Uproar at Mossad over Australia spy story
AUSTRALIA: Mossad went into crisis mode when it heard the “Prisoner
X” story was about to break, the Australian reporter responsible said
Friday, amid claims the jailed man had been set to reveal sensitive
operations.
The prisoner, identified by media as Australian-Israeli Mossad agent
Ben Zygier, died in December 2010 while in isolation at Ayalon prison
near Tel Aviv, in a case Israel went to extreme lengths to cover up.
ABC reporter Trevor Bormann, who broke the story on Tuesday, said
Israeli intelligence services were aware his report was going to air
with a promo going viral on social media and a press release sent out
the previous week.
“My sources told me that it was 'all hands on deck' for Mossad and
Israel's internal security service Shin Bet,” he said on the website of
the Australian Broadcasting Corp. on Friday.
“Their intelligence had told them that the mainstream Israeli media
would most likely grudgingly abide by the court gag order, and that the
main task for censors would be to 'pull down' the work of bloggers who
would be posting links to our story.
“It did not work out quite like that.” As the story went global,
Israel Wednesday admitted it imprisoned a man with dual nationality on
security grounds who committed suicide in 2010, but did not identify him
nor confirm reports he worked for its external spy agency.
But an Israeli lawyer who met Zygier just days before his death
confirmed that Mossad agents had been involved in the case, and said he
saw no indication the prisoner was planning to kill himself.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Australian intelligence
officials believe Zygier may have been about to reveal information about
Mossad operations, including the use of falsified Australian passports,
to either Canberra or the media when he was arrested.
Zygier “may well have been about to blow the whistle, but he never
got the chance”, said an Australian security official familiar with the
case. Stephen Smith, who was the Australian foreign minister at the
time, refused to comment Friday, saying he was “not proposing to be
drawn on any of the issues” until an ongoing review of the case had been
completed. Current Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Canberra first learned
of Zygier's arrest “through intelligence channels” on February 24, 2010.
Just a week earlier, Dubai Police had publicly accused Mossad agents
of carrying out a January hit on a top Hamas militant, saying they were
looking for around a dozen people with Western passports -- four of them
Australian.
The move sparked a crisis between Israel and several Western
governments, including Canberra, with a resultant freeze in intelligence
contacts meaning Zygier's case was not pursued by Australia until his
death, the Herald said.
Shortly after the Dubai assassination, it emerged that Australia's
overseas intelligence agency had been investigating Zygier on suspicion
of using his passport to spy for Israel, the Herald reported. Former
Australian Secret Intelligence Service official Warren Reed told the ABC
Friday that Israel must have believed Zygier knew something potentially
damaging.
“So if he divulged that information to somebody who was from a
hostile intelligence service, hostile to Israel, he could damage
Israel's national security in not only an immediate sense but ongoing
for 10, 15, 20 years,” he said.
Human rights lawyer Avigdor Feldman confirmed to AFP in Israel that
he had met the prisoner just days before he was found hanged in his
cell, which was equipped with state-of-the-art surveillance gear.
Zygier gave no indication of being suicidal, Feldman said, adding he
was “shocked” when he heard the news.
Speaking to Kol BaRama radio station, Feldman confirmed Mossad
involvement. He said his “contact man from the Mossad” had informed him
that his client was no longer alive.
AFP |