other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

112 / \ ICTOR OSTROYSKY"Things were out of my hands. I couldn't get in touch with you.""What about the bloody phone? Who disconnected the phone?""What are you talking about? The phone is fine."I handed him the receiver. "Show me.""Not from this phone. We'll go out later, and I'll call from a payphone.""You call now." I wasn't backing off. My tone was harsh. I wasn'tready to take any more bullshit.He grabbed the receiver and dialed direct, using his calling cardnumber. After listening for several seconds, he seemed flustered."You're right! What the hell is going on?" He dialed another numberand waited. "What the hell is the matter with number twelve?" hesnapped at someone on the other end. He listened for several seconds,then said, "Do you know that could have cost us a life? If somethinghappens to my mall because of you, then you'd better not be therewhen I come back."I could hear the incoming voice but couldn't really make out whatthe man was saying; all I could get was the panic in his voice. "No,"Ephraim went on, "I don't want the line restored, you get me a new oneand I want it now, and it better be working if I call it in the next hout"He listened, then grabbed the pen from the night table and scribbleda number on the hotel pad. While he was still talking, he handedme the pad. When he hung up, I was already seated, buttering thetoast and taking the cover off the order of eggs and triple bacon.The only comfort I could draw from what had happened was thefact that, had this been a Mossad operation and not one run by arogue element within the Mossad, it never would have happened: It'snot like the Mossad to screw up on the hardware and technical side. Icould trust him now, but it was funny that it was trust by default.He poured coffee into the glass I had brought from the bathroom."Did the Russian call you back?" he asked."No," I snapped at him. "And don't change the subject." I wasstill angry about the phone screwup."I'm sorry," he said, trying to catch my eye. I was staring into myplate, dipping the toast into the soft egg yolk. "Someone screwed up.These things happen."I looked at him. "You should have made sure they didn't. If youwere only a few hours later getting here, the whole thing would havebeen over.""What were you going to do?""That's none of your business. I was going to take care of myself.What did you expect?"THE OTHER SIDE O F DECtPTlOS / 113"We're on the same side." He had a slightly embarrassed look."What did you plan to do?""What brings you here?" I asked, ignoring his question."I just got saddled with the tail end of an operation," he said.I wasn't going to say anything until he was finished."It's the old Trojan dick trick." He lit a cigarette."What's that?" I couldn't help smiling; I'd never heard it calledthat before."I knew that would get your attention," he said, grinning. "Shimonactivated Operation Trojan in February of this year."I nodded. I'd still been in the Mossad when that order was given,and because of my naval background and acquaintance with most ofthe commanders in the navy, I participated in the planning for theoperation as liaison with the navy.A Trojan was a special communication device that could beplanted by naval commandos deep inside enemy territory. The devicewould act as a relay station for misleading transmissions made by thedisinformation unit in the Mossad, called LAP,' and intended to bereceived by American and British listening stations. Originating froman IDF navy ship out at sea, the prerecorded digital transmissionscould be ~icked up only by the Trojan. The device would thenrebroadcast the transmission on another frequency, one used for officialbusiness in the enemy country, at which point the transmissionwould finally be picked up by American ears in Britain.The listeners would have no doubt they had intercepted a genuinecommunication, hence the name Trojan, reminiscent of the mythicalTrojan horse. Further, the content of the messages, once deciphered,would confirm information from other intelligence sources, namelythe Mossad. The only catch was that the Trojan itself would have tobe located as close as possible to the normal origin of such transmissions,because of the sophisticated methods of triangulation the Americansand others would use to verify the source.In the particular operation Ephraim was referring to, two eliteunits in the military had been made responsible for the delivery of theTrojan device to the proper location. One was the Matka12 reconnaissanceunit and the other was Flotilla 13, the naval commandos. The1. LAP: LohAma Psicologit. Psychological warfare, or, as it's known in the West,disinformation.2. Matkal: Top military reconnaissance unit of the Israeli army.