The Secret Israeli Unit That Hunted Nazis | Secrets Of War | Timeline

hi everyone welcome to this timeline documentary just before you watch i want to tell you about my new history channel it's called history hits it's like the netflix for history it's got hundreds and hundreds of his documentaries on there and interviews with some of the world's best historians we're adding new stuff all the time for example today i'm filming in this one of the few remaining lancaster bombers for a show about the dambusters raid in 1943. if you want to know more about history hit follow the information just below this video or search online for history it and make sure you use the code timeline to get a special introductory offer now enjoy this show [Music] foreign thank you espionage a profession as old as the bible it began centuries ago where the old testament tells us moses sent men from the tribes of israel to spy and canaan their promised land upon their return the spies reported that the people are strong that dwelleth in the land and these cities are walled and very great the information proved to be decisive for the triumph of the israelites in the promised land the men sent by moses were perhaps the first jewish spies in history they would become part of an ancient legacy that's returned in our time now devoted to the survival of a modern jewish state is israel's secret agency of espionage it is known as mossad mossad's the best intelligence agency in the world maybe we come in second on some things and maybe the kgb in the old days would come in second and rival it every once in a while but across the board from doing things that people talk about doing things that nobody talks about they pretty much the best in the business it's an agency with limited financial means yet with operations on every continent human intelligence has been the mossad's most valuable resource [Music] from the cold war to the gulf war rescuing hostages hunting nazi war criminals and combating terrorism israel's shadowy intelligence network has been at the center of international espionage the mossad has its roots in british-controlled palestine [Music] in september 1929 jews in jerusalem were demonstrating their sovereignty over the last remnant of king solomon's holy temple the western wall also known as the wailing wall as jews prayed at their holiest site stones broken bottles and tin cans filled with rubble rained down upon them without warning an assault had been launched by arabs then gunfire erupted from muslim marksmen jews fell were dragged away by their fleeing neighbors no one was killed but scores were injured that night the leaders of the issue of the jewish community in palestine met their demonstration had lacked one essential element for knowledge of an arab attack someone reminded the group about the spies of moses who scouted the promised land for the jews intelligence had ancient roots that night in 1929 the seeds were sown for what would become a formidable intelligence service but its official creation was still almost a quarter of a century away by the late 30s and early 40s the jews of palestine had formed their own underground army the haganah the first jewish army since biblical times the founding fathers of the mossad were all members of intelligence units of the various underground organizations working in palestine then under british rule those people were doing very thorough intelligence work before independence but then of course it was unorganized in official without any established procedures and means during world war ii jews along with the allied forces fighting in europe found themselves facing a common enemy soldiers from palestine joined the british army and created the jewish brigade their experience provided an invaluable opportunity to learn reconnaissance and infiltration european-born and fluent in german some soldiers of the brigade became spies who worked behind enemy lines when the war ended in 1945 jewish soldiers celebrated with the victorious allies but the supreme allied commander general dwight d eisenhower quickly found himself overwhelmed with over one million german powers eisenhower ordered the repatriation process of hundreds of thousands of german soldiers to be accelerated jewish soldiers many with relatives who were murdered by hitler's third reich stood by as thousands of nazi soldiers were freed hidden among them were wanted war criminals like the ss colonel adolf eichmann one of the architects of the nazi's plan of genocide then oxford's camp dr joseph mengele who killed maimed and tortured his victims mostly children they both had escaped detection by concealing their true identities even with the war over some jewish fighters decided to press on forming their own group to hunt down fugitive nazi war criminals they were known as nokmin the avengers at that time we were prepared to eliminate the germans i mean to turn the tables around and do to them not in the same manner of course what they had done to the jewish people in europe the avengers took the law into their own hands on april 13th 1946 easter sunday in an american pow camp in nuremberg germany hundreds of ss soldiers were mysteriously poisoned other ss officers hiding as civilians were taken out of their homes and executed a year after the war ended nearly 800 nazis were eliminated in post-war europe the jews made contact with american intelligence agents from the oss the precursor to the cia shared drinks and information with these early jewish spies the avengers compiled hit lists based on information secretly provided by sympathetic agents and on testimonies from liberated holocaust survivors the trick here really was more in