other-side-of-deception-victor-ostrovsky

132 / VICTOR OSTROVSKYIn some cases, there would be an extra restriction, when it wasbelieved that the terrorists might have an alliance with other terroristswho'd be willing to hit Israeli targets. That restriction was that theywere not to be given demolition materials. In those cases, the onlything that could be exchanged for the information would have to be inthe logistical sphere, mainly documentation.None of this was new to me; it was the same as I'd beeninstructed, and for which I had approved requests many times whenon the desks. As part of that drive, a deal was struck with a Frenchgroup called Action Directe for a series of blank, first-grade Britishpassports, in exchange for information about possible attacks onIsraeli targets. Action Directe was led to believe it was dealing with aSouth American group that wanted to exchange the information forarms from Israel.A dead letter box2 in a phone booth in West Germany was plannedas the means to get the passports to Action Directe. By using me as aninformation conduit, Ephraim was leaving it up to the Brits to get theGermans to make the arrest when the French terrorists tried to pickup the passports. The Germans would probably tail the Mossad dropman, then take the Action Directe men into custody when they arrivedat the pickup point. Ephraim didn't want the Action Directe to thinkthey'd been tricked by their South American connection, though. Ifthey did think that, they might try to kill the messenger, who was infact a Mossad officer. Ephraim was therefore going to have the ActionDirecte people warned, so that they wouldn't think it was a trap andthen take revenge on the Israelis for setting them up.Ephraim was hoping (and so was I) that an incident, even if itdidn't come home to haunt the Mossad, would at least put them insome very hot water. We knew, however, that to break the Mossad'shold on the government would not be a short process. Even the passportdrop was planned about a month ahead; it was explained to theterrorists that it would take time to prepare, and that would give theterrorists time to get the information that would be regarded as paymentfor the papers.The British gofer was out of breath by the time I was finished."Do you want our people to contact you or anything?" he asked.''I'll call back in a few days. If they have a question, tell them to2. Dead letter box: A designated place where intelligence information or othermaterial can be dropped off to be picked up later. The Mossad will only deliverto a dead letter box, never pick up from one.leave it with you so you can ask me. If I can, I'll tell you ahead of timehen I'm coming, although I doubt that very much." There was asilence on the line. I realized he didn't exactly know what he was supposedto do. I hung up and called the Jordanians. "Can I talk to Zuhir,$ease? This is Isa.""Just one minute please, Mr. Isa." I could tell from the woman'svoice that she knew this was important. Seconds later, a secondwoman came on the line. "Mr. Isa? I'm Lorraine. The general will talkto you in a minute." Things were going much better than I could haveimagined. I knew that if Mousa, my field activity instructor and nowhead of security in Europe, could see me, he would be extremelypoud of how I was working. But I prayed that he wouldn't, because ifhe did, I would be stretched out on a slab in the morgue, with atwenty-two-caliber bullet planted deep in my skull."Hello, Isa. How are you today?""Very well, and yourself?""Fine. I'm getting ready for Ramadan. You know this?""Sure. I hope you have an easy fast.""Thank you. What did you decide?""What can I tell you? I was always a sucker for a nice trip.""Does that mean yes?""Yes, it does.""Great. Now I'll tell my people, and we will get back to you. Willyou be at the same place as before?""Yes, only I'm running out of money. If I don't make some verysoon, I'll have to leave.""Where will you go?" That was one question I didn't want tohear. What it meant was that there was a possibility it would takelonger than a few days. At that moment, I was perplexed; I couldn'tunderstand the laxity with which I was being handled. Maybe I wasused to an extremely aggressive agency that would grab at almost anyopportunity; the man doing the grabbing could probably see anopportunity for personal advancement in every move. The generalwasn't part of this mechanism. He was a true soldier, doing what hethought was right, but not making decisions for others who were notunder his command.I was frustrated and it showed, all the more so since I was notmaking any effort to hide it. I realized then what Ephraim wanted toachieve by placing me in this situation without any means of support;he wanted me to rely on the success of my mission. I hated him forthat."I have no idea at the moment, but I will try to solve my financial