s intelligence services, also claimed Israel and Australian governments and security agencies enjoyed “excellent cooperation” and had “full coordination and complete transparency in dealing with current issues.”
The statement seems to be an apparent move to defuse tensions with the Australian government.
On February 12, Australian reporter Trevor Bormann revealed on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that Ben Zygier was “found hanged in a cell with state-of-the-art surveillance systems” near Tel Aviv in late 2010.
Sources told ABC News that Zygier was arrested by his spymasters after they believed that he had informed Australia's security services of Mossad operations he was involved in, including a top-secret mission in Italy.
Following the revelation, the Tel Aviv regime was forced to admit that Zygier had been jailed under a false identity “for security reasons” after Australian media disclosed the secret despite Israel’s great efforts to cover it up.
The Australian TV also said that the Mossad spy agency had long been planning for the missions Zygier had disclosed to Australia's security services.
Media reports speculate Melbourne-born Zygier was killed by Mossad over the suspicion that he had been on the verge of exposing Tel Aviv’s secrets.
Israel has denied that Australian-Israeli Mossad agent Ben Zygier, known as Prisoner X, who was found hanged in his prison cell in Israel, had contact with Australian intelligence services.
“The Prime Minister's office stresses that the late Mr. Zygier had no contact with the Australian security agencies,” a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office claimed on Tuesday.
Netanyahu's office, which supervises Israel’s intelligence services, also claimed Israel and Australian governments and security agencies enjoyed “excellent cooperation” and had “full coordination and complete transparency in dealing with current issues.”
The statement seems to be an apparent move to defuse tensions with the Australian government.
On February 12, Australian reporter Trevor Bormann revealed on Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that Ben Zygier was “found hanged in a cell with state-of-the-art surveillance systems” near Tel Aviv in late 2010.
Sources told ABC News that Zygier was arrested by his spymasters after they believed that he had informed Australia's security services of Mossad operations he was involved in, including a top-secret mission in Italy.
Following the revelation, the Tel Aviv regime was forced to admit that Zygier had been jailed under a false identity “for security reasons” after Australian media disclosed the secret despite Israel’s great efforts to cover it up.
The Australian TV also said that the Mossad spy agency had long been planning for the missions Zygier had disclosed to Australia's security services.
Media reports speculate Melbourne-born Zygier was killed by Mossad over the suspicion that he had been on the verge of exposing Tel Aviv’s secrets.
19 feb 2013
Mossad killed agent involved in assassination of Palestinians?
The headstone of Ben Zygier is photographed in the Chevra Kadisha Jewish Cemetery in Melbourne
An Australian TV station has claimed that Israel secretly imprisoned an Australian Mossad agent, known as prisoner X, over divulging secret Mossad missions.
ABC News said Ben Zygier was arrested since Israeli regime believed that he had informed Australia's security services of Mossad operations he was involved in, including a top-secret mission in Italy.
The Australian TV also said that Mossad spy agency had long been planning for the missions Zygier disclosed to Australia's security services.
On February 12, ABC channel reported that Israel’s so-called Prisoner X, who was found hanged in his prison cell with state-of-the-art surveillance systems in 2010, was an Australian national who had worked for Mossad for ten years.
He is reported to be involved in many Mossad operations overseas, including the assassination of top Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in 2010.
It is believed that Zygier had provided the officials in Dubai with “names and pictures and accurate details” in exchange for protection.
Reports also say that he had used his Australian passport for Mossad operations and that Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) agents had questioned him in early 2010 months before his detention in Israel on suspicion of fraudulently using his passport for espionage purposes.
Media reports have speculated that Tel Aviv suspected the Melbourne-born Jew of betraying or threatening to divulge Mossad missions, strengthen the idea that he was killed by Mossad over the speculation that he had been on the verge of exposing Tel Aviv’s secrets.
An Australian TV station has claimed that Israel secretly imprisoned an Australian Mossad agent, known as prisoner X, over divulging secret Mossad missions.
ABC News said Ben Zygier was arrested since Israeli regime believed that he had informed Australia's security services of Mossad operations he was involved in, including a top-secret mission in Italy.
The Australian TV also said that Mossad spy agency had long been planning for the missions Zygier disclosed to Australia's security services.
On February 12, ABC channel reported that Israel’s so-called Prisoner X, who was found hanged in his prison cell with state-of-the-art surveillance systems in 2010, was an Australian national who had worked for Mossad for ten years.
He is reported to be involved in many Mossad operations overseas, including the assassination of top Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai in 2010.
It is believed that Zygier had provided the officials in Dubai with “names and pictures and accurate details” in exchange for protection.
Reports also say that he had used his Australian passport for Mossad operations and that Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) agents had questioned him in early 2010 months before his detention in Israel on suspicion of fraudulently using his passport for espionage purposes.
Media reports have speculated that Tel Aviv suspected the Melbourne-born Jew of betraying or threatening to divulge Mossad missions, strengthen the idea that he was killed by Mossad over the speculation that he had been on the verge of exposing Tel Aviv’s secrets.
