By Way of Deception

BY WAY OF DECEPTION 189Mossad that they were on to him. Their main concern was feedinghim information to pass along to the Mossad.Now, believing the operation was completed, Akbar wanted money.Since he would soon be heading back to London, he was told bythe London-based katsa to bring as much documentation as hecould from the PLO safe house. The meeting would be held in asmall village south of Rome, but it began in the usual way —sending Akbar to a Rome trattoria — and followed standard APAMprocedures from there.What wasn't standard, however, was the result of the meeting.When Akbar was shoved into the katsa's car and his briefcasetossed to the front seat in the usual way, the security man openedit. The car instantly blew up, killing Akbar, the katsa, and bothsecurity men. The driver survived, but was injured so badly thathe remains a vegetable today.Three more Mossad men had been following in another car, andone swore later that he had heard, over their communicationssystem, Akbar saying in a panicky voice, "Don't open it!" as if hehad known the briefcase contained an explosive device. TheMossad, however, never did determine whether or not Akbar knewhis briefcase was booby-trapped.In any event, the men in the second car called in another team,including a standby ambulance, complete with a nurse and doctor— local sayanim. The remains of their three dead colleagues, alongwith the severely injured driver, were quickly removed from thescene and later shipped back to Israel. Akbar's badly charred bodywas left in the wreckage of the car, to be found by Italian police.As it turned out, the PLO made a mistake by killing Akbar beforethe Meir operation. They could easily have waited until he hadreturned to London. Even though the Mossad would have knownwho killed him, it wouldn't have particularly mattered to them atthat point.In the meantime, Meir had already arrived in France on theopening leg of the trip that would bring her to Rome. Mossadofficials chuckled to themselves that Meir did not bring