other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

I decided to leave on the stroke of midnight. I needed to go to aplace where they had police around the clock, but a police station wasnot where I wanted to be. I had to get to the airport. It was opentwenty-four hours a day, and police were on duty at all times. I couldalso make calls from there and try to get out of the city as fast as possible.I figured I'd be safer with my publisher. After all, he was mypartner in all of this.At twelve, I pulled out of my driveway and was immediately followedby a small gray car and a large gray windowless van. I madeseveral evasive maneuvers and, having the advantage of knowing thearea better than any newcomer, got away. I headed straight for the airportand the RCMP station there.I spoke briefly with the constable at the airport, informing himthat Mossad people had been on my tail in the city. He promised toinform the airport police to check on me every so often. There were noflights until the next morning, so it appeared I was going to spend thenight at the airport.I called Bella to tell her everything was okay, and then I calledClaire Hoy to bring him into the loop. Nelson Doucet wasn't home, soI called Jack Stoddart. I expected him to take some action and maybeshow some concern, but he didn't seem to realize the gravity of the situation.He merely said that he hoped all would be well and that helooked forward to seeing me the next morning in the office.The flight took off at seven A.M. There were some problems landingin Toronto Island because of the fog. But we got there eventually,and after a wild cab ride, I arrived at Stoddart's offices.There I had to wait for a while. Eventually, someone came to seeme, and I explained what was happening. The Mossad was on ourtrail and was getting into position to take steps to stop us. I felt anobligation to Stoddart to give them a way out of this situation, and ina one-on-one talk with Jack Stoddart, I told him that if he wished towithdraw from this venture, he'd be handsomely reimbursed by theMossad, whose representative Oren Riff was still waiting for my callat the consulate in Toronto.Jack replied that publishing was not only a matter of money butalso, for him, a matter of principle. He had no intention of backingdown; the book was coming out, no matter what.Angel Guerra, Stoddart's chief of publicity, had already conveneda small group of reporters from the major papers and television stations.They'd been given a short summary of the book and were waitingfor me in a conference room. Meanwhile, St. Martin's Press hadbeen notified of the new developments and told to move forward as.i2$a >. ~,M .'3ibr,;p ;fast as they could. They had seventeen thousand copies of the book intheir warehouse and decided to ship them out right then and there.The shipping was done via a system called blind shipping, in which apublisher ships books to the stores in the absence of specific orders.The stores are not obligated to take the books, but most do, and awidespread distribution is virtually guaranteed.Bill Hanna, the rights VP, had also licensed the British rights to~loomsbury, but St. Martin's, who would eventually supply them withbooks, had no extras to send them, having taken a wait-and-see attituderegarding sales volume.I called Bella, who told me that Rina, one of her best friends, hadcalled from Israel. Rina had told Bella that she, her husband Hezy, andseveral other friends of ours were going to be brought to Ottawa thefollowing day to try to get me to stop the publication of the book.Bella told me that she tried to explain to Rina that such an effortwould be futile and that it would be very unlikely that Rina wouldsucceed where Bella herself had failed. Later, when Oren called lookingfor me, Bella told him to tell the people in Israel not to send all ourfriends on this stupid trip. Oren played dumb and said he had no ideawhat she was talking about. But she persisted, and he finally put anend to the matter.Meanwhile, I was sitting at Stoddart Publishing, feeling extremely,helpless. I could almost feel the presence of the Mossad team butcould not communicate with Ephraim or any of the others. There weretoo many ears and eyes around.Just before I headed for the news conference, a fax arrived fromthe offices of Goodman and Carr Barristers and Solicitors, sent by JoelGoldenberg on behalf of the state of Israel, telling Stoddart that theyhad obtained an order from a judge barring the distribution of: thebook and ordering me not to discuss the information in the book untilthings were clarified in court. I was muzzled, and for the first time inCanadian history, a foreign country had blocked publication of abook-all this before a single book had left the Canadian warehouseand before the lawyers and judge involved had even had a chance tosee a copy, unless it was a stolen one. That my name was on the cover,and that it was a nonfiction book about the Mossad, was apparentlyenough to make it a danger to the state of Israel.Before any legal steps could be taken in the States, St. Martin'sPress had already shipped over twelve thousand copies to the stores inthe U.S. Still, it wasn't long before Israel moved to try to block thebook in the United States just as it had done in Canada.Right from the outset, it was clear to the government of Israel that