WEBVTT - S1-E11: Mossad's Greatest Hits & Misses 0:00:06.240 --> 0:00:14.920 Diversion podcasts. A note this episode contains descriptions of graphic violence. 0:00:15.320 --> 0:00:26.079 Listeners discretion is advised. So Massad's mission to assassinate the 0:00:26.079 --> 0:00:30.520 butcher of Latvia was the success it achieved its subjective 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.400 It changed how we think about the Holocaust in genocide law, 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:39.640 and it changed the lives of countless people, including the 0:00:39.680 --> 0:00:45.040 people you've met in the last ten episodes. But the 0:00:45.080 --> 0:00:49.080 Zookers operation barely scratches the surface of what Massad has 0:00:49.120 --> 0:00:53.240 done over the years, and it's more than seventy years 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:57.560 of existence. Massad has been, by its own definition quote 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.840 involved in special operations, an activity in the service of 0:01:01.880 --> 0:01:05.440 the State of Israel, such as the pursuit of Nazi criminals. 0:01:06.600 --> 0:01:10.480 Massad has also rescued Jews and the diaspora from dangerous 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:15.200 situations and resettled them in Israel. The most famous of 0:01:15.240 --> 0:01:21.200 these operations was the four covert evacuation of approximately eight 0:01:21.240 --> 0:01:28.920 thousand Ethiopian Jews out of Sudan in Operation Moses. Massad 0:01:29.000 --> 0:01:32.160 also tells us that they are quote a key factor 0:01:32.360 --> 0:01:35.600 in the war against terror directed at Jewish and Israeli 0:01:35.640 --> 0:01:40.280 targets abroad. So for this episode, I want to look 0:01:40.319 --> 0:01:44.039 at some of the most important and spectacular operations the 0:01:44.120 --> 0:01:47.160 agency has carried out. I want to tell you about 0:01:47.200 --> 0:01:50.200 some missions you've probably never heard of, but then shape 0:01:50.240 --> 0:02:04.400 them Middle East and even our world. I'm Stephen Talty, 0:02:04.800 --> 0:02:10.800 and this is good Assassin's hunting. The butcher is rather 0:02:10.880 --> 0:02:14.360 assassinated one of its top leaders. He was executed by 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.639 a coney bomb hidden in a mobile cellular telephone. There's 0:02:17.639 --> 0:02:20.760 a time for diplomacy, and there's probably a time for 0:02:20.919 --> 0:02:25.200 direct action. Normally it's a simple matter, and that's the 0:02:25.320 --> 0:02:28.359 moral dilemma. Can you work with these people to save 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:43.200 your own skin? Episode eleven, Massad's Greatest Hits and Misses 0:02:50.400 --> 0:02:56.600 the jet. Let's start with an operation in which the 0:02:56.600 --> 0:03:02.240 target wasn't even human. In three, the Israelis decided they 0:03:02.320 --> 0:03:06.320 had to have a meg. At the time, the MiG 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:10.079 was the most advanced Soviet fighter plane and the latest model. 0:03:10.400 --> 0:03:15.480 The MiG had been purchased by Israeli's neighbors and enemies, Egypt, 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:20.840 Syria and Iraq. If it came to war, Israel would 0:03:20.840 --> 0:03:23.600 be facing these fighter jets in the skies. They had 0:03:23.639 --> 0:03:28.280 to know everything about them, so forget about stealing blueprints 0:03:28.360 --> 0:03:31.680 or getting blurry photos from inside some hangar. They wanted 0:03:31.720 --> 0:03:36.560 to steal an entire plane. There was a problem, however, 0:03:37.200 --> 0:03:39.600 if you didn't have the plane, you couldn't fly it, 0:03:40.240 --> 0:03:43.040 So Massad would have to convince an air pilot to 0:03:43.160 --> 0:03:46.120 steal the plane for them. That was much harder than 0:03:46.160 --> 0:03:50.840 just going after the hardware. The mission began in the 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:55.600 early sixties. A Massad agent named Gene Thomas offered an 0:03:55.600 --> 0:03:59.560 Egyptian pilot one million dollars to hijack his own aircraft 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:03.560 fly it to Israel. That would be about nine million 0:04:03.600 --> 0:04:07.800 dollars today. It was a fortune. But the pilot said no, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:11.320 and then he went to his bosses and told them 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:16.080 about the offer. Thomas, the Massad agent, along with four others, 0:04:16.520 --> 0:04:21.440 were arrested. Months later, Thomas