Ex-Mossad agents reveal pager blast plot
Former Mossad agents have given details about the bombing of telecommunications devices used by Hezbollah agents in Lebanon and Syria, revealing the extent to which the Lebanese group is being covertly targeted.
In an interview for CBS’s “60 minutes” program on December 22nd, the two Mossad agents, who have recently retired, were wearing masks to stay anonymous, as they discussed the intricate operation which killed many Hezbollah agents, Middle East Online via Reuters reports.
The CBS correspondent Lesley Stahl discussed how the Walkie-Talkie’s were put into a “tactical vest” in the pocket, located near the person’s heart.
One of the agents, using the pseudonym “Michael,” said “Walkie-Talkie” devices were bought by the Lebanese party from a made-up company run by Mossad. Michael said that Hezbollah were not aware of the company’s true identity.
Stahl reported that Hezbollah bought over 16,000 of these Walkie Talkie’s. The correspondent added that Israel did not activate them for a decade, until the September pager attacks.
As reported by Levantis, the Lebanon pager blasts, took place on September 17th. But Mossad had put explosives in the pagers imported by Hezbollah months before the pager blast.
Michael said that the Walkie-Talkie’s were scheduled to explode in September, one day before the bombing of the pager devices.
The agent added “We created our imaginary world.”
The second agent, who referred to himself as “Jibril,” reaffirmed that the process of booby-trapping telecommunications devices and selling them to Hezbollah was the second stage of the operation.
Jibril said that the plan started in 2022, after Mossad found out that Hezbollah were aiming to buy these devices from the Taiwan-based company “Gold Apollo.”
Jibril also said that the devices were made slightly bigger to hide explosives and he explains that they were tested on dolls to make sure they were effective and that people near the party were not harmed.
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“We tested many many ringtones to find one that sounds urgent enough to get a person to take the pager out of their pocket,” said Jibril.
Jibril added: “We have persuaded Hezbollah to go ahead with the deal.” he added that “the pager devices are slightly larger to contain more explosives and were marketed after fake advertisements were posted online and social media about their ability to resist water and dust and have a larger battery life.”
Jibril also added: “Hezbollah was completely ignorant that the Mossad ran the shell company and believed it was affiliated with Gold Apollo.”
Taiwanese authorities are looking into the case and have found that components used to make thousands of pager devices were not made in Taiwan.
The investigation has also spread across to Bulgaria. Bulgaria’s security forces have also said that none of the pager devices used for the attack in Lebanon had been imported, exported or made in Bulgaria.
The agent also discussed the success of the surreptitious operation. Jibril said: “When they buy from us, they have no idea that they are buying from the Mossad. We looked like the Truman Shaw, everything was under control behind the scenes. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100 percent authentic, including businessmen, marketing, engineers, showroom and everything.”
Michael explained that “the day after the explosion of pager machines, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on the air conditioners for fear that they would also explode.”
Michael added: “We can’t use pagers again because we’ve already done so. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. They will have to keep trying to guess what the next thing will be.”
According to AFP via Arab News, on September 18th, Hezbollah threatened to punish Israel after the pager blast incident. The blast killed nine people and injured at least 2,800, of which, 200 were critically injured.
Hezbollah ended up launching its first attack on Israel since the incident on September 18th, as reported by Middle East Online and agencies.
Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu said on November 10th that he gave the green light to the pager attacks in Lebanon, according to Arab News via AFP.
Middle East Online, Reuters, CBS, AFP, Arab News