terms of finding these people many of them knew that their lives were at stake and we were overwhelmed to a large extent so it's not at all impossible that information was given to some people who concentrated solely on finding some of the more egregious characters some jewish agents who worked for the intelligence unit of the haganah were on the trail of ss officer adolf eichmann the hunt was centered in small villages of the austrian alps where many nazi fugitives were hiding at the end of the war the agents many of whom were exiled europeans themselves spoke fluent german and often posed as germans or austrian citizens one agent searching for eichmann was manus diaman [Music] in our search we located his wife in bado which is a resort town about 30 kilometers from lynx there many of the nazi criminals were hiding i lived opposite the house of mrs eichman one way or another i managed to befriend the children i went sailing with them hiking for a couple of months i was like a member of the family but she had no contact with her husband and she probably knew that she was being watched [Music] the haganah agents eventually lost the trail for the fugitive nazi and were reassigned a more urgent task back in palestine the head of the world zionist congress jewish leader david ben-gurion knew that the best opportunity to establish an independent state of israel was approaching he began an unprecedented operation to bring jewish exiles into palestine in order to help build the dream of a new homeland among them were hundreds of thousands of holocaust survivors agents were ordered to organize an escape route for refugees from post-war europe into british-controlled palestine the operation was called the brija the refugees came on foot by road and rail through the balkans and then across the mediterranean to the shores of palestine many of them came to israel because there was no jewish future in europe anymore as a result of the holocaust no choice that's where jews went they went to israel and suddenly this country that was just starting found itself with a wealth of talent not much money not much in the way of natural resources but the kind of talent that would really help them in winning not just a war on the military battlefield but the secret war of intelligence too in 1947 the united nations partitioned palestine creating arab and jewish territories as the british empire was preparing to depart the region altogether the stage was set to declare the birth of a new jewish state one year later the new state would rely on all its available resources as the surrounding arab nations were poised to destroy it [Music] [Applause] on may 14 1948 david ben-gurion declared statehood for jewish palestine and became the state's first prime minister after nearly 2000 years the nation of israel was reborn the next day the armies of five arab nations attacked israeli intelligence agents were stationed in the arab capitals of cairo and oman they stole attack plans of the egyptian and jordanian armies and obtained vital secrets on arab morale and military strength meanwhile in europe israeli agents managed to buy and smuggle out thousands of badly needed rifles in the u.s airplane parts and even whole military planes were illegally transferred out and flown into israel making up the beginning of an israeli air force it all helped to defend a country that was fighting for its survival although the egyptians were just 20 miles from the city of tel aviv the war was over the next year israel was victorious and even gained additional territory beyond the u.n partitioned boundaries yet few nations on earth had ever been born into such a hostile environment if they lost a war it would all be over and so the demand for excellence was very real the demand for patriotism genuine and the kind of men and some women who would join the intelligence services were the kind who were the the best of the israelis almost the princes of the tribe of israel national security would be the new government's top priority more than most countries israel would rely on intelligence for its very survival we have a hebrew saying and there's no other choice that's what pushes you that's what really brings you to to the position that that you you you have to do things uh that sometimes it looks like an impossible mission in the first three years of statehood israeli intelligence was made up of several diverse agencies there was a military intelligence organization there was a civil intelligence organization they were they were actually quarreling among themselves about who who's going to operate the agents and who's going to do what by 1951 prime minister ben gurion consolidated all the intelligence agencies under the direction of one centralized department it would be known as the institute for coordination or mossad the rest of the world came to know it simply as mossad staff members represented all intelligence divisions internal military and foreign while mossad was under the jurisdiction of the ministry of foreign affairs its very existence was officially denied even the identity of its director who reported only to the prime minister was a closely guarded secret one of the mossad's first directors was reuven shiloh in 1951 he signed a secret cooperation agreement with the cia the agreement was based on mutual need the us needed allies to stem the rise of its cold war adversary the soviet union and is spreading influence over the region israel wanted intelligence on its arab neighbors and a reliable arm supplier yet in those early years israel had to overcome a major obstacle in order to demonstrate its allegiance as far as the cia was concerned there were deep suspicions