Mossad director reveals legendary spy’s last telegram
Mossad director David Barnea has revealed the last telegram sent from Syria by Israel’s legendary spy Eli Cohen.
Telegram Photo: GPO
The telegram, dated Feb. 19, 1965, said: “Meeting of the General Staff last night at 5:00 with [then-Syrian President] Amin Al-Hafez and high officers.”
Barnea revealed the last telegram at the dedication of the Eli Cohen Museum in Herzliya.
“The reason for Eli Cohen’s capture has always been controversial. Did he transmit too much? Did he act contrary to the directives? Did headquarters demand that he transmit too intensively? The issue has been subject to dispute for many years,” Barnea said.
Eli Cohen. (MoD)
“I will honour this holy place and reveal, for the first time, following in-depth research that was carried out recently, that Eli Cohen was not captured due to the number of his transmissions or pressure from headquarters to transmit too frequently. Eli Cohen was captured because the enemy simply intercepted and triangulated his transmissions. This is now an intelligence fact.”
The Egyptian-born Cohen was recruited into the Mossad and sent to live among Syrian expatriates in Buenos Aires to establish his cover as a businessman named Kamel Amin Thaabet before moving to Damascus.
Cohen quickly became a confidante of many high-ranking Syrian officials and businessmen and he was reportedly being considered for an appointment as deputy defence minister. His information about Syrian positions defending the Golan Heights is said to have played a key part in Israel’s capture of the territory during the Six-Day War of 1967.
In 1965, on what was supposed to be his last time in Damascus, the Syrians, with Soviet assistance, detected Cohen’s radio transmissions and arrested him. He was publicly hanged in Damascus in 1965.
Israel and Cohen’s widow, Nadia, have been fighting for the return of Eli’s body from Syria ever since.
