Mossad Agent Zygier

              Ben Zygier

Let me preface my remarks on this case by re-stating what I have said many times. In the intelligence arena there is the white world of truth, the black world of lies, the grey world in between and never-never land. Zygier mistakenly entered never-never land and his psyche did not fit the landscape. I pray that he now rests in peace.

This case is a security and moral disaster for Israel. How could a Mossad assassination team be so thoroughly exposed?

On January 19, 2010, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, one of the founders of Hamas's military wing, the Izz al-Din Qassam Brigades, was assassinated in a hotel room in Dubai. The act was attributed to the Mossad to the extent that Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan, Dubai's Police Chief said that Interpol should issue an arrest for Meir Dagan. Dagan was Mossad's Director at the time.

It turns out that one of the planners of the hit was a dual citizen Israeli-Australian Ben Zygier, Zygier, for some undiscovered reason got on a plane after the act, fled and sought immunity in Dubai, an Arab nation. Israel launched a “snatch & catch” mission and kidnapped Zygier from Dubai and returned him to Israel.

The questions are:

Why did Zygier seek refuge in Dubai?

Why did the Israelis kidnap him?

What was so important  about Zygier?  

Did Zygier possess vital Israeli state secrets?

Reportedly Ben Zygier approached officials in Dubai and came clean. This reminds of the movie “Sword of Gideon" renamed “Munich”. In the movie “Munich” the lead Israeli Mossad agent had moral concerns about his personal involvement in the assassination plot.

     

At any rate, back to Zygier, Dubai gave him immunity in exchange for the information he provided on Mabhouh’s  assassination. Zygier went underground in Dubai but was caught by the Mossad two months later and brought back  to Israel. Zygier was jailed in the X-Wing of the Ayalon Prison in complete secrecy, to the extent that he was provided with a fake identity. He became known as prisoner X. 

For three years Zygier was unknown to Israelis because of a court gag order placed on the media. Judge Hilah Gerstel, President of the Tel Aviv District Court, ruled that Israeli media could not publish details of the Zygier affair. 
However, on  February 12, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), aired a documentary that exposed Zygier's incarceration and hinted that the Israelis murdered him. The gag order was overruled and the Knesset finally acknowledged the Zygier affair. 

(This week the Knesset allowed photos from the X-Wing to be published by local tabloids.) Zygier was incarcerated in an alleged suicide-proof cell which previously housed the patsy for the Rabin murder, Yigal Amir. He was visited by his attorney, Avigdor Feldman. Zygier turned down a plea bargain deal and the next day he allegedly hanged himself in his suicide-proof cell.

Feldman said, "He wanted to clear his name,  he was very rational and focused. He did not seem suicidal." Feldman wouldn’t reveal the terms of the plea bargain, but he said Zygier felt that the agreement convicted him of crimes he didn’t commit. 
Some analysts believe that one of Zygier's roles was to collect legitimate Australian passports for the Mossad. 

Passports are a huge deal in the Mossad according to Barry Chamish, The noted Jewish analyst said In 1979, he and Michael Oren were drafted into the Israeli army on the same day and became really good buddies. Barry ended up a sand-eating grunt and Oren got the best the army could offer, induction into the Mossad. Barry said Michael looked tall, blond and gentile, so he was given a press card from the Kansas City Star, and toured Middle Eastern capitals as a journalist, not for Kansas, but for Israel. After our service ended, we met and, while I could only describe a bland time in the military, Oren described his tours of Iraq and Syria, the risks of being discovered, looking down on the Galilee from the Syrian side, Oren told Barry how good the food was in Damascus. Needless to add, he is now Israel's ambassador to Washington.

The alleged Mossad assassination squad that killed Mabhough, Zygier is in the upper left.

ABC's documentary director Jason Katsoukis first discovered Zygier in a false passport front. A source put him on the scent of three dual Israeli-Australian citizens, who, according to the source, worked for a Mossad-owned shell company operating in Europe. The company's business was selling electronic equipment to Iran and other hostile nations. "The story alleged that Mossad was recruiting Australians to spy for them using a front company in Europe." "It all seemed too good to be true" but to Katsoukis' surprise, "What I was told checked out. The company did exist." 

Reportedly half the Mossad hit men in Dubai carried Australian passports. This caused to a serious diplomatic row between Israel, Dubai and Australia. The passport cover story became the Israeli pretext for Zygier's demise.

Unofficially, Israel claims that Zygier met with Australian Intelligence and gave them secret details about Israel's use of Australian passports. The Australians accused Zygier of being a double-agent. Israel claims that on December 15, Zygier hanged himself.

Some reporters feel that the Israeli government is hypersensitive about criticism. If Zygier told Dubai authorities what everyone already knew, the leadership of the Mossad was very angry. For example, Mordechai Vanunu was kidnapped and imprisoned 18 years for telling the world what it already knew and what Israel  probably wanted them to know - Israel had the "Bomb". Then there was the recent case of the young Israeli woman soldier who was sentenced to four years of prison for leaking information that was, more or less, in the public domain.

For the conventional story, read the original ABC report: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-12/prisoner-x-foreign-correspondent/4514806?WT.svl=news0