Latest news with #IsraeliSpy
Yahoo
29-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Windsor man, accused of being Israeli spy, imprisoned in Lebanon for six days
OTTAWA — What was supposed to be the end of a groundbreaking eight-day excursion for a Windsor man turned into nearly a week in Lebanese custody, facing accusations of being an Israeli spy. Enduring feces-caked cells, witnessing torture and enduring endless interrogation, Dan Brotman was eventually released — but the seasoned world traveller said he'll be more judicious about future travels. 'I've been to all of the Arab countries, except four,' the 38-year-old told The Toronto Sun. 'I'd love to return to Lebanon once they've signed the Abraham Accords, and I'll continue to travel to all regions of the world, I just won't do countries that are enemies of Israel anymore — I'm too exposed and now I'm too scarred from this experience.' The ordeal began in early May, when Brotman — part of the largest western tour group since the 2024 fall of the Assad regime — travelled to Syria for an eight-day excursion, exploring the country's dwindling Jewish history. 'From Beirut, we drove an hour and a half to Syria,' he said, adding he'd travelled to Lebanon before without incident. Problems began upon re-entering Lebanon from Syria. 'The guard takes my passport and scans it — he's staring at his screen,' Brotman said. 'And then he says, 'Come with me.'' Brotman was told not to worry and he'd be on his way in five minutes. 'They asked me, 'Have you been in the Israeli army?' and at that point I can't lie because if they're asking me, they know — so I said 'Yes.'' Brotman, originally from Boston, moved to Israel, making Aliyah at age 18 and — like all Israeli citizens — was conscripted into the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) for mandatory military service, serving three years in an administrative role. He spent a decade in South Africa before moving to Windsor, where he's in the final stages of obtaining Canadian citizenship. Brotman's past IDF service was enough for Lebanese officials to detain him as an Israeli spy. Confiscating his watch, wallet and phone, Brotman was shackled and thrown in a dark, windowless cell. 'I was just waiting there, I didn't know exactly what I was waiting for.' His tour leader eventually visited, saying the guards planned to transport Brotman to Beirut. The soldier accompanying the tour leader then started pointing at Brotman, shouting that he was an Israeli spy. 'They forced the group to leave the border and continue to Beirut, but before they did, they made each participant write down their mother's full name because they wanted to know who might have a Jewish mother,' Brotman explained. What followed was a six-day ordeal of filthy cells, little food, and endless interrogations about his life in Israel, and his military service. His captors also forced him to sign statements in Arabic. Brotman, who holds American and South African passports, was detained by the Hezbollah-linked Lebanese General Security — equivalent to the CIA or CSIS — and housed in a cell with no toilet, lights, blanket or running water. 'We went through eight-hour interrogations daily,' he recalled. In a diary he secretly kept in custody, he recalled a guard named Hussein who was kind to him, spoke of his uncle in Brampton and bought Brotman food. Brotman also overheard guards torturing and performing mock executions on prisoners in adjacent cells. Brotman comforted himself by singing Nyet Nyet Nikavo — a Jewish song affirming faith in God whose Russian title translates to 'No, No, Not to Anyone,' It took days to meet with American embassy officials, who convinced his captors to remove the handcuffs he'd worn constantly for days. Six days into his ordeal, Brotman was brought before a judge who told him he'd be able to leave in three days — so he was surprised to find out later that night his departure would be immediate. 'I was blindfolded, put in handcuffs, driven through Hezbollah territory near the Beirut airport,' he said, dismayed to find his promised escort from the U.S. embassy never showed up. Iran regime change the only path forward, Iranian-Canadians say Another group adds to call for Canada to take Iranian threat seriously 'They said they were going to meet me when I was released, to make sure I actually got on the plane.' His plane to the UK eventually departed, and he returned home. Convinced his detention was illegal, he plans to file a complaint with the United Nations — but says the mental and psychological scars will take a long time to heal. 'I know the UN doesn't do much, but it has to be on record,' he said. 'I'm part of a much longer chain of people in Jewish history who have been detained or imprisoned simply because of who they are. If Lebanon wanted to, they could have just refused me entry — there was absolutely no reason for Lebanon to break international law, to deny me due process and hold me for as long as they did.' bpassifiume@ X: @bryanpassifiume0
LBCI
21-06-2025
- Politics
- LBCI
22 arrested for links to Israeli spy services since start of conflict: Iranian media
Police in Iran's Qom province said Saturday that 22 people "linked to Israeli spy services" had been arrested since June 13, Fars news agency reported. "22 people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime's spy services, disturbing public opinion, and supporting the criminal regime," the agency stated, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran's Qom province. Reuters
Al Arabiya
21-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Arabiya
Iran police arrested 22 for links to Israeli spy services since start of conflict: Reports
Police in Iran's Qom province said Saturday that 22 people 'linked to Israeli spy services' had been arrested since June 13, Fars news agency reported. 'Twenty-two people were identified and arrested on charges of being linked to the Zionist regime's spy services, disturbing public opinion, and supporting the criminal regime,' the agency stated, citing the head of police intelligence in Iran's Qom province.
