other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

THE OTHER SIDE OF DECEPTION / 199Bella had gone to Israel for a week to get the rest of our thingstogether and bring them back to Canada. When she'd left Israel, it hadbeen in haste, and all she had wanted to do was find me, having beenalmost totally cut off from me when I was in Jordan. She was dueback in Canada the following week. At about noon, I received a telephonecall at my house."Vic?" I recognized the voice instantly. But I was surprised thatEphraim was calling me at home."What?""How about we have lunch?""Where are you?" I could feel my body turn on to an alert state."I think that if you look out your window, you will see me. I'm ina phone booth across from a store called Canadian Tire."I looked down at the street, and there he was, in a light blue pinstripesuit."Where did you find the suit?" I asked, chuckling."Are you coming down, or should I come up there and drag youdown?""Do you realize how close we are to the Israeli embassy?" I asked."Sure, it's about a block down the street. But the man in charge ofsecurity is now on a shooting range in New York state with most ofhis men, and our liaison is in Washington. The coast is clear. We caneat anywhere you want to."I was down in a few minutes. It was a beautiful day. We ended upon the mezzanine level at the Westin Hotel, where we had a lightlunch. After giving me the Office gossip, Ephraim came to the point,namely the reason for his visit. "You have to make the move to Egyptnow. We can't wait any longer."I had in fact already made contacts in the Egyptian embassy inWashington and had been there twice. But at the time, on Ephraim'sadvice, I'd declined the invitation to go to Cairo. We were involved inmore important things just then, such as the Jordanian setup and themeetings with the British, and as Ephraim put it, the time was notright. I had a standing invitation from the then military attacht tocome for a visit.According to Ephraim, the man who'd made that invitation wasabout to be replaced, and since we didn't know who his replacementwould be, but already knew for a fact that the acting attacht was notworking for the Mossad, the window of opportunity for a safe entryinto Egypt was fast closing."You have to get in there and point out the connection with thefundamentalists. I'm getting some bits of information from time totime, and I need a way to let them have that information from asource they will trust.""Are you going to plant information to make a point?" I had toknow; if he was planning to use me as a tool for spreading disinformation,he could count me out. I had no special feelings for the Egyptians;it was just that I didn't believe in the Mossad's way of doingthings. I didn't think that what was bad for the goose was okay for thegander.He assured me that this was not the case; the information that hehad would lead to the arrest of several fundamentalists and the exposureof the armaments supply line from the Mujahideen in Afghanistanto the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt."That is a long way to carry arms," I noted.As it turned out, it was a complex pipeline, since a large portion ofthe Mujahideen's weapons were American-made and were supplied tothe Muslim Brotherhood directly from Israel, using as carriers theBedouin nomads who roamed the demilitarized zones in the Sinai.The Mossad could of course also supply Soviet-made equipmentfrom the spoils of the PLO stores seized in the 1982 war on the PLOin Lebanon. Once it was on Egyptian territory, the mattriel waspassed to an intermediary who would make the final delivery. As paymentfor the armaments, the Mossad would contract targets to be hitinside Egypt."Destabilize, destabilize, destabilize," Ephraim said. "That is allthey're doing, all the time. No matter what anyone says, all they canthink about is creating a shambles. They don't understand that thisjungle they're creating will one day swallow them too.""Bella is due back on the first. I'll take her and the kids on a smalltrip to Washington and pick up my visa there. That is, if my contact isstill working.""Don't delay. I hear you've been talking to Uri."His statement caught me totally by surprise. I wasn't quite surewhat to say, if anything. "Do you have a slow ignition or something?That was a long time ago.""Kot that long. Have you been in contact with him since?""Ask him."He didn't say another word about it. At the end of the day, he hadme drive him to the airport, and off he went. He was going to give mesome information about the armaments transfer after I got back fromWashington and had a firm date to travel.