Category: War Page 14 of 52

How Israel Tricked the U.S. into Bombing Libya in 1986
The following is from Victor Ostrovsky’s book about the Mossad – The Other Side of Deception
Ostrovsky describes how in 1986 the Mossad planted a radio relay device – the “Trojan” – in a rented apartment in Tripoli, the capital of Libya in order to trick the US into thinking that Libya was involved in terrorism:
A Trojan was a special communication device that could be planted by naval commandos deep inside enemy territory. The device would act as a relay station for misleading transmissions made by the disinformation unit in the Mossad, called LAP [LohAma Psicologit – psychological warfare], and intended to be received by American and British listening stations. Originating from an IDF navy ship out at sea, the prerecorded digital transmissions could be picked up only by the Trojan. The device would then rebroadcast the transmission on another frequency, one used for official business in the enemy country, at which point the transmission would finally be picked up by American ears in Britain….
By the end of March, the Americans were already intercepting messages broadcast by the Trojan, which was only activated during heavy communication traffic hours. Using the Trojan, the Mossad tried to make it appear that a long series of terrorist orders were being transmitted to various Libyan embassies around the world … . As the Mossad had hoped, the transmissions were deciphered by the Americans and construed as ample proof that the Libyans were active sponsors of terrorism. What’s more, the Americans pointed out, Mossad reports confirmed it….
Ultimately, the Americans fell for the Mossad ploy head over heels[,] dragging the British and the Germans somewhat reluctantly in with them. Operation Trojan was one of the Mossad’s greatest successes. It brought about the air strike on Libya that President Reagan had promised…
On April 14, 1986, one hundred and sixty American aircraft dropped over sixty tons of bombs on Libya.

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