CBS News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Possessions of Israel's most famous spy recovered — 60 years after he was executed in Syria
Israel has retrieved thousands of items belonging to the country's most famous spy after a covert operation in Syria. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared some of the 2,500 items from the Syrian archive relating to Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who infiltrated the political echelon in Syria, with Cohen's widow. Sunday marked 60 years since Cohen was hanged in a square in Damascus. The items recently spirited into Israel include documents, recordings, photos, and items collected by Syrian intelligence after his capture in January 1965, letters in his own handwriting to his family in Israel, photographs of his activity during his operational mission in Syria and personal objects that were taken from his home after his capture. Among the items recovered was a handwritten will penned by Cohen hours before his execution, Agence France-Presse reported. Suitcases of items brought to Israel included worn folders stuffed with handwritten notes, keys to his apartment in Damascus, passports and false identification documents, missions from the Mossad to surveil specific people and places, and documentation of all the efforts of his widow, Nadia Cohen, begging world leaders for his release from prison. In this undated photo released by the Israeli Prime Minister's Office, identity documents of Eli Cohen are displayed. Israeli Prime Minister's Office via AP A Syrian government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a Reuters news agency request for comment on how the items had been retrieved from Syria. Cohen, who was born in Egypt to a Jewish family, was sent by Mossad to Syria, where he posed as a Syrian businessman named Kamal Amin Taabet, the BBC reported. After befriending influential political, business and military figures, he was able to obtain secret information, which he passed back to Israel. Cohen's success in Syria was one of the Mossad spy agency's first major achievements, and the top-secret intelligence he obtained is widely credited with helping Israel prepare for its swift victory in the 1967 Middle East War. Eli Cohen managed to forge close contacts within the political and military hierarchy of Israel's archenemy in the early 1960s, ultimately rising to become a top adviser to Syria's defense minister. In 1965, Cohen was caught radioing information to Israel. He was tried and hanged in a Damascus square on May 18, 1965. His remains have yet to be returned to Israel, where he is regarded as a national hero. Isreal previously recovered a watch belonging to Cohen from Syria, the BBC reported in 2018. Details of how Israel got hold of the watch were not disclosed, other than it was returned "in a special Mossad operation." In 2019, actor Sacha Baron Cohen portrayed Eli Cohen (no relation) in a six-episode Netflix series called "The Spy." "We conducted a special operation by the Mossad, by the State of Israel, to bring his (Eli Cohen's) archive, which had been in the safes of the Syrian intelligence for 60 years," Netanyahu told Nadia Cohen on Sunday in Jerusalem. Ahead of viewing the items, Nadia Cohen told Netanyahu that the most important thing was to bring back Cohen's body. Netanyahu said Israel was continuing to work on locating Cohen's body. Last week, Israel recovered the body of an Israeli soldier from Syria who had been missing for more than four decades, after he was killed during a clash with Syrian forces in Lebanon in 1982. "Eli is an Israeli legend. He's the greatest agent Israeli intelligence has had in the years the state existed. There was no one like him," Netanyahu said.
Washington Post
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
60 years after he was hanged, Israel recovers Syrian archive belonging to famous spy
TEL AVIV, Israel — Israel has retrieved thousands of items belonging to the country's most famous spy after a covert operation in Syria. On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared some of the 2,500 items from the Syrian archive relating to Eli Cohen, an Israeli spy who infiltrated the political echelon in Syria, with Cohen's widow. Sunday marked 60 years since Cohen was hanged in a square in Damascus.
