Mustafa Taleb, in actuality, returned to Israel as his real self, Massoud Bouton, as a result of the decision made by Israel’s Intelligence Unit to end his spy career without compensation because of a disagreement with his bosses.

Bouton’s story is told by a former Shabak (Israel’s Internal Security Service) officer in his newly-released book An Intelligence Agent’s Story. He met with Bouton for hours to gather the details of his life of espionage, which began in 1956 and spanned seven years as he operated in Beirut and Damascus. As Mustafa Taleb, Bouton created a vast network through which he used to collect intelligence. He used a special communication device to relay his information to Tel Aviv. The author wrote this book to clear Bouton’s defamed reputation ensuing from being fired. Bouton died last year.

Lebanon’s military court handed down a death sentence on Monday, June 20th on Bassam Abu Jawdeh, a Lebanese merchant found guilty of espionage. The conviction was for working for Israeli intelligence and supplying them with information. Death penalty is imposed in Lebanon when an operative’s actions result in Lebanese life being lost. The death sentence is subject to the consent of the president, prime minister and justice minister. A request for the death penalty by the military tribunal at the beginning of this year concerned six Lebanese convicted of collaboration with the Israelis and indirectly causing the deaths of a number of Hezbollah militants.

The Lebanese Army has made more than 150 arrests since its clampdown on alleged spies began in 2007 and among those arrested were prominent military officials and telecommunications staff believed to be Israeli operatives. A recent case that has drawn great attention is that of one-time General Fayez Karam, a high ranking member of the Free Patriotic Movement, whose conviction on charges of collaboration with the Israelis brings with it a probable sentence of three to 15 years at hard labor. Another high profile case involves Col. Antoine Abu Jaoude, who is now on trial on charges of collaboration with the Israelis, by providing the Israeli Mossad with names and addresses of Lebanese Army and Hezbollah officials. A conviction could mean a death sentence by reason of treason.

The arrested Palestinian was a resident of the Bourj A-Shimali refugee camp in southern Lebanon. He has supposedly been supplying Israel with information for the past five years. Officials who raided his home reported finding advanced communications and spy equipment, used for gathering information and sending it to Israeli forces.

A Lebanese newspaper also reported the arrest of three other suspected spies, all allegedly part of a spy ring in collaboration with Israel. There are no current details on their arrests, so be sure to keep an eye out for an update!

It seems very likely that Qazzi gave up Raba’s name during interrogation by Lebanese security and intelligence agents, even though authorities in Lebanon have declined to comment on this point.

They have, however, described Raba as even more of a threat to Lebanon than Qazzi was, who allegedly gave Israel access to the entire company. With this level of access, the Israeli Mossad could reportedly monitor and trace all mobile phone users. Qazzi is also accused of allowing Israel to infect Lebanese communication systems with viruses to paralyze the system and delete entire files of data from it. Of course, this leaves us wondering how Raba could possibly have been “more dangerous.”

Raba, 40, started working for Alfa in 1996 and is accused of spying for Israel since 2001, which upped his income by at least $20,000 a month. A local newspaper reported that he had access to all sorts of confidential technical details, including transmitter locations.

Since April of 2009, Lebanon has made a string of spy arrests. Over 50 Lebanese and Palestinians living in Lebanon have been accused of operating on behalf of Israel, specifically helping Israel to identify targets during the 2006 war with the terrorist group Hezbollah, which is based in Lebanon.

Israel has not commented on the arrests, but Lebanon’s beginning to wonder just how far Israel has managed to infiltrate given that the telecoms companies are so closely connected to and monitored by the government. On the other hand, Lebanon feels its arrests over the past 15 months are sending the right warning signals to Israeli spies and are making dents in Israel’s intelligence pipeline. Furthermore, it seems that Lebanese authorities concur that those convicted of spying for Israel should be sentenced to death.

While the government is busy sending harsh messages, the telecommunications ministry is trying to plug up the leaks in its industry. Apparently a third telecoms spy has been arrested, though details of his identity are not yet available, and a fourth spy fled to Israel to escape arrest.

Hassan Alayan, a Lebanese businessman speaking in Beirut today at a press conference, said that more than 300 Lebanese inhabitants of the UAE have been forced to leave their country of residence over the past three months.

The United Arab Emirates, a largely Sunni Muslim state, is said to be growing increasingly worried over the influence Shi’ite Muslims have in the Middle East. Shi’ite Muslims have traditionally been more violent and many Shi’ite states/insurgencies espouse the passage of Sharia, the strict code of Islamic law, which imposes the burqa and extreme limitations on women and still approves the use of public amputations, beatings and executions as an acceptable form of punishment.

Many of the Lebanese who have been recently deported have lived in the UAE for decades. The traffic cop Zuhair Hamdan, for example, has called the UAE home for 33 years – since he was 2 years old!

Officially, the targeted Lebanese are said to have been singled out for security reasons, indeed some articles coming out of the Middle East have reported that the deportees were sending financial aid to Hezbollah from the UAE. This has been denied by several of the deportees, as well as by the committee representing them now in Lebanon.

