An investigation by Der Spiegel reveals that Ben Zygier aka “Prisoner X”, who committed suicide while being held in solitary confinement in December 2010, had divulged to Hezbollah the identities of Mossad’s top two informants in Lebanon. As a field agent Zygier had been “neither especially good nor especially bad, just mediocre,” and was thus assigned to a desk job. The story is complicated, but this is what landed the Australian in jail:

Zygier, frustrated by the setbacks and what he felt was a demotion, tried to find new sources — presumably in an effort to rehabilitate himself and prove how valuable he was. According to the investigation, Zygier admitted during several interrogations that, prior to his departure for Australia, he had without authorization met with a Hezbollah associate in Eastern Europe to recruit him as a source.

What Zygier didn’t know: The Hezbollah associate reported the meeting to Beirut and began playing a double game. He persuaded Zygier that he was interested in working with him, but he coordinated every step he took with the Hezbollah intelligence service. Even [Hezbollah’s chief, Hassan] Nasrallah himself was informed.

The contact between Zygier and Hezbollah went on for months, and at some point it was no longer clear who was managing whom as a source. The Lebanese official lured Zygier, and he asked for proof that the Australian was indeed working for the Mossad. The investigation report indicates that Zygier began supplying the Lebanese with intelligence information from Tel Aviv, including information relating to the spy ring of Ziad al-Homsi and Mustafa Ali Awadeh, the Mossad’s two top informants in Lebanon, who were exposed as a result.

When he was arrested, the agents found a CD with additional classified information that was apparently from the Tsomet department [which manages sources and analyses information], say Israeli officials with access to the investigation. Zygier never managed to deliver the CD.

Tel Aviv, early March 2013. “Zygier wanted to achieve something that he didn’t end up getting,” says a senior government official who is familiar with the investigation. “And then he ended up on a precipitous path. He crossed paths with someone who was much more professional than he was.” At some point, says the Israeli, Zygier crossed a red line and went to the dark side.

The Australian government also launched an investigation. If it was true that Zygier had used his passport “for the work of the Israeli intelligence service,” it would raise “significant questions,” a report by the Australian Foreign Ministry reads.

Israeli informants have certainly changed sides in the past. But a regular Mossad employee has never done what Zygier did. It is a bitter defeat for Israel, but for Hezbollah it is one of the rare instances in which an Arab intelligence service prevailed over its Jewish counterpart. Zygier’s betrayal is also a heavy blow to the Mossad because it raises doubts as to the integrity of the agency’s own people — and the manner in which it recruits employees.

TechFleece: Anonymous has joined forces with Sector404 in its latest attacks against Israeli forces resulting in the disclosure of over 30,000 records related to Mossad agents.

The operation with was carried out earlier today under the banner #OpIsrael and was initiated by Sector404 who began a DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attack, which then allowed Anonymous to hack the weakened Mossad website (www.mossad.gov.il) accessing the personal information which allegedly corresponds to Israeli politicians, IDF officers, and even Mossad agents.

Mossad Down by #sektor404 and 30k users agent leaks by/ #Anonymous / #RedHack / #PLF via @theredhack — Leaks soon!

— Anonymous Operations (@Anon_Central) March 22, 2013

In total, there are 34,161 records (separated into sections of 5,000 via 2 databases) containing the ID numbers, email addresses and geographic information linking various people from within Israeli security. The data that was obtained was released via the hacking team RedHack (@TheRedHack) via multiple social networks and outlets including Google Docs. #OpIsreal is an operation involving various groups and individuals which is set take place on the 7th April 2013, meaning that today’s breach could just be the tip of the iceberg….

Sefi Rachlevsky writes: Ben Zygier didn’t betray his country. Ben Zygier was betrayed. Between his two home countries, he was placed in a situation he couldn’t deal with. Those who know the facts can attest to this. From the outset of this affair, Israeli contempt for the feeble Jews of the Diaspora knew no boundaries. According to foreign sources, the desire to make use of Ben Zygier’s identity and passport overrode the fact that he was screamingly incompatible for the mission.

The story is a simple one, really. According to foreign sources, Israel allowed itself to cross three boundaries: a Mossad man was asked to retain Australian citizenship – leading to a dual-loyalty dilemma; the identity that he was instructed to use as a cover was his real Australian identity; and, worst of all, he was sent to operate in his homeland.

According to foreign sources, after he was told to change his name in his home country multiple times, an entirely foreseeable problem arose. Zygier’s activities raised suspicions in Australia and its security services called him in for interrogation. He didn’t cooperate with the enemy. Not on his own initiative, nor voluntarily. He was forced to talk to his country’s security services, who threatened to harm his father’s honor, and who sent journalists to speak to him.

