Media in Australia and Israel continue to raise questions over mystery Mossad agent

Bombay News.Net Monday 18th February, 2013

This is just one of a number of questions arising out of the death of Australian Ben Zygier, which many in Australia and Israel suspect was the result of a Mossad assassination, despite pronouncements that he committed suicide.

Australian media reports say Zygier, dubbed Prisoner X by the secretive Israel security services, was jailed under a fake name and under a secrecy gag which prevented details of his case being made public.

The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) said the Mossad became concerned when it discovered Zygier had contact with the Australian spy agency ASIO, adding it was worried he might pass on information about a major operation planned for Italy.

The ABC said Zygier was one of three Australians who changed their names several times and took out new Australian passports for travel in the Middle East and Europe for their work with the Mossad.

Zygier is alleged to have worked for the Mossad, and while in their employ, along with two other Australians (according to the ABC) obtained a number of passports using various aliases from the Australian government, which he used to enter Iran, Syria and Lebanon.

Second question: What was Mossad doing in Iran, Syria and Lebanon?

Officials in Australia have told various media, Zygier was under suspicion from ASIO that he was spying for Israel. A journalist from Fairffax Media (publishers of The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald) in fact approached Zygier and asked him. He strenuously denied the allegation and became abusive towards the journalist.

Third question: Was it a case that Israel became nervous that as Zygier was under suspicion by ASIO that details of his activities, including obtaining a number of passports for work as a Mossad agent, or being involved in operations in Italy, Iran, Syria and/or Lebanon would be compromised? Or was it a case that the Mossad was convinced he had already turned and had become a double agent, as Israeli media outlets began to speculate this week based on information from "highly placed government officials?"

Next question: Is it true three members of the Israel Knesset are now facing charges for questioning the circumstances surrounding Zygier's detention and death? (Israeli Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein has since denied reports that he has ordered a criminal investigation of the three MKs' comments).

And there are a whole lot more questions doing the rounds in Israel and Australia:

How did Zygier come to commit suicide when:

a) A lawyer who visited him a day earlier said he was in good spirits, was planning his defence, including negotiating a plea bargain, and had become a father for the second time just five days earlier?

b) He was being held in a suicide-proof cell?

c) He was under 24 hours surveillance

(Israeli authorities now say the four cameras in Zygier's cell (Cell no. 15 in Ayalon Prison) were switched off at the time of his death. An investigation into Zygier's death returned a finding of "suicide," but it took 18 months for that investigation to make that conclusion).

Speculation is rife, with most information coming from anonymous sources. Haaretz newspaper, the Israeli national daily, on Tuesday began casting doubt on whether Zygier in fact worked for Mossad.

"I am assured he was not Mossad, but he knew stuff, he mixed with the wrong people," the newspaper quoted "a well-connected Australian source close to the family," as saying. "It was a f-up. He was not posing any threat to the state of Israel."

An Israeli "well-connected source" told the newspaper Zygier was "a little cog in the system, if at all."

"The guy is a victim of his own fault," the source is quoted by Haaretz as saying. "Zygier convinced everyone he was working for Mossad. It's all a creation; he didn't stop speaking."

The Haaretz report went on to detail the fall-out in Australia which has Jewish leaders there worried. The subject of Israel obtaining false passports is also causing angst with government leaders.

Earlier this month it was revealed an Australian had obtained false passports, one of which was used to enter Bulgaria for what the Bulgarian government says was to take part in a terrorist attack on a bus. That man is now in Lebanon, but rather than working for Mossad, it is alleged he is involved with Hezbollah.

Similarly Australian passports were used by alleged Mossad agents in an assassination in Dubai of a Hamas commander in January 2010. British, Canadian and European passports belonging to stolen identities were also used. The UK government received an apology from Israel while the Australian government expelled an Israeli diplomat over the affair. New Zealand had earlier expelled two Israelis caught applying for false passports in that country in July 2004. Uriel Kelman and Eli Cara, were were arrested while trying to fraudulently acquire a New Zealand passport using the identity of a man with cerebral palsy. Israel issued a formal apology to then-New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark after she suspended diplomatic relations between the countries.

