Double Agent Drama Could Lead to Charges

By Haaretz July 9, 2012

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein is due to announce a decision soon to close a case involving accusations by an ex-Mossad chief that a former head of Military Intelligence leaked the true identity of an alleged Egyptian double-agent. The agent’s warnings in 1973 of the impending Yom Kippur War spurred Israel’s government to take defensive action.

The MI chief during that war, Eli Zeira, and the Mossad chief at the time, Zvi Zamir, have been trading accusations for years, with Zamir accusing Zeira of responsibility for leaking the name of Ashraf Marwan as the ostensible master spy who, on October 5, 1973, met with his handler, Dubi Asherov and with Zamir. At that time Marwan apparently told the two that Egypt and Syria were going to launch a war on Israel the following day.

Marwan died on June 27, 2007, after a fall from the balcony of his London home. Some suggest that he was pushed off the balcony.

Zamir and two former MI officers – Brig. Gen. (ret. ) Amos Gilboa and Col. (ret. ) Yossi Langotsky – suspect that it was Zeira’s actions that led to the exposure of Marwan, who was married to the daughter of Egypt’s former president, Gamal Abdel Nasser.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

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