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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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BY WAY OF DECEPTION 109hear I'd made a tape. "Otherwise," he said, "you'd be out on yourass and probably out <strong>of</strong> the course."I never saw or heard the tape again, but I learned my lesson well.That put a little blotch on my vision <strong>of</strong> the Mossad. Here's the bighero. I'd heard a lot about Harari's exploits before, but only by hiscode name, "Cobra." Then I found out what he really was.When the United States invaded General Manuel Noriega'sPanama shortly after midnight on December 20, 1989, earlyreports said that Harari had been captured, too. He was describedin wire service news stories as a "shadowy former <strong>of</strong>ficer <strong>of</strong> Israel'sMossad intelligence service who became one <strong>of</strong> Noriega's mostinfluential advisers." An <strong>of</strong>ficial for the new, American-installedgovernment expressed his delight, saying that next to Noriega,Harari was "the most important person in Panama." Thecelebration was premature, however. They caught Noriega, butHarari disappeared, showing up again shortly afterward in Israelwhere he remains.* * *I still had my other project to complete, the gathering <strong>of</strong>information on the former flyer named "Mikey." My father, SydOsten (he'd anglicized Ostrovsky), who now lives in Omaha,Nebraska, had been a captain in Israel's volunteer air force, so Iwas familiar with their flamboyant escapades and heroism duringthe independence war. They'd been mainly flyers for the U.S.,British, and Canadian air forces during World War II who'd latervolunteered to fight for Israel.Many <strong>of</strong> them were based at the Sede Dov Airport, where myfather had been base commander. I got many <strong>of</strong> their names fromthe archives, but I could find no reference to a man named"Mikey."Next, I called security chief Mousa M. for a registration at theHilton Hotel. I then got some cardboard and tripods for signs, andcalled the liaison <strong>of</strong>fice <strong>of</strong> the air force to say I was a Canadianfilm-maker wanting to make a documentary on the volunteerswho had helped establish the state <strong>of</strong> Israel. I said I would be atthe Hilton for two days and would like to meet as many <strong>of</strong> the menas possible.

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