Israel is the one that placed him in an impossible dilemma. And then, despite the furor over passports, according to foreign sources, Israel used dozens of them not against the main enemy, Iran – but against Hamas targets, which was probably not a worthy reason to risk these passports’ use. Only then did Australia retaliate by exposing its citizen.

The crass Israeli habit of concealing its misdeeds lost all proportion. Instead of achieving, after a brief inquiry, silence and good will  (silence from a man who broke after being left to deal with his identity issues alone, silence obtained for instance even by bringing his father and whole family to Israel to care for them here) – Israel abandoned an Israel-Australian patriot to a fate worse than death.

Those who were raised in Kfar Yehoshua as I did were exposed to a practice whereby chickens that were suspected of carrying diseases were killed before they could infect the others. At the age of eight, I couldn’t bring myself to kill them with my bare hands like my father did.  So I found a "humane" solution. Next to the coops were pits full of the rotting corpses of dead birds. I threw the birds that were suspected of being ill into these pits. And Ben Zygier was thrown into such a pit.

The cell in which Ben Zygier died had been built for a prime minister’s murderer. Ben Zygier is that man’s polar opposite. The prime minister’s murderer is the worst traitor in Israel. He was not caught between the dilemmas of dual nationalities. For the murderer, the messianic-religious dilemma superseded his Israeli identity. He was not placed under brutal pressure in his cell to reveal the identities of rabbis who influenced him. He remained smiling and victorious. He was not subjected to suffocating pressure.

During the existential days of the War of Independence, one Meir Tobianski was shot. He was suspected of treason, sentenced in a lightning-quick trial, and was eliminated. His widow, who was not sentenced to silence, fought to restore his honor. A year later, Ben Gurion exonerated him and wrote to her: "Your husband was innocent."

Two things must come out of the Zygier affair. One is clear: the establishment of a quasi-secret state commission of inquiry. The commission must examine the links between Zygier’s death and his identity. But it must also do more than that. There must be genuine examination of how Israel exploits the goodwill of  its Jewish supporters, and a clear demarcation of its boundaries.

AFP reports: Israeli guards supposedly keeping a round-the-clock watch on a mystery dual nationality prisoner held in isolation failed to notice his suicide for a full hour, a newspaper reported on Thursday.

Although his cell was fitted with four CCTV cameras, the guards did not see Ben Zygier, identified by media as an Australian-Israeli Mossad agent, remove a sheet from his bed and take it with him into the shower cubicle.

“For an unknown reason, none of the guards discerned him doing that,” the Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported.

It said that one camera covered the shower “in a way that allowed for the prisoner’s head to be visible without invading his more intimate privacy.”

“It was only after an entire hour had passed that (the guards) realised that the prisoner was nowhere to be seen in any of the areas picked up by the four cameras, at which point they rushed to his cell, where they discovered his body dangling in the shower stall,” it said.

“They were busy with something else,” an prisons service official told the paper.

“The bottom line is that the prisoner died, and we failed in our job of keeping him alive.”

Ben Saul, professor of international law at the University of Sydney, writes: Israel and Australia are indeed good friends, but they are not always on the same page. For a start, there is a gulf in values. Australian security services do not assassinate people, including civilian scientists driving to work in nearby countries. Australia does not torture prisoners. Australia has not militarily occupied a foreign people’s land for more than 40 years, or built illegal colonies on their lands. Australia does not believe in nuclear weapons or hide their existence.

When it comes to the crunch, most Australians would expect Australian Jews to choose loyalty to Australia over Israel, or even hope that the Australians in Mossad are our double agents. Undoubtedly Israelis would wish them to side with Israel. Spying will continue because every country has an interest in it. The trick is to be better at it than others, and better at catching others’ spies than they are at catching yours.

But the case of Ben Zygier shows that it is not easy to have it both ways. Conscience can get in the way. There comes a point where a Jewish person cannot faithfully be both Australian and Israeli. One has to choose. The same goes for Australians who are also Americans or Chinese.

Israel’s apparent willingness to abuse the trust and confidence of Australia also suggests that no country can take its friends for granted. All countries understandably put themselves first. But Israel might question whether its long-term security interests are best served by alienating its closest friends.

Der Spiegel reports: The Milan office building exudes elegance with its stucco facade, brass name plate, concierge service and expensive wooden furniture inside. There’s nothing to suggest that the firm based here, which specializes in the sale of satellite communications technology, is a front for the Israel foreign intelligence service Mossad.

But the Milan company is reported to have hired Israeli agents who needed legends for their operations in enemy territory. One of them was Ben Zygier, an Australian Jew and a committed Zionist who emigrated to Israel as a young man. The company is reported to have vouched as Zygier’s employer when he applied for a work visa at the Italian consulate in Melbourne in 2005. That, at least, is what Australian intelligence agents claim.