on the part of many people in washington because israel was a socialist country many of the jews who founded the country had come from the soviet union or from other countries with socialist backgrounds and this didn't seem like something that the cold war heroes of the cia and the pentagon would be comfortable with and they weren't james jesus angleton formerly an oss agent stationed in europe was promoted to chief of counter-espionage in the cia he was a fierce opponent of communism while angleton had always admired the jewish secret agents in europe he feared that israel might pose a high security risk with its ties to socialism and its links with the soviet bloc angleton was concerned that some among the new immigrants in israel were soviet spies that could infiltrate israeli intelligence as a stepping stone to penetrate the west a state department memorandum at the time warned the admixture of european races in palestine offers a unique opportunity for soviet penetration into a highly strategic area yet it was precisely such a connection that enabled israel to learn information from behind the iron curtain that no one else knew at that time the israeli shinbe this local intelligence service was questioning every jew who immigrated to israel from those countries the reason for those interrogations was to find out and try to filter who among them is a russian spy but there was a lot of information gathered in this way the mossad got its first major opportunity to demonstrate its western allegiance in 1956. the israelis hoped to surprise the intelligence world by obtaining a copy of the speech that had been secretly delivered by the new soviet leader nikita khrushchev to the communist party congress in moscow some people say hey it was just a speech just words on pieces of paper but it was the speech that the cia and the other western intelligence agencies really wanted they couldn't get it for months because they understood they'd heard that khrushchev gave a secret speech in which he revealed all the horrors of the stalin regime what had happened in the soviet union of how bad the economy was this was stuff that there was no way that cia spies could get kustov who had recently risen from the ranks of the kremlin to become the new soviet dictator needed to distance himself from his late predecessor and the internal damage the stalinist regime had brought upon the country in the trenches of the cold war nothing seemed more important than to possess that speech a young jewish polish journalist by the name of viktor grayevsky who decided he he was he was a communist originally but in 1956 he was already disenchanted with communism and he decided he's going to israel and just before this a lady who was a very highly positioned communist bureaucrat fell in love with him and one day when he visited her she told him by the way i have here the speech of gosh the israeli sympathizer photographed the speech and passed it on to the shin bet the israeli domestic security agency once declared authentic the speech was passed on to the united states at cia headquarters the american intelligence director alan dulles received a printed copy of the russian speech from james angleton who told his boss it came from the israelis dulles would later recall that day as one of the greatest moments of his career the khrushchev text was not only read with great interest at cia headquarters it was leaked to the new york times all 20 000 words were also broadcast in all languages of communist countries over radio free europe and radio liberty thousands of printed texts were even tied to balloons and flown over the iron curtain into eastern bloc countries once 1956 was over the americans were going to be sure that they would liaise more often with the israelis a real breakthrough for israel but especially for israeli intelligence look what this little group this new young mossad can accomplish it helped them a lot in the u.s the cooperation agreement signed by the cia and the mossad five years earlier had paid off in a flash the reputation of a young intelligence agency was born but its newfound stature would be severely tested in the years to come by the late 50s the attention of europe and the new superpowers was on the cold war only israel made an official attempt to pursue the criminals from the defeated third reich who were still at large israel was making a point to the world that israel could find a measure of vengeance and justice after what happened to the jewish people in the holocaust but also a message that this was a modern country with a system of laws that was getting over it was moving ahead true the criminals would be found and punished where possible but the modern country would proceed is mossad's director throughout his tenure harel had never stopped pursuing wanted nazi war criminals after i was nominated as head of the mossad one of the tasks i took upon myself was to take care of nazi war criminals this was a task suitable for the intelligence agency of the jewish state and the state had a role to play in it as well i then tried to accumulate any available material on eichmann and a few others and based on this information we went to places all over the world in europe as well as africa and south america in order to check for leads and in fact try to verify that such a man still exists and is alive and can be found in march 1960 a secret communication came through israeli intelligence headquarters in tel aviv from an agent in argentina the code words the driver is red was the message issa harrell had been waiting for nine thousand miles away in buenos aires mossad agent zv aharoni was certain he had located one of the world's