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Politics : Israel to U.S. : Now Deal with Syria and Iran -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Crimson Ghost who wrote (7139)	2/25/2005 2:03:43 PM
From: Elmer Flugum	Respond to of 22250

Sylvia Rafael, Mossad Agent Dead at 67 Jerusalem Post Sylvia Rafael, a legendary Mossad hit woman convicted of mistakenly assassinating a Moroccan waiter in Norway 31 years ago, is to be buried secretly in Israel according to her last wishes. Rafael, 67, died over the weekend in her native South Africa, reportedly from leukemia. "It is a pity there are not more like her," said Shmuel Goren, a former deputy head of the Mossad. "I don't usually speak about the Mossad to the media, but I will say that I'm really sorry she passed away," he told The Jerusalem Post. Little was known of her exploits beyond her part in one of the Mossad's greatest fiascos. In July 1973, Rafael joined a hastily assembled team of agents to track down a man they believed to be Ali Hassan Salameh, the Black September's operation chief in Europe. It was a time of wholesale vengeance for the Mossad, ordered by then prime minister Golda Meir, against the Palestinians responsible for the massacre of Israel's 11 Olympians at Munich in 1972. In the lonely Norwegian village of Lillehammer, the team gunned down a Moroccan waiter called Ahmed Bouchiki in front of his pregnant wife instead of Salameh. Rafael and five other Mossad operatives were captured and tried in what turned out to be the most damaging exposure for the spy agency abroad. Rafael, who was using a forged Canadian passport, eventually married her Norwegian lawyer. She was sentenced to five years for second-degree murder. But under heavy Israeli diplomatic pressure, the Norwegians released her after just 11 months from her "deluxe" two-room prison cell for supposed health reasons and she was deported back to Israel. She was eventually allowed to return to Norway in 1978 to live with her husband, but she was kept under heavy protection from Palestinian terrorists who vowed to kill her. Rafael eventually quit Norway a decade later after attempts on her life and moved with her husband to Pretoria, South Africa. In September 1985, PLO's Force 17 killed three innocent Israeli tourists in cold blood on a yacht moored at Larnaca, Cyprus. The Palestinians claimed they were Mossad agents including Rafael. According to media reports, Rafael had come to Israel in the mid-1960's as a volunteer on kibbutz Ramat Hakovesh. She was recruited into the Mossad and revealed later she had participated in many pursuits after terrorists. "One day, when true peace comes, they will write books about her, make movies of her life and name streets after her," Eitan Haber, a veteran defense correspondent of that era wrote in Yediot Ahronot. He revealed that Rafael had served fearlessly in neighboring enemy countries. The Prime Minister's Office, which handles affairs for the Mossad, declined to reveal the time and place of the funeral at the request of the family. Former Mossad officials reached by The Jerusalem Post also remained tight-lipped about the funeral arrangements. Also: poppindonuts.com