and two of his accomplices 0:04:21.480 --> 0:04:25.760 were hung, while the others received extensive prison terms. Who's 0:04:25.760 --> 0:04:31.200 a complete failure, But for Massad the MiG was worth 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.919 another try. In the mid nineteen sixties, they moved the 0:04:34.920 --> 0:04:38.800 mission's focus away from Egypt to Iraq and actually tried 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:41.479 to convince two pilots to get in the plane and 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:47.960 fly it again. The pilots refused. Finally, in nineteen sixty 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:51.560 six and Iraqi born Jew named Yusuf got in touch 0:04:51.640 --> 0:04:54.200 with Massad. This is one of the strengths of the 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:58.440 agency's In countries around the world, there have been examples 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:02.159 of Jews willing to help Massa. I asked Keith Melton 0:05:02.240 --> 0:05:06.279 about this. Melton is the intelligence historian an author of 0:05:06.320 --> 0:05:09.720 several books on espionage we've heard from in previous episodes. 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:15.440 At one time, the total of number intelligence officers they had, 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:20.040 and this was thirty years ago, it was only twenty 0:05:20.080 --> 0:05:24.719 four officers, so they had a very small service. But 0:05:25.279 --> 0:05:31.160 they had the ability to look for other Jewish supporters 0:05:31.520 --> 0:05:33.640 virtually anywhere they could go in the world. If you 0:05:33.680 --> 0:05:37.119 needed a check cash, you needed to arrange a safe house, 0:05:37.360 --> 0:05:40.719 if you needed a rental car. They had an established 0:05:40.760 --> 0:05:45.479 contact within the synagogue, within a group in almost any 0:05:45.520 --> 0:05:54.799 country they could go. So this guy Yusuf told aside 0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:58.200 about this other guy named red fu Red Phone was 0:05:58.200 --> 0:06:01.360 a pilot who flew the Big any One. He was 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:04.680 a Christian whose religion had caused his military career to 0:06:04.720 --> 0:06:09.200 stall out. Only Muslims were getting promoted, so red Fot 0:06:09.240 --> 0:06:12.080 was piste off. He was also angry that he had 0:06:12.080 --> 0:06:14.720 been forced to fight against Iraqi Kurds, whom he had 0:06:14.720 --> 0:06:18.560 no problem with. He was ready to turn against Iraq. 0:06:20.000 --> 0:06:22.839 Massad sent a female agent to entice red Fot into 0:06:22.880 --> 0:06:25.760 the deal. She got him to travel to Europe, where 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.120 he could meet with her handlers. There they offered the 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:33.559 pilot one million dollars, full Israeli citizenship and a good job. 0:06:35.400 --> 0:06:39.440 Red Fot had some conditions. Knowing that Iraq's government would 0:06:39.480 --> 0:06:42.760 take revenge on his relatives, he demanded that Israel get 0:06:42.800 --> 0:06:45.000 them out of the country at the same time he 0:06:45.120 --> 0:06:49.560 was stealing the plane. Massad agreed, but there were obstacles. 0:06:50.360 --> 0:06:54.120 Red foot superiors didn't trust him. He was considered a 0:06:54.160 --> 0:06:58.080 troublemaker and he was a Christian. They only allowed him 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.880 to fly a MiG equipped with two small fuel tanks, 0:07:01.920 --> 0:07:04.920 which would theoretically prevent him from taking it all the 0:07:04.960 --> 0:07:07.440 way to Israel. If he crashed on the way to 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.880 tell Aviv, the mission would be a failure. Massad made 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:15.720 the final arrangements. Red Fust's wife, who had no idea 0:07:15.800 --> 0:07:18.720 what was going on, was given tickets to Paris with 0:07:18.760 --> 0:07:23.000 her children. There, she was contacted by Massad and told 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:26.560 the whole story. She threw a fit, threatening to go 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:29.880 to the Iraqi embassy and tell them everything, but her 0:07:29.880 --> 0:07:33.960 handlers finally convinced her to agree to the plant. Reda's 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:38.360 other family members were secretly escorted to Iraq's Iranian border, 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:42.800 where Kurdish guerillas guided them to safety. From there, they 0:07:42.800 --> 0:07:47.320 were taken to Israel, but Redfa was still in Iraq. 