Customer Reviews

The Other Side of Deception: A Rogue Agent Exposes the Mossad's Secret Agenda

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Without becoming one, that is.

Alongside the author's previous "By Way of Deception." This book, also a best seller, contains a depressing and chilling expose of The Mossad, Israel's intelligence service.

Unlike any other 'true espionage account' you might have hitherto read it is, as the saying goes, impossible to put down. Absolutely riveting. Though by the end the question is not 'Who are the good guys?' It's more like ' Who in The Middle East is NOT completely insane ? '

Ostrovsky was a former colonel in the Israeli armed forces before he joined Mossad. No one contends that he was a field officer, well connected and in the know. He was fired after a fracas in Cyprus, in which he contends he was forced to take the fall for his incompetent superiors. This would never have happenned in the Israeli Defense Forces, not without a proper hearing. However The Mossad, as he never tires of telling us, is a law unto itself.

According to the author it has become a 'rival state' comprised of good ole boys answerable only to the Prime Minister--at least in theory. In fact, it answers to no one.

Dissatisfied intelligence officers who have been, rightly or wrongly, given the boot writing scathing memoirs is not news.

However if, say, a CIA operative turned 'liberal' upon termination of employment alleged ONE TENTH of what Ostrovsky alleges, the scandal that would follow dwarf Watergate and Iran/Contra combined.

Among a few:

* The Mossad regards anyone in Israel who believes in peace with the Palestinians, or withdrawal from the occupied territories as little better than a traitor. It has sold arms and provided information to fundamentalist extremist Muslim groups via third parties in order to undermine the stability of Arab States and the credibility of their leaders with The West. Anything to keep the conflict burning.

* The Mossad planned to assasinate president George Bush Sr at the Madrid peace talks in 1991, due to his policy of pressuring Israel to the negotiaing table by freezing their loan guarantees.

A special Kidon (bayonet, i.e; hit men) unit took three Palestinian extremists from Beirut and set them up. The Mossad was to kill the 'perpretators' in the ensuing confusion after they had shot the president. Due to inside info Ostrovsky obtained, he was able to blow the whistle and the plan was cancelled--as were the three Palestinians, at the Nes Ziyyona facitlity, an ABC (atomic, bacteriological, chemical) warfare lab where the author contends top epidemiogical scientists routinely use enemies as human guinea pigs.

* The Mossad, did indeed murder their billionare operative Robert Maxwell, let Jonathan Pollard hang out to dry, and (ready?) assasinated Israeli general Yekutiel Adam a.k.a. "Kuti" because he had been appointed its head and they didn't want an 'outsider' taking over.

Now if all this---and much more---sound like the ravings of a lunatic, he's an extremely meticulous and detailed one.

Still, one wonders if the Mossad is a loose cannon, why Ostrovsky chose to trust anyone in it, after fleeing Israel.

He tells us that after getting sacked he got news that he was about to be made a liason to South Lebanon (as good as a death sentence) and a certain Ephraim---a higher ranking officer saved him by helping him escape to the U.S.

Whereupon Ephraim called in the favor qnd talked him into 'reforming' the organization by doing everything possible to undermmine it, thus bringing 'liberals' like Ephraim to power.

If we're not through the looking glass yet, here we go: The undermining consisted in Victor volunteering his services as an ex-Mossad agent to The British, The KGB, The Jordanians (!) and The Egyptians, among others.

The KGB didn't bite because they had a mole inside--however their refusal confirmed Ephraim's suspicions--he uncovered the mole and became a hero. The Brits were more accomodating, but cheap. The Jordanians--well, you've got to read that chapter, suffice it to say that according to Victor he had to fly to Jordan, whereupon things got very James Bondian and even more surreal. The Egyptians threw him in a cell.

In the end, Ephraim does take over but then he tries to assasinate Victor, to tie up loose ends.

Compelling, well documented, and absolutely nuts.

Ostrovsky is not just another short term intel employee who was bounced, bitter, and then became a book author. For anybody who has served in intelligence, it rings true. It's a dirty business, whether HQ is in Virginia or Tel Aviv. It has to be. The few detractors in the amazon reviews of Ostrovsky's book just plain don't know. Having written an espionage expose myself, and having been eviscerated by some readers who barely can read, I'm not surprised by the negative reviews, but by how few there are. Read The Other Side of Deception, not just for an inside view of the Mossad, but for a parallel to what's going on now in America and it's intelligence services.

