Because of those complex business dealings and the international intrigue that has surrounded them, the Israeli government is only one of many possible suspects in last Sunday's fire-bombing. Any number of Ben-Menashe's enemies might have had motive to fire-bomb his house and send him fleeing into the night.
A Top Israeli Agent
During the 1980s, Ben-Menashe was something of a star intelligence officer for Israel assigned to a special unit of Israeli military intelligence. An Iraqi Jew born in Iran and an emigre to Israel as a teenager, Ben-Menashe was a young operative who assisted in rebuilding Israel's strategic ties to Iran after the Islamic Revolution in 1979.
Traveling the world, Ben-Menashe brokered Israeli-sponsored arms sales to Iran during its war with Iraq in the 1980s and handled sensitive assignments including efforts to counter U.S.-supported military shipments to Iraq. He turned up as a shadowy figure on the fringes of the Iran-Contra scandal, which is where I first heard about him as I was covering that story for the Associated Press and Newsweek.
But I never could track him down -- until late 1989 when he was arrested in the United States on charges of selling military aircraft to Iran. Confined to the federal prison in Lower Manhattan, he consented to an interview and I flew from Washington to New York to speak with him.
During that prison interview, Ben-Menashe offered me startling new information about the Iran-Contra scandal, which I thought that I knew quite well. However, my first task was to verify who this brash Israeli was. Initially, the Israeli government dismissed him as an "impostor." However, I was able to obtain official Israeli letters of reference describing his decade-long work for the External Relations Department of the Israel Defence Forces.
Confronted with that evidence, Israeli officials changed their story, admitting that Ben-Menashe indeed had worked for a branch of the IDF's military intelligence but labeling him "a low-level translator." But the letters described Ben-Menashe's service in "key positions" and said he handled "complex and sensitive assignments."
Despite this evidence -- that Israeli officials had first lied and then retreated to a new cover story -- the Bush-41 administration and the Israeli government managed to galvanize friendly journalists who went out of their way to discredit Ben-Menashe as a compulsive liar. [For details about one of the key denouncers of Ben-Menashe, see Consortiumnews.com's "Unmasking October Surprise 'Debunker'."]
In fall 1990, Ben-Menashe convinced a New York jury that he indeed had been working on official Israeli business in his transactions with Iran and he was acquitted of all charges. After that, Ben-Menashe continued to provide testimony about secret dealings involving Republicans and the Israeli government. He gave information to investigative journalist Seymour Hersh about Israel's top-secret nuclear program and identified British media mogul Robert Maxwell as an Israeli spy.
Perhaps Ben-Menashe's most controversial claim was that he and other Israeli intelligence officers had assisted the Republicans in brokering a deal with Iran's Islamic regime of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1980 to hold 52 American hostages until after the U.S. election to ensure President Jimmy Carter's defeat. As a result of this so-called October Surprise caper, the hostages were not released until Jan. 20, 1981, immediately after Ronald Reagan was sworn in as U.S. President, Ben-Menashe said.
Yet, if the American public ever came to believe that the Israeli government had manipulated the outcome of a U.S. presidential election -- to put in a favored candidate -- that could have severely damaged Israel's crucial alliance with the United States. So, for both the Israelis and the Republicans, the goal of destroying or silencing Ben-Menashe became an important priority.
After achieving success in marginalizing Ben-Menashe by 1993 -- at least in the eyes of the Washington Establishment -- the Israelis seemed to view him as a declining threat, best left alone. He was able to pick up the pieces of his life, creating a second act as an international political consultant and businessman arranging sales of grain.
But his renewed efforts to finally prove the truthfulness of his earlier claims, especially regarding the October Surprise charges, may have suddenly elevated him again on Israel's threat chart.
Though the Montreal police are understandably hesitant to climb down the rabbit hole into Ben-Menashe's mysterious world of espionage and historical mysteries, they may ultimately have no choice.
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