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.640 Finally he was given permission to take the plane up 0:07:50.800 --> 0:07:54.360 on a training mission. He pointed the nose towards Jordan's 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:59.040 air traffic control in Jordan's contacted the Iraqis, who was 0:07:59.080 --> 0:08:01.880 a big flying over their territory. What was going on? 0:08:02.640 --> 0:08:06.320 The Iraqis, not imagining anything was wrong, told them their 0:08:06.360 --> 0:08:08.760 pilot was just getting some airtime in with the MiG. 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:13.920 Redford turned the plane towards Israel. When he finally landed, 0:08:14.200 --> 0:08:16.920 it was found that the two small gas tanks only 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:21.640 had a few drops of fuel left. The mag was 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.400 put to use. Israeli pilots trained against it learned how 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:30.320 to fight it in the air. The next year, Israel 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.959 and Syria went into battle over the Golan Heights. Was 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.839 the Israeli Mirages against the MiG twenty ones There's my 0:08:37.960 --> 0:08:40.640 age applied. This film reportedly showing the dog fight and 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:44.840 the sky between the Mirage jets and Syria's Russian built makes. 0:08:44.960 --> 0:08:47.680 The cameras were mounted on the Israelian fighters and recorded 0:08:47.720 --> 0:08:52.200 these dark air battles Kale Israel shot down six of 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.480 the Syrian planes and lost none of their own, and 0:08:55.520 --> 0:08:59.120 then they could get an Iraqi pilot. I mean that's 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.760 not easy to do. That's Robert bar, a former CIA 0:09:04.040 --> 0:09:07.960 case officer an author of many books on espionage. The 0:09:08.040 --> 0:09:11.200 movie Siriana was based on one of Bear's books, and 0:09:11.240 --> 0:09:14.679 the character played by George Clooney was based on him. 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:17.280 I mean, we had a pilot that defected the Japan 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:19.560 and make pilot. We got one of the air planes 0:09:19.600 --> 0:09:23.920 as well. But you know, getting hard equipment like that 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.720 and figuring out what the avionics and the radar and 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:30.840 the rest of it was extremely important for them and 0:09:30.920 --> 0:09:33.680 it was a worthwhile operation. Was it was quite amazing. 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:37.600 What interests me about this mission is the human aspect. 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.720 Getting an agent to betray his country is hard, but 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:45.160 getting them to leave their country is even harder. Look 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:48.240 how difficult it was to get the butcher out of Brazil. 0:09:49.000 --> 0:09:52.800 Some espionage sources find their lives aren't really disrupted. Their 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:56.480 children stay in their schools, Their wives or husbands are oblivious. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:10:00.280 But Redfa had to give up everything and move his 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:04.200 extended family out of their homeland. It's really something of 0:10:04.240 --> 0:10:07.320 a miracle Massad was able to find someone like him 0:10:07.400 --> 0:10:10.280 and to convince him to make the leap to Israel. 0:10:11.200 --> 0:10:14.280 I asked Robert bart about using someone's emotions to get 0:10:14.280 --> 0:10:19.439 what you need. Well, it's helpful to go after a 0:10:19.600 --> 0:10:22.760 press minority anywhere in the world. I mean, if you 0:10:22.800 --> 0:10:25.960 look at the KGB, most a lot of the defectors 0:10:26.040 --> 0:10:30.800 were from Ukraine. A lot of Israeli sources in Europe 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:34.880 were Jewish who sympathized with the israel elements existence. And 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.040 the same way with Christians who were oppressed and had 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:43.000 no chance of ever, you know, holding positions of power. 