The Other Side of Deception

by Victor Ostrovsky

Book Overview

A former Israeli agent relates the story of his career as a double agent and his disruption of shocking Mossad assassination plans. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0061093521
• ISBN13: 9780061093524
• Release Date: January 1995
• Publisher: HarperPrism
• Length: 399 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Critical Reading for those who care about the US in 2004

For a thinking person, the revelations in this book should spawn probing questions about the Mossad's part in geopolitics from pre-9-11 to 2004. Ostrovsky outlines how the Mossad, unlike any other secret intelligence service in the world, uses the vast Diaspora as "assets" to do their bidding. It is organized so that the Diaspora (over 50,000 strong) become temporary Mossad agents on an as-needed basis.This structure accomplishes two things:(1) By playing on the 'help the homeland' aspect of requesting help for Israel from the Diaspora through whatever the 'asset's' position or job skill can produce, it naturally compartmentalizes the significance of a job, and reduces costs. The Mossad has only 1200 agents worldwide, but calls on the considerable PR skills of the B'nai B'rith, JDL, and ADL to advance its aims on an as-needed basis. Ostrovsky shows in event after event how this is by design.(2) The Mossad can get away with meddling in the politics of foreign countries by labeling as "anti-semitic" any objection to its methods; or similarly, by labeling as "anti-semitic" any objections if its gets caught. Again, Ostrovsky shows in example after example how this is by design.The recent 2004 scandal in New Zealand is a case in point. This involved Mossad agents caught stealing New Zealand passports from paraplegics. Or the more disturbing US-based AP reports from Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida in the last five weeks in which Israeli agents were caught near nuclear sub and fuel stations, or trying to enter federal installations. The only reporter willing to follow up these stories is Daniel Hopsicker, a respected journalist, of online MadCowProd News. When you realize that these agents caused an entire Navy Sub station with nuclear missles to close down (May 20, 2004) because sniffing dogs discovered bomb material in their moving trucks, it makes Ostrovsky's detailed warning about what the Mossad is doing in the US all the more alarming.I think the information I found the most distressing was how the Mossad uses US national print and broadcast media and reporters as assets. This a propaganda machine that at this time can only lead to more US sons and daughters coming home from Iraq in body bags. I say this because Ostrovsky is adamant in this book, published in 1993 or 1994, that it has been the Mossad's express policy for years to get the US into war with Iraq.

Would Anyone Care to Hunt Dragons?

Without becoming one, that is. Alongside the author's previous "By Way of Deception." This book, also a best seller, contains a depressing and chilling expose of The Mossad, Israel's intelligence service. Unlike any other 'true espionage account' you might have hitherto read it is, as the saying goes, impossible to put down. Absolutely riveting. Though by the end the question is not 'Who are the good guys?' It's more like ' Who in The Middle East is NOT completely insane ? 'Ostrovsky was a former colonel in the Israeli armed forces before he joined Mossad. No one contends that he was a field officer, well connected and in the know. He was fired after a fracas in Cyprus, in which he contends he was forced to take the fall for his incompetent superiors. This would never have happenned in the Israeli Defense Forces, not without a proper hearing. However The Mossad, as he never tires of telling us, is a law unto itself. According to the author it has become a 'rival state' comprised of good ole boys answerable only to the Prime Minister--at least in theory. In fact, it answers to no one.Dissatisfied intelligence officers who have been, rightly or wrongly, given the boot writing scathing memoirs is not news. However if, say, a CIA operative turned 'liberal' upon termination of employment alleged ONE TENTH of what Ostrovsky alleges, the scandal that would follow dwarf Watergate and Iran/Contra combined.Among a few:* The Mossad regards anyone in Israel who believes in peace with the Palestinians, or withdrawal from the occupied territories as little better than a traitor. It has sold arms and provided information to fundamentalist extremist Muslim groups via third parties in order to undermine the stability of Arab States and the credibility of their leaders with The West. Anything to keep the conflict burning.* The Mossad planned to assasinate president George Bush Sr at the Madrid peace talks in 1991, due to his policy of pressuring Israel to the negotiaing table by freezing their loan guarantees. A special Kidon (bayonet, i.e; hit men) unit took three Palestinian extremists from Beirut and set them up. The Mossad was to kill the 'perpretators' in the ensuing confusion after they had shot the president. Due to inside info Ostrovsky obtained, he was able to blow the whistle and the plan was cancelled--as were the three Palestinians, at the Nes Ziyyona facitlity, an ABC (atomic, bacteriological, chemical) warfare lab where the author contends top epidemiogical scientists routinely use enemies as human guinea pigs.* The Mossad, did indeed murder their billionare operative Robert Maxwell, let Jonathan Pollard hang out to dry, and (ready?) assasinated Israeli general Yekutiel Adam a.k.a. "Kuti" because he had been appointed its head and they didn't want an 'outsider' taking over.Now if all this---and much more---sound like the ravings of a lunatic, he's an extremely meticulous and detailed one. Still, one wonders if the Mossad is a loose cannon, why Ostro

A chilling look at the guardians of the Jewish State.

If what the author writes is true, then I grieve for the State of Israel. Mr. Ostrovsky's writings gives a chilling insight into an agency that is acting more like Hitler's Gestapo and Honacher's Stasi than what it is supposed to be: a protector of all of the people of Israel.The fact that the book is rather convoluted reading actually give me a better feeling for Mr. Ostrovski and why he felt it important to blow the whistle. Calling this man a traitor would be wrong; he plainly loves Israel and is willing to do the right thing by it.I strongly recommend this book to those who belive that no secret agency should be given absolute power. It's plain to see that it has corrupted the Mossad absolutely.

Naivete

The opinions of the detractors of Ostrovsky's books are less than surprising. They are counting on the general naivete of the public at large. I have been a dirty tricks specialist for many years in the U.S. Armed Forces. Every scenario put forth by Ostrovsky, some admittedly outrageous, are at the same time completely plausible.Clandestine operations are often founded upon the most bizarre set of circumstances and carried out by the unknowing dupes of seasoned field agents, otherwise known as assets. There is never a master plan, while there is always the goal of victory at any cost. The only thing that is definitely planned from the gitgo is deniability. The outcome of a given operation therefore ranges either from the consummately mundane to the totally absurd. The more ridiculous, the easier to deny.Some succeed and some fail. Good funding and support for the long haul from the powers that be most often make the difference between a Bay of Pigs and the complete withdrawal the Soviet Armed Forces from Afghanistan, Central America and the collapse their system.I submit that the detractors of Mr. Ostrovsky's works may have an agenda not unlike the object of study found in Ostrovky's books.