Noriega Security Adviser Bungled Israel Spy Mission

JERUSALEM —  An Israeli who served as a top adviser to deposed Panamanian leader Manuel A. Noriega reportedly led a famous bungled mission as chief of special operations for Israel’s spy agency.

The mission set out to catch the Palestinians who carried out the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics but wound up killing a Moroccan-born waiter in Norway in a case of mistaken identity.

Michael Harari, whose arrest in Panama was reported Thursday, was a security adviser to Noriega and an instructor for the Panamanian Defense Forces, according to a U.S. Embassy official in Panama who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Spokesmen for the Israeli foreign and defense ministries refused comment today on the arrest, saying Harari is a private citizen.

But the exploits of the 62-year-old former Israeli army colonel have been described extensively in Israeli newspapers.

The daily Yediot Ahronot said Harari helped Noriega recruit Israeli mercenaries as his personal bodyguards over the last year.

The newspaper also said a second Israeli, Eliezer Ben Giton, surrendered to U.S. troops outside the Vatican mission in Panama City and identified himself as “responsible for the personal security of Gen. Manuel Noriega.”

The independent Haaretz daily said Israel, under strong U.S. pressure to cut contacts with Noriega, persuaded Harari to leave Panama last year.

But the former agent with the Israeli Mossad spy agency later returned. Haaretz reported that Harari told Israeli officials that if he did not work with Noriega, his role would be filled by Cubans or Nicaraguans.

Yediot described Harari as the former chief of Mossad’s special operations and said his best-known case was the bungled effort to kill the leader of the Palestinian Black September group that massacred 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics.

The case is also described in the book “The Quest for the Red Prince” by Israeli authors Michael Bar-Zohar and Eitan Haber.

According to the accounts, Harari led a 15-member Mossad hit squad to kill the Palestinian group’s leader, Ali Hassan Salameh. But the chase ended on May 23, 1973, when agents shot and killed a waiter in Lillehammer, Norway.

The incident embarrassed the Mossad and the service’s image was further tarnished when six agents and other Israelis involved in the mission were arrested by Norwegian police.