Israel's 'Prisoner X' was Australian Mossad agent, documentary claims

[Magda Hassan]

Israeli Attorney Exposes New Prisoner X, Shin Bet's Poisoning of Legal System

by Richard Silverstein on August 16, 2013 · 0 comments
in Mideast Peace

An interesting drama is unfolding in Israel as I write this. On July 11th, Amir Oren published a profile of the wife of a new Prisoner X. One the Israeli public hadn't previously known about. You'll recall the original Prisoner X was Ben Zygier, a failed Mossad agent accused of sabotaging a covert spy operation and imprisoned for his actions. He committed suicide a few years ago.
But Prisoner X2, as reported by Oren is an entirely different case. This man has already been imprisoned for many years on charges no one knows. Not only do we not know his name or what he did, we don't know precisely where he is except in a prison somewhere in Israel. From Oren's article, which the censor immediately forced Haaretz to take down (but not before I got a screenshot and translated it!), it's not clear how he found out about this new mystery man.

Feldman in court with another security detainee subject to the parallel judicial system, Anat Kamm (Ofer Amram)

That's where the next piece of the puzzle fits in: on July 7th (two days before Oren's story was published) Israeli radio host, Nissim Mish'al, aired an interview (Hebrew) with noted criminal defense attorney, Avigdor Feldman. You'll recall that the latter was the last person to see Ben Zygier alive other than his wife. He visited him in order to determine whether he could help with his legal defense.
In this interview, Feldman revealed for the first time the existence of Prisoner X2. Not only that, but he said there were more than one or even two Prisoner Xs. In other words, that Israel has had a number of grave security breaches by Israeli security agents who were tried and imprisoned in secret. This will explain an important part of the post that will follow.
Oren had implied without stating it clearly, that Prisoner X2 was a former Mossad agent. In the radio interview, Feldman revealed that his "crime" was far more grave than anything Zygier did. While the latter's crime was basically that of a well-intentioned individual who messed up badly, the new case was far more serious. It involved a grave breach of national security which, when Feldman first heard of it, caused him to be struck dumb. Coming from a criminal defense attorney who's represented some of the gravest security cases in Israel's history including Marcus Klingberg and Mordechai Vanunu, you know it's BIG.
In fact, while he was speaking to Mish'al, Feldman told him (it wasn't entirely clear that he was joking) that he was looking in his rear view mirror as two men were following him. In other words, the lawyer knew that he was breaching security protocol in exposing this secret. Given the entirely opaque manner in which the Israeli justice system deals with security cases, it takes balls to do what he did. This is a man who makes his living from representing those charged with criminal or security offenses. To go up against the very system that allows you to earn a living is a very big deal. Especially in a national security state like Israel.
The third piece of the puzzle is an article just published in Haaretz (Hebrew) by Uri Misgav. He recounts a strange tale of an Israeli lawyer (unnamed) who one day finds in his office an individual bearing a secret letter from the state prosecutor. The letter accuses him of "violating customary norms" involving security cases. Though in most democracies even security officials have to refer to case law and criminal codes, in Israel the secret police can get you for breaching what they call "customary norms."
The article never makes clear what this attorney did to violate these norms. But if we assume the subject was Avigdor Feldman (and an independent Israeli source confirms that it is) , then we know what he did: he exposed the existence of not just Prisoner X2 but of others as well. What's truly astonishing about the letter is that it threatens him with criminal prosecution for what he did. However, it notes that the state prosecutor decided not to prosecute for unspecified reasons. But the clear implication of the letter is that if you continue playing for the wrong side that there are things the State can do that will make your professional life a living hell.
What can it do? Security cases all involve classified documents and information. All judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys must undergo a security screening process by the Shabak. Not only are they investigated by the agency, but they are given a course on the subject of these documents, how they are to be handled, and how the security services will conduct business with them. Once the lawyer receives his security clearance he or she is permitted to represent any security detainee. Theoretically.
But here's how the system works in practice. When you are suspected of a security offense, whether you are Jew or Palestinian, you are brought in for interrogation. You may not consult your attorney, usually for days or even weeks. During that period, you are entirely at the mercy of the Shabak. Often, you can't consult with or contact anyone, including your family. There comes a point in this process when the investigators will begin to discuss legal representation. They may ask who the detainee has in mind to represent him.
This is where the security services work the process to the hilt. There are multiple interests at work here: the detainee, possibly shamed by the charge against him, may not want his case to be known publicly. If the case is embarrassing enough to the Mossad or Shabak, they don't want a trial either since it will place them in greater danger of the public and media finding out.
So when the suspect tells his interrogator he wants an Avigdor Feldman, the Shabak responds that while Feldman may be a good lawyer, they not only don't trust him to keep secrets, they can't work as well or closely as they might, and couldn't offer him nearly as good a deal as they could if he hired a different lawyer with whom they have far better relations. The prisoner clearly understands that if he wants to cut a deal favorable to himself that a pesky attorney like Feldman isn't the one he wants.
That's the way the security services work the system without being seen to do so. Feldman supports his claim by noting that the circle of attorneys who do high level security cases is very small. Of those few who do them, a number of the lawyers have extremely close connections to the security apparatus. One of Feldman's most famous clients was Marcus Klingberg, who was a high level Soviet spy in Israel. The latter was approached in prison by an attorney who suggested that if Klingberg chose him to represent him and agreed to a three-way deal that involved the missing Israeli airman Ron Arad, and another Soviet spy, Shabtai Kalmanovich, that the lawyer could cut an extremely good deal for him.
Another amazing element in Misgav's post was the suggestion that there is a "parallel" system of justice in Israel for security cases that are extremely sensitive. These are cases like the ones I mentioned above, in which an Israeli Jewish suspect has betrayed the tribe and gravely damaged the system. He is arrested, interrogated, tried and imprisoned in secret. To conduct such a "discreet" judicial process, it requires a cadre of willing defense attorneys. Ones who will play ball with the Shabak. Who will advise their clients to accept a deal offered that might not really be in their best interest, but that will spare everyone, but most of all the State and its security minions, a lot of headaches.
Misgav/Feldman doesn't just blame the lawyers. He includes the judges too as willing collaborators in the system. They allow the prosecutors extraordinary leeway in presenting their case. They review and approve plea bargains without even knowing the charges or evidence. They make rulings without seeing evidence or without allowing the defense to see it. They consult or collude with the prosecution in ways that would never be permissible in a truly democratic country.
In order to clean up messes made by security operatives who've gone bad, it requires this parallel judicial system. But being that it is a secret system with even less guarantees for the rights of the defendant than the normal judicial process, it's prone to serious breaches. It's also prone to grave errors like the ones that led to Ben Zygier's suicide (he was one of these detainees sucked into the parallel judicial universe).
In some senses, what Feldman and Misgav are describing is a legal Wonderland in which the suspects are sucked, like Alice, down a rabbit hole. The world they see once they land at the bottom looks like the normal judicial system. There are judges, lawyers, courtrooms, etc. But everything is distorted and nothing is quite as it seems. That's how Marcus Klingberg could be kidnapped, tried and imprisoned in secret for years without even his family knowing. It's how something very similar happened to Ben Zygier. It's how Prisoner X2 was spirited away.
Feldman is the canary in the coal mine. He's warning Israelis that there are many more Prisoner Xs and that if they don't do something, the system will only get worse. For that, the entire wrath of the State comes down upon his head. Thank God there are Avigdor Feldmans, Brian Mannings and Edward Snowdens. Where would we be without them? And what if the State systematically destroys them? What then?
Thanks to Dena Shunra for research assistance with this post.
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2013/0...al-system/