The Mossad in South America
After a while “N” noticed that he was
under surveillance and that his mail regularly got stolen. Uninvited
guests started to frequent his office. He talked to the local police and
counterintelligence service, but both replied they had nothing to do
with the problem. They did mention to “N” cautiously that he was in the
sphere of interests of «the Zionists».
According to ALAI (Latin America
Information Agency), the Mossad is using at least 40 Israeli companies
(as well as embassies and other official institutions of the state of
Israel) as fronts for its activity. The total number of the Mossad
operatives in Latin America is not greater than 100-110, but an
extensive network of agents and the cooperation with Jewish
organizations and communities ensure the Mossad’s presence across Latin
America and the Caribbean.
OCDG: beelzebub’s chosen wreaking havoc in the Southern Hemisphere… A few years old but pertinent given recent events.
“N”, a correspondent from an Iranian media agency, whom I met in the
association of foreign journalists in Caracas, told me that he used to
work in Buenos Aires for some time. Things were going well, N's employer
was satisfied with the job he did, and he planned to spend a few more
years in Argentine, but eventually had to change his plans. After a
while “N” noticed that he was under surveillance and that his mail
regularly got stolen. Uninvited guests started to frequent his office.
He talked to the local police and counterintelligence service, but both
replied they had nothing to do with the problem. They did mention to “N”
cautiously that he was in the sphere of interests of «the Zionists». He
told me: «The people in my agency in Tehran knew that Iranian citizens
often encounter such problems and concluded that the Mossad was planning
a provocation against me. This is why I relocated to Venezuela. It is a
country friendly to Iran, one enjoys a certain level of security
guarantees here and can expect to be protected in case of need».
I had a similar conversation with “F”, a journalist from Syria. He
told me frankly that he preferred to stay on the alert even in Venezuela
because the Israeli intelligence service watches over all Syrians
working in Latin America and often attempts to compromise them. Like
most of his countrymen, “F” believes that hostile acts by the Mossad —
drugs put in his pocket, allegations of links to Arab terrorists, the
emergence of «documentary evidence» of connections to Columbian
guerrillas — are likely. “F” said: «I am ready to face whatever happens.
I'm not paranoid, I just look at things realistically. I even obtained a
gun permit» and showed me a gun he wore under his jacket.
The Mossads's objectives are listed on its official web site. They
include secret collection of operative, political, and strategic
information abroad, termination of terrorist activity targeting Israeli
and other Jewish installations, prevention of development or acquisition
of nuclear weapons by countries hostile to Israel, and covert
operations abroad. The January, 2010 killing by the Mossad of the leader
of the the paramilitary wing of Hamas Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in a Dubai
hotel gives an idea of what the term «covert operations abroad» refers
to.
A Mossad hit squad of 11 agents disguised as tourists blocked the
corridor leading to the hotel room where al-Mabhouh stayed. Then the
Israeli hitmen got inside, electroshocked and strangulated the man. In
several hours the Mossad agents left the Emirates with fake British,
Canadian, Irish, and Australian passports.
The demonstrative character of the act was supposed to highlight the
Mossad's capability to score with the enemies of Israel in any part of
the world. The operation drew extensive coverage in Latin American
media, most of which published the photos of the Mossad agents and, of
course, that of their chief - the 64 year old Meir Dagan who has long
deserved the nickname of «a man with a knife between his teeth». Among
other operations, hundreds of killings of Iranian and Iraqi scientists
who were involved in military-related research and were regarded as
potentially dangerous to Israel are tracked to Dagan.
According to ALAI (Latin America Information Agency), the Mossad is
using at least 40 Israeli companies (as well as embassies and other
official institutions of the state of Israel) as fronts for its
activity. The total number of the Mossad operatives in Latin America is
not greater than 100-110, but an extensive network of agents and the
cooperation with Jewish organizations and communities ensure the
Mossad's presence across Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Mossad's interests gravitate to the regions south of the Rio
Grande which are densely populated by Arab immigrants. The Mossad
analysts believe that the epicenter of the potential «Muslim terrorism»
in Latin America is located in the Zone of Three Borders between
Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. Venezuela's Isla Margarita, a place
where Lebanese and Syrian immigrants hunting for pearls started to
settle down in the early XX century, is viewed similarly. When a free
trade zone was opened on Margarita Island, the Arab populations switched
to selling shoes, textile, and bijouterie. The Venezuelan government
was a number of times forced to disprove allegations that Chavez hosts
Muslim terrorists. In reality, Margarita is a small island where more or
less everybody knows everybody else and no secret activity — least the
operation of Hezbollah training camps — is possible.
Over the years of spying on the above «terrorist centers» Mossad
never discovered the networks that could present a threat to Israel.
Nevertheless, the Mossad's efforts were not wasted, at least since the
Israeli «reliable» data were invariably used by Washington in planning
its struggle against terrorism in Latin America. This is the mechanism
of ideological support for the establishment of increasing numbers of US
military bases on the continent in the proximity of the Latin American
countries with «populist» regimes.