most notorious war criminals the ss officer adolf heikman one of hitler's chief architects of the final solution a hidden suitcase camera photographed these pictures of the suspected nazi fugitive itarel was convinced by agent aharoni that they had found their man he asked me are you definitely sure that this is eichmann this is our men and i took a picture from my pocket i had kept a copy in my pocket i said i have not the slightest doubt and here here's the picture and then he said okay in this case we're going to get him at the time david ben-gurion was still israel's prime minister ben gurion believed that capturing eichmann and bringing him to israel to stand trial would not only be an act of justice for his people it would remind the world of the holocaust and the need to ensure that it would never happen again for the mossad the capture of adolf heichmann would place the agency at the forefront of the global intelligence community no other agency had ever attempted anything quite like it people ask why is the mossad so original the difference is that when they come with the craziest idea the superiors say okay let's listen maybe it's interesting maybe we can do something out of it and israel was this this is his biggest contribution that from the beginning he said everything is possible just bring me ideas we'll find ways how to do it harrell chose 20 men and at least one woman for the kidnap team nearly all these agents had lost a relative in the holocaust so important was the operation the director himself took the unusual risk of flying to buenos aires he still left it up to his agents he trusted them he knew that they'd find a way to corner eichmann one evening to tackle him to kidnap him but he wanted to to be there this was part of the israeli tradition that was in the military as well in which the leading commander would himself be at the front of the line of troops after weeks of preparation the kidnap date was set for may 11 1960. the getaway car was driven by agents via inside the backup car was a mossad doctor standing by in case of a medical emergency an agent looked under the hood pretending to inspect the engine at 805 pm bus 203 was approaching the bus stopped and the man came off the bus i reported to rafi reported to zwika the man is coming he walks on the on the street in garibaldi street about 50 meters from his home and there i waited agent zvika malkin waited for the moment he had practiced for weeks as the man approached the car aharoni noticed something he'd not seen before i saw him walking with one of his hands in his pocket i whispered to take us a trigger the man i said hunt in his pocket watch out for our girl you know it goes into your mind you can't stop it and i made a small change and i started to move i meet him not far from the car and i asked him a question that only only sentence i knew in spanish and he retreated i jumped on him we fell into a ditch there the three of them dragged him still holding into the car put a blanket on him and the race was on inside a safe house somewhere in buenos aires agent ahroni who had found eichmann conducted an interrogation to make certain their prisoner was indeed the nazi fugitive i said what is your birthday well then i felt strong enough to say what was your name at birth he said adolf eichmann this was something difficult to describe the feeling we had at this moment the team was on constant alert for any signs that could lead to their discovery as each day passed an agent checked the local newspapers to see if the press was aware of the kidnapping there was no mention of the incident the papers were filled with news of the celebrations for argentina's 150th year of independence but the agents still had one daunting task ahead of them transporting eichmann back to israel harel knew that a delegation from israel was expected to arrive in buenos aires for the ceremonies and had arranged to use the plane's return flight to smuggle eichmann out of the country on may 19 1960 the special ll flight landed at buenos aires izisa airport it was flown by the airline's most experienced senior pilot zv tohar unknown to everyone else in the plane mossad agents had accompanied the other passengers the escape went off without a hitch the 15-year hunt for achmen was over prime minister ben gurion publicly credited israeli intelligence the next day when he announced to parliament that adolf hickman had been found and would stand trial in israel argentina protested to the united nations security council where a watered-down resolution of condemnation was passed in jerusalem judicial proceedings lasted for more than a year eichmann was convicted of crimes against humanity and hanged on may 31 1962 in romney prison it was a really operation that caught the focus of world attention because it was an original operation so in a way it was it was an operation with a lot of jewish chutzpah and this explains why the the myth of the mossad came up so fast in the first decade of its existence mossad had combed the world looking for the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and the jewish people it was indeed a unique mission for an intelligence agency the one that would now face more threatening challenges at home by 1963 mayor amit had taken over the mossad amid wanted to modernize the agency and prepare it for the future eliminating the reliance in the old boys network who fought together in the early days of the haganah he actively sought recruits the best and brightest of israeli society for the art of human intelligence gathering it would prove to be the mossad's most valuable resource there's a term called you mean you use human being you use people