By Way of Deception

BY WAY OF DECEPTION 269tus, but it seems that even the CIA believes that apart from theodd questionable exercise, the Mossad, except for liaison, simplydoes not operative actively in the United States itself.Well, they're wrong.Pollard was not Mossad, but many others actively spying,recruiting, organizing, and carrying out covert activities — mainlyin New York and Washington, which they refer to as their"playground" — do belong to a special, super-secret division of theMossad called simply Al, Hebrew for "above" or "on top."The unit is so secretive, and so separate from the mainorganization, that the majority of Mossad employees don't evenknow what it does and do not have access to its files on thecomputer.But it exists, and employs between 24 and 27 veteran fieldpersonnel, three as active katsas. Most, though not all, of theiractivity is within U.S. borders. Their primary task is to gatherinformation on the Arab world and the PLO, as opposed togathering intelligence about U.S. activities. But as we shall see,the dividing line is often blurred, and when in doubt, Al doesn'thesitate to cross over it.To say it doesn't gather information on the Americans is likesaying mustard is not the main course, but you do like a little onyour hotdog. Say, for example, there's a senator on the armscommittee who interests Mossad. Al rarely uses sayanim, but thatsenator's paperwork, anything happening in his office, would beimportant information, so an aide would become a target. If anaide was Jewish, he or she would be approached as a sayan.Otherwise, the person would be recruited as an agent, or even justas a friend, with whom to mingle and listen.The Washington cocktail circuit is very important for that. Certainattaches keep track of it. There is no problem adding someone tothat circuit and giving it a legitimate ring.Suppose, for instance, McDonnell Douglas wants to sell U.S.-made airplanes to Saudi Arabia. Is that a U.S. issue or an Israeliissue? Well, as far as the Institute is concerned, it's Israel'sbusiness. When you have something like that in place, it's verydifficult not to use it. So they do.