ANT KATZ with Al-Jazeera

The fall-out of the intelligence leaks which have seen Al-Jazeera and The Guardian publishing a series of leaked Top Secret spy cables obtained by Al-Jazeera to and from the SA State Security Agency (SSA) continues.

Among the new revelations from the leaked papers expose the ‘doomed’ relationship between SA and Israeli intelligence services. In fact, says AL-JAZEERA, SSA and Mossad spies deeply dislike and distrust one another.

The SSA considers Mossad to be a “difficult and insistent service.” The South Africans even accuse Mossad of staging a bombing “to attract more attention to safety at the Israeli Embassy and other Israeli Companies.”

Tensions between the two countries at a governmental level are hardly surprising, given the longstanding support by the ANC for the Palestinian cause, and the history of collaboration between the Israeli state and South Africa’s apartheid regime. The papers provide further evidence that the apartheid regime had collaborated in Israel’s development of nuclear weapons.

What SA thinks of Mossad

But the leaked documents show sharp differences emerging in the espionage relationship in the post-apartheid years, describing numerous tense encounters between the spies of the two nations’ secret services.

CLICK HERE to view a 55-page leaked SSA document on Al-Jazeera titled: Geopolitical Country and Intelligence Assessment on Israel

‘No respect’

In one meeting, an Israeli agent reportedly stormed out after being told he would not receive the information he wants on a suspected al-Qaeda operative.

In another, a Mossad agent phoned the acting head of SSA and demanded a meeting, with no prior arrangements. The SSA did not know the caller was in SA, or that he was the head of Mossad’s Africa service.

LEFT: A Rooivalk Helicopter firing a Mokopa missile – Israel bought blueprints for both weapons systems and returned them to SA in exchange for certain guarantees. READ THE STORY

Later a liaison officer met with this Mossad agent and wrote that the Israeli was “extremely arrogant,” showed “no respect for the SSA’s way of doing things,” and that “a liaison relationship on this basis is doomed before it even started.”

The Spy Cables show that intelligence relations between the SA and Israeli agencies appear to have deteriorated considerably from the close cooperation they enjoyed during the apartheid era. One South African document complains of the “personal likes and dislikes, selective memory and personal antagonism” of some agents towards Israel’s secret service, which “interfere with the professional approach required in the intricate game of liaison.”

‘Disrespect and bad faith’

The Spy Cables tell how the head of Mossad’s Africa service had previously “managed to see the Director General” of South Africa’s intelligence agency “under false pretences” by claiming that he was the head of Mossad and was passing through SA, “which proved not to be true.”

However, says the Al-Jazeera report, on 5 September 2012 the Mossad Africa chief called the acting Director General of the SSA and again demanded a meeting.

The liaison officer was dispatched to meet him at the Burgerspark Hotel in Pretoria, under orders to deliver the message that he was, “under no circumstances” to contact the Director General of the SSA directly ever again.

The Mossad agent was informed that he and his colleague must formally present their credentials to the SSA, and that any future meeting “will be scheduled where the details and boundaries of the liaison relationship will be clearly defined”.

A later memo records a meeting in which SSA personnel explained the relevant protocols to the Mossad representative, and explained what was expected of the Israeli agents while they are in South Africa.

The leaked secret cables reveal that the SSA memo had been written “in order to bring some order” to what is “an unravelling situation,” and it concludes by looking forward to “sharing thoughts and idea on how best to deal with a difficult and insistent service” such as Mossad.

‘Extremely arrogant’

The liaison officer then prepared a memo detailing the September 5 meeting. Although riddled with spelling and grammatical errors, it highlights that the SSA “felt that it was inappropriate behaviour by the Mossad and that no respect was shown and protocol was not followed.”

The South African officer wrote that the Mossad agent “boasted he is in daily contact with President and Heads of Services in Africa.” She noted that the Israeli was prone to boasting, and that “it was very easy to get him to talk about himself.”

“When it seemed he had nothing more to boast about, she indicated to him that he should now allow her some time to respond,” the liaison officer wrote, referring to herself in the third person.

The Mossad spy also handed over a letter from his service’s Director General, Tamir Pardo, who seemed unaware of the strained relations on the ground. His letter congratulates the SSA on the “outstanding cooperation we enjoyed from you.”

The liaison agent noted that Israel had issued a press release stating that a 2012 bomb attack on a busload of tourists in Bulgaria that killed five Israelis had originally been planned for South Africa.

“None of the details were shared with the SSA to be prepared in future,” she noted. “This reflected more disrespect and bad faith.”

The South African agent concluded her memo by writing that the head of Mossad’s Africa service “comes across as extremely arrogant and self-assured,” and that her report is “a verbal reflection of what was said in the meeting and does not reflect the disposition of the liaison officer.”

She writes that the Israeli operative’s “remarks that he deals with President’s and DG’s all over Africa confirm his need to be very important,” deducing that these characteristics leave him “prone to be manipulated and exploited.”

Related reads on sajr.co.za

• MOSSAD BOUGHT STOLEN SA MISSILE, CHOPPER PLANS by Ant Katz
• MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, SA’S WIKILEAKSby Howard Feldman
• INTELLIGENC E CABLES REVEAL MURKY EVENTSby Sue Belling
  

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She also questions his discretion, saying “he hammered on https://www.sajr.co.za/images/default-source/logos/general/spy-cables-home8.jpg” class=”sfImageWrapper”>“They expected that [South African intelligence] would share information with them on what are finding of their monitoring and investigation.”

However, the SA spy “bluntly told” his Israeli counterpart “that he was prevented by management to share information.”

The Israeli agent, the report says, “could not understand” why SA would not reveal the details of their investigation, grew angry and “stormed out of the meeting.”

The same secret assessment shows that at the time, then-Minister of Intelligence Ronnie Kasrils had ordered an audit of “information liaised” between his agencies and the Israeli secret service.

“The political stance from Minister Kasrils contributed to the perception that [SA intelligence] was not willing to cooperate with Mossad because the adversaries of Israel are allies of SA,” wrote the author of the secret assessment.

“Of course Mr Kasrils has openly demonstrated political differences with Israel and supported the cause of the Palestinian.”

Al Jazeera asked Kasrils, who is Jewish and a high-profile supporter of the Palestinian struggle, about the audit. The former minister responded that he “didn’t want anything to do with the Mossad” when he was in government, but that he was not willing to go into operational details.