By Way of Deception

BY WAY OF DECEPTION 149There is an area along the beach north of Tel Aviv called TelBarbach, not far from the Country Club, where all the hookershang out waiting for men to come along in their cars, pick themup, go behind the sand dunes, do their thing, and drive off. Pinhasdecided to take his night photography equipment and set up on ahill by the sand dunes, photographing men in their cars with thehookers, and thereby collecting some explicit photos, thanks tothe high-quality equipment and powerful telescopic lenses. Wehad already been taught how to invade the police computer —plugging into it without police knowledge or permission — soMaidan simply ran the car license plates through the computer tofind the owners' names and addresses, and began blackmailingthem. He'd phone, say he had some compromising photos, andask for money.He boasted that he was making quite a bit. He didn't say howmuch, but eventually someone complained and he wasreprimanded. I thought he'd be kicked out. But apparentlysomebody regarded this as showing initiative. I guess when you'rerolling so deep in the shit, you don't notice when something smellsbad.Of course, to the Mossad's way of thinking, the production of suchphotos could sometimes be a powerful persuader in recruiting —and sometimes not. A story was told of one senior Saudi Arabianofficial who was photographed in bed with a hooker who had beengiven instructions to situate herself and her bedmate in such away that the camera recorded both his face and the actualpenetration. Later, the Mossad confronted him with the evidenceof his sexual escapades, spreading the photos on a table andsaying, "You might want to cooperate with us." But instead ofrecoiling in shock and horror, the Saudi was thrilled with thephotos. "This is wonderful," he said. "I'll take two of those, three ofthat," adding he wanted to show them to all his friends. Needlessto say, that particular recruiting effort failed.The course went on to deal with intelligence units in the variousArab countries, and the trainee katsas also spent some timetalking to security officers in hotels, learning