A classified spy cable leaked by Al Jazeera on Tuesday provided a glimpse into the inner workings of Israel's spy agency – in the form of a portrait of an individual Mossad agent.

Follow Ynetnews on Facebook and Twitter



The document was purportedly drafted by South Africa's intelligence agency, and was released as part of a series of what Al Jazeera claims are hundreds of secret communications in its possession. On Monday, Al Jazeera said a cable revealed that a Mossad assessment contradicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's public statements on the Iranian nuclear program.

According to Al Jazeera, South Africa assigned counter-intelligence officers to carry out surveillance against a Mossad operative.

Section of one of Al Jazeera's alleged secret document

The cable described the agent's evasion techniques, such as varying his driving speed between 30 kmh and 90 kmh, stopping his car for minutes on end, changing the route to his house every time he returned home, and cutting his trash bags so the contents would spill out if anyone attempted to search them.

The report also claimed that the spy was connected to elements in the South African government and police in several departments, and was also closely tied to the local Jewish community – which the cable speculated might have been used to gather information.

The surveillance team also followed the agent when he went to Cape Town for a meeting with his handler, where he "had a possible 'brush' meeting" – in which agents briefly "brush past" each other in public to surreptitiously pass information – "with two persons in a public toilet, one of them of Muslim origin".

The spy was said to meet his handler in Capetown (Archive: Einav Barazani)

Al Jazeera claimed to have proof of tension between the two countries' spy agencies, including a document describing Mossad as a "difficult and insistent service". Other purported cables said one Israeli spy was "extremely arrogant" and "prone to be manipulated" and that another became angry and "stormed out" of a meeting.

Al Jazeera also reported that South Africa's former intelligence minister ordered an examination of information shared between the agencies, leading to an assessment that South Africa "was not willing to cooperate with Mossad because the adversaries of Israel are allies of South Africa."

Yet another Al Jazeera report alleged that South Africa accused Israeli intelligence of using flagship airline El Al as a front for operations.

According to the report, Israeli agents posed as El Al employees, carried firearms, and had unrestricted access to the airport – and South African intelligence agencies expressed concern that Israeli agents could sneak into the country with the help of El Al. El Al issued a statement that sharply denied the claims.