TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/092490/0924004.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 3.7 KB | 81 lines

                                                                                WORLD, Page 63

The Spy Who Spilled the Beans


Israel tries -- and fails -- to prevent publication of a former
Mossad agent's book, creating an explosive best seller

By WILLIAM R. DOERNER -- With reporting by Barbara Cornell/New
York and James L. Graff/Ottawa


    Mossad, the Israeli spy service, still commands high respect
for its intelligence operations, even if it no longer enjoys
the reputation of its early days. But one thing that has
changed not at all is its aversion to publicity. Last week
Israel went to extraordinary -- and unsuccessful -- lengths to
prevent the U.S. publication of a book by a former agent that
claims to reveal the service's secrets. In the process, it
turned a somewhat dubious book that would probably have been
of interest only to intelligence buffs into a best seller,
while giving front-page publicity to some of its most
embarrassing allegations.

    The book, By Way of Deception, was co-written by Victor
Ostrovsky, 40, who holds dual Canadian and Israeli citizenship
and became a Mossad agent in the 1980s, and Claire Hoy, 50, a
Canadian journalist. The Canadian-born Ostrovsky, who grew up
in Israel and now works in Ottawa as an artist, sold the
manuscript to Toronto's Stoddart Publishing, which planned to
release the book Oct. 4. But two weeks ago, claiming the book
contained information that "could have dire consequences for
many people," Israeli officials won a temporary injunction in
Canada against release of the book's contents. Ostrovsky
temporarily went into hiding following what he claimed was a
menacing visit to his home by two of his former Mossad bosses.

    Jerusalem then moved its campaign to New York City, where
St. Martin's Press had begun shipping the book to stores last
week. A judge granted an order blocking publication, which
First Amendment experts immediately labeled an invalid exercise
of prior restraint. A four-judge appeals panel promptly agreed,
lifting the order the next day and noting that since books had
been shipped to 1,500 wholesalers, suppression was a practical
impossibility. By the end of the week, a tidal wave of new
orders prompted St. Martin's to increase the print run to
200,000, practically guaranteeing that it will be high on the
best-seller list. "This never would have happened had it not
been for the attempt to suppress the book," says Thomas
McCormack, the chairman of St. Martin's.

    Ostrovsky's most sensational claim is that in 1983 Mossad
received specific intelligence, down to the make of a Mercedes
truck outfitted to carry bombs, that Shi`ite extremists in
Beirut were planning a major terrorist attack. Though the U.S.
forces then stationed in Lebanon were an obvious target
possibility, Mossad officials only warned the U.S. in the most
general terms. The attack was carried out at Marine Corps
headquarters and resulted in 241 American deaths. Writes
Ostrovsky: "The problem was that if we had leaked information
and it was traced back, our informant would have been killed.
The next time we wouldn't know if we were on the hit list."
Another allegation is that, contrary to official denials that
any Mossad field agents are in the U.S., there are about 25 in
a supersecret division known as Al, which is Hebrew for "on
top."

    Israeli officials dispute many of the book's claims, with
one top-level official in the Prime Minister's office claiming
flatly that "95% of what he writes is not true." Ostrovsky was
eventually fired from Mossad, though the circumstances remain
unclear. A senior Israeli official said the ex-spy's motive in
writing the book is to "get revenge." If so, Israel's legal
intervention helped in that quest.