Sunday, January 12, 2003

Mossad and Kenya

pv vivekanand

ISRAEL has gone silent on its investigations into the November attacks against Israeli targets in Mombassa, Kenya, and the silence is alarming and could herald stunning revelations of the nefarious operations of its super-secret spying agency, Mossad.
It was no empty pledge that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made when he vowed that the notorious Mossad would launch its own investigations and exact revenge for the attacks.
Mossad is ruthless and employs whatever means available to it to accomplish its mission. These could include murder, intimidation, blackmail and other "incentives" to enlist help from whatever source, and the agency leaves no trace behind. "The dead can't talk," that is the philosophy followed by Mossad, as Israeli commentators have affirmed.
For all we know, Mossad could have already traced those behind the attacks and spirited them away to Israel for questioning. An Israeli announcement could be made when Mossad feels it is safe to do so.
Mossad would have no consideration whatsoever except its secrecy and confidentiality even if those could delay a triumphant announcement by the Israeli government of "success in hunting down the enemies of the Jewish people."
Who knows, it could be Sharon's master stroke to make up for the loss of popularity and decline in prospects for an election victory resulting from corruption allegations.
Regardless of the politics involved, it is a fair conclusion that Mossad would have devoted itself to the assigned task of bringing the Mombassa attackers to Israeli-style "justice."
Mossad has an added incentive. It has to "redeem" itself after it suffered a series of setbacks in recent years leading what many see as a crisis of confidence in an agency once seen as a ruthless and highly efficient secret service.
Reports from Africa indicate that Mossad agents are targeting Somalia as the prime area for investigations, probably because of suspicions that Al Ittihad Al Islamiya of that country was alleged to have ties with Al Qaeda.
However, fair-skinned Israelis would stick out like a sore thump in Somalia. As such, the agency is said to be using Ethiopian immigrants to Israel -- the so-called Falasha Jews of Ethiopia -- and other Africans as its operatives in Somalia and elsewhere in the continent.
That is only a flash of the techniques employed by Mossad, which has been responsible for assassinating dozens of Palestinians, Arabs and others who were seen as potential sources of threat for Israel in whatever manner and form.
The "reputation" stemming from those "successes" suffered a series of setbacks in recent years as a result of blotched operations.
These included:
In February 1999, two agents were arrested in Cyprus near prohibited military areas. They were carrying cameras and investigations showed that they were taking photographs for possible delivery to Turkey.
In March 1999, a retired Mossad agent was convicted of fabricating intelligence reports suggesting Syria was about to attack. It was his Mossad background that had lent credibility to the claims.
In February 1998, Mossad agents were caught installing bugging equipment at an apartment in Berne, Switzerland. In a trial that ended in July 2000, One of them was given a one-year suspended prison term and barred from entering Switzerland for five years.
The wire-tapping operation targeted a Swiss citizen of Lebanese origin who Mossad suspected of having links with Lebanon's Hizbollah. The man testified during the trial that he had no links whatsoever with the group.
Israel had furnished a $2 million bail for its operative to secure his release and kept a promise of sending him back for trial. That infuriated Mossad agents to threatening an unprecedented strike and refusal to take up missions in protest against what they saw as a lack of backing from their superiors.
The worst of Mossad operations came in September 1997 where two agents were caught in Amman after they poured a slow-acting poison into the ear of Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal. Israel had to provide an antidote to the poison and also release Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin as well as dozens of Jordanian and Palestinian leaders in return for the two detained agents in Amman who were travelling on false Canadian passports.
Danny Yaton survived as chief of Mossad at the time of the Amman operation until February 1998 but was forced to resign after the agency carried out an in-house investigation.
The Kenyan capital of Nairobi is one of Mossad's main operating bases in Africa. Reports have suggested that it was Mossad which informed the US that Felicien Kabuga, one of the leading figures wanted for crimes in the Rwandan genocide of 1994, was being sheltered in Kenya. Subsequently, the US started applying pressure on Nairobi to hand him over for trial at the Rwandan War Crimes Tribunal.
The timing of the revelation is suspect since it followed the November attacks in Mombassa and a change of guard in the Kenyan government after late December elections.
As such, some observers believe, Mossad used its US connections to apply pressure on the new Kenyan government to ensure it co-operated with the Israeli investigations into the Mombassa bombing.
It would seem to be a far-fetched theory even though it could not be ruled out in view of Mossad's chequered record of exploiting situations to its advantage.
Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed when an Israeli-owned hotel near Mombassa is blown up by a car bomb. A simultaneous rocket attack on an Israeli airliner failed and a statement - purportedly from the Al Qaeda network -- claimed responsibility for the two attacks. It also threatened more attacks on Israeli and US targets.
In mid-December, Kenyan police cleared six Pakistanis and three Somalis who were detained after the attacks. They were only charged with entering Kenya illegally and faced fines and deportation.
Kenyan police are still questioning three people who they say witnessed the sale of the car they allege was used in the attack on the hotel.
Police have released computer-generated images of two men they suspect carried out the failed missile attack,
If, as claimed, Al Qaeda was behind the attacks, then we would be witnessing a scenario that involves Mossad tactics matched against the labyrinth of Osama Bin Laden's followers.
And indeed, the war could already be in action behind the scenes and it would have wider implications than simple Mossad-style assassinations.