With the death of the leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and Sadat's assumption of the reins of power in Egypt, matters appeared completely calm and everyone believed that the state of no war and no peace would last forever, especially with Sadat's apparent calm and his pretence before everyone that he could not enter into a new war with the Zionist entity...
And behind all this, matters were completely different; all the state's apparatuses were in a state of general mobilisation in preparation for the battle of destiny …
And among those apparatuses was the Egyptian General Intelligence apparatus, whose men set off to every corner of the world to build the largest information network since the end of the Second World War, and so that the successful operations of this legendary apparatus would follow one after another in a manner that astonished the enemy before the friend..
And in that critical period, new orders were issued with a special mission for Egyptian intelligence, namely to obtain the Israeli air defence code at any price...
And despite the difficulty of the mission, indeed its impossibility, the intelligence men, as usual, held an immediate meeting to discuss the ideal way to obtain this dangerous military secret, which would guarantee the eagles of Egyptian aviation freedom to roam and carry out their special missions when the hour of decision came, without the Israeli air defence systems being able to intercept them..
And with the utmost patience the men began to review all the files and information, however small or trivial it seemed...
And after a whole week of study and discussion, everyone agreed that the only way to know the required code would be through the man directly responsible for it...
The General (Isaac Rabinovich).. and he was one of the Russian Jews who were the first to emigrate to Palestine before the war of 1948 and the declaration of the establishment of the state of Israel, which he joined in its first army, and he began to rise through the positions until he obtained the rank of general after the June 1967 war ....
And despite his Russian nationality, (Rabinovich) did not carry any Russian features at all, but looked like the Oriental Jews.. dark of skin and hair, and moreover he loved money more than he loved anything in the whole world.. and the strange thing is that despite his intense love of money and saving and the extreme Jewish miserliness for which he was famous among his colleagues and his men, he could not resist playing cards (gambling) on Saturday evenings, and he would rejoice greatly when he won and would almost weep in the case of loss, even if the sums were small.. and his passion for playing cards was a clear point of weakness to which Israel's leaders paid no attention, because of their knowledge of (Rabinovich's) intense loyalty to Israel ..
And the intelligence men were baffled as to how to make use of this point of weakness to obtain the dangerous secret...
Then information reached the men, through precise investigations, that General (Rabinovich) kept a copy of all the highly secret documents in an impregnable safe, skilfully hidden inside his home, and no one knew the location of that safe, not even his wife herself..
And because any storming operation was completely rejected, given that secrets lose their importance if the opponent realises that you have obtained them.. it was necessary to search for a genius means of reaching the General's home and searching for the safe and opening it and obtaining the documents without the General feeling that this had happened...
And here came the genius idea.. and the men proposed that the operation be carried out by a person from inside Israel, so that he might gain the General's confidence quickly and easily, and the men's choice fell on one of the apparatus's agents inside Israel, an Israeli businessman called (David Barahuda), who had emigrated to Israel and hated that despotic life inside it, so that the hand of Egyptian intelligence caught him to work for its account with the utmost loyalty since the beginning of the year 1970..
And the operation began in the winter of the year 1972 ...
When David travelled to Paris on the basis of a coded telegram from Egyptian intelligence, and there he met the intelligence man (Amjad) and a number of other men, among them an expert in card games, who began to train him in its most brilliant tricks and its most precise secrets...
And in the end David returned to Tel Aviv in the company of a French businessman carrying a sound passport in the name of (François Molière) and who was also fond of playing cards..
And after a short period, the team of David and François had become famous for their skill in this field, and had contracted a number of friendships with those who played on Saturday evenings, until one of them introduced David and François to General (Rabinovich) as two amateurs of card playing with the same caution and small sums with which he himself loved to play. And it was natural that (Rabinovich) would accept to play one round with the new players as a kind of caution, and he gambled a very small sum for fear of loss… but he won this time, and the second time, and the fourth, and.. the seventh ...
He won seven rounds for the first time in his life, to the point that he forgot his dignity and his usual security measures, and began shouting with joy, and he continued playing and won again, and at the end of the evening he insisted on meeting the pair again on the following Saturday and every Saturday....
And with the succession of weeks and the winning, the man became addicted to the game and began to stay up until midnight at the card table as he had never done before, and he began to deal with David and François as intimate friends, especially as they accepted loss with a clear spirit and without anger..
And in reality the two men were playing with unmatched brilliance, in order to lose one round out of every two, for the account of the General, who was dazzled by the profits and began, for the first time in his life, to consider playing an almost regular means of profit, until that day came at the beginning of the summer of the year 1973 ...
That day everything was going as usual and the General was winning and counting his profits from the evening, until that quarrel occurred between the Frenchman and the waiter of the gaming hall, and the quarrel developed quickly to end with the Frenchman leaving the café, swearing by the souls of his fathers and forefathers that he would never enter this place again, and because he was a guest of David, he left with him, trying to calm him down, while the General was doing his utmost to calm the situation in order to complete the night's profits to which he had become accustomed, and the General departed angry, promising himself to complete his profits...
