Despite their best investigative efforts, ABC TV found no lead to the mysteries of the life and death of Australian Ben Zygier, the Mossad agent. How did he kill himself in a top-security cell in 2010 under the tightest surveillance? Why was he held in secret, solitary confinement? An unnamed Israeli official said his exposure would have posed an existential threat to the country. An Australian inquiry has been launched to find out why Israel’s notification of his death to the Tel Aviv embassy never reached Canberra.

President Barack Obama can’t be sure the Netanyahu government won’t spring on him a surprise attack on Iran’s nuclear sites earlier than the date under discussion between them. October is now widely cited. debkafile: To forestall Israel, the CIA has spread a broad undercover network of agents across the country to pick up any clue of the IDF switching to operational mode for a strike on Iran. The US agency also leaked to AP a detailed article defaming Israel as its “No.1 counterintelligence threat” in the Middle East.

For the first time in Israel's 63-year old battle against terror, its external security agency Mossad Thursday night, April 21, issued a strong warning to travelling Israelis to beware of a major terrorist attack which Hizballah had already set in motion at some undisclosed location. The only information offered was that Hizballah had consigned a high-profile team for an operation to avenge the slaying of its top commander Imad Mughniyeh three years ago for which it blames Israel.

Outgoing Mossad Director Meir Dagan has revised his earlier prognosis that Iran would not have nuclear weapons before 2015 because of technical obstacles. In his last briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and the Security Committee, Monday, Jan. 17, Dagan said, "The Iranian nuclear challenge will remain significant… the timing will not change the fact that Iran is working towards nuclear military capabilities and in certain scenarios can shorten the timeline." He mentioned North Korea in this context.

The young Iranian man who "admitted" on Iranian TV last Tuesday, Jan. 11 that he had acted for the Israeli Mossad in the murder of Iranian nuclear scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi is revealed in real life by debkafile's Iranian sources as Majid Jamali Fashi, a champion kick boxer and member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' secret reserve death squad of brawny sportsmen used to cut down opponents of the regime and break up protest rallies.

Iranian intelligence banks on "Israel spy" episodes to upset the new Mossad chief, restore public confidence, deter neighbors from aiding Israel and enemies for waging covert war. It has acquired an eager new collaborator: Turkish MIT secret service.

Tuesday, Jan. 11, Iran's intelligence minister Heidar Moslehi called his second news conference in two days to pour more abuse on Israel and its spy agency and accuse them of trying to retard "scientific progress in Muslim nations." He displayed weapons allegedly used by "more than 10" suspected Mossad agents against Iran's nuclear scientists and threatened neighbors harboring "Zionist facilities" with "heavy blows."
debkafile: Iran is only just starting its intelligence war on Israel. No comment from Jerusalem. 

Monday night, Jan. 10, Tehran launched against Israel a full-scale intelligence onslaught on three fronts: It claimed to have rolled up a Mossad network implicated in the assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist last January; accused Israel of kidnapping a former deputy defence minster; put a young man posing as a Mossad agent on television and invented a new blood libel.
debkafile: The "agent's" performance was unconvincing, but the blood libel could imperil Iran's 20,000 Jews.

The cabinet in Jerusalem quietly took leave Sunday, Jan. 2, of Meir Dagan, marking the end of his eight remarkable years as head of the Mossad, Israel's external intelligence, espionage and covert warfare service. His retirement - after several extensions - won a backhanded dig from Tehran amid glowing commendations elsewhere. One minister noted last week: "Iran does not currently have the ability to make a nuclear bomb on its own. We are talking in terms of three years."

As the Iranian-Israeli clandestine war heated up, Iran's Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi bluntly accused Israel  Wednesday, Dec. 28, of  "the suspected death" of "Iranian prisoner Ali-Reza Asgari." He said: "If the credibility of this report is proved, the dossier on Israel's kidnappings, assassinations and murders will become thicker." debkafile's military sources: The Iranian charge was serious enough to raise fears that a large-scale act of terror may be on the way. Israel has blacked out news relating to Asgari.

Even before he takes office as head of the Mossad secret service, Tamir Pardo faces a British ruse to inveigle him into admitting Israel's hand in the murder of Hamas official Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai a year ago by an apology when he visits London next month. This is reported by the London Telegraph of Saturday, Dec. 25.  debkafile's intelligence sources: That sort of pressure will present Pardo with one of his first tests.   

US, British and Israeli secret services are getting set for Iran to retaliate for the attacks of which they are accused on its top nuclear physicists. debkafile's Iranian sources report that the last straw were the Nov. 29 attacks on two scientists in central Tehran. The Iranians are publicly fingering the US, Israel and the UK in unfolding blasts of vilification to warn them they have crossed red lines and will face the consequences.