Michael Gurdus, an Israeli free-lance journalist who gets his news by monitoring global radio communications, says he was tuned into the American hostage rescue attempt in Iran last week while it was underway and knew of its failure probably before Washington did. But, according to Gurdus, 35, he did not report his “scoop” to his newspaper clients because he feared premature disclosure.
Gurdus claimed that he was listening on the wave-length used by the Americans and was able to follow the aborted mission step-by-step. He said he knew of the missing C-130 transport, involved in a fatal collision with a helicopter; that four C-130s had lost radio contact with their airborne command post; that an AWACS plane, a type equipped with advanced radar, took off from Turkey and that the American transports used in the rescue attempt took off from Cairo West Airport and refueled at Mesira island in the Persian Gulf off Oman and again at Bahrain.
Gurdus said he withheld the information because of a similar experience in 1977 when he picked up the communications of West German commando units on their way to rescue a hijacked Lufthansa airliner in Somalia. At that time, he informed the local media which broadcast the news and imperiled what turned out to be a successful mission. The West German authorities asked the Israelis to discontinue that type of news gathering.
Although Gurdus remained silent about the American operation, U.S. authorities have expressed their displeasure to Israel that he listened in.
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