And on the following Saturday the General waited, but David and François did not come on that Saturday nor the one after it, and after a month passed, the General's resistance collapsed and he began searching for his two companions of play with all eagerness, and when he found them, there was the shock...
For the Frenchman swore that he would never enter this place at all, indeed he swore that he would not play in any public place again, in preservation of his dignity and his prestige, and of course David agreed with his guest on that position..
And the General began to search for a suitable way to continue the cycle of profit that he had loved and become addicted to and could no longer give up...
And one day the General's wife won, from one of the clothing shops while she was shopping, a small coupon, after which she soon won a free trip lasting a whole month from the (Beitoun) tourism company, which announced that it would cover the travel and accommodation expenses, in addition to her receiving a cash prize equal to her own expenses..
And the Beitoun tourism company was that company owned by the Israeli businessman and society star (Jack Beitoun), who was in reality the Egyptian intelligence man (Rifaat al-Gammal), who was known by the common name (Raafat al-Haggan)...
And because the prize could not be resisted, the General's wife travelled - and left him alone in their home throughout the period from the middle of August to the middle of September 1973 - and he sighed at her departure with relief.. and he hastened to send David Barahuda and François Molière an invitation to spend the Saturday evenings in his home - the home of General (Rabinovich) - around a private card table…
And Egyptian intelligence reached the heart of the home of the man who kept the most important Israeli military secrets...
And when the intoxication of winning came and the General sank into deep slumber, embracing his money and his playing cards, and while David sat to guard him, the Egyptian agent who was impersonating the Frenchman to conceal his true identity; as a safe expert without equal, would begin to roam freely inside the General's home, examining every inch in search of that secret safe that contained all the General's secret papers and documents...
And in reality that safe was a security masterpiece by every measure, to the point that the seasoned safe expert needed three whole evenings before he found it, and four whole hours on the fourth and final evening before the General's wife returned, in order to overcome all its fortifications with the first light of the sun, so that he might begin searching amid all the secret papers it contained for the air defence code...
And at almost the same time, a new mission appeared...
The United States had handed over to the Israelis the early warning station on the first of August of that same year, and it was installed at one of the military airports in Sinai, and it was a completely fortified station.. and surrounded by security systems that were impossible to penetrate, on the basis that it would be operated on the first of September.. and the operating trials would continue for two whole months, before it began operating at full capacity on the first of November...
And it was necessary for the men of Egyptian intelligence to work on several axes at one and the same time, to resolve that file as well...
And the men of Egyptian intelligence realised that the Israelis would choose with the utmost precision all the scientists who would take on the matter of supervising the operating trials, and that they, as was their habit, would tend to choose scientists of the Jewish religion.. on the basis that they are - as is assumed - the most loyal to Israel.. whatever their nationalities may be...
And among these; were energy scientists specifically ...
And according to what the experts in the Egyptian intelligence apparatus decided, there were three American energy scientists, to whom all the specifications applied, that could tempt the experts of (Israel)....
Professor (Derek Hans) and Professor (Mark Hayden), and Dr (David Hilsen)...
And they had to choose only one of them, to carry out their plan ....
And after a long study, in which two psychological experts took part, and one energy scientist from the professors of engineering in (Alexandria), the choice fell on the first ...
Professor (Derek Hans)...
And here the movements of the Egyptian apparatus were in two parallel directions, at one and the same time ...
The air defence code, and the early warning station...
For on the morning of the following day, by United States time, and while Professor (Mark Hayden) was buying some simple things, in one of the stores of the (Kroger) chain .. an elegant young man brushed against him, whose shirt cuff was adorned with gold buttons, in the shape of a small eagle ...
And with the brushing, Professor (Mark) felt a prick in his hand, then was surprised by a drop of blood, leaping from the spot of the prick...
And while the Egyptian intelligence man in Tel Aviv was photographing the documents from the apartment of General (Rabinovich) with precision, the young man with the gold shirt buttons in America was stopping, and apologising profusely for what his gold button had caused the Professor, then insisting on cleaning the wound himself, using a perfumed handkerchief, which he took out of his pocket, and opened its protective cover, then wiped the spot of the prick with it with great care, while continuing his apologies .....
And the whole matter ended in one minute, after which the two parted, each to his own way, and the Professor got into his car, and went to his place of work, and the pain of the prick gradually fading away ...
But only two hours later, the man's temperature rose and his body began to shiver unnaturally, then he soon felt severe dizziness, and almost lost consciousness, had not his comrades transferred him to the nearby hospital, which announced that he was suffering from a type of viral fever, which needs between four and five weeks of treatment, and complete rest in bed ...
And at the very moment in which this happened, the other scientist who was the focus of attention, Dr (David Hilsen), was receiving a visitor who insisted on meeting him, to consult him on a very important matter ...
