Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy was interviewed on Iran’s nuclear program, the covert war between Israel and the Islamic Republic, the Arab Spring, the Assad regime, the Netanyahu government and more.
The Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations, otherwise known as the Mossad, has been appointed by the State of Israel to collect information, analyze intelligence, and perform special covert operations beyond its borders.
Mossad has a total of eight departments, though some details of the internal organization of the agency remain obscure.
Collections Department is the largest, with responsibility for espionage operations, with offices abroad under both diplomtic and unofficial cover. The department consists of a number of desks which are responsible for specific geographical regions, directing case officers based at “stations” around the world, and the agents they control. Beginning in 2000, the Mossad undertook an advertising campaign to promote recruitment of collection officers. See a June 2001 recruiting poster here. A flash version of the recruiting ad, published September 2002, may be viewed here.
Political Action and Liaison Department conducts political activities and liaison with friendly foreign intelligence services and with nations with which Israel does not have normal diplomatic relations. In larger stations, such as Paris, Mossad customarily had under embassy cover two regional controllers: one to serve the Collections
Department and the other the Political Action and Liaison Department.
Special Operations Division, also known as Metsada, conducts highly sensitive assassination, sabotage, paramilitary, and psychological warfare projects.
LAP (Lohamah Psichologit) Department is responsible for psychological warfare, propaganda and deception operations.
Research Department is responsible for intelligence production, including daily situation reports, weekly summaries and detailed monthly reports. The Department is organized into 15 geographically specialized sections or “desks”, including the USA, Canada and Western Europe, Latin America, Former Soviet Union, China, Africa, the Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia), Libya, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Iran. A “nuclear” desk is focused on special weapons related issues.
Technology Department is responsible for development of advanced technologies for support of Mossad operations. In April 2001, the Mossad published a “help wanted” ad in the Israeli press seeking electronics engineers and computer scientists for the Mossad technology unit.