For a thinking person, the revelations in this book should spawn probing questions about the Mossad's part in geopolitics from pre-9-11 to 2004. Ostrovsky outlines how the Mossad, unlike any other secret intelligence service in the world, uses the vast Diaspora as "assets" to do their bidding. It is organized so that the Diaspora (over 50,000 strong) become temporary Mossad agents on an as-needed basis.

This structure accomplishes two things:
(1) By playing on the 'help the homeland' aspect of requesting help for Israel from the Diaspora through whatever the 'asset's' position or job skill can produce, it naturally compartmentalizes the significance of a job, and reduces costs. The Mossad has only 1200 agents worldwide, but calls on the considerable PR skills of the B'nai B'rith, JDL, and ADL to advance its aims on an as-needed basis. Ostrovsky shows in event after event how this is by design.

(2) The Mossad can get away with meddling in the politics of foreign countries by labeling as "anti-semitic" any objection to its methods; or similarly, by labeling as "anti-semitic" any objections if its gets caught. Again, Ostrovsky shows in example after example how this is by design.

The recent 2004 scandal in New Zealand is a case in point. This involved Mossad agents caught stealing New Zealand passports from paraplegics. Or the more disturbing US-based AP reports from Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida in the last five weeks in which Israeli agents were caught near nuclear sub and fuel stations, or trying to enter federal installations. The only reporter willing to follow up these stories is Daniel Hopsicker, a respected journalist, of online MadCowProd News. When you realize that these agents caused an entire Navy Sub station with nuclear missles to close down (May 20, 2004) because sniffing dogs discovered bomb material in their moving trucks, it makes Ostrovsky's detailed warning about what the Mossad is doing in the US all the more alarming.

I think the information I found the most distressing was how the Mossad uses US national print and broadcast media and reporters as assets. This a propaganda machine that at this time can only lead to more US sons and daughters coming home from Iraq in body bags. I say this because Ostrovsky is adamant in this book, published in 1993 or 1994, that it has been the Mossad's express policy for years to get the US into war with Iraq.

If what the author writes is true, then I grieve for the State of Israel. Mr. Ostrovsky's writings gives a chilling insight into an agency that is acting more like Hitler's Gestapo and Honacher's Stasi than what it is supposed to be: a protector of all of the people of Israel.
The fact that the book is rather convoluted reading actually give me a better feeling for Mr. Ostrovski and why he felt it important to blow the whistle. Calling this man a traitor would be wrong; he plainly loves Israel and is willing to do the right thing by it.
I strongly recommend this book to those who belive that no secret agency should be given absolute power. It's plain to see that it has corrupted the Mossad absolutely.

This is an excellent book, probably one of the best ones I have ever read. In my opinion it says the real story about israeli intelligence, how they think, how they act, and how dirty they play with everybody, even with people who have helped them. You MUST read this book.

This is the authors follow up to his first book "By Way of Deception". Whereas his first book was focused on his recruitment and training in the Mossad, this book focuses on the operations the Mossad perform. The value of this book is both to understand how the Israeli "CIA" works around the world and in there homeland, but also (and maybe now more importantly) to understand the forces that they are up against.

For the espionage reader out there this is a very interesting book, because not many books have come out by real life former agents of the Mossad, and the Mossad are touted as one of if not the best organization of its kind. I also enjoyed the details of how the opposition (i.e. terrorists) works against the Mossad. There are some interesting insights to what the Israeli's are up against.

Overall this is a good follow up to his book and if you are interested in espionage, the Mossad or just the Middle East then this is a book that you will get a lot of enjoyment out of.

The opinions of the detractors of Ostrovsky's books are less than surprising. They are counting on the general naivete of the public at large. I have been a dirty tricks specialist for many years in the U.S. Armed Forces. Every scenario put forth by Ostrovsky, some admittedly outrageous, are at the same time completely plausible.

Clandestine operations are often founded upon the most bizarre set of circumstances and carried out by the unknowing dupes of seasoned field agents, otherwise known as assets. There is never a master plan, while there is always the goal of victory at any cost. The only thing that is definitely planned from the gitgo is deniability. The outcome of a given operation therefore ranges either from the consummately mundane to the totally absurd. The more ridiculous, the easier to deny.

Some succeed and some fail. Good funding and support for the long haul from the powers that be most often make the difference between a Bay of Pigs and the complete withdrawal the Soviet Armed Forces from Afghanistan, Central America and the collapse their system.

