In July of that year, in what would become known as the Lillehammer Affair, a team of Mossad agents mistakenly shot and killed Ahmed Bouchiki, a Moroccan waiter, after an informant mistakenly identified Bouchiki, who had no ties to the Munich massacre or Black September, as Salameh. Six Mossad agents, including two women, were arrested by local police, while others, including the team leader, Michael Harari, managed to escape back to Israel. Five of the captured were convicted of the killing and imprisoned, then eventually released and returned to Israel in 1975.
Sayeret Matkal
Within Amman, the IDF’s military intelligence department is Israel’s premier counterterrorism unit, Sayeret Matkal (General Staff Reconnaissance Unit). The unit is known for operating beyond Israel’s borders and for having had two former prime ministers as unit members. Alongside them, it is rumored that another unit exists, tasked with carrying out the targeted killing operations, given the long name of “special unit for counter-espionage and special investigations.”
One alleged facet of the unit’s operations is the extensive use of diverse citizenship, most commonly those citizens whose families are of Arabic or Persian descent. Utilizing agents and officers from these backgrounds, Israeli intelligence and special operations units have (again, allegedly) infiltrated into places like Iran using the passports—expertly forged, of course—of third countries. For a more detailed account of what makes up a Kidon unit operative, read former Mossad intelligence operations officer Mishka Ben-David’s book “Duet in Beirut.”
The Iran nuclear deal
So what does all of this mean for Israel, Iran, the United States, and the nuclear deal? Maybe nothing. Despite the initial successes in passing the deal through official channels, there is still a strong chance that it could stall and die a legislative death. (No, I am not here to debate the merits or pitfalls of the deal; others much smarter than me here at SOFREP can and will do just that.)
Or it could pass, Iran will (mostly) stick to the deal, and the world will watch them closely. It could also be that Iran pulls out of the deal or violates it completely and continues with its quest to develop nuclear weapons. And this might be where Israel decides that, once again, it is time to get ahead of the issue and take steps beyond pleading its case before Congress (as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did recently) or making the rounds of the Sunday morning talk show circuit. Israel might decide that more direct action is warranted.
That action might come in the form of a squadron of F-15I “Ra’am” or F-16C “Barak” penetrating Iranian airspace and dropping laser-guided munitions on known and suspected nuclear weapons facilities. It might come in the form of Sayeret Matkal teams hitting a facility or providing terminal guidance for the air strike. Or, it could come in the form of the mysterious death of an Iranian scientist, killed on his way to work or while on vacation—the victim of an explosion or a robbery gone wrong.
Explosion was the case in Tehran in January 2012, when the Iranian government reported that two men on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to the door of 32-year-old Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan’s silver sedan as he drove down a busy street close to Tehran University during the morning rush hour. The explosion killed him and a passenger who happened to be a chemical engineer. It was the fourth assassination of someone connected to Iran’s nuclear program, and the Iranians have, as expected, accused the United States and Israel of being responsible.
In mid-September, the collapse of a construction crane in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, resulted in the deaths of at least 107 and injured scores more, most of whom were making the yearly pilgrimage from Mecca to Medina as is required by Islamic law. Interestingly to some, among the eight Iranians killed was one Ahmad Hatami, a renowned member of the Iran Space Research Center.
The cause of the collapse has been attributed to the severe weather and wind that passed through the area, but I am sure that it will only be a matter of time before the whispers of an Israeli plot begin. There is no evidence that such a plot exists, but given the country’s history of not holding back in the defense of her citizens, it would not come as a surprise that her reputation for using the “extreme option”would spark such a story.
(Featured image courtesy of earth66.com)
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