Ben Zygier died aged 34, just four days after the birth of his second child, on December 15, 2010, in a solitary confinement cell in the Ayalon high-security prison near Tel Aviv. He was reported to have hanged himself, even though he was the country’s best-guarded prisoner, monitored by four cameras. His lawyer had met him one or two days beforehand and said Zygier had seemed normal.

His case made headlines last week after an Australian news program identified Zygier as Israel’s mysterious “Prisoner X.” What crime can the agent have committed to prevent even his guards from knowing his identity?

Israeli officials said he had been a danger to national security. His lawyer said the accusations against him were “serious.” When Zygier died, Israel issued a gag order preventing media from covering the case.

The agent was arrested in February 2010, shortly after the Mossad had murdered the weapons dealer of Hamas in Dubai. Now there’s speculation that Zygier was involved in that killing, and that he may have divulged secrets. Or did he have something to do with the killings of Iranian scientists or software attacks against Iran’s nuclear program?

There are no answers, but Zygier and two other Australian Jews who also worked for the Milan firm were reported to have been successful agents. “The nature of their business gave them access to military and secret installations,” said an Austrialian intelligence source.

Zygier’s case provides insight into the methods of Mossad. It shows how the service recruits agents and masks operations.

As a young man, Zygier got involved with the “Community Security Group” in Melbourne, a kind of Jewish citizens’ defense league. These groups often have links to Mossad and are instructed by agents. Ben Zygier was probably recruited in this way. At around the same time, Paul Y. and David Z. were recruited. [Continue reading…]

ABC News reports: Israel has denied that a man identified by the ABC as an Australian-Israeli Mossad agent who committed suicide in jail had any contact with Australia’s security services, as a court backed its government’s claims that he hanged himself.

The man, identified by the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent as Australian citizen Ben Zygier, died in top-secret conditions in Ayalon prison, near Tel Aviv, in December 2010.

Sources told the ABC that Zygier was arrested by his own spymasters after they believed he told the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) about every aspect of his work with the Israelis.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office, which oversees Israel’s intelligence services, denies this.

“Following recent publications, the prime minister’s office stresses that the late Mr Zygier had no contact with the Australian security services and organisations,” the office said, in Israel’s first mention of Zygier by name. [Continue reading…]

Following Bulgaria’s announcement that suspects involved in the Burgas bombing which killed five Israeli tourists last July, have been linked to Hezbollah, Tom Donilon, national security adviser to President Obama, has written an op-ed for the New York Times. Predictably, he calls on the EU to add the Lebanese organization to its terrorist list. No doubt this will help the White House score points with Israel and also win favor with Iran hawks. However, a larger story is being obscured.

Let’s assume that the bombers were indeed linked to Hezbollah. That doesn’t necessarily make this a Hezbollah operation or an operation serving Hezbollah’s interests. A more likely scenario is that the attack was conducted on behalf of Iran in retaliation for a string of terrorist attacks launched by Israel against civilian targets in Iran.

If the EU goes ahead and lists Hezbollah as a terrorist organization and they want to be even-handed, they should also list Mossad — especially at a time when there is rather compelling evidence that Mossad is even willing to murder Israelis.

Australia’s ABC News reports: Suspected Mossad agent Ben Zygier was arrested by his own spymasters after they believed he told Australia’s domestic intelligence agency about every aspect of his work with the Israelis, sources say.

The ABC’s Foreign Correspondent program understands that Zygier met with ASIO officers in Australia and gave comprehensive detail about a number of Mossad operations, including plans for a top-secret mission in Italy that had been years in the making.

It is unknown who initiated the contact.

Sources have told the ABC that on one of four trips back to Australia in the years before his death in 2010, Mr Zygier – who also used the surnames Alon, Allen and Burrowes – applied for a work visa to Italy.

Last week, Foreign Correspondent revealed Mr Zygier was secretly jailed in Israel’s Ayalon prison, where it is claimed he committed suicide after 10 months in prison.

His incarceration was a state secret in Israel; the security services going to extraordinary lengths to conceal his plight.

The ABC now understands Mr Zygier was one of three Australian Jews who changed their names several times, taking out new passports for travel in the Middle East and Europe in their work for Mossad.

Foreign Correspondent has been told Mr Zygier set up a communications company in Europe for Mossad, a venture that employed the two other Australian dual citizens.

The company exported electronic components to Arab countries as well as Iran.

As the repercussions of the Zygier Affair continue to reverberate through Israel’s political establishment, the need for a suitable scapegoat rises. According to a report in Haaretz, describes the Prison Service as “one of the most organized among Israel’s security organizations, but it is also the weakest.” say they suspect other parties involved in the so-called “Prisoner X” affair who have more political leverage will do everything in their power to place the blame on the Prison Service.

