MESOPOTAMIA NEWS INTEL :The Mossad’s International Brigade in Iran

In his farewell TV interview, outgoing Mossad chief Yossi Cohen revealed secrets about Iran that Israeli authorities always censor out of journalists’ reports

Yossi Melman  Haaretz  – Jun. 17, 2021 8:16 AM

In an interview on the “Uvda” TV program last week, former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen said Israel’s operations in Iran were carried out by a “Mossad operational team” whose operatives speak “foreign languages.” From the questions and answers in this revealing interview, as well as from Cohen’s body language and self-satisfied smiles, it was easy to conclude that the “team” that participated in the daring operation to steal Iran’s military nuclear archive on January 31, 2018, was composed of foreigners.

Israel’s intelligence community has always been assisted by foreigners. Some were Jewish. Others had ideological motives – The Mossad uses foreign citizens for its operations in Iran and elsewhere.

Israeli and international media outlets have reported this in the past. We can presume these people are well paid. Iranian spokespeople call them “mercenaries.” But when the head of the Mossad himself reveals this, he reinforces the false impression that Israel’s intelligence service, which has a global reputation as one of the best and most professional, is just a gang that acts like an outsourced crime organization.

Israel’s intelligence community has always been assisted by foreigners. Some were Jewish and did so either voluntarily or in exchange for expenses. Others had ideological motives, like identification with the State of Israel and its struggles. Others were non-Jews of various religions and nationalities, who were recruited to gather information or gave logistical aid, renting safe houses, vehicles, participating in surveillance, sightings or sending couriers to transfer funds or equipment.

Every intelligence service utilizes a variety of operational capabilities and tools. The Mossad and the Military Intelligence Special Forces have relied on foreign agents due to their access, including for particularly dangerous operations across the border. This has happened in Lebanon, Syria, or Iraq, but only as a last resort.

The Mossad has undergone drastic changes. Its reach is now global. It cannot just use Israelis with dual or triple citizenship

The Mossad has always prioritized “blue-and-white” operations, namely run by Israeli citizens, certainly when it comes to sensitive operations like assassinations and sabotage. This stems from national pride, but primarily because in such dangerous and sensitive situations, Israelis are more trustworthy than foreigners, whose motives are mainly financial or personal, such as revenge. Moreover, the Israeli combatants in frontline units like the Mossad’s Kidon unit have an appropriate military background and a sense of national pride. They know that they are risking their lives for the country where they and their families live. Their training and experience from missions are accumulative. They can be used repeatedly, thus limiting how many people are privy to sensitive information and better maintaining secrecy.

At the same time, in the last decade and a half, the Mossad has undergone drastic changes. Its reach is now global. Needs have changed. Operations have gone from tactical and surgical to strategic. It cannot just use Israelis with dual or triple citizenship. Biometric passports are difficult to forge. It needs to recruit teams with no direct connection to Israel, train them, equip them, and send them on missions. This was not a step taken lightly. Discussions among senior Mossad officials are permeated by a slight sense of shame that they lack independent capacity and are forced to turn to foreigners.

Willful submission

In a style oozing with personality cult, in which almost every second word is “I,” Cohen described the theft of Iran’s nuclear archive as beyond Hollywood’s wildest imagination and mentioned, among other things, the heist comedy film “Ocean’s Eleven.” Fine, we’re familiar with that analogy. But, and here’s the big difference, Cohen’s revelations about the operation itself may assist those seeking to gather details about the Mossad’s operational methods. Are the methods used by the foreigners similar to those used by Israeli Mossad operatives? What nations do the foreigners come from? Who belongs to the Mossad’s “international brigade”? How are they recruited? What personal and psychological profiling did they undergo? Where did it happen? How were they trained and where?

With all due respect to Iran’s counterintelligence units, they are still groping in the dark when it comes to these questions. And here comes the Mossad chief and provides them hints on TV that might complete the puzzle. Such operations were carried out even before Yossi Cohen’s time, but under previous Mossad chiefs they were kept secret. The last thing an intelligence service does is reveal who carried out the operation, if they even admit to doing it at all. Cohen has stuck a pin in the Mossad’s blue-and-white balloon and publicly deflated it. In his characteristic arrogance, he is proud of it.

Cohen’s revelations about foreign involvement were done for no apparent reason. They are intended for only one purpose: self-glorification. The fact that the operation to steal the nuclear archive was carried out by foreigners was a secret that should never have been revealed. There is a difference between when information comes from a foreign publication or even an Israeli journalist, and when something is said, albeit implicitly, straight from the horse’s mouth.