Israel’s Foreign Intelligence Service (Mossad) published a book containing thousands of new documents about the 1973 October War, on its 50th anniversary, in an attempt to rid itself of accusations of failures and to claim that the army had dismissed its warnings of an imminent war.
Israeli observers have unanimously agreed that the book, written by a team from the “Historical Department,” is considered the first publication under the Mossad name.
They added that it does not address the subject as a historical scientific study based on secret sources, but rather is merely an attempt to “praise the agency, exaggerate its achievements, and venerate the head of the Mossad at the time.”
The book contains a number of documents showing that the agency obtained important and accurate information about the intention of Egypt and Syria to declare war on Israel.
The Mossad rejects AMAN’s claims at the time that Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of Egyptian former President Gamal Abdel Nasser and assistant to President Anwar Sadat, was a double agent.
It also dismissed Egypt’s description of him as “a national hero, who succeeded in retrieving the most important information about the enemy.”
According to the documents, Marwan viewed the war as a danger to Egypt, Israel and Syria and that it was driven by the foolishness of the leaders. They added that he provided information to Israel on the one hand and exploited his influence in Egypt on the other to push the leaders on each side to stop the war.
According to the Mossad, Marwan was not the only intelligence source, but he provided a lot of information about the Egyptian and Syrian armies.
“Unfortunately, this high-quality intelligence did not prevent the Israeli army’s strategic surprise, which paid a heavy price for this war in blood.”
The archives said Marwan, whom the Mossad called “The Angel,” was employed in 1970, and that he “had an extraordinary ability to reach the head of the Egyptian leadership pyramid.”