you know you might have the best equipment you have to have people who will operate it it's always a combination of a man and machine hument would go a long way on the small country's limited budget mossad's best kept secret would be the talent of his agents you know the americans are very good with technical intelligence the antennas and satellites pick up everything the question is first of all what you do with this information how you analyze it when you analyze it for this technical espionage cannot give you the answers for this you need a human source following independence israel's next war was the 1956 sinai campaign which ended with the u.n demilitarizing the desert peninsula with a shaky truce after ramit took over tensions between israel and its arab neighbors began to flare up again for israeli intelligence the objectives were to assess enemy motives movements and strength one of its most formidable threats from the sky was a mysterious russian-made jet fighter in 1966 the mossad was given the assignment to learn more about the soviet mig-21 it started by a request from my friend as a weissmann who was chief of the air force at that time i asked him what do you need you know you're just having coffee he said i need a big he said nintendo is an impossible mission i said that's why i'm asking you to get its hands on something no one in the west had ever seen before israeli intelligence launched operation 007. in 1965 an iraqi walked into the israeli embassy in paris and guaranteed that he could provide a mig-21 for 1 million us dollars in cash based on the man's instructions the mossad made contact with one of his relatives an iraqi air force pilot as a christian redfa and his family felt discrimination in iraq he would steal his iraqi mig provided he could get half the money in advance and the balance delivered just before flying his plane out of the country i was very much impressed by him [Music] he was a stable person he was very reliable he was operating according to our rules orders and fulfilled every everything that we asked to do payment was to be made into a swiss bank account amit was gambling with more than money the mossad's name was on the line prime minister ben gurion and his chief of staff yitzhak rabin gave double07 the green light the deal provided for 43 persons of red fuzz family to be airlifted out of the country to safety on the night before redfo would make his flight the family was led deep into the mountains where turkish air force helicopters were waiting flying below radar they crossed back into turkey an israeli agent made a call to redford telling him your sister has safely delivered a baby girl this was redfa's signal to fly out on the pre-designated ropes one hour later on the morning of august 16th 1966 redfa's plane arrived in israeli airspace nothing had been taken for granted the last phase of the totally secret operation required mossad to deceive its own country's air force when pilots spotted the incoming mig they were instructed not to shoot it down [Music] it was top secret only maybe 10 people knew about it only two people in the air force nobody none of the pilots so we had to build a story within a story and and deceive our own people tell them all kind of things so they will not do anything without an order a personal order from the commander of the air force and it worked israel had its reward it was the first time a sophisticated soviet warplane had fallen into the hands of the west as it was seen here the soviet union which still had relations with israel requested the plane's return while western intelligence services put on the pressure to have a look [Music] the united states was mired in the vietnam war and suffering heavy losses from the deadly precision of the mig-21 the pentagon recognized the value of studying the soviet-made warplane that was wreaking so much havoc in the air war over southeast asia finally the israelis chose to allow the americans to closely examine the plane every israeli pilot trained in simulated combat against the p-21 as tensions grew the israeli air force hoped this training would provide a decisive edge in any future conflict against arab states who used soviet military equipment their hopes came true one year later in the day war mayor amit had placed spies in ever greater numbers in every arab country across europe down into south america throughout africa and in the united states as demonstrated by obtaining khrushchev's speech from an israeli sympathizer mossad could count on something no other agency had a worldwide network of volunteer helpers regardless of their allegiance to their countries many jews remained loyal to israel feeling a communal bond to help defend the jewish state against its enemies now people ask why israel's intelligence is so advanced and my answer is that because of the circumstances we are a small tiny country we don't have enough space or leeway to operate flexibility and our only way to extend our debt is to let's say put our eyes and ears beyond the borders some israeli spies were sephardic jews immigrants from arab countries who could easily blend into arab society in 1967 they helped penetrate nearly every egyptian air base and military headquarters it was clear the egyptians were preparing for a major attack against israel in addition to the big picture israeli intelligence gathered the small details how far did the egyptian pilots have to walk from their barracks to the mess hall when did they take coffee breaks how much time did they need to get their planes in the air mossad's analysts produced a remarkable blueprint of life on and around egyptian air bases as egyptian forces were massing along his