the son-in-law of Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, as Top Source,
who conveyed to his Mossad handlers Egyptian military capabilities and
even intentions, with a certain degree of accuracy. Even King Hussein—
who, although not an Israeli spy or agent, provided early warning against
possibility of war in 1973—can be regarded in a sense as a kind of pur-
veyor of HUMINT.
So, a great deal of intelligence collecting was by means of spies in
Arab countries. However, since even before the 1973 Yom Kippur War,
Israeli intelligence has relied mostly on technological intelligence,
which includes signals intelligence (SIGINT). Unit 8200 in MI is con-
sidered among the best SIGINT agencies in the world, equal in status to
the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), albeit smaller in budget and
workforce. Israel, although a small country, is one of the pioneers in im-
agery intelligence (IMINT) and has developed intelligence satellites.
The Mossad is considered one of the leading intelligence agencies in
the world in the field of high-tech electronics. It has developed a pow-
erful computer database, known as PROMIS, which can store and re-
trieve enormous quantities of information. This technology is even sold
by the Mossad to intelligence communities of foreign countries.TRAITORS
From time to time, in Israel as in other countries, traitors in the nation’s de-
fense establishment are uncovered. The best known, and probably the one
who caused the most damage to Israeli security interests, is Yisrael Baer,
previously a lieutenant colonel in the IDF and close to Prime Minister
Ben-Gurion and his secrets on the history of the War of Independence. He
delivered state secrets to the Soviets and was arrested in 1961. Marcus
Avraham Klinberg, deputy director of the Biological Institute in Nes
Tsiona, where Israel allegedly produces biological weapons, was arrested
in 1983 and convicted of conveying secrets to the Soviets. Mordechai Va-
nunu, an ex-technician at the Dimona Nuclear Research Center, gave away
secrets of the Israeli nuclear weapons program to the Sunday Times in- Victor Ostrovsky, a former case officer trainee in the Mossad, wrote
and published a detailed book on the Mossad without permission. Shimon
Levinson, formerly a colonel in the IDF and affiliated with the Mossad,
was arrested in 1993 for treason and spying for the Soviet Union.
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