According to Alayan, there are Palestinian UAE residents who have been deported for refusing to spy on Hamas, the terrorist group that rules the roost in the Gaza.

The fact that Lebanese President Michel Suleiman sent Lebanese officials to the UAE five weeks ago to resolve the issue has not seemed to help the case of the deportees, nor do we think has the fact that Hezbollah jumped to their defense. Of course, just because Hezbollah’s calling the situation a “clear injustice” and urging the UAE to stop the reportedly baseless deportation of Lebanese families, does not mean the deportees are Hezbollah-affiliated. Hezbollah’s appeal to ‘justice’ however, is somewhat laughable, given the fact that the group is internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, which by definition commits not only clear injustices, but violent ones, regularly.

It is believed by Israeli officials that Hezbollah intends to assassinate Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi as a payback for Israel’s alleged offing of Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh in February 2008.

Sultani’s indictment was issued on Monday, 3 weeks after his arrest on August 10. By order of the court, the media was not allowed to report on the arrest until Sultani was indicted, which is why he didn’t crop up in the news sooner. Sultani has been formally accused of sharing info with Hezbollah agents both in Morocco and Poland, including details about Ashkenazi’s gym and bodyguard. Sultani was reportedly provided with secure communications software, so he could stay in touch with his Hezbollah contacts after his return to Israel.

Representing Sultani in court is his father, the attorney Fuad Sultani. Rawi maintains that he is innocent, saying that even though he did happen to speak to people who may have been involved with Hezbollah, he was never actively or consciously involved in a plot to kill Ashkenazi.

Attorney Sultani has said that his son acted “thoughtlessly” when he mentioned casually to a few people in Morocco that he worked out at the same gym as Gen. Ashkenazi. According to the defense, Rawi did not know the men were Hezbollah agents at the time. He was bragging, clearly to the wrong people, about having contact with the chief of staff.

This is not the first security concern Ashkenazi has had of late. Just two weeks ago, his credit card details and a gun from his office were allegedly stolen by a soldier.

images courtesy of ynetnews.com and kuwaittimes.net

In case you were wondering, when we say detailed, we mean detailed. The newspaper report gave not only the names of the 22 suspects, but also their addresses and names of the companies where they are employed. Only three had their pictures in the paper – all middle-aged, but one appeared to have been beaten as his eyes were black and blue in the photograph.

According to the paper, seven of the 22 men have already confessed to spying for Israel, which is what’s been going on since April. Lebanese officials arrest a couple guys, from whom they get some information about other spies, more arrests follow, and of course more information, which leads to more arrests…you get the picture. Since the spy hunt began, 70 people have been arrested, the first few being Lebanese military officials implicated in the 2004 killing of Ghalib Awali, a top Hezbollah commander.

Apparently, those who have chosen to confess over the past few months have revealed Israel’s ultimate goal as the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and the destruction of Hezbollah. They say that after the 2006 war with Lebanon, Israel worked hard to significantly expand its espionage networks in Lebanon.

Israel reportedly recruited their agents through job ads and bribes, meeting them either within Lebanon or in Western European countries.

cartoon from tmideast.wordpress.com

The Lebanese spy hunt is going full steam ahead and shows no sign of abating any time soon. Elections in the country are scheduled for June 7, and in the midst of all the hooplah, officials say that more arrests are expected.

The foursome charged on Thursday – Nasser Nader, Nawal Maaluf (his girlfriend), Mustafa Said and Samer Abu Arraj – have been accused of giving info to the Israelis with the purpose of enabling assassinations. The authorities believe that Nader was behind the intel that got Ghaleb Awali – a senior member of Hezbollah – assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut in 2004. Although Nader is suspected of providing the info that facilitated the assassination, Hezbollah believes Israel was behind Awali’s death.

Those agents convicted of acting on behalf of Israel face life in prison with hard labor or – if their actions contributed to the death of Lebanese – the death penalty.

photo courtesy of www.presstv.ir

The home front drill referred to is the third in a series of exercises held since the 2006 Lebanon War. They’re calling it Turning Point 3 and it stands apart from its predecessors in that it will involve mobilizing the whole country. On June 2, the drill will culminate with a nationwide siren directing the entire population towards safe rooms and bomb shelters.

Al-Mussawi said in an interview with a London-based pan-Arabic newspaper that Hezbollah is not taking the exercise lightly. They believe that it is somehow related to Israel’s intention to kill Nasrallah with the help of its allies.

Meanwhile back in Lebanon, Nasrallah addressed the Lebanese on television, saying that although not confirmed, the drill may well be in preparation for “a new and unexpected war.”

He said that the drill “gives the impression that Israel is preparing for a security or military attack on something, and assume that this aggression will lead to sudden and unpredictable reactions.”

Israeli diplomats said Nasrallah’s accusations are false – just more politicking on his part.

photo courtesy of arabamericannews.com

Recently, Shin Bet (Israel’s equivalent of the FBI), issued a warning to Israelis telling them to be cautious as there have been attempts by terrorist groups to recruit agents via Facebook and other social networking sites.

