Newspaper Article

Do our spymasters communicate?

TIM RIPLEY and TIM CORNWELL

2002

Overview

Sources close to Israeli intelligence hinted last night that secret on-board defences on the passenger plane, and not pure luck, had saved the airliner from being shot down. Yigal Eyal, a Hebrew University lecturer on insurgency and former Israeli intelligence agent, said he was convinced anti-missile technology had been deployed by the plane. He said: \"Israel has been working on programmes to protect civil aviation from terrorist missile attacks since the 1970s. The Mombasa incident could mark a successful application of some sort of anti-missile technology aboard the plane.\" Amid growing consensus that the attacks in Mombasa were carried out by al-Qaeda or an affiliated group, the West's war has entered new and dangerous territory. \"Israel is now facing a huge body of terror ... and the threat from it is much bigger than the Palestinian terror,\" said Giora Shamis, the editor of DEBKA.com, a popular Israeli internet site specialising in intelligence matters. After the Bali bombings, where half of the 190 victims were Australians, both Canberra and Downing Street were criticised for failing to warn citizens adequately of possible terrorist attack. Yesterday, the questions echoed again in Westminster. Opposition politicians - armed with the knowledge that Britain, Australia and the US traditionally have a very special relationship when it comes to intelligence - demanded to know why Britons were not also warned. The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, last night wrote to his Conservative Party shadow, Michael Ancram, insisting that UK intelligence agencies \"are in close and constant touch with our allies, sharing information and assessments. But each country makes its own judgment on how to respond to potential threats\".

• Publisher: Scotsman Publications
• Subject: Sharon, Ariel