border mayor ramit received indications from washington that if israel launched a pre-emptive strike the johnson administration would not object israeli intelligence knew that airfield radar units were at their most vulnerable during the early morning hours agents recorded the time cairo morning rush hour traffic was at its heaviest on the evening of june 4th 1967 one agent reportedly entertained egyptian air force pilots all night the next morning at 801 israeli jets conducted a surprise strike with deadly precision the attack had egyptian pilots scrambling out of their barracks on airfields all across the sinai to find their planes on fire exploding all around them the israelis destroyed a total of 419 aircraft on the ground 90 of the egyptian air force five days and two more battles later the war was over once again israel had survived the war was over in six days but vital intelligence had virtually settled the outcome on the first day it would go down as one of the finest examples of the effectiveness of espionage but victory would appear elusive in a different kind of war that would be waged by mossad by the end of the 1960s terrorism was a new threat facing the israeli mossad the new palestinian liberation organization or plo sought world attention for palestinian independence its target was israel which now occupied the land conquered in 1967 one of the most notorious pll groups was black september black september was meant to recall september of 1970 when plo fighters had been trying to overthrow king hussein of jordan and jordan with some help from israel by the way crushed the plo september of 70. groups like black september posed common threats both to israel and other sovereign arab states like the kingdom of jordan the mossad established unofficial relations with jordan's king hussein well before the two respected governments did i warned him about threats to assassinate him and things like that we we gave him the information very concrete information we had a lot of relations underground relations that paved the way to the peace process after palestinians were expelled from jordan in 1970 terrorism increased with bombings and hijackings but the worst was yet to come the 1972 summer olympics in munich were heralded as the proud achievement of the rebirth of democratic germany from the ashes of world war ii as athletes gathered from around the world on september 5th stormed into the olympic village compound killing two israelis and taking the rest of the team hostage while the mossad attempted to intervene west german authorities had jurisdiction and did their best to control the situation the end of a long standoff did not go as planned in the siege 11 israeli athletes were killed and this in a way was a turning point in the history of israel in its fight against terror because the outrage in the country in israel was so big one shouldn't remember one shouldn't forget it was in munich 25 years after the end of the second world war israeli athletes massacred in jerusalem retribution was on the mind of israeli prime minister golda meir committee x was formed a secret team to find those responsible for the munich olympic massacre and eliminate each one the objective terrorized the terrorists they made up a list of all those who were thought to be responsible for this munich massacre and they made an x on each one and the war of liquidation started less than a year after the munich tragedy members of black september began to disappear off the streets of europe's capital cities in rome one was shot dead at close range the bullets came from a 22-caliber beretta pistol a trademark of the mossad another answered the phone in his paris apartment after he stated his name a strange high-frequency sound was heard it triggered his telephone to explode another terrorist got out of bed in his hotel room in cyprus the change of pressure on the bed set off a bomb planted underneath the intention was to create panic among the members of black september who had organized the munich operation arrangements were made for their obituaries to appear in local arab papers while some were still alive families of a suspected target also received flowers and condolence cards before an assassination but one leader of black september ali hassan salemme continued to elude committee x the hunt was on for the man known throughout the arab world as the red prince in july 1973 mossad received a tip that the red prince was working in the small norwegian town of lillehammer as a waiter mossad agents gathered in the remote scandinavian town and located a man they believed to be salome but the man the agents shot was actually a moroccan waiter not the elusive salome the tip turned out to be a message of deliberate misinformation in the ensuing chaos some assad agents managed to escape norway but six others were captured by local police and charged with second-degree murder they received jail sentences of five years each an entire mossad undercover network in europe of safe houses dead letter boxes and secret phone numbers were now vulnerable and had to be abandoned six years later in 1979 ali hassan salemme was reported to be living in beirut agents learned about his precise movements and daily routine this time there would be no mistakes driving the same route to work every morning would prove to be a fatal error for the red prince as salome passed a car parked on a beirut street it exploded the last key figure behind the munich olympic massacre was finally dead you cannot fight terrorism hundred percent it doesn't matter how much how many walls you build and how many alarm bells and and video cameras there was there will always be a hole in the