Teddy Kolleck and James Jesus Angleton
Two fascinating stories about the relationship between Teddy Kolleck, former mayor of Jerusalem, who recently passed away aged 95 and James Jesus Angleton. Teddy Kolleck was apparently instrumental in establishing close ties between Israel and the US, and one way he did so was by the quality of the intelligence he passed from Israel to the US, including key information on the Soviet Union during the Cold War.From Michael Ledeen:
Few Americans know of the unique role Kollek played in this country's history, when he was the right arm of David Ben-Gurion. I know about it only because, many years ago, the Forward newspaper asked me to write a serialized novel about Kollek and the CIA's legendary chief of counterterrorism, James Jesus Angleton...
Relations with America at the time were strained. Many top U.S. intelligence, diplomatic, and military leaders believed Israel was a communist cats' paw in the Middle East. It was a socialist country, after all, and the Soviet Union was one of the first countries to recognize Israeli independence.
And from Debkafiles, the personal recollection of Giora Shamis:
It was in fact Kollek's personal tip to [James Jesus] Angleton that led to the exposure of the notorious British Oxford Ring of British Soviet spies, Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean and George Blake.Read the whole thing.
Very little is known of the late mayor’s cloak and dagger career because he chose to keep it dark.
However, on one of the rare occasions when he offered a glimpse of his past, Kollek invited Giora Shamis, currently chief editor of DEBKAfile, to join him and a visitor, an old undercover buddy, Anthony Cavendish of MI6, in May 20, 1998 at the King David Hotel, Jerusalem. Both were long retired by then.
Labels: cold war, communism, soviet Union, spying
posted by Alcibiades @ 1:51 AM
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