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:46.520 And that's not to mention, you know, once these Islamic 0:10:46.600 --> 0:10:49.400 groups came and started pressing, now that they would gravitate 0:10:49.440 --> 0:10:53.880 to the United States or Israel. Mio had played on 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:58.240 the butcher's emotions brilliantly, and now these Raelis had done 0:10:58.240 --> 0:11:11.120 it again. The engineer. Now let me take you to 0:11:11.200 --> 0:11:19.720 the nineties. Sometimes Massad targets terrorists. Sometimes it's political operatives, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:24.080 and sometimes it's people who betrayed their country. It's rare 0:11:24.360 --> 0:11:28.120 that the agency goes after a technician. But the engineer 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:33.400 wasn't like other technicians. Yah Yah Ayash was a number 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:39.000 one bomb maker for Hamas. Hamas is the Palestinian Sunni 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:46.160 Islamic militant fundamentalist organization. Ayasha's nickname was the Engineer, and 0:11:46.200 --> 0:11:50.040 he was a master of building explosives. His skill is 0:11:50.080 --> 0:11:53.680 even more impressive because dynamite, which is a favorite of 0:11:53.679 --> 0:11:56.760 bomb makers for its stability and power, was hard to 0:11:56.760 --> 0:11:59.880 get in the West Bank and Gaza Strip where Yosh 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:03.600 did his work, So he used a mix of acetone 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:09.199 and detergent, ingredients found easily in many household cleaners. When 0:12:09.240 --> 0:12:14.040 you put them together, they make acetone peroxide. This stuff 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.600 is powerful, but it's also highly unstable. In fact, it's 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:23.040 called the mother of Satan. You can guess why. People 0:12:23.040 --> 0:12:25.720 who work with the Mother of Satan usually don't live 0:12:25.840 --> 0:12:31.440 very long. But Ayash had an extensive and impressively lethal career. Well. 0:12:31.679 --> 0:12:36.600 I mean, the Raelis went after arm stealers, especially ones 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:41.680 that were supplying Iraq. They were very interested in the 0:12:41.720 --> 0:12:46.040 people who could make airplane bombs. And they went after them. 0:12:46.160 --> 0:12:49.640 Some of these people were assassinated in Jordan's and the 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.800 rest of it. I mean, they essentially viscerated the Palestinians, 0:12:54.120 --> 0:12:59.920 the leadership as well as the technicians. That's Robert bar again. 0:13:01.040 --> 0:13:05.800 A Yash built bombs for Hamass suicide attacks. The Mahola 0:13:05.880 --> 0:13:11.560 Junction bombing in the Afuller bus massacre, it was at 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:15.120 lunchtime when the bomb went off, cutting down shoppers waiting 0:13:15.160 --> 0:13:18.160 at a bus stop in a fullah town center. It's 0:13:18.200 --> 0:13:21.600 believed that the bomber himself was among the eight who died. 0:13:22.200 --> 0:13:24.400 The attack was time to mark the end of the 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.920 Islamic morning period for the victims of the Hebron massacre. 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:35.720 Whoever planned the bombing took plenty of casualties, at least 0:13:35.720 --> 0:13:39.920 fifty people injured, many of them. The Disnegoff Street bus massacre, 0:13:40.120 --> 0:13:44.319 also in n at the time the deadliest suicide bombing 0:13:44.400 --> 0:13:49.000 in Israeli history, with twenty two civilians killed and fifty injured. 0:13:49.280 --> 0:13:52.920 It had happened in Disnengoff Street, the city's commercial heart 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.120 and a place where people normally sit in cafes and relax. Today, 0:13:57.160 --> 0:14:00.880 though the bloodied survivors and those in shock, stumbled onto 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:13.280 the pavement as passers by came to their aid was done. 