wall where a terrorist coming committee x was laid to rest yet as the decade ended terrorism continued only the tactics changed when it came to israeli intelligence terrorists knew their actions would no longer go unchallenged throughout the 80s and 90s israel continued to find itself occupied over issues of war and peace with neighboring states in the region but the country that has been formally at war with israel since its independence doesn't even share a common border with the jewish state iraq remains israel's sworn enemy in 1977 mossad discovered that the french government was providing iraq with its own nuclear capability the iraqis were building a nuclear reactor facility just north of baghdad mossad concluded that iraqi dictator saddam hussein wouldn't hesitate to use a nuclear weapon against israel the israeli air force began planning to bomb the site before it became hot with uranium rods in the reactor core israeli pilots attacked the plant on march 15 1981 eight f-16 fighter bombers escorted by six f-15 fighter interceptors flew at sand dune level across jordan before streaking towards iraq they reached the target just minutes after the french construction staff had left the death toll was nine a nuclear plant was reduced to rubble the aircraft returned unharmed it was roundly condemned for doing this but israel knew and its diplomats later did get information in back diplomatic channels that there was a great sign of relief on the part of other countries such as egypt iran syria even so all in all it was like a civic action on the part of israel yet while israel destroyed a potential nuclear threat abroad it faced a major security leak over its nuclear installations at home hidden in israel's remote negev desert is a major underground facility and reactor known as a research facility it's been the home of israel's nuclear program operating in total secrecy in 1986 after working there for 10 years mordechai vanu claimed to be upset with his country for unjustly arming itself with nuclear weapons he was negotiating with sunday times the british newspaper about publication of his story for quite a nice slump of money by a blonde girl a blonde girl tempted him to come to with him to rome where she promised him will have good time etc and when he entered the apartment in rome he was kidnapped and all of a sudden he found himself in israel the nunu was convicted in 1988 of espionage and sentenced to 18 years in an israeli prison however venuno succeeded in exposing israel's nuclear capacity to the world but some have claimed that the exposure may have actually served as an effective deterrent to nations with hostile intentions against israel if the story of an intentional deterrent were ever true it paid off during the persian gulf war in 1991 with his nuclear capabilities set back by the israeli air force saddam hussein launched scud missile strikes at israel cities the missiles carried the very real threat of containing biological weapons they destroyed buildings and killed a few people but no biological agents were attached even after the war the mossad penetrated deep into iraq to discover how much of saddam's arsenal had survived allied bombardment mossad learned that iraq still possessed quantities of anthrax smallpox the ebola virus and chemical nerve agents a stockpile that would not only annihilate all israelis but a sizable population of the world as well even after years of u.n arms inspections debate continues whether iraq is indeed complied with its required disarmament of weapons of mass destruction after only 50 years in the spy game the mossad is a veteran a unique agency with a special mandate for times of war and times of peace throughout israel's history israeli intelligence has helped get jews out of countries where they were in trouble where they could not live in freedom where they could not live safely and get them to israel i mean who else does that it serves the nation with a long ancient legacy and a brief modern history israel's mossad is operated in every corner of the world to protect israelis and jews the israeli public is frightened well israeli intelligence has always felt that part of its job was to help israelis sleep at night it's an agency which has helped create and maintain a strong relationship with israel's oldest and closest ally the united states of america for an organization that supposedly numbers only 1200 permanent staff it has created a reputation of mythic proportions who are the men and women of mossad those who are field agents are graduates of the mossad training school working clandestinely in europe south africa and the far east they operate posing as businessmen travel writers perhaps salesmen they use names and biographies drawn from the library of aliases maintained by mossad but they're mostly faceless individuals who do their jobs as patriots for their country undercover and in secret silently suddenly they did their work silently suddenly they they died so we don't we cannot still reveal their names the mandate for israeli intelligence is as ancient as the hebrew bible it is defined by mossad's own secret code by way of deception thou shalt do war

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Keywords: History, Full Documentary, Documentaries, Full length Documentaries, Documentary, TV Shows - Topic, Documentary Movies - Topic, 2017 documentary, BBC documentary, Channel 4 documentary, history documentary, documentary history, israeli mossad, israeli spy agency, secret agents, espionage documentary, israel documentary, hunting nazis, nazi hunters

Id: ih7_-HhQKBg

Length: 51min 30sec (3090 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 09 2020