Former Mossad director Yossi Cohen has written the memoir The Sword of Freedom: Israel, Mossad, and the Secret War. The Free Beacon has just published a good review of the memoir this morning under the headline “Memoirs of a Mossad mastermind.”
Cohen himself is out promoting the book in interviews that I have found of interest. West Point’s urban warfare expert John Spencer focuses on the Mossad’s astounding 2018 operation inside Tehran to seize Iran’s nuclear archives in his podcast with Cohen (below). Durns observes in the review linked above:
Cohen’s account of the operation to retrieve Iran’s so-called nuclear archive is worth the price of admission alone. For decades, the Islamic Republic had been developing a nuclear weapons program. In 2015, the United States and others agreed to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), better known as the Iran Deal, which sought to curtail Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Jerusalem suspected perfidy but required proof. Enter the Mossad.
The spy agency spent more than two years preparing for the operation, which required the “efforts of hundreds of people,” Cohen notes. Significant efforts were made to limit leaks and exposure. Planning and preparation proved key.
It was, Cohen observes, “Ocean’s Eleven, for real.” The Mossad “needed a huge stock of supplies from giant lock cutters to heavy-duty welding equipment.” The agency purchased safes meant to replicate those they would encounter on the ground in Iran. The precise temperature needed for the blowtorches was found. “Breaching the safes,” he laments, “was a mission in itself.”
Agents on the ground studied the behavior patterns of those accessing and guarding the warehouses holding Iran’s nuclear archive. Israel would have a small window of time to break in, gather up hundreds of thousands of documents, and vanish into the night without being caught. Cohen called it the “longest six hours and fifty-nine minutes” of his life.
Tehran’s decision to move the archive shortly before the mission was underway upped the stakes. The operation was advanced ahead of schedule. Yet Mossad operatives were successful, eluding their Iranian pursuers and gathering an astonishing 55,000 pages of documentation and 183 compact discs, which themselves contained another 55,000 files, including memos, videos, blueprints, and strategic plans. Half a ton of material and 25 agents were removed from the heart of Tehran.
Spencer has posted the podcast at his West Point Modern War Institute site. His interview focuses on “Mossad’s raid in Tehran, 2018.” Spencer writes: “During the conversation, Cohen reveals in extraordinary detail the preparation for and risk behind the operation. He also reflects on his thirty-eight years in Mossad, the evolution of intelligence in modern conflict, and the future role of artificial intelligence in national security.”
Brendan O’Neill covers some of the same territory in his Spiked interview posted as “Inside Mossad.” The interview is posted on YouTube so viewers can observe the discussion. The note on Spiked reads: “Yossi and Brendan discuss Mossad’s fearsome reputation, the existential threats facing Israel, and how espionage is critical to the Jewish State’s survival.”
