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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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320 BY WAY OF DECEPTIONlege in Israel. He was the main leader <strong>of</strong> the force that went intothe refugee camps and slaughtered the civilians.Hobeika, who hated Amin Gemayel and wanted to embarrass him,was involved in a bitter internal power struggle because he wasbeing blamed by some for not having protected Bashir Gemayel.At 5 p.m. on September 16, Hobeika assembled his forces atBeirut International Airport and moved into the Shatila camp,with the help <strong>of</strong> flares and, later, tank and mortar fire from theIsraeli Defense Force (IDF). At the time, an Israeli cabinet pressstatement claimed the IDF had "taken positions in West Beirut toprevent the danger <strong>of</strong> violence, bloodshed, and anarchy."The next day, Hobeika received Israeli permission to bring twoadditional battalions into the camps. Israel knew the massacrewas taking place. Israeli forces had even set up observation postson top <strong>of</strong> several seven-story buildings at the Kuwaiti embassytraffic circle, giving them an unobstructed view <strong>of</strong> the carnage.Outraged by this slaughter and by Israel's role in it, the war <strong>of</strong>words between Reagan and Begin escalated, and by early October,Reagan had sent 1,200 U.S. marines back to Beirut, only 19 daysafter they had left. They joined 1,560 French paratroopers and1,200 Italian soldiers in yet another peacekeeping force.* * *All this time, the Mossad station in Beirut was busy carrying on itswork. One <strong>of</strong> its informants was a "stinker" — actually also aYiddish term, used in Israel when referring to an informant (likethe English expression "stool pigeon"). The stinker had links with alocal garage that specialized in refitting vehicles for smugglingpurposes. Many Israeli military people, for example, weresmuggling tax-free videos and cigarettes out <strong>of</strong> Lebanon andturning huge pr<strong>of</strong>its in Israel, where the taxes are 100 to 200percent on such items. The Mossad, in turn, <strong>of</strong>ten passedpertinent information along to the Israeli military police, with theresult that many smuggling attempts were foiled.

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