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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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220 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONshoulder-pad symbol is a sword crossing an olive branch, plus tw<strong>of</strong>ig leaves, or falafels.Unlike the United States, with its separate forces, the IDF isbasically one army with various branches, such as navy and airforce. The heads <strong>of</strong> those branches, major generals, wear thesword and olive symbol but just one falafel. One rank below themare the brigadier generals, the heads <strong>of</strong> the various militaryintelligence branches. One below that is colonel — my rank when Ijoined the Mossad and was promoted one rank.Underlining the importance <strong>of</strong> intelligence to the Israelis is the factthat the head <strong>of</strong> the army intelligence corps holds the same rank— major general — as the heads <strong>of</strong> the navy, air force, field forces,tank battalions, and the military judicial system. The head <strong>of</strong>naval intelligence is one rank lower.The head <strong>of</strong> AMAN, or military intelligence, holds the same rank asthe other service heads, but in practice outranks all other militaryintelligence <strong>of</strong>ficers because he is answerable directly to the primeminister in the chain <strong>of</strong> command. The difference between AMANand the intelligence corps is that AMAN is the recipient <strong>of</strong>intelligence, while the corps is charged with gathering tacticalinformation in the field.In late 1975, naval intelligence went to the annual militaryintelligence meeting and announced its need for an Exocet missile.The missile, manufactured by France's Aerospatiale, is called a seaskimmer; it is fired from a ship, rises to find its target through ahoming device, then drops to level out just above the water line,making it difficult to detect with radar and also to defend against.The only way to determine a defense against such a missile is bytesting it.Israel's main concern was that some Arab countries, Egypt inparticular, would be buying Exocets. In the event they did, thenavy wanted to be prepared. In fact, they did not need a wholemissile to test — only the head, where all the electronic systemsare located.The man selling a missile won't give the buyer the full informationabout it. He won't test it on the defense side, ei-

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