Tony Walker, in the weekend edition of the Australian Financial Review, raised the issue of Australian citizens obtaining false passports for other countries. "Australian passport holders who enjoy the privileges of citizenship might reflect on the sacrifices made on their behalf over the years by those who fought and died for the country in various conflicts," he said.

Ben Saul, the director of the Sydney Center for International Law at Sydney Law School, accused Israelis of being "masters of all the dark arts: assassination, abduction, torture, violent interception of civilians at sea and colonizing foreign territory."

Saul, who has been involved in human rights litigation in Israel, according to the Haaretz report, wrote on the ABC's website last Thursday, "Israel has repeatedly shown itself to be a poor friend of Australia, yet many fawning Australian politicians continue to soft-pedal on Israel's human rights abuses, no doubt beguiled by the free propaganda trips to Israel that quite a few have accepted."

His article sparked more than 300 responses, with one saying, "Cut off diplomatic relations ... we don't need Israel as friends."

Another argued, "The anti-Semitism here astounds me. Israel has the most fair and open justice system of any country that experiences terrorism."

In the Hobart Mercury, Greg Barns wrote that Zygier may have been "sucked into a political vortex where human rights come a distant second to maintaining a cosy relationship with an ally."

A Jewish leader who was fuming over the backlash said, "We must counterattack here, because the damage is huge," the Haaretz report said.

To make things worse the Israeli leadership has a self-imposed gag on disclosures about the Zygier detention and death, and Zygier's family has remained silent - one Haaretz report saying the family has been paid "millions of shekels" in compensation, while government officials deny that compensation was paid.

What is likely to have occurred is that ASIO began investigating Zygier and others in relation to obtaining passports using various aliases for use in spying activities for Israel. News of the investigation somehow made it into the Australian press. It is highly unlikely the leak would have come from Israel, so that leaves ASIO. Certainly the Australian spy agency would have been the most likely source of a leak, or at least would have had to confirm the story prior to publication.

Zygier, when confronted by one of the two journalists working on the story, was asked if he worked for the Mossad, and had obtained passports which he used to visit Iran, Syria and Lebanon. He denied this, swearing at the journalist, saying the claim was rediculous. "I have never been to Iran, Syria or Lebanon," he said. "I am not involved in any kind of spying. That is ridiculous."

"He told me he was like any other Australian who had made aliyah and was trying to make a life in Israel," Jason Koutsoukis of Fairfax Media, recalled last week.

At this time there was widespread anger in Australia and elsewhere towards Israel as details had emerged of the assassination in Dubai involving suspected Mossad agents using forged passports from Australia and elsewhere.

The same month Tehran University physics professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi was assassinated when a motorcycle rigged with a bomb exploded outside his home as he was about to go to work. Jamali Fashi, 24, was tried and convicted over the incident. During his trial, Fashi was accused of cooperating with the Mossad, traveling to Israel to attend a Mossad training course, and receiving money from the Israeli intelligence service. Iran's state TV said he had confessed to the crime and admitted that he was recruited by the Mossad.

It was in this climate, in the wake of two high-profile assassinations in Dubai and Tehran in January 2010, and within days of the publication of The Age story on 27 January 2010 revealing that three Israelis were being investigated by ASIO for obtaining passports using aliases, that Zygier was detained, and incarcerated in Israe's highest security prison under a fake name, and amidst the highest secrecy imposed in relation to any prisoner in Israel's history.

Israel was under intense pressure at the time firstly for carrying out an assassination in another country, and secondly for involving some 27 members of the hit squad that used forged passports, that had been fabricated using stolen identities. And secondly for the high-profile killing of the Iranian nuclear scientist. (It should be noted Israel has neither confirmed or denied it was responsible for either assassination).

It appears Israel was nervous that Zygier, who was about to return to his hometown Melbourne in Australia was at risk of spilling the beans on Israel's activities involving passports, or as Israeli media have speculated, on activities he was allegedly involved in, in Lebanon, Syria and/or Iran.

Whether he was or not, only he would know. We will never find out as, according to Israeli authorities, he hanged himself on 15 December 2010, ten months after he was arrested.

Source: http://www.bombaynews.net/index.php/sid/212663770/scat/b8de8e630faf3631

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