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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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208 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONa letter to the head <strong>of</strong> the Mossad saying the organization wasstagnant, wasteful, and had the wrong attitude toward democracy.It is known inside only as "the letter <strong>of</strong> the 11," and Riff is the onlyone <strong>of</strong> the 11 who survived it. Everyone else was kicked out. Hewas skipped over twice for advancement, however, and in 1984when he demanded his file to see why he was not being advanced,he was told it had been misplaced — an unlikely story, since theorganization had only 1,200 people altogether, includingsecretaries and drivers.As a result <strong>of</strong> that letter, incidentally, the NAKA regulations werechanged so that not more than one other person in the Mossadcould cosign a letter.Anyway, Riff called liaison in Rome and told them to call theirfriend in Italian intelligence, Amburgo Vivani, and give him theaddress <strong>of</strong> the safe house where the missiles were. "You tell himyou'll call him at a time when all the people involved are there andhe's to come into that apartment only at that particular time," Riffsaid. "That way he can catch them all."A unit <strong>of</strong> neviot men were casing the place for the Mossad and onSeptember 5, 1973, when they saw all the terrorists go in, theycalled Italian intelligence. The Italians were standing by — so wasthe Mossad, who saw the Italians but weren't seen by them — andthey entered the apartment, arresting five men — from Lebanon,Libya, Algeria, Iraq, and Syria — and confiscating the two missiles.The story given out was that the five had planned to shoot downcivilian airliners from the ro<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong> their apartment as they weretaking <strong>of</strong>f from Rome's Fiumicino airport. This was a ridiculousstory, because the airplanes didn't fly over that apartment. But itdidn't matter. People believed it.At that time, the head <strong>of</strong> Italian intelligence was very close to theMossad. In fact, the Italian, carrying a concealed camera, used totravel to Arab countries and photograph Arab military installationsfor the Mossad.Even though they caught the terrorists red-handed with two heatseekingmissiles, the Italians released two <strong>of</strong> the five on bailimmediately. Naturally, they left Rome. The other three werereleased to Libya, but on March 1, 1974, after

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