https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4586363/isis-stands-israeli-secret-intelligence-servicehttps://www.c-span.org/video/?c4743965/israeli-secret-intelligence-servicehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yossi_Melmanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Lambhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_RavivQuote ( 00:23:13 Dan Raviv )
I thought it was a reasonable question but the trouble is, you can't pick up the phone book. There's no Langley in Israel that you can look up, you know, CIA or, in our case, the Mossad. We thought we should ask, "What shall we call it in English?" We can translate the Hebrew words, and like I said, Mossad is "institute." But when they write a letter to their friends in the CIA or the British intelligence, what do they call themselves? It took a while. It was a matter of asking the prime minister's spokesman -- the best you could do because officially the Mossad is under the prime minister's office. And I think he sort of wondered, "Why do you want to know?" and all that, so we explained and he came up with the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service. And if it were to have initials it would be ISIS, just simple words like that -- interestingly enough, though, kind of a British model. The British don't really like the names MI5 and MI6 for their foreign service. They prefer SIS, Secret Intelligence Service.
Quote (00:20:17 Yossi Melman)
Well, it's a state secret. Nobody would tell you exactly. But we believe that there are more than 10,000 people involved directly, employed directly by the various branches of the Israeli intelligence, mainly the military intelligence. One has to remember that the military intelligence, Aman, is the largest and the most important intelligence organization in Israel -- before the Mossad.
Quote (00:20:45 Brian Lamb)
Before you get to that, I want to show the audience how these different organization are spelled, and explain them each because there are three major intelligence-gathering organizations in Israel. You start with the Mossad. What is it?
Quote (00:21:02 Dan Raviv)
Mossad means "institute," by the way, and this is an institute for intelligence and the special operations. So the Mossad is the foreign espionage arm. Compare it to the CIA.
Quote (00:21:14 Brian Lamb)
All right. Go down here to the ...
Quote (00:21:16 Dan Raviv)
Next one is Aman. Military intelligence. It's a Hebrew acronym, so it is the intelligence arm of the armed forces. As Yossi was saying it, in fact, is the largest and most important. And then it says, "Shin Bet." Two Hebrew letters, initials for security services. That's the domestic agency, the equivalent of the FBI.
Quote (00:21:38 Brian Lamb)
Which one of the three is the most important?
Quote (00:21:41 Dan Raviv)
Oh, it would be Aman.
Quote (00:21:43 Yossi Melman )
Aman.
Quote (00:21:43 Dan Raviv)
The military intelligence. Nothing is more important than -- you're watching your Arab neighbors for actual movements of troops, how many tanks they have, where are the aircraft. All these other missions that we described are fascinating, and even getting, you know, thousands of Jews into the country is vital. But having a sign that war is coming, that's the key, and that's Aman's job.
Quote (00:22:10 Brian Lamb)
Which is the second most important?
Quote (00:22:13 Yossi Melman)
The Mossad. The problem with Aman, with the military intelligence, is that it lives in the shadow of the flamboyant Mossad. it can be compared to the same problem which is facing United States National Security Agency, NSA. It is the largest, the most important agency in the intelligence community. Yet the most famous one, which gets media attention, is the CIA, the same as in Israel. The Mossad has become -- sort of epitomizing the Israeli intelligence. But the most important agency is military intelligence. Mossad comes second and then you have Shin Bet, the Israeli equivalent to the FBI, in charge of fighting terrorism, counterterrorism, subversion, trying to foil plots against the state of Israel -- political plots and other
Quote (00:23:05 Brian Lamb)
You tell the story about how you tried to find out what they call the Mossad when they deal with it publicly.
Quote (00:23:13 Dan Raviv)
I thought it was a reasonable question but the trouble is, you can't pick up the phone book. There's no Langley in Israel that you can look up, you know, CIA or, in our case, the Mossad. We thought we should ask, "What shall we call it in English?" We can translate the Hebrew words, and like I said, Mossad is "institute." But when they write a letter to their friends in the CIA or the British intelligence, what do they call themselves? It took a while. It was a matter of asking the prime minister's spokesman -- the best you could do because officially the Mossad is under the prime minister's office. And I think he sort of wondered, "Why do you want to know?" and all that, so we explained and he came up with the Israeli Secret Intelligence Service. And if it were to have initials it would be ISIS, just simple words like that -- interestingly enough, though, kind of a British model. The British don't really like the names MI5 and MI6 for their foreign service. They prefer SIS, Secret Intelligence Service
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