Lotz’s position in Egypt; Lotz seemed to Osman somewhat naive about
the dirty business of espionage. Lotz, inwardly savoring the irony of
these words spoken to the foremost Israeli spy operating in Egypt at the
time, thanked his friend and promised to be more careful.
Lotz indeed kept up his pretense, and even got a reputation as a rabid
anti-Semite—which only made him more acceptable to former Nazis
and high Egyptian officials alike. Lotz’s friendships with key military
figures proved invaluable. He was able to visit even closely guarded
top-secret bases near the Suez Canal. He and Waltraud were allowed ac-
cess to airports where the Egyptians deployed their newly arrived MiGs,
and they took photographs of the aircraft at close range with their pilots
standing proudly by. Arms depots, air hangars, communication cen-
ters—all were open to him. At one point, Israel wanted to learn more
about the Russian surface-to-air missile (SAM) base being built near the
Suez Canal city of Ismailia. It was entirely off-limits to people like Lotz.
But he went there anyway, and when stopped he protested that he had
no idea where he was, adding that if there were any problems, the mil-
itary base commander could call generals Gahourab and Osman. The
commander did so, and they indeed settled the matter for Lotz.
The Egyptians boasted to Lotz about the clever way they mixed
real fighter planes in with dummies on the airfields in order to con-
fuse the Israel Air Force. Lotz dutifully complimented them on their
ingenuity, and reported it all to Tel Aviv.
Lotz obtained a list of every single German scientist living in
Cairo. He recorded their Cairo addresses and the locations of their
families in Germany and Austria. Through high-placed sources, he
gained precise details of the exact role each man played in the Egypt-
ian armaments factories. From Lotz, the Israelis were pleased to learn
that the Egyptians were having great difficulty finding a reliable
guidance system for their missiles.
The Israeli spy maintained his horse breeding and horse racing
charade, so much so that his planned riding establishment was actu-
ally established. Large numbers of his high-ranking friends went to
observe and admire Lotz’s creation; they drank champagne and di-
vulged military and state secrets.
Lotz contributed to the Damocles Operation, the Mossad campaign
of threatening German scientists working in Egypt, mainly by writing
threatening letters in an attempt to induce them to leave Egypt.LOTZ, WOLFGANG• 16506-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:24 AM Page 165