By Way of Deception

BY WAY OF DECEPTION 119who, in turn, advises the combatants how to operate the business.Combatants are recruited from the general Israeli public. They arepeople from all walks of life — doctors, lawyers, engineers,academics — people who are willing to give four years of their livesto serve their country. Their families are paid an average Israelisalary as compensation, but a bonus for overseas work is put in aseparate account for the combatant. At the end of four years,they'll have $20,000 to $30,000 in this account.Combatants do not gather direct intelligence — actual physicalobservations, such as movement of arms or the readiness ofhospitals for war — but they do gather "fiber" intelligence, whichmeans the observation of economics, rumors, feelings, morale,and such. They can come and go easily and observe these thingswithout any real risk to themselves. They do not broadcast reportsfrom a target country, but they sometimes deliver things there —money, messages. Many bridges in Arab countries had bombsplanted in the concrete by combatants during their construction— all combatants are trained in demolition techniques. In the caseof war, these bridges could be easily demolished by a combatantsent in to detonate the explosives.In any event, after Tsvi and Amiram had been assigned toKomemiute, Shai Kauly had a message for the rest of us. It had todo with our promised holiday."As you know," he said, "every plan is a base for change. I knowyou are all anxious for your holiday, but before you go on it youhave something else to do. You'll be the first course to receiveintensive training on the total use of the office computer. That willtake no more than three weeks, and after that you can have whatis left of your holiday."We learned to expect this in the Mossad. There were times aholiday would be coming up and we'd be told we could leaveFriday at noon. Then noon would come and somebody would saythey needed us, but just for the next 24 hours. Then we'd have 20minutes to phone home and everybody would rush to the phone.