Author Description

A 'false flag' is the most complex and dangerous of intelligence operations: the recruitment of an agent who believes he is working for an entirely different country. Fluent in German, having lived in Switzerland throughout his youth, Zeev Avni's speciality in Mossad was to cultivate former Nazis employed as military advisers to rebuild Egypt's army. None would willingly have co-operated with him if they had suspected for one moment that he was a Jew - and a professional Israeli intelligence officer. Nor would Mossad have promoted him if it had been realised that their star performer was a long-term mole who for years had haemorrhaged secrets to the Soviets. When Avni's triple life was eventually exposed, he was tried in secret and sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment. Now, for the first time, he tells the story Mossad would prefer to forget. His unique story of commitment, duplicity and betrayal is the only documented case of Mossad's penetration by Soviets, and will be regarded as a classic by espionage aficionados.