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:17.840 The Yash was also behind the Hadara Central Station massacre 0:14:18.280 --> 0:14:23.800 again and many more Hamas claimed responsibility for the deadliest 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:27.800 terrorist attack in Israel for sixteen years. Police combed the 0:14:27.800 --> 0:14:30.760 wreckage trying to prove their hunch that the person who 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.160 took so many lives was a suicide bomber. The engineer 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:38.360 was killing Israeli's inside Israel civilians right in the heart 0:14:38.440 --> 0:14:41.880 of the country. He later branched out and built bombs 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:46.200 for other groups, including Islamic Jahad. He was like a 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:50.280 one man bomb factory. Massad had to get him out 0:14:50.280 --> 0:14:52.520 of the picture and to cut off the supply of 0:14:52.560 --> 0:14:58.680 explosives for these attacks. The agency worked with shin Bet, 0:14:58.720 --> 0:15:02.800 the Internal Security Age see on the mission. They even 0:15:02.840 --> 0:15:07.440 had the cooperation of the Palestinian Authority, the official Palestinian 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:11.000 government body that controls the Gaza Strip and West Bank, 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:20.720 in tracking a Yasha's movements. The break came when the 0:15:20.760 --> 0:15:24.480 agents realized that Yash kept returning to a certain apartment 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:29.200 owned by a buddy from his childhood days. This childhood 0:15:29.240 --> 0:15:33.320 friend the Israelis had worked with his uncle they knew him, 0:15:33.360 --> 0:15:37.920 and they blackmailed him into cooperating with the operation. The 0:15:38.000 --> 0:15:41.680 agents gave the uncle a cell phone. They told him 0:15:41.720 --> 0:15:44.760 they'd placed a bug inside so they could tap into 0:15:44.960 --> 0:15:48.880 a Yasha's conversations, but they didn't tell him was there 0:15:48.920 --> 0:15:52.680 was also fifteen grahams something called r d X inside. 0:15:53.800 --> 0:15:56.800 R d X has been used as an explosive since 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:00.800 World War Two. It has no smell, makes it perfect 0:16:00.880 --> 0:16:04.720 for jobs like this. The yash worked with explosives. If 0:16:04.720 --> 0:16:09.960 he smelled anything, he might get suspicious. So the uncle 0:16:10.000 --> 0:16:12.160 gets the phone and gives it to his nephew, the 0:16:12.240 --> 0:16:16.400 Yasha's buddy. These really knew that the yash often talked 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:19.880 on one of the nephew's phones. They were hoping that 0:16:19.880 --> 0:16:23.400 would be the case again. They began monitoring all the 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:27.320 calls in and out of the nephew's number. The monitoring 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.880 was done from a small airplane that circled above the target. 0:16:32.320 --> 0:16:36.680 At eight am one January morning, a call came through. 0:16:37.560 --> 0:16:41.320 The agents listening in recognized the voice. It was a 0:16:41.400 --> 0:16:45.080 yasha's father. The call was relaid from the phone to 0:16:45.160 --> 0:16:49.400 the airplane flying above to an Israeli outpost nearby. The 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.440 second voice on the line was confirmed it was the Engineer. 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.440 A signal was sent across the cell phone connection and 0:16:57.480 --> 0:17:02.080 the phone exploded, killing Ayash instantly. The most hated man 0:17:02.160 --> 0:17:06.359 in Israel, a Palestinian terrorist yah Yaha Yash, known as 0:17:06.400 --> 0:17:10.199 the Engineer, was killed in the Gaza Strip on Friday. 0:17:10.359 --> 0:17:13.320 He was executed by a tiny bomb hidden an immobile 0:17:13.359 --> 0:17:18.800 cellular cold. It's many from to I was excluding and 0:17:19.880 --> 0:17:27.440 destroyed the outside of his head. How many people killed? Yeah, yeah, Yesh. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:32.000 We are investigating the case, and this is how then 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:36.320 opposition leader Benjamin Yahoo framed the news. If it's true 0:17:36.320 --> 0:17:39.879 that one of the world's most vicious killers, a person 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.879 who's been responsible for blowing up women and children and davies, 0:17:44.720 --> 0:17:48.280 has been eliminated, I don't think anyone should shed a 0:17:48.320 --> 0:17:52.399 tear of sorrow. I think equally that it's important to 0:17:52.440 --> 0:17:54.560 send a message. I think such a message has been 0:17:54.600 --> 0:17:59.359 sent to all his