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

Victor Ostrovsky (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994

In an explosive sequel to the #1 New York Times bestseller By Way of Deception, former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky talks for the first time about his career as a double agent and delivers shocking revelations about the role of Israel's intelligence in world affairs. Ostrovsky picks up his incredible story in 1986, when he began his stint as a double agent. 8 pages of photos.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 315 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins; 1st edition (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060176350
• ISBN-13: 978-0060176358
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #644,038 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Victor Ostrovsky was born in Canada and raised in Israel. At eighteen he became the youngest officer in the Israeli military at the time, eventually rising to the rank of lieutenant commander in charge of naval weapons testing. He was a Mossad case officer from 1982-1986. Victor Currently lives in Scottsdale Arizona where he writes and paints and has an art gallery Ostrovsky Fine Art in old town Scottsdale. www.OstrovskyFineArt.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 68 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Would Anyone Care to Hunt Dragons? April 23, 2004

By the wizard of uz

Format:Hardcover

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.

59 of 65 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A REALITY CHECK FOR "TRUE BELIEVERS" August 27, 2003

By W. ADAM MANDELBAUM

Format:Hardcover

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.

56 of 63 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Critical Reading for those who care about the US in 2004 May 30, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

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.