Accountability for Secret Operations in Israel
01 January 1991
Accountability for Secret Operations in Israel
artdoc August=1991
Doron and Shapira, International Journal of Intelligence and
Counterintelligence, vol 4, no 3 (Fall 1990). Discusses the
process and limits of accountability for Israeli intelligence,
with case studies of the `Lavon Affair' of the 1950s and the Shin
Bet mishap of 1984, when it tried to cover up the death under
torture of two Palestinian commandos. Although the notorious
plausible denial mechanism often lets a minister off the hook in
the short run, the authors point at the fact that in Israel many
people have a `need to know' of some form, thus making it very
difficult to cover up serious failures.
Statewatch no 3 July/August 1991