followers, all would be terrorists, that 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:02.040 Israel's all arm would reach them, that there is a 0:18:02.119 --> 0:18:06.280 price for terrorism. The a Yash operation reminds me a 0:18:06.280 --> 0:18:09.960 bit of Mio's work during the Zookers mission. It was 0:18:10.000 --> 0:18:13.600 technician versus technician in the same way that Mio went 0:18:13.640 --> 0:18:18.159 mano a mano against the Butcher. The nerd aspect of 0:18:18.280 --> 0:18:21.560 espionage is often a sideline. If you go to the 0:18:21.600 --> 0:18:25.600 International Spy Museum in Washington, d C. They have small 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:30.240 exhibits on the technology of spying with tiny cameras, the 0:18:30.400 --> 0:18:35.159 Enigma machine, things like that. But here the tech was 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:39.320 the whole deal. Ayash new bombs, but he never suspected 0:18:39.359 --> 0:18:42.440 that Massad would be skilled enough to hide one inside 0:18:42.440 --> 0:18:47.440 a cell phone. The level of sophistication of precision was 0:18:47.480 --> 0:18:57.240 a hallmark of the agency doing more with less. Hey, 0:18:57.280 --> 0:19:00.400 this is Stephen Talty, the host of this podcast, Good 0:19:00.440 --> 0:19:04.639 Assassin's Hunting the Butcher. This podcast project came out of 0:19:04.680 --> 0:19:07.600 my work on a related book called The Good Assassin. 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:10.439 If you want to explore other parts of this story, 0:19:10.880 --> 0:19:13.359 check it out. It's not just a book version of 0:19:13.359 --> 0:19:16.760 the podcast. I spend time on different aspects of the mission. 0:19:17.160 --> 0:19:19.960 There are chapters diving into World War two history that 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:22.800 we didn't cover in the podcast, and the book works 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.600 as a kind of companion to the listening experience. You 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:29.960 can purchase a copy of The Good Assassin on Amazon, 0:19:30.480 --> 0:19:43.400 Apple Books, and on bookshop dot Org. Thanks the Scientist 0:19:47.520 --> 0:19:52.280 for this one, let's go inside Syria. For years, Massad 0:19:52.359 --> 0:19:55.200 In the Israeli government had wanted to know if Syria, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:58.120 which had been hostile to their Jewish neighbors for decades, 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:02.639 had a nuclear program. They couldn't break through the security 0:20:02.840 --> 0:20:06.280 that the Syrians had put around their atomic research. Was 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:09.960 there anything going on? Were they building plants? Were they 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:16.000 thinking of building bombs? For Israel? The nuclear option is 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:19.280 the nuclear option. If any one of their enemies gets 0:20:19.280 --> 0:20:21.680 the bomb, it could mean the end of their country. 0:20:22.720 --> 0:20:25.520 I asked Robert Bart about nukes and how they're figure 0:20:25.520 --> 0:20:29.200 into the mindsets of spy agencies. It goes back to 0:20:29.240 --> 0:20:31.240 the Second World War when here it was planning to 0:20:31.600 --> 0:20:34.080 use a nuclear bomb on New York City. I mean, 0:20:34.119 --> 0:20:36.760 it was just on paper. It never went anywhere. But 0:20:36.760 --> 0:20:39.560 they're more mythical than they aren't real. But there's something 0:20:39.560 --> 0:20:43.320 to think about. You know, you can aristolize all sorts 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.080 of toxins and spread them over New York City, and 0:20:46.200 --> 0:20:49.439 that's certainly something the Israelitis are worried about. Or putting 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:52.240 a tactical nuke on the end of the SCUD and 0:20:52.400 --> 0:20:55.399 firing Tel Aviv. This is why they're going after I 0:20:55.520 --> 0:20:58.560 ran right now, by the way. It's just quite extraordinary 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:01.040 these operations they pulled off r and I just thought, 0:21:01.160 --> 0:21:04.439 I never thought anyone could do these things. So clearly 0:21:04.440 --> 0:21:07.520 the Israelis have put a lot of effort and a 0:21:07.520 --> 0:21:11.520 lot of brains on, you know, all this problems, but 0:21:11.640 --> 0:21:15.720 places like Iran were considered the top priority. Everyone knew 0:21:15.800 --> 0:21:19.640 that the Iranians were trying for a