- A killing war between Israel's Mossad and Islamic fanatics
came closer this weekend in Britain.
- The Israeli intelligence agency has sent four members
of its kidon assassination squad to this country, to join fifteen other
handpicked katsas, its relentless field agents.
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- Their brief is to "disable" any of the "close
to 50" British Muslims that the extremist Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun,
last week boasted were ready to carry out suicide missions similar to the
one in Tel
- Aviv.
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- Al-Muhajiroun spokesman, Asif Butt, said the 50 were
"primed and ready to go".
- The threat was sufficient for Mossad to send its own
termination squad to head off any further threat to Israel or to synagogues
and other Jewish institutions in this country.
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- "In Mossad-speak 'disable' means taking them out
permanently", said an MI5 source grimly. "We know from past experience
that the kidon can make murder look like an accident. It is their speciality".
- Two of the kidon are women. They have been trained to
be ready to sleep with someone to obtain vital information.
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- Former Mossad chief Meir Amit said that "sex is
a woman's weapon. Pillow talk is not a problem for her. But it takes a
special kind of courage - to sleep with the enemy".
- Mossad often operates outside the law of this country
- or any country.
-
- In the past, it has killed terrorists in the streets
of Paris, Frankfurt and other European cities. In turn, it has lost over
100 agents in the past 50 years. Their memorial is a monument shaped like
a human brain in a suburb of Tel Aviv.
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- In Britain, they are banned from using guns or explosives.
But they are equipped with long and short-blade knives and piano wire to
strangle. They are also trained in the art of melting into a hostile community.
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- Some of the team have spent time undercover in Arab capitals.
They speak all the languages of the Middle East - and can pass as Islamic
extremists to get close to the fanatics they have come to hunt down in
Britain.
-
- Israel has openly made it clear it fears Britain has
become a haven for extremist preachers and their network of organisations
dedicated to sowing hatred. They cite how terrorists have been able to
hire expensive lawyers to fight extradition.
-
- For years Khalid Fawwaz, wanted in the US for his alleged
role in the bombing of the American embassy in Kenya, has used the courts
in Britain for the past four years to avoid extradition. The expense of
his fight has cost the taxpayer £428,000.
-
- Israel accepts that the majority of this country's 1.8
Muslims are law abiding. But it says that since the attacks on the World
Trade Centre and Pentagon, there has been an increase in extremists entering
Britain under the guise of asylum seekers.
-
- The attack by two British suicide bombers in Tel Aviv
has led to Mossad being ordered to "carry the war to our enemies",
said a senior Israeli intelligence source.
-
- The Mossad team in Britain know their actions are sanctioned
by their government.
-
- Rafi Eitan, a former director of operations, said: "we
are like the official hangman or the doctor on Death Row who administers
the lethal injection. We are simply fulfilling a sentence sanctioned by
the prime minister of the day".
-
- Since he has come to office, it is known that Israel's
Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, has "sanctioned" a number of assassinations
of terrorists who could not be brought before Israeli courts.
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- Victor Ostrovsky, a former member of the assassination
team said that kidon always use a weapon appropriate to the situation.
"Strangulation if the target is to be killed at night. Sometimes an
aerosol or a syringe in the jugular to deliver a fast-acting nerve agent
that kills and leaves no trace".
-
- The decision to send in the Mossad came after urgent
discussions between Ariel Sharon and Downing Street last weekend. Later,
Mossad's new hardman chief, Meir Dagan, called Eliza Manningham-Buller,
head of MI5, and told her that his men would co-operate closely with her
agents.
-
- Next day, katsas from Mossad headquarters in Brussels
had flown into Heathrow. Twenty-four hours later, the four-man kidon had
arrived on an El Al flight from Israel. Supporting them are Mossad yahalomin
- specialists at bugging phones and buildings.
-
- Their targets include a Leicester-based charity, Interpal.
It has been accused of fund-raising for Hamas and is currently under investigation
by the Charity Commissioners. Interpal insists its fund-raising is "purely
humanitarian".
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- Although the Home Office has officially banned 20 terror
groups, Mossad believes many are still operating behind Islamic front organisations.
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- The deployment of such a massive Mossad team is the first
time it has operated in such numbers in this country since 1987.
-
- That year, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher ordered their
operations to be shut down after a "honey pot" operation to kidnap
Mordechai Vananu, the whistleblower who revealed secrets about Israel's
nuclear arsenal. He fled to London.
-
- Mossad traced him and a woman agent enticed Vananu -
on the promise of sex - to go with her to Rome. A Mossad team was waiting
there to drug and spirit Vananu back to Israel. He is still serving a life
sentence.
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- Now, united in common cause, Mossad and MI5 are burrowing
deep into the closed world of Islamic fundamentalism in this country.
-
- Former operations chief Rafi Eitan, who has worked secretly
in Britain said: "there has always been a love-hate relationship with
British intelligence. But after the suicide bomber attack last week, that
is over".
-
- Nevertheless, the Mossad team will virtually operate
on its own rules.
-
- "The one rule which overrides all others is: kill
or be killed. That is why the kidon are here. They can make an assassination
look like the perfect accident", said an Israeli intelligence source.
-
- Background
-
- * Mossad. Israel's prime intelligence service. Formally
known as Mossad le Aliyah Beth. Employs some 1,500 full-time staff. Less
than 100 are field agents. But has an estimated one million informers within
the Jewish Diaspora.
-
- * Kidon. Mossad's state-backed assassination team. Based
in the Negev Desert. Current strength said to be 48, six of them women.
All are in their late twenties and superbly fit. Usually work in teams
of four.
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- Their Successes
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- * Dr Gerald Bull. Canadian scientist and then the world's
greatest expert of ballistics. Offered his services to Saddam Hussein.
On March 22, 1990, a kidon team assassinated Bull in the doorway of his
Brussels apartment. Mossad's Department of Psychological Warfare planted
the story that Bull had been murdered Iraqi agents because he reneged on
his deal with Saddam.
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- * Faithi Shkaki. Head of Islamic Jihad in 1995. Returning
from Libya, a kidon unit were waiting for him in Malta. As he went shopping
for presents for his wife and children back in Damascus, kidon struck.
Shkaki was shot six times in the head as he emerged from a shop with his
wrapped gifts. The kidon escaped undetected.
-
- * Ali Hassan Salameh. Known as "The Red Prince".
The man behind the Munich massacre of the Israeli athletes in 1972. Hid
for years in West Beirut until the day a kidon team, one a woman, placed
a car bomb on his route to work. He was blown to bits.
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- ...And Failures:
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- * Yasser Arafat. On six separate occasions, Mossad tried
to assassinate the PLO leader in Lebanon and Tunisia. Each time Arafat
escaped at the last moment. There was a suspicion in Mossad that a mole
had leaked their plans. But it was never proven.
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- * Khalid Meshel. Fanatical Hamas leader. Lived near
King Hussein's palace in Amman, Jordan. Father of seven children. In September,
1997, a kidon team tried to inject him on a street with a new lethal nerve
agent. They failed. The uproar led to an international outcry. The kidon
returned to Israel but were transferred to border patrol work.
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