By Way of Deception

BY WAY OF DECEPTION 305The idea was based on the concept of mikrim ye tguvot, Hebrewfor "actions and reactions." They already knew the action, but theyhad to anticipate the reaction. For every possible reaction, anotheraction is planned. It's like a giant chess game, except that youdon't plan more than two reactions ahead because it wouldbecome too complicated. It's all part of regular operationalplanning, and it goes into every move made.In the room with the katsa, and listening with earphones, wereMenachem Dorf, head of the Mossad's PLO department, andGidon Naftaly, the Mossad's chief psychiatrist, whose job was tolisten and try immediately to analyze the person answering thephone.The man who answered first didn't understand French, so hepassed the call to someone else. The second man came on the line,gave the name of the man in charge, said he'd be back in half anhour, and immediately hung up.When the katsa called back, he asked for the harbormaster byname, got him on the line, and identified himself as an insuranceinvestigator with a French underwriting company.This was their one shot, so it had to work. Not only must the storysound credible, the storyteller must sound as if he believes it, too.And so, the katsa told his listener what business he was in, thatthey needed to have access to various details about certain shipsin the harbors, and that they needed to know who was in charge."I'm in charge," the man said. "How can I be of assistance?""We know that from time to time ships put in there that theirowners claim have been lost or damaged. Now, we're theunderwriters, but we can't always check these claims firsthand, sowe need to know more.""What do you need to know?""Well, we need to know, for example, if they are being repaired, orif they are loading or unloading. We don't have a representativethere, as you know, but we would like to have someone lookingafter our interests. If you could recommend someone to us, we'dcertainly be willing to reimburse him handsomely."