Israel is working together with British and other foreign intelligence agencies
to prevent terrorist attacks on the sidelines of the Olympic Games that will
begin later this week in London, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on
Sunday.
Barak’s comments came after a report in the Sunday Times claimed
that the Mossad had dispatched dozens of agents to Europe to hunt down Caucasian
converts to Islam who are allegedly planning terror attacks against Israel’s
Olympic delegation.
Barak downplayed the report, however, saying Israel
was always vigilant ahead of the Olympics and clearly remembered the massacre of
11 Israeli athletes during the Munich games 40 years ago.
The Olympic
Games, he said, were a “natural target.”
“There is definitely
intelligence and operational vigilance ahead of the Olympics,” Barak said during
a visit to the IDF’s Tel Hashomer recruitment center. “This is mostly being led
by British services, which are working together with intelligence agencies from
around the world to minimize the chance that something will happen during the
Olympics.”
Barak’s senior aide, Maj.- Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, said in a
radio interview that the report that dozens of Mossad agents had been sent to
Europe was not true. “Intelligence doesn’t work that way,” Gilad told Army
Radio, saying “you don’t send dozens of agents to hunt down
ghosts.”
Gilad did confirm that there have been threats and attempts to
harm Israelis throughout the world by Iran and Hezbollah.
Speaking of the
terror attack against Israeli tourists in Bulgaria last week, the defense
minister said Israel was working together with additional countries to identify
and capture the perpetrators.
“It is clear that this was a Hezbollah
operation,” he said.
The Times report claimed that the Mossad was hunting
for operatives from Hezbollah and Iran’s Quds Force and said one of them was
carrying a US passport under the name of David Jefferson.
US
identification papers were also found on the suicide bomber who blew up an
Israeli tourist bus in Bulgaria on Wednesday, killing five Israelis and a
Bulgarian bus driver.
On Sunday, the Bulgarian media said police were
looking for at least two more suspects who may have helped carry out the bombing
last week. The men were at the airport during the attack but have not yet been
apprehended.
One of the accomplices is believed to have served as a
back-up for the suicide bomber and would have replaced him had the plot gone
awry. The second accomplice, the Bulgarian press said, was supposed to shoot the
other two if they were arrested by police or became frightened and decided to
surrender.