Shin Bet reports that there have been several recent incidents in which Arab terrorists have attempted recruiting with direct online contact or by arranging seemingly innocuous meetings with “friends” they make online.

Leaking classified information over the Internet is not brand new, as Shin Bet in the past few years has interrogated and tried numerous Israelis for just this infraction. The security service said in a statement that they “fear classified information may have been leaked, endangering the lives of Israelis who could be enticed to meet abroad with Internet contacts who have offered them deals.”

Apparently, terrorists looking for recruits trawl sites popular with Israelis and aim especially to connect with soldiers who have served with covert units of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

Recently, an Israeli Facebook user was approached online by a man identifying himself only as “a Lebanese agent.” He offered the Israeli money in exchange for classified intel. The Israeli notified Shin Bet and cut off contact with the alleged agent.

Shin Bet has advised Israelis to remove all personal information from their profiles, whether they be on Facebook or other networks. That means no email addresses, phone numbers, mailing addresses or even birth years. Probably not a bad thing for Facebook users in other countries to take heed of as well.

What’s next? Hezbollah following people on Twitter??

Yesterday, the Lebanese police held a show-and-tell with the spy gadgets seized during the arrests. The devices included an Igloo water cooler outfitted with landscape-surveying sensors, a car battery charger that was allegedly used for storing and transmitting data and USB memory sticks with intricate maps of Lebanon.

According to the police, some of the maps demarcate bridges and military posts targeted by Israeli bombs in the 2006 war against the Lebanon-based, Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.

Lebanese officials say they have identified and arrested 14 spies with ties to Israel’s Mossad in this most recent bout of spy-hunting. The campaign to ferret out those operating on behalf of Israel in the ongoing espionage war between the two countries is not a new one – but it certainly seems to be coming to a head.

As a police officer showed off the sequestered goods at HQ, he explained: “Based on the investigation, it appears that their basic logistics mission focused on defining locations, targets, buildings and outposts as demanded by the enemy intelligence.”

The officer read from a pre-prepared statement and would not answer any questions. His colleague, whose identity was shielded by a black mask, displayed the gadgets, which were reportedly given to the agents by the Mossad. The spies were to use the gadgets to monitor specific people and strategic targets and to conduct surveys of Lebanese and Syrian territory.

The agents, said the officer, used the equipment to transmit intel via “coded radio messages” through satellite or the Internet. One of the coded transmission gadgets on display was fitted into a cabinet.

Apparently also in the agents’ possession were forged Lebanese passports and blank job apps the police say were to be used by potential Mossad recruits. This spate of arrests has come about largely from information provided by the Lebanese ex-general who last month was arrested for spying for Israel.

The Israeli government has of course made no comments on the arrests, and the public is left to wonder what fate awaits the rounded-up spies and how the arrests will affect Israeli intelligence ops against the recognized terrorist group.

photo courtesy of www.ynetnews.com (AFP)

What sort of treatment led to this alleged confession remains, of course, unknown.

The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported that the three men’s espionage activities were discovered during the investigation of a Lebanese ex-general, also suspected of spying for the Mossad.

It is believed that the men – Ali Hussein Mantash, Robert Edmond Kfoury and Mohammad Ibrahim Awad – come from two separate cells in southern Lebanon, and it has been further reported that their cars, cell phones and computers were all seized while their homes were being ransacked in connection to the retired general. The ex-general, Adib Alam, was reportedly the head of a 12-person spy network supplying Israel with intelligence about Hezbollah activities.

According to the Lebanese reports, it was the Mossad that convinced Alam to leave the Lebanese security services over a decade ago and open his purported front company which brings in foreigners from abroad to work in Lebanon.

One thing is certain – the hunt for spies in Lebanon continues with fervor.

The ex-general worked for the General Security department of the Interior Ministry, but he retired from the post 11 years ago, so it is not clear what information he has had access to since then, nor how he has been privy to it. Despite his retired status, the ex-general, whose name has not been revealed, has been referred to as a “precious catch,” the interrogation of whom could expose “a lot of important and sensitive information.”

A Lebanese security official shared that the ex-general confessed to having met with Israelis on a regular basis across Europe. It is suspected that he used his business, which manages foreign domestic workers, as a cover for his spying.

Since the short but intense war between Israel and Lebanon in 2006, Lebanon has stepped up their campaign to identify and detain those who have been supporting the Israeli intelligence efforts in Lebanon. The ex-general was under surveillance for three months prior to his arrest, and his wife was also questioned.

Not long ago, a Lebanese businessman who owned auto dealerships and shops was arrested for having befriended high-ranking Hezbollah officials and passed on information to Israel for four years. He allegedly planted tracking devices into the vehicles of top Hezbollah members, allowing Israel to trace their every move. Since the discovery of the tracking gadgets – a major security blow to Hezbollah –  the terrorist group has reconfigured security measures and relocated officials whose movements may have been under the close watch of Israelis for quite some time.