And in reality the man felt extreme bewilderment, as the visitor of Oriental features had begun talking with him for a quarter of an hour in the university courtyard, without consulting him about anything.. then he soon left, smiling a broad smile, and shaking his hand with great warmth, as if they were two old friends!....
And despite his brilliant mind, it never occurred to Dr (David) for a single moment, that all that was required was his appearance with that Oriental in a public place, as this was enough to sow the seeds of doubt in the heart of his Mossad watchers, who of course excluded him from the nomination for fear that he might have any contacts with the Egyptians or the Syrians, especially as that man of Oriental features was known to them for his anti-Zionist leanings...
And there remained only the last choice..
Professor (Derek Hans)...
And when Professor (Derek) was officially informed of this through the American government, and when the travel ticket to (Tel Aviv) reached him, the man was in fact already under the control of Egyptian General Intelligence..!
And it seems that the means used to control Professor (Derek) was extremely genius and innovative, so no one has ever disclosed its details, as it is a secret that should never be revealed ...
And on the following morning, under heavy guard in cooperation with the American government, Professor (Derek Hans) was transferred to the station, his mind containing strict instructions from the Egyptian intelligence man, who had succeeded in controlling him there .. in the United States of America ....
And the instructions were simple and focused, and did not suggest to him any frightening possibilities, as all that was required of him was to find a justification for stopping the station from working at five different times, and for a period of half an hour each time ...
And the man exploited his position as an energy expert, during the trial phase, and indeed stopped the station for half an hour, on the tenth of September, without anything happening .. which encouraged him to continue carrying out the orders, which required stopping the station's work for a similar period, on the twenty-fifth of September, and the sixth of October, and the thirteenth of October, and the end of October ....
And the man was baffled in trying to understand the reason for what the Egyptians had asked of him, but he obeyed the orders which it seemed he had no way of refusing, and he found another justification for stopping the power at a quarter past six in the evening of the twenty-fifth of September, and for half an hour as well ...
And nothing happened ....
At the same time, the talk of the Israelis inside the station was all confirming that the Egyptians had surrendered to defeat, and to the state of no peace and no war ...
And Professor (Derek) felt comfort at this talk, for it agreed with his own point of view, which said that the Egyptians were merely testing his obedience to them, and that they would soon disclose their actual demand, the next time ...
And it is certain that Egyptian intelligence realised how genius its plan had been when it received three of the microfilm reels sent from Tel Aviv, containing dozens of photographs that the Egyptian agent had taken of all the secret documents contained in the safe in the home of General (Rabinovich) in Israel.. before he reclosed it in a manner that made it impossible to detect what he had done to it and to its contents...
And at the same time that the Egyptian Air Force received the Israeli air defence code, David and François were continuing to play and to lose before General (Rabinovich) in the same café to which the two had agreed to return after the General's wife returned from the trip whose price Egyptian intelligence had paid through one of its most important and most dangerous agents in Tel Aviv ...
And on the fourth of October 1973, David and François (the Egyptian intelligence man) travelled to Paris with a promise to the General to spend the following Saturday evening at the café to continue his profits, and that was the last time the General would obtain money from Egyptian intelligence .......
And at noon on the following Saturday, the sixth of October 1973, at exactly a quarter to two, Professor (Derek) was lowering the power converter to shut down the warning station for the last time...
And because the sixth of October coincided with the feast of (Kippur), it was easy for him to find a justification, for stopping the power and the whole station, on the pretext of conducting some experiments as usual, given that everyone was wishing for a few minutes of rest and relaxation on that day, especially as all the indications suggested that the Egyptians too were in a state of relaxation on the front ...
And minutes after that time, the Egyptian aircraft pounced on the Bar Lev Line and all the Israeli camps and airports in the heart of Sinai at one and the same time...
And the Israelis went mad when the American warning station did not work, and their air defences failed to hunt down the eagles of Egypt, who set off destroying and blowing up Israeli arrogance and erasing the legend of the invincible army that can never be defeated...
And in Cairo President Sadat began blowing the smoke of his pipe in relief and receiving the congratulations of his people, whom victory had intoxicated and to whom it had restored confidence in his leadership and his government...
And at the same time the men of Egyptian intelligence began reviewing the reports of the last operations, and smiling in confidence at the collapse of the Israelis.. who realised that the men of Egyptian intelligence had been holding the cards of the game in their hands..
All along…
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References:
1 - الموساد - دينيس إيزنبرج، إيلي لاندو، أوري دان...
2 - حرب الجواسيس، د. نبيل رمضان..
3 - كنت نائباً لرئيس المخابرات - عبد الفتاح أبو الفضل..
4 - الجاسوس العاري، د. السيد أبو مسلم...
5 - جاسوسية و جواسيس - عبده مباشر..
6 - الصراع الحقيقي بين المخابرات المصرية والإسرائلية بقلم: د. سمير محمود قديح
7 - د. محمد حافظ: https://goo.gl/Ipj8zH
8 - القصة مسموعة: https://soundcloud.com/marmad-1/riseshorvgi0