Surreptitious Intelligence Agencies

by Richard Kostelanetz (October 2013)

Consider, by contrast, the video made in America a few years ago defaming Muhammad. It prompted protests, sometimes anti-American, sometimes violent, around the Arab world. Let me suggest that this resulted from a clandestine operation by the Israeli Mossad, commonly judged the most sophisticated intelligence agency in the world, making all others look like duffers. This reputation comes not because the Israelis are murderous, though murder they sometimes do, but because they are far more clever, as David must be if surrounded by Goliaths, particularly at setting into motion certain provocations that produce a desired result.

Since the origins of the provocative Innocence of Muslims are murky, let me suggest that the Mossad could have funded it as well. The filmmaker is said to be an Egyptian Coptic residing south of Los Angeles. As he had a history of financial problems, his production money must have come from someone else. Though this backer might have no visible connection to Israeli intelligence, such an intermediary could have gotten it from a third party, say a Mossad operative who, as a condition of his donation, requires that his identity be kept secret. Such distancing is not unusual in the covert intelligence biz.

More seriously, a literary colleague more familiar with Israel, reminds me that the Mossad, as an external intelligence agency, had nothing to do with the Jerusalem stoning.

Establishing such premeditation would be problematic were it not for the results:

Skepticisms” New English Review May, 2012) whether the Arab killed in Pakistan in the spring of 2011 was really Osama bin Laden, whom, I’d previously conjectured, had disappeared a decade before. Mostly questioning the lack of visual evidence that could have been easily provided, incidentally wondering why the cadaver so mysteriously disappeared, I concluded two years ago that the event was an attractive hoax designed to enhance the President’s public approval ratings, as indeed it did, additionally giving his campaign a slogan for the 2012 election. Reconsidering this bin Laden episode in the wake of my appreciation of the Mossad, may I offer an additional reason for doubting the Obama claim: For a true stealth operation, no credit is desired, even if everyone suspects.

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