October 04-2013
Israel has announced the arrest of an Iranian-born spy dispatched to Israel to organize terrorist attacks—and one potential target was the US embassy in Tel Aviv. This is the first time Israel has ever reported unearthing an Iranian terrorist plot inside Israel.
The man was named Ali Mansouri at birth. He left Iran in his 20s and lived almost two decades in Turkey before moving to Belgium, where he obtained citizenship and changed his name legally to Alex Mans.
It was as Alex Mans that he visited Israel three times, ostensibly to set up contacts for his business of selling windows to retail establishments. He was arrested three weeks ago as he was preparing to return to Belgium.
His arrest was only revealed by Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security police, on Sunday, the day before he first appeared in court.
Shin Bet said he was being paid $1 million. If true, that might be the largest sum the Islamic Republic has ever paid anyone to plot terrorist actions and would suggest the priority the regime is placing on bringing terror into Israel.
Dozens of Iranians and Lebanese Shias have been arrested in several countries around the world and linked to plots against Israelis or against local Jews. But this is the first time Israel has ever reported uncovering an Iranian terror plot inside Israel.
A bombing last year in New Delhi and linked to Iran by Indian police injured the wife of the Israeli defense attache. A bomb attached to an Israeli car in Georgia was discovered the same week before it went off. And a group of Iranians working with bombs in Bangkok that same week were foiled when one of the bombs went off in their house. Two Iranians have also been convicted in Kenya recently of casing sites there. Lebanese Shias were implicated last year in plots in Cyprus and Bulgaria; while no concrete evidence of Iranian involvement has been published, it is widely assumed those men were dispatched at Iran’s behest.
All these plots are widely assumed to be Iranian retaliation for the assassinations in Tehran of three Iranian scientists working on Iran’s nuclear program.
The exposure of the plot inside Israel comes at a particularly opportune moment for Israel, which is trying to paint the Islamic Republic in an unfavorable light in order to spike President Rohani’s “charm offensive,” designed to portray the regime as open and reasonable.
The arrest was announced the day Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu landed in New York to speak at the UN General Assembly and, in his words, “tell the truth in the face of the sweet-talk” coming from Rohani.
An Israeli official traveling with Netanyahu said the arrest shows Iran’s diplomatic efforts at the UN don’t match its actions, including acts of terrorism all around the world.
Israel said the 55-year-old accused was dispatched by the Qods Force, the international operations arm of the Pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard).
Presenting himself as a salesman of windows for restaurants and other shops, the accused sought Israeli partners to start new businesses that could serve as a cover for intelligence gathering, the Shin Bet said.
Public defense lawyers representing the accused said he is a Belgian businessman who is not motivated by any pro-Iranian agenda, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing attorneys Michael Orkavi and Anat Yaari. They said the suspect was denied access to a lawyer for nine days and that the case is more complex than the way it has been presented by Israel.
Shin Bet said: “During questioning, the suspect, Ali Mansouri, described entering Israel under a Belgian identity using the alias Alex Mans, as well as his recruitment and activation process by Iranian intelligence elements.”
Alex Mans, however, is not an alias, but his legal name under Belgian law.
Shin Bet said Mansouri was directed by Khamed Abdallahi and Majid Alawi, both of whom are subordinate to the Qods Force commander, Qasem Suleimani.
The Shin Bet provided a detailed biography of the suspect. Born in Iran in 1958, Mansouri lived in the Islamic Republic until 1980, before moving to Turkey, where he stayed until 1997. It was then that he entered the world of business, and received a visa that allowed him to reside in Belgium.
In 2002, he married a Belgian woman, and in 2006 Mansouri received Belgian citizenship, changing his name to Alex Mans.
In 2007, he returned to Iran, from where he tried to broaden his business activities in the three countries he knew best—Iran, Belgium, and Turkey.
He continued to travel between the three states, married an Iranian woman in a second marriage in 2012, and allegedly drew the attention of Iranian intelligence recruiters due to his international business background.
In 2012, the Qods Force asked him to work for it in Israel, Shin Bet said.
He visited Israel in July 2012, January 2013, and, most recently, September 6-11, the visit that ended in his arrest.
During questioning, Man-souri revealed information about his handlers, divulging information about Hajji Mustafa, a senior Qods Force headquarters operative, who met with Mansouri and received updates about his missions in Israel, Hajji Hamid Na’amti, a liaison man, and Mahdi Hanababai, who guided Mansouri during his time in Israel.
After each visit to Israel, Mansouri was instructed to fly to Tehran to report back to his handlers. He described how he was instructed to cover up those visits, during which he would be debriefed and receive new instructions.
The timing of the arrest raised suspicions. Normally Shin Bet would want to watch such a person as Mansouri for a long time, gather as much information as possible about his activities and not move in and arrest him until the plot was much more advanced. Many suspected Mansouri was arrested now because Israel wants to use the case to cause maximum embarrassment for Iran.
Uzi Rabi, director of a research center at Tel Aviv University, told The Washington Post, “It is not in the [Shin Bet’s] interest to publish details of these cases in this way, so obviously it is related to the new geopolitical constellation.”