bomb. As for Syria, 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:22.639 who was on the back burner for Israel if you 0:21:22.760 --> 0:21:26.800 believed they would take the risk. But Massie started noticing 0:21:26.880 --> 0:21:31.159 mysterious things happening inside Syria. Ships would leave ports in 0:21:31.200 --> 0:21:35.840 Asia and arrive in Syria with unknown cargoes. There were 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:41.000 convoys of trucks criss crossing the country carrying something of 0:21:41.080 --> 0:21:46.560 Pakistani nuclear scientists. A Q Khan traveled to Damascus for talks, 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:52.119 but talks about what There was no evidence on the 0:21:52.200 --> 0:21:56.639 ground that anything was happening. Israel spy satellites were picking 0:21:56.720 --> 0:22:02.639 up nothing. Still, some pulit Massad had an uneasy feeling, 0:22:03.320 --> 0:22:10.600 but they were in the minority. One guy Massad kept 0:22:10.600 --> 0:22:13.879 an ion was ibraheim Afman, who was the head of 0:22:13.880 --> 0:22:17.800 the Atomic Energy Commission of Syria. If anyone knew what 0:22:17.840 --> 0:22:21.439 was going on, it was Athman. In December two thousand 0:22:21.440 --> 0:22:24.680 and six, Massad got word that Athman would be traveling 0:22:24.720 --> 0:22:28.639 to a European city. The Syrians had given him a 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.160 fake passport, but the Israelis knew how to track him. 0:22:32.280 --> 0:22:35.280 Massad didn't want to kill him necessarily, but they wanted 0:22:35.320 --> 0:22:39.159 to get inside his head. So as soon as Othman 0:22:39.240 --> 0:22:42.919 landed in Europe, the Agency had eyes on him. At 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:45.960 the airport, agents watched him get off the plane and 0:22:46.000 --> 0:22:49.560 head to a hotel. They were about a dozen operatives 0:22:49.680 --> 0:22:53.080 involved in the operation. Once they found out what hotel 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:55.800 he was staying at and which room, they got a 0:22:55.800 --> 0:22:59.560 team inside. They planted listening devices and then got out 0:23:00.920 --> 0:23:04.600 from their bugs. The agency learned Offman was planning to 0:23:04.640 --> 0:23:08.360 do some shopping. European cities have goods you can't get 0:23:08.359 --> 0:23:10.879 in Syria, so he was planning a day to blow 0:23:10.920 --> 0:23:15.160 some money. Once he left the hotel, operatives broke into 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:20.000 his room. On the desk was a laptop. Great, maybe 0:23:20.000 --> 0:23:23.399 there was something valuable on the hard drive, but the 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:26.159 agents didn't have time to steal the computer, bring it 0:23:26.200 --> 0:23:29.359 to their base and download all the files. So what 0:23:29.400 --> 0:23:32.240 do you do. One of the team members was a 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:37.000 computer expert. He installed software which let the agency track 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:41.040 Offman's activities on the computer without the Syrian knowing it. 0:23:41.920 --> 0:23:44.080 They put the program on the hard drive where it 0:23:44.119 --> 0:23:49.159 was invisible, cleaned up, and left. The data started to 0:23:49.200 --> 0:23:53.640 come in from Offman's laptop, and it was astonishing. There 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:57.200 were maps, There were blueprints for a nuclear plant. There 0:23:57.200 --> 0:24:00.320 were even pictures of the construction in various state ages, 0:24:01.400 --> 0:24:04.639 and finally, a snapshot of a guy who looked East Asian. 0:24:05.280 --> 0:24:08.240 When Massad ran the photo through its computers, it turned 0:24:08.240 --> 0:24:12.400 out the guy was a nuclear official from North Korea. 0:24:12.960 --> 0:24:17.000 The Syrians were going nuclear in a big way, and 0:24:17.080 --> 0:24:21.760 nobody had known about it. Massad went to work. They 0:24:21.840 --> 0:24:24.600 sent a team inside Syria to collect soil samples and 0:24:24.680 --> 0:24:28.040 other evidence from the building site. When it came back, 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:31.760 there was no doubt Syria was on the path to 0:24:31.840 --> 0:24:37.160 a bomb. Massad and the Israeli Defense forces began planning 0:24:37.560 --> 0:24:43.119 Operation Outside the Box. September six, two thousand seven, a 0:24:43.200 --> 0:24:46.840 fleet of ten F fifteen fighter planes lifted off from 0:24:46.880 --> 0:24:54.040 inside Israel. Israel had seized control of serious radar and 0:24:54.119 --> 0:24:57.719 air defenses and hid any sign of the coming attack. 