I submit that the detractors of Mr. Ostrovsky's works may have an agenda not unlike the object of study found in Ostrovky's books.

This book is a factual account of events as they occurred before the publication of his first book (Chapter 28). The Prologue gives his family history, and why he joined the Mossad. Chapter 1 tells how a NATO sleeper cell was used to create atrocities that could be blamed on Communists, and destabilize the left leaning Belgian government (pp,4-5). Chapter 2 tells how they worked with an American company that had desired technology (p.10). Chapter 4 explains how the Jordanian peace initiative was stopped. In Chapter 6 Victor was kicked out of the Mossad, and immediately recruited into a secret organization. Chapter 8 tells how a new head of the Mossad was stopped from taking office. Chapter 9 tells of his secret mission to the KGB to offer himself as a spy (Chapter 13). This would expose a suspected mole.

Chapter 15 explains how Libya was blamed for a discotheque bombing in 1986. The US retaliation kept Libya "out of the picture". Victor then learns how turmoil was created between Kuwait and Iraq. Chapter 17 describes the safe house system in London. Victor traveled to Jordan to advise them on detecting moles. Chapter 21 tells of "humanitarian assistance" to blacks in Soweto, using a Baltimore hospital for cover. Were they testing medications and diseases? Victor explains the Pollard affair, why Pollard knew too much. Pollard's information was traded to the Soviets to release Jews; Pollard was used and then flushed! Chapter 22 tells of his visit to Egypt, and their interest in Robert Maxwell. Maxwell bought media to influence public opinion, and to provide a cover for assets in other countries; page 204 tells how this worked.

Chapter 23 tells how background information was obtained from strangers (p.208). The Vanunu affair is explained (p.209). In Chapter 25 Victor decides to write his book on the Mossad. Operation Hannibal sold military supplies to Iran. Page 228 tells how Kurt Waldheim was branded as a Nazi! Page 231 explains how a politician was smeared and defeated. When this politician tried to clear himself, he was lured to Geneva and given a heart attack (pp.234-5). In Chapter 26 Victor travels to Paris to tell the French secret service about the Mossad's links with fascist elements (p.242). They later asked Victor to investigate the leading advocate of privatization in the US (p.244). This member of the Libertarian Party sought to destabilize a French South Pacific island.

Chapter 27 tells about the propaganda campaign against Saddam Hussein (p.247). Iraq targeted Iranian cities using information from American satellites. Pages 250-1 tell how a reporter (who knew too much) was lured into a fatal mission. Then there is the planted story of Iraq's "weapons of mass destruction". Page 259 tells of the safest sanctuary around - an airport! Chapter 30 tells of President George Bush's visit to the Madrid peace talks, and the failed assassination attempt. Chapter 31 explains Robert Maxwell's partnership with the Mossad, and why he had to be silenced. It was not that he knew too much, but that he began to talk too much under pressure of bankruptcy. Chapter 31 ends the book with his tour of Europe to promote his first novel. A problem occurred in Belgium; Victor knew of the corruption of the Belgian police force. Victor then realized that his connection in the Mossad was no longer reliable (p.290).

The opinions of the detractors of Ostrovsky's books are less than surprising. They are counting on the general naivete of the public at large. I have been a dirty tricks specialist for many years in the U.S. Armed Forces. Every scenario put forth by Ostrovsky, some admittedly outrageous, are at the same time completely plausible.

Clandestine operations are often founded upon the most bizarre set of circumstances and carried out by the unknowing dupes of seasoned field agents, otherwise known as assets. There is never a master plan, while there is always the goal of victory at any cost. The only thing that is definitely planned from the gitgo is deniability. The outcome of a given operation therefore ranges either from the consummately mundane to the totally absurd. The more ridiculous, the easier to deny.

Some succeed and some fail. Good funding and support for the long haul from the powers that be most often make the difference between a Bay of Pigs and the complete withdrawal the Soviet Armed Forces from Afghanistan, Central America and the collapse their system.

I submit that the detractors of Mr. Ostrovsky's works may have an agenda not unlike the object of study found in Ostrovky's books.

This story depicts the Israeli Secret Service as they really are. Ostrovsky knows from personal relations that the Israelis take nothing from no one. Ostrovsky's story about attempts to bring down the right wing elements in the Mossad are incredible and a must read for anyone interested in espionage and international politics. This book is one of few written about the Mossad and once you read about their policies, you'll understand why!