In many cases, Israeli intelligence operatives are involved in legal
arms trade business which they use to gain connections in local
military circles and security services.
The Mossad also uses affiliated companies to advise its Latin
American colleagues on fighting terrorism, «leftist extremism»,
guerrilla groups and their support networks, as well as to help
intelligence services modernize their technical base. A company most
often mentioned in the context is Israel's Global CST, whose CEOs are
retired high-ranking Mossad operatives. In July, 2009 the Peruvian
government hired the company to help reorganize the country's
intelligence community in order to boost the efficiency of its struggle
against «subversive and terrorist organizations» including the
re-emerging Sendero Luminoso Maoist group. Global CST is also helping
the Peruvian government create a joint system of control over mobile
communications, Internet, and other communications media.
Global CST has grown notably more active in Columbia. The Israeli
company familiarizes the country's military intelligence and political
police (DAS) officers with new techniques in the spheres of
anti-terrorist activity and espionage. Over recent years, Columbia's
intelligence services have been increasingly assertive outside the
country, evidently imitating the modus operandi of their CIA and Mossad
peers. Columbia maintains intelligence networks in Brazil, Ecuador,
Mexico, Panama, and other Latin American countries. The FARC and ELN
envoys are finding themselves under permanent surveillance, routinely
kidnapped and sometimes — assassinated.
International Security Agency (ISA) mainly staffed by former Israeli
special forces officers and intelligence operatives is also active in
Latin America. The agency (in tight cooperation with the CIA and the
Mossad) took part in the coup that displaced M. Zelaya, the legitimate
President of Honduras. Currently ISA specialists are working in the
security service of the current President of Honduras P. Lobo, who was
propelled to presidency as the result of an imitation of free elections
like those Washington realized in Iraq and Afghanistan.
There is a consensus among experts that the Mossad's number one
adversary and target in Latin America is Hugo Chavez, the political
leader condemning Israel's attempts to resolve conflicts in the Middle
East by force. Chavez suspended Venezuela's diplomatic relations with
Israel in August, 2006, following the Israeli aggression against
Lebanon. At that time Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Cohen and the embassy
staff (mostly Mossad operatives) left Caracas. In several months Chavez
took steps to normalize the relations with Israel, largely in response
to the requests made by Venezuela's 12,000 Jewish community.
The diplomatic relations between Venezuela and Israel were severed
again in January, 2009 when the former protested the crimes committed by
the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli operation
resulted in the killing of over 1,000 Palestinians, a third of them —
children. In a televised address, Chavez criticized Israel as a country
guilty of genocide and inhumane persecution of Palestinians. Not
surprisingly, Israel's reaction was negative. In November, 2009 Shimon
Peres addressed a thinly veiled threat to Chavez by saying that «Chavez
will soon disappear». The Venezuelan leader remarked that Perez had to
undertake a long journey to Latin America to say the words and wondered
publicly what would have happened if similar words were said about Peres
in Venezuela.
TV commentator and former Venezuelan Vice President José Vicente
Rangel often warns in his TV show that the Mossad is planning to
assassinate Chavez. Agents with the corresponding qualifications were
sent to Columbia, Peru, the Dominican Republic, Panama, and Curacao
Island. In Rangel's view, the greatest threat emanates from Columbia as
DAS — instigated by the CIA — already conspired quite a few times to
kill Chavez. Alarming comments were also made by US journalist Eva
Hollinger who is a renown expert in operations against Venezuela. Author
of CIA in Venezuela Hose Sant Ross calls the Venezuelan authorities to
be mindful of the Mossad's operations in the country.
As a rule, the efforts of Venezuelan security services to identify
the Mossad agents echo with carefully orchestrated protests staged by
the country's Jewish community and with «solidarity» campaigns across
Latin America. Media synchronously respond by charging Chavez with
antisemitism and collusion with Muslim extremism.
Actually, the theme of antisemitism recurs due to a range of causes,
for example whenever the Venezuelan government takes measures to
scrutinize the country's financial sphere. For decades, there used to be
a number of jewelry stores in La Francia building in downtown Caracas,
not far from the Venezuelan Foreign ministry, where gold and jewelry
were bought and sold with practically no fiscal control. The
administration's attempts to make the business take legal shape and to
subject the accounting documents of the stores to the long-overdue audit
were condemned by the opposition media as persecution of Jewish
businessmen. Nevertheless, the announcement of the coming audit had an
explosive effect: in a matter of hours La Francia building was
completely abandoned. The most valuable stuff was evacuated secretly at
night.
Venezuelan counterintelligence agents watched the process from a
distance, occasionally taking pictures. They did not expect to learn
anything new — it was known that the Mossad used La Francia to carry out
its financial transactions.
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