Acting on a petition from the Israeli government, a Canadian judge has barred publication of a “tell-all” book written by a former agent of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency.
The former agent, Victor Ostrovski, 40, a dual Canadian-Israeli citizen, has meanwhile gone into hiding. By his own account, two high-ranking members of the Mossad visited him at his Ottawa home last week and told him that publication of the book would put him “in all kinds of danger.”
Among the allegations in the book is that the Mossad knew in advance that Lebanese terrorists were going to bomb the barracks of the U.S. Marines in Beirut in October 1983. The attack claimed 239 lives.
Ostrovski’s book, “By Way of Deception: A Devastating Insider’s Portrait of the Mossad,” was to be published in early October. The publishers were informed Friday that the Israeli government had obtained a Canadian court order to prevent this from happening.
A spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Ottawa denied knowing anything about either Ostrovski or the book. But reports from Jerusalem appear to confirm that the government asked for the publication to be held up, pending a hearing on Sept. 17.
Nelson Doucet, vice president of Stoddart Publishing Co. Ltd. in Toronto, told the Globe and Mail that he considers it incredible that a Canadian judge could stop publication without knowing the contents of the book.
The company has not decided whether to fight the order in court.
Doucet gave reporters copies of two letters sent to his company by Toronto lawyer Joel Goldenberg on behalf of the Israeli government.
SAYS ISRAEL DIDN’T WARN U.S. OF ATTACK
One letter, dated Sept. 6, said Ostrovski had signed written agreements that he would not disclose any information about the Mossad when he quit his job with the service.
The letter said Ostrovski “undoubtedly came into information which could have dire consequences to many people, and presumably many countries, if it were to become public.”
The book claims the Mossad did not warn the United States of the impending terrorist attack on the Marine barracks, in order to sour U.S.-Arab relations.
The attack was followed by a brief period of tension when the United States rejected Israeli offers to give medical help to wounded Marines.
The book also reportedly claims Israeli agents have spied extensively on the United States.
Other tidbits are said to include allegations that the Mossad recruited an Iraqi scientist to obtain the plans for the Osirak nuclear plant near Baghdad, which Israel bombed in June 1981, and that Mossad illegally used hundreds of Canadian passports to move its agents around the world.
Ostrovski, a Canadian native who has been working as a graphic artist, told reporters Friday that he had served in the Mossad from 1984 to 1986 and that he was previously an officer in the Israeli navy.
The Globe and Mail quoted him as saying he wrote the book out of “anger, rage, disappointment, love of Israel, belief in justice.” He also said he believes publishing the book could save lives.
Ostrovski, a father of two, said the Mossad agents who visited him last week said they would repay him for any costs he had incurred writing the book, as long as he agreed not to publish it.
He said he fled his home after their Sept, 5 visit, spent the night at the airport waiting for a flight to Toronto and has been lying low ever since. He said he fears Mossad agents will kidnap him and take him to Israel.
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