Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

Ignatius: Turkey ratted out Mossad sources to Iran to punish Netanyahu

David Ignatius, for my money the best intelligence reporter in the business, reports that last year, the Turkish government informed the Iranian government of the identity of as many as 10 Iranians who had been meeting in Turkey with Mossad officers. His overarching conclusion in this interesting, detail-rich column, is that, "The Netanyahu-Erdogan quarrel, with ...

By , a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy.
Wikimedia
Wikimedia
Wikimedia

David Ignatius, for my money the best intelligence reporter in the business, reports that last year, the Turkish government informed the Iranian government of the identity of as many as 10 Iranians who had been meeting in Turkey with Mossad officers.

David Ignatius, for my money the best intelligence reporter in the business, reports that last year, the Turkish government informed the Iranian government of the identity of as many as 10 Iranians who had been meeting in Turkey with Mossad officers.

His overarching conclusion in this interesting, detail-rich column, is that, "The Netanyahu-Erdogan quarrel, with its overlay of intelligence thrust and parry, is an example of the kaleidoscopic changes that may be ahead in the Middle East. The United States, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are all exploring new alliances and struggling to find a new equilibrium — overtly and covertly."

I think one of the things that makes Ignatius so good is his novelistic mind, which helps him gaze unblinkingly into the intel world’s wilderness of mirrors:

What will the spider do,
Suspend its operations, will the weevil
Delay?

(HT to Jeff)

Thomas E. Ricks is a former contributing editor to Foreign Policy. Twitter: @tomricks1

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