Ostrovsky, Victor and Hoy, Claire. By Way of Deception: The Making and Unmaking of a Mossad Officer. New York: St.Martin's Press, 1990. 371 pages.

Several books in NameBase tell the history of Israel's Mossad, which is responsible for "foreign intelligence collection, political action and counterterrorism, ... [and which] conducts agent operations against the Arab nations and their official representatives and installations, particularly in Western Europe and the United States." This is from a CIA analysis that was discovered by Iranian students in Tehran in 1979, and reprinted in CounterSpy. Former Mossad chief Isser Harel called the CIA document "anti- Semitic" and a "nightmare" for him, and said that it was "shockingly irresponsible" for the CIA to keep a document like this "rolling around" in the U.S. Embassy. Mossad and Shin Beth have only 1,000 staff officers, but they manage to create more than their fair share of controversy.

Victor Ostrovsky was a Mossad case officer from 1984-1986, and was in Canada when two Mossad agents showed up to say that for his "own safety" he should try to stop publication. Israel obtained injunctions against the publisher, but in the U.S. it was lifted because 17,000 copies had already been shipped. This is the first book to offer some major dirty laundry. Among other things, it charges that Mossad had advance knowledge of the 1983 truck bombing in Lebanon that killed 241 U.S. Marines, but refused to warn the American authorities for policy reasons.
ISBN 0-312-05613-3

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