How Ziad Ahmad Itani fell into
Mossad's honey trap
NEWS
Inside Israel's Mossad:
Efraim Halevy on
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by Ali Younes
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Ziad Ahmad Itani performs on stage in Beirut in
2013 [File: AFP]
Before he was arrested as a suspected
Israeli spy, Ziad Ahmad Itani was a
successful artist, journalist and
playwright.
His personal and professional trajectory
did not suggest that he would end up
working for the Mossad, Israel's
notorious external spy agency.
While Itani's case may be different, it is
not isolated. He was arrested on
November 24 and charged with spying
for Israel on Lebanese journalists,
intellectuals, and government ministers.
The Lebanese State's Security, the
official agency in charge of handling
cases of espionage, confirmed the
charges against Itani of working for
Israel, which Lebanon considers an
enemy state.
The statement said that damming
evidence was found in Itani's Beirut
apartment, including "drugs, four
laptop computers, five cellphones that
he stores the secret data in".
The statement also said Itani has
confessed to the charges.
There is no lawyer for Itani yet. He has
not been referred to court yet and
remains under arrest.
A classic honey trap
The Mossad has long recruited Arab
spies working on behalf of Israel against
their own countries.
Unlike others hired by the Mossad since
the 1950s and onward, who infiltrated
the circles of Arab society's political
and military elite, Itani does not fit the
profile of the classic Israeli spy, even
though the recruitment method was the
same.
According to
classified
Lebanese
counterintelligence investigations,
which Al Jazeera has obtained, Itani
was recruited by a Swedish woman in a
classic "honey trap".
In a videotaped confession, he claims
Mossad used footage showing him
having intercourse as a way of
pressuring him into spying for the
agency.
Pierre Abi Saab, deputy editor of the
daily Al-Akhbar newspaper, says Itani's
case is part of new intelligence war
being waged by Mossad and others to
reinvent Arab political culture to accept
Israel as a "normal" country in the
region, as opposed to an enemy state.
Long before any peace agreement
between Israel and other Arab states
like Egypt and Jordan, signed in 1979
and 1994 respectively, the Mossad
operated with impunity in Arab and
European countries by killing Israel's
enemies and recruiting well-placed
spies in the upper echelon of powers.
The Israeli
Mossad, for
example,
assassinated
famed
Palestinian
intellectual and
author Ghassan
Kanafani in
Beirut in 1972. The Mossad also
assassinated Egyptian nuclear scientist
Yahya El Mashad in Paris, France in
1982.
But after signing peace treaties with
Egypt and Jordan and having built
informal but extensive ties with other
Arab countries, the Mossad focused on
assassinating Palestinians in the
occupied territories.
Today, the Mossad has allies in many
Arab capitals and operates hand-in-
hand with governments such as Egypt,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE
against their common enemies.
Israel is now working on
penetrating our societies
through public intellectuals,
journalists, filmmakers, actors
and journalists.
PIERRE ABI SAAB, AL AKHBAR DEPUTY EDITOR
Arab intelligence services are known to
work extensively with the Mossad to
penetrate groups such as al-Qaeda and
the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.
Arab states also work with the Mossad
against Palestinian nationalist and
"Islamist" groups.
Abi Saab argues that Mossad, having
secured Arab governments as allies, has
started paying more attention to
changing public opinion to Israel's
favour, despite its continued illegal
occupation of Arab territories.
"Israel is now working on penetrating
our societies through public
intellectuals, journalists, filmmakers,
actors and journalists," he said. "The
Mossad wants to change the Arab
hearts and minds to Israeli favour
through our own public intellectuals."
Because Lebanon has a liberal and
diverse society, Israel would see an easy
target in terms of trying to change the
country's political culture by recruiting
agents and supporters by different
means, says Abi Saab.
Who is Ziad Ahmad Itani?
Itani worked as journalist in Beirut for
two Lebanese media outlets, before
dedicating himself to developing and
writing comedy sketches and plays.
He became successful in the arts and
rose to fame within Lebanese society.
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