other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

Ephraim was supposed to have delivered money to me, but for somereason, he hadn't done so. Had this been a normal Mossad opera-tion, he could have gotten as much money as he wanted from abank sayan-a Jewish banker who is regarded as trustworthy and willopen the bank for you at any time and provide as much money asneeded. He would be reimbursed the following day, once the stationgot the money from headquarters. Bank sayans were used only inemergency situations. But this was not a normal operation, and so I'dhave to wait for Ephraim to arrange things, or use whatever I couldget from the people I was supposedly working for.I couldn't help finding the situation somewhat ludicrous; here Iwas, interacting with the top brass of intelligence agencies of severalcountries simultaneously, and I didn't have enough money for a propermeal. Things would have to start to move fast, or I'd end up on thestreet before I knew it. According to my estimation, I could stretch mystay at the hotel for a few more days and then that was it.I forced myself into a joyous mood and called Bella. She wanted toknow what was going on, what I was doing, and what she was supposedto do for money. Ephraim had promised to arrange a check forher that would look as if it had been sent from me. I was to tell herthat it was an advance for the security advising job I was doing forsome company. There was no reason for her to suffer a lack of funds.If I'd been working for the Mossad, she would have been well takencare of, and if I hadn't been, I would get a job and do it myself. But inthis situation of limbo, Ephraim had to do it. As it turned out,Ephraim never got around to it, but at the time, I was still under theimpression he would. I was constantly worried about how Bella wasmaking ends meet. I knew that her father would help her, but I alsoknew that things would have to get pretty bad before she would askhim for help. But there was very little I could do about it except losesleep.At three A.M., I decided to find out if the Jordanians had placedsomeone to check me out. I got dressed and walked out of the hotel.The streets were deserted, and no one came after me. If they had put atail on me, he was either blind or asleep.I made a call to the British embassy the next day and asked for anappointment with the gofer. I wanted to meet him somewhere outsidethe embassy and give him some information. He asked me to call backin an hour or so. When I did, he told me he would not be able to comeout and meet me but that he'd be waiting for me at the embassy wheneverI'd like to come. I realized that they regarded me as dangerousand suspected that I could in fact be teaming up with someone whomight harm them. I couldn't risk entering another embassy just then,so I said I would give him the information over the phone.This was a snippet that Ephrai~n had left me just before he wentback to Israel. Since terrorism was on the increase in Europe at the time,there was a great demand for information regarding terrorist activity,and the Mossad was more creative in that field than most. Since theMossad regarded Israeli targets as sacred, they were willing to deal withjust about anyone to get advance warning about attacks on such targets.It was a standing order for field personnel at the time to makecontact, under false flag,' with whatever terrorist organizations theycould. The only restriction was that the meeting be held in a secureenvironment, meaning that the case officer would have to get clearancefrom the Mossad European center in Brussels as to the dangerlevrl of the said terrorist, and the officer in charge of field securitywould have to arrange the security for the meeting.Once the contact was established, case officers were authorized tomake any exchange for information that would lead to the preventionof an attack on an Israeli target. Although it was the Mossad's policyto let it be understood that they regarded Jewish targets as having thesame level of urgency as Israeli targets had, that was not the case. Infact, officers were on numerous occasions made to understand that itwas not part of the job to protect Jews; that was the job of the locals.Under no circumstances was anyone allowed to burn a source whocould one day bring in a warning about an Israeli target, in order tosave a Jewish one.1. False flag: Intelligence jargon meaning a deliberate misrepresentation of one'snationality.