Former Mossad Chiefs Attack Book of ‘Lies’

Former Mossad chiefs and Israeli officials Friday characterized information in a controversial book on the Israeli intelligence agency as “inflated out of proportion” and called its Canadian-Israeli author a traitor and liar.

On Thursday, a New York state appeals court lifted a lower court’s ban on the distribution of “By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer,” written by former Israeli intelligence agent Victor Ostrovsky and Canadian journalist Claire Hoy.

Avi Pazner, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir’s media adviser, characterized the book as “nothing more than a compilation of lies, half-truths, invention, very few facts and very sick imagination.” On Thursday, however, Israeli Embassy spokeswoman Ruth Yaron in Washington said that her government felt there were “details that could harm the security of Israel and Israelis.”

Analysts argue that the book, which faces a ban on distribution in Canada at least until Sept. 17, threatens to confront Israel with its biggest embarrassment since nuclear engineer Mordechai Vanunu revealed in 1986 that Israel had stockpiled weapons-grade plutonium at a nuclear plant in Dimona. Mossad agents caught Vanunu in Rome and brought him back to Israel, where he was sentenced to 18 years in jail.

Army Radio reported the current Mossad chief had been summoned to testify next week before a special session of the Parliament’s subcommittee on secret services. The Mossad chief, who under security regulations cannot be named, will be asked to provide “clarifications and explanations” of the Ostrovsky affair, the radio reported.

Ostrovsky, a Canadian-Israeli who was a Mossad agent from 1984 to 1986, maintains Israel is waging a major smear campaign against him because of the book, including claims that Ostrovsky was involved in financial wrongdoings and the falsification of credit cards--claims Ostrovsky denies.

Isser Harel and Meir Amit, two former Mossad chiefs during the 1950s and 1960s, said they view Ostrovsky as a liar and a traitor.

“I’m not familiar with the specific data (in the book), but I know enough about the modus operandi of the Mossad, the division of responsibilities, et cetera, that I can say that some of the stories I heard are baseless,” Amit told Israel Radio.