Spy cables: Mossad used sex to entrap

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Johannesburg - Israeli intelligence agents use prostitutes to blackmail Arab agents, will use sex for entrapment purposes and allegedly killed a number of South African chemical engineers. In a National Intelligence Agency spy document released by news agency Al Jazeera, there is an in-depth analysis of Israel’s secret service. It looks at the history of the organisation, also revealing how agents were recruited. Some of the information appears to have been taken from the book Gideon’s Spies: The Inside Story of Israel’s Legendary Secret Service The Mossad. “In the past, Mossad recruited almost exclusively through word of mouth and front companies that screened potential applicants at generic offices set up around Israel and the world.

“The Mossad even set up false foreign intelligence agencies – staffed by men and women from Denmark, Turkey and Spain, for instance – to recruit and give assignments to newly hired Israeli agents taken in from the cold.

“Agents who refused to carry out fake spying assignments against their own nation were quickly promoted by the Mossad, having passed the test of loyalty.”

The report says a field intelligence officer is known as a “katsa”. To be a field agent, they had to have an aptitude for languages and they are natural manipulators of people. They can persuade, cajole and, if all else fails, threaten.

The document says female katsas are often partnered as a married or courting couple because it attracts less attention than a single male in a surveillance operation.

“The Mossad does send women into action for purposes of sexual entrapment, but reluctantly. Intelligence chiefs prefer to use single women for entrapment. They are almost always used this way only once. While there is no pressure on female agents to exploit their gender, it is expected of them to use sex as one of many weapons in their field,” the document says.

If sexual blackmail or entrapment is an integral part of the mission, however, Mossad often employs prostitutes.

“Their activities are occasionally photographed for potential blackmail leverage to ensure the Arab agent’s loyalty in the future.”

The report says there is less hesitation in sending Mossad men abroad “to befriend and usually to become intimate with an international array of embassy secretaries and airline stewardesses, for they can provide much valuable information about the diplomats, airports and cities of the Arab world”.

The South African State Security Agency followed around one agent who was operating in South Africa and gave details of what he was up to.

The report says they believe that Israeli operatives assassinated a number of South African chemical engineers and arms dealers, and a Samwu (SA Municipal Workers’ Union) official in 2007 said he had been strip-searched by Israeli security at OR Tambo International Airport.

The document gives some details about the strange life of a spy.

The intelligence officer followed drove between 30km/h and 90km/h to get to meetings, pulled up regularly on the side of the road for four minutes at a time, constantly changed the access routes to get to his house, and cut his dustbin bags so they could not be lifted out of his bin without the contents spilling out.

The agent who was followed allegedly used the Jewish community to get information, was in contact with members of the police service regarding Islamic militants’ issues in South Africa and had contact with members of government departments.

The report also alleges that Mossad agents are employed at an airline at OR Tambo International Airport and are allowed to travel with their weapons among travellers in order to protect Israeli planes.

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The Star