Inmate X, Mossad agent Ben Alon, has “caused Israel the kind of damage that is comparable to the harm [the Israeli spy] Eli Cohen had caused to Syria.”

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How [could] the young man who immigrated to Israel from Australia commit suicide in the most secure prison cell in the country?

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By ILUSA Editorial Staff

The full story about Prisoner X that Israeli state censorship attempted to suppress: Ben Zygier emigrated from Melbourne, changed his last name to Alon, got married and joined the Mossad, where he had committed “something horrendous” while performing a mission in a foreign country.  He was whisked away and incarcerated in complete isolation and without trial at Ward 15 of Ayalon Prison.  He did manage, about 18 months after his imprisonment and a short while before his 34^th birthday, to commit suicide?

Ben Alon was referred to only as “X” while at the highest security ward of Ayalon Prison, where he was secreted and held till December 2010 in total isolation in a single cell (originally built for Yigal Amir, the man who murdered Prime minister Yitzchak Rabin), under maximal security, for unknown crimes he purportedly has committed.

Even the prison commanders did not know his name.  Only very few in Israel even knew about his incarceration and the mass media in Israel was prohibited from reporting about it.

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Now an Australian investigative report by an ABC reporter Trevor Bormann reveals Prisoner’s X identity.

Ben Zygier, a young Australian Jew immigrated from Australia to Israel, changed his last name to Alon, represented himself as a lawyer but in fact joined and worked for the Mossad, till he got embroiled in a mysterious affair related to Israel “national security” that brought about, at the start of 2010 (or, according to the source that discussed the matter with ILUSA, maybe already in 2009, see below) his incarceration and isolation without trial in the most secure place in Israel, where he succeeded in committing suicide a year and a half after he placed behind bars – a bewildering fact that raises many questions.

Ben Alon, who killed himself a few days before his 34^th birthday, he was a married man and father of two.

A reliable source in the U.S., who is familiar with the affair, told ILUSA during the last few hours a few additional details:

• Ben Alon was a [double] agent at the service of a foreign country which is neither the U.S. nor Russia.
• He reached as high as Eli Cohen did, i.e., the highest political echelons of the country.  He caused or stood to cause Israel the kind of harm Eli Cohen had caused Syria till he was caught.
• The source said: “They should have thrown him into a pool filled with white sharks.”
• He was incarcerated for 18 months without a trial no matter what was said in the Australian ABC report.
• There were two additional serious counter-espionage affairs that were exposed [in Israel] in recent years, which did not get any publicity.  He added that every intelligence agency has a very minor problem with counter-espionage.

A photograph of Ben Alon during his wedding to Maya, availed by ABC Australia

These are the details unearthed through Bormann’s report:

• Ben Alon was incarcerated for several months from the beginning of mid-2010 and till his death in November-December 2010 at Ward 15 of Ayalon Prison which has but a single cell, surrounded by an array of hi-tech gadgetry, including close circuit TV.  The prisoner without trial was guarded 24 round the clock.
•  After a YNET reporter attempted to look into the affair he was summoned by Israel’s General Security Service (GSS – an agency that handles the ‘interior matters’ of the Mossad) and warned.  In addition, the GSS went to court in Petah Tiqwa and after a closed-door hearing Judge Hila Segal issued a comprehensive gag order as to any publicity of the affair, in Israel.  An indication of how sensitive the matter is, may be found in that part of the injunction that disallows any mention of the order itself.
• When the Israeli Civil Rights Association addressed the issue with the attorney general [of Israel], it received a curt response:  “The current gag order is vital for the prevention of grave harm to the state.  Thus, we cannot provide any detail regarding this affair.
• In December 2010 YNET issued a short news report:  “An inmate that was held at Ayalon Prison committed suicide by hanging in his cell.  The short item reporting that Prisoner X killed himself was quickly removed and all reference to it erased.
• A highly respected and amenable source, with ties in the Israeli defense/security establishment disclosed that Alon immigrated to Israel in his early 20s after graduating from high school in south-east Melbourne and had readied himself to study law.  His incarceration occurred 10 years after his arrival in Israel.  He lived in Ra’anana with his wife and two daughters and worked for the Mossad.
• At a certain stage he changed his name from Zygier to Alon but kept using both names.  At some point in time he had an Australian passport issued for him under the name of Ben Allen.
• It is not a secret that the Mossad recruits Australian-Jews whose passports and accent allow them to move freely in the Arab world.
• “Something rather horrendous” occurred in the espionage career of Alon, which resulted in an attempt to make him vanish.  Ward Reed, a former British intelligence agent speculates that this was either treason or acquisition of knowledge that, if leaked, could cause extreme danger to Israel as a national state.
• The death certificate issued on 15 December 2010 stated that “Ben Alon died of asphyxiation caused by hanging.”
• The Israeli organization ZAKA [which usually handles removal of bodies from scenes of death] was the agency who flew Alon’s body to Australia for burial in Melbourne, which burial took place on 22 December  2010 at the Springvale Jewish cemetery.  The headstone has Ben’s original last name of Zygier.
• Neither any official Israeli agency nor the family agreed to talk about the matter; official sources in Israel said that the affair will remain under wraps for another 70-75 years.  An Israeli court narrowed the parameters of the gag order.  This is a decision of a district court of the Central District effective since Wednesday morning (Israel time).

A Storm in Israel

A storm erupted in Israel after the prime minister met with the editors of Israel’s mass media outlets for an emergency session, where the editors were instructed not to publish the secret affair for it is “very embarrassing to a state agency.”  However, pressure was brought to bear by Kneset [Israel parliament] members forced the Minister of Justice to utter a statement that, “the matter requires an examination.”

Background:  If indeed this is a matter of treason and counter-espionage, it is not the first such case in the annals of Israel intelligence community.  Thirteen years after the creation of Israel, in 1961, Israel Bar, who served as the head of operations of the IDF during the 1948 war and was considered intimate with the heads of the defense/security apparatus of Israel, was exposed as a soviet spy of many years.

In 1991 Shimon Levinson, an IDF colonel, a Mossad man and the security officer of the prime minister’s office was exposed as a soviet spy, as well.

Likewise, the scientist Marcus Klinberg, conveyed to the Russians all secrets of the biological and chemical research conducted at the Nes Tziona Institute, where he served as deputy director general.  (Klinberg served a 16 years prison term for spying.)

And of course there is Mordechai Va’anunu, a technician working at the nuclear reactor in Dimona, provided in 1986 Israel’s nuclear secrets to a British newspaper.

Another well known case is that of Mossad man, Yehuda Gur, who provided his handlers with false information.

http://www.israelilifeusa.com/israel/2597, an Internet-based newspaper published in the U.S. in Hebrew that is aimed at the large Israel community abroad published on February 12, 2013 some fascinating details about the espionage affair that has gripped attention the world over.

 Our Internet based newspaper: jbusinessnews.com is about to publish a link to a report published in the U.S. (A faithful translation of the report into English)

sima@jewishbusinessnews.com