Mossad publishes book on Yom Kippur War; Barnea denies ‘the Angel’ was double agent

The Mossad announces it is publishing a book to mark 50 years since the Yom Kippur War that reveals intelligence it gathered in the build-up to the surprise attack on Israel.

The name of the book, as yet unrevealed, is taken from a sentence said by Prime Minister Golda Meir to then-Mossad chief Zvi Zamir: “When the time comes to tell what you did, you and your friends will get a prize.”

The book will detail how the Mossad uncovered much of Egypt’s plan for a surprise attack ahead of the war. The military and political echelons largely ignored the warnings until it was too late.

Barnea also spoke about the agent known as “the Angel” who gave Israel advanced warning of the attack.

Barnea denied widespread reports that the agent, since identified as Ashraf Marwan, the son-in-law of former Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser, was a double agent.

“These claims were intensively checked before the war by a joint IDF-Mossad team and again after the war,” Barnea says.

“Findings repeated themselves, the Angel was an important and strategic agent. Those who don’t understand HUMINT have a hard time understanding the nuances of an agent and his handler,” he says, referring to human intelligence.

On June 27, 2007, Marwan plunged to his death from the fourth-floor balcony of an upscale London apartment building. Whether he fell or was pushed has never been definitively established.