0:24:58.640 --> 0:25:02.520 The F fifteen's aproached the site. When the pilots were 0:25:02.520 --> 0:25:06.800 above the target, they released their payloads. The bomb struck 0:25:06.880 --> 0:25:11.440 the building and the plant was destroyed. The attack had succeeded. 0:25:12.440 --> 0:25:27.560 Syria abandoned its nuclear program. The wrong man in Massad 0:25:27.720 --> 0:25:31.560 was thrust into the spotlight when Palestinian terrorists stormed the 0:25:31.600 --> 0:25:34.639 residents of the Israeli team at the Summer Olympics in 0:25:34.720 --> 0:25:39.600 Munich and took eleven Israeli's hostage. Eight members of the 0:25:39.680 --> 0:25:43.879 faction of the Palestinian Liberation Organization known as Black September 0:25:44.359 --> 0:25:48.600 barricaded themselves inside the athletes apartments and negotiated for days 0:25:48.800 --> 0:25:53.040 with German authorities. Nearly five dred German security police have 0:25:53.119 --> 0:25:55.359 now sealed off the village and I'm mounting heavy machine 0:25:55.400 --> 0:25:58.600 guns in the square there, keeping cameraman and television reportance 0:25:58.640 --> 0:26:02.119 and the spectators well away the girls. They demanded the 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:06.320 release of two d thirty four Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. 0:26:06.720 --> 0:26:10.040 Was the Israeli government refused, really enjoyed in the vide 0:26:10.040 --> 0:26:12.960 of the round political rights be happy now to day 0:26:13.000 --> 0:26:19.040 has we everbly shattered and their tragedy the helicopters there 0:26:19.040 --> 0:26:28.080 appearing on onboard and there is really offated. When the 0:26:28.240 --> 0:26:32.040 terrorists and their hostages were transported to a nearby NATO 0:26:32.119 --> 0:26:34.800 air base where they were supposedly going to be flown 0:26:34.800 --> 0:26:40.439 to Cairo, disaster struck. A botched German ambush resulted in 0:26:40.440 --> 0:26:44.240 the murder of the nine remaining Israeli athletes and coaches, 0:26:44.840 --> 0:26:48.080 as well as the deaths of the terrorists. Despite a 0:26:48.160 --> 0:26:51.880 few bad decisions by judges, some disappoint boks of petty mistakes, 0:26:51.920 --> 0:26:54.520 the Beautic Olympics were on the way into becoming the 0:26:54.560 --> 0:26:59.280 Posantist Olympics because the West Germans were to make them solves. Today, 0:26:59.440 --> 0:27:03.919 one observed gave them a new name, the Bloody Olympics. Altogether, 0:27:04.040 --> 0:27:07.720 seventeen people were slaughtered yesterday too in the Olympic village 0:27:07.720 --> 0:27:10.080 and the other fifteen and the shootout of the airport. 0:27:10.520 --> 0:27:14.800 It was a catastrophe for the Olympics, for the Germans 0:27:15.240 --> 0:27:18.760 and for the Israelis. If you doubted that the government 0:27:18.800 --> 0:27:22.919 in Jerusalem would respond and that Massad would be the 0:27:23.000 --> 0:27:27.840 sharp point of the sword, here's how it. Israeli Prime 0:27:27.880 --> 0:27:33.399 Minister Golden my Year explained it. Innocent lives around With 0:27:33.440 --> 0:27:40.879 that stage, the question is can innocent Israeli lives become 0:27:40.920 --> 0:27:47.280 a commodity that groups of men and women can just 0:27:47.400 --> 0:27:51.040 do with them whatever they like. Normally would say that 0:27:51.080 --> 0:27:56.480 it's a simple matter of course. But what happens these 0:27:56.560 --> 0:28:02.120 men demands the release from for them of men who 0:28:02.160 --> 0:28:06.880 participated in the killing of our people. But they say, alpenmely, 0:28:07.400 --> 0:28:09.639 they make a stake, and now the side over again. 0:28:10.440 --> 0:28:15.879 But it means that people are set free when everybody 0:28:15.920 --> 0:28:18.800 knows that what they intended to do the first opportunity 0:28:19.040 --> 0:28:22.159 they were killing more Israelis. It's a difficult problem. I 0:28:22.200 --> 0:28:25.800 don't say it's easy, but if you cannot say, well, 0:28:25.960 --> 0:28:39.880 as long as it's a bounced Asraelis, it's long golden. 0:28:39.920 --> 0:28:44.560 My year quickly approved Operation Wrath of God, a covert 0:28:44.640 --> 0:28:48.360 MASSAD operation to hunt down and kill the planners of 0:28:48.360 --> 0:28:55.200 the Munich massacre. Massad began their reprisals in nine three. 0:28:55.920 --> 0:28:58.760 Who was an assassination in Rome, a bomb placed in 0:28:58.800 --> 0:29:02.520 a telephone in Paris, another planet under a bed in Cyprus, 0:29:03.040 --> 0:29:06.640 and a third that detonated under a car seat. There 0:29:06.720 --> 0:29:10.720