At present, many sources in the Prison Service say they suspect other parties involved in the so-called “Prisoner X” affair who have more political leverage will do everything in their power to place the blame on the Prison Service.

Certain individuals, they say, will try to divert the attention to the question of how Zygier managed to commit suicide in an observation cell.

Protocol requires every person who arrives at the Prison Service to appear on their first day before a committee of doctors, psychologists and other professionals who evaluate the likelihood that they will attempt to harm themselves or others. In Ben Zygier’s case, no such risk assessment is known to have taken place. The decision to skip this meeting was apparently made by someone other the Prison Service.

Furthermore, despite the fact that Zygier was held in an observation cell monitored by security cameras, it is evident that he was not monitored as closely as other prisoners.

Prison Service employees were kept in the dark about his identity and forbidden from engaging in conversation with him. They were permitted to check only if he was present. Only a few Prison Service employees even knew which government body was responsible for his arrest.

One of the major questions that has yet to be asked and which is likely to reduce at least some of the blame being leveled against the Prison Service is whether the Mossad instructed the Prison Service not to turn on security cameras in the cell. Prison guards did not consistently monitor video of Zygier, as they did for Yigal Amir, the assassin of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, when he was kept in the same cell.

The Prison Service has not commented on whether it was ordered to turn off the cameras in Zygier’s cell in order to prevent him from conveying messages to the prison guards or to explain why he had been arrested.

Even on the day Zygier was found dead by guards, none of them entered the cell when the medical team arrived. The guards who were on duty that day waited in a relatively distant wing of the prison and refused to enter even when they were asked by the medical team to help.

Medical staff who arrived at the cell were surprised to discover that the prisoner had only one identifying detail listed: his name, Ben Alon. In any incidence of death, the Prison Service is required to provide details regarding the deceased, including identification number, age and emergency contacts. One medic attempted to inquire about the lack of information and claimed that the body could not be evacuated without additional identifying details, but he was asked to proceed without them. Medics and Prison Service officials were further surprised when during the evacuation they learned that Ben Alon’s name had been changed to Zygier.

Should a thorough investigation be held into the Ben Zygier affair and the circumstances of his suicide, it appears that the Prison Service would benefit from the results being publicized widely.

Amir Oren writes: Ben Zygier found the perfect cover for a Mossad agent: claiming to be a Mossad agent. Who would believe someone who bragged about his work for the Mossad actually worked for the Mossad? The guy would have to be a liar or a blabbermouth, two character traits that at first glance would disqualify someone from intelligence work. He must certainly be unemployed, a sanitation worker or, the lowest of the low, a journalist – anything but an actual Mossad agent.

That, among other things, is what went through the head of one of Zygier’s acquaintances from the short time he lived on Kibbutz Gazit in the north. Zygier and his friend, a demobilized soldier from Sayeret Matkal, the general staff’s elite special-operations force, once bumped into each other at the airport. In response to a not particularly prying question about what he had been up to, Zygier bragged about his secret institutional association. Perhaps Zygier had assumed his kibbutznik friend’s belonging to an army intelligence unit made him a partner to Zygier’s own secret. But the friend felt uncomfortable with the information and shared his surprise with others.

Another former kibbutznik who is from Kibbutz Ma’agan Michael and today lives in Kiryat Tivon, had his own hard-to-explain experience with Zygier. The friend studied with Zygier in Melbourne while his own parents were posted to Australia. When Zygier immigrated to Israel and was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces, he and the friend renewed their acquaintance. Zygier told him that his job in the military included providing security to Shin Bet security service personnel operating in South Lebanon. Last week, the friend recalled that in 1997, “Ben left the army and told me that he had been compelled to kill a boy and girl while providing security for an operation in Lebanon. He told me he was hospitalized for a month with shell shock. Afterward he went back to Australia and several years later returned to Israel. I don’t know whether it was something he made up or not. It astounds me if that could really happen. If so, how did they recruit him into the Mossad?” Continue reading →

McClatchy reports: In the space of three days, a two-year-old mystery about an unidentified prisoner who hanged himself in a high-security Israeli prison has become a scandal for Israel’s vaunted Mossad spy agency. Many here are predicting that it will cost some top officials their jobs.

The Israeli government now acknowledges that Prisoner X was an Australian citizen named Ben Zygier who was held in solitary confinement for eight months in this country’s notorious Ayalon prison before he hanged himself. But the details of Zygier’s life as a Mossad agent are still emerging, and with each new fact, analysts find a pattern of a spy agency that let down its guard and then perhaps went to extremes to cover up its responsibility.

“This is not an affair, it’s a catastrophe,” Uri Misgav wrote in the Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz. “The real issue is the state’s spiriting away an Israeli-Australian citizen, who worked for it, and locking him up hermetically until he died in strange, suspicious circumstances.” [Continue reading…]