Ha-Mossad le-Modiin ule-Tafkidim Meyuhadim (Hebrew: Institute for Intelligence and Special Tasks , המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים) is an Israeli intelligence agency, commonly referred to as Mossad. It is responsible for intelligence collection, covert action, and counter-terrorism. Its focus is on Arab nations and organizations throughout the world.
Mossad was formed in April 1951 from the Central Institute for Coordination and the Central Institute for Intelligence and Security. Mossad is a civilian service, and does not use military ranks, although all of the Mossad's staff have served in the Israeli Defence Force (as a part of Israel's compulsory draft system), and many of them are officers.
Mossad has long had a reputation for being an extremely effective agency (see links below). However, it has also been involved in several spectacular debacles. In 1973, Mossad murdered Ahmad Bouchikhi, an innocent Arab waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, who had been mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh, one of the leaders of the Black September organization, which was responsible for the Munich Massacre. The Mossad agents used fake Canadian passports, which angered the Canadian government. In 1997, two Mossad agents were caught in Jordan, on mission to assassinate Sheikh Khaled Mashal, a leader of the Hamas terrorist group. Again, they were using fake Canadian passports. This led to a diplomatic row with Canada, and Israel was also further forced to release several Palestinian prisoners, in particular the militant Hamas leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, who is playing a prominent role in attacks against Israeli civilians during the current Al-Aksa Intifada, in exchange for the Mossad agents.
Mossad is headquartered in Tel Aviv and has eight departments:
Table of contents |
2 CEO's of Mossad 3 External Links 4 See Also |
Famous Mossad Operations
CEO's of Mossad
1951-1952 | Reuven Shiloah |
1952-1963 | Issar Har'el |
1963-1968 | Me'ir Amit |
1968-1974 | Zvi Zamir |
1974-1982 | Yitzhak Hofi |
1982-1990 | Nahum Admoni |
1990-1996 | Shabtai Shavit |
1996-1998 | Danny Yatom |
1998-2003 | Efraim Halevy |
2003- | Me'ir Dagan |
" class="external">http://www.mohr.gov.il
External Links
See Also
Numbers station