By Way of Deception

136 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONThe funny thing was, the aide gave the shipping address as theharbor in Litakia, but he gave a false name for himself and thegeneral. The only thing that wasn't false was where to pick it up.He said if we needed verification, we could call the Syrian embassyin Paris. Half an hour after he left our katsa, the aide phoned ourman inside the embassy and told him that if anyone called toverify that name and address, he was to do so because it was atop-priority operation.Two days later, an ornate Belgian table was shipped to Israel. Itwas gutted, and $50,000 worth of listening and broadcastingequipment was installed in it, including a special battery thatwould last three to four years. The equipment was sealed up insuch a way that no one would find it unless they took the top offthe table and sawed it in two. The table was then shipped back toBelgium and put into the furniture shipment for Syria.The Mossad are still waiting to hear from the table. They've alreadyhad combatants going around with listening devices trying to pickit up, and they can't find a thing. It would have been a dream, hadit worked out. Of course, it might have been put into a bunkeroffice in Damascus. The Russians made some there, and they'refrequency-proof. But if they'd discovered it, they surely would haveused it.My work in the department was otherwise quite monotonous. Iwas filing, watching schedules, and most of all, covering up forbosses when their wives called asking where they were — I had tosay they were on assignment.Like everybody else, I was working in the whorehouse.