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+---
+tags:
+  - Person
+  - Intelligence
+  - Israel
+---
+Rafael Eitan, also known as "Rafi the stinker," was an ambitious Israeli clandestine operative and a crony of [[Ariel Sharon]]. He was appointed the new head of [[LAKAM]] (Science Liaison Bureau) and also served as [[Menachem Begin]]'s special assistant for counterterrorism. Eitan had participated in the 1960 kidnapping of [[Adolf Eichmann]] in [[Buenos Aires]] and was a veteran of many operations inside the Arab world. He had been forced to resign from [[Mossad]] years earlier and was bitter about his stunted career and the failure of [[Mossad]] and [[Israel]]'s other intelligence agencies to cooperate with his counterterrorism office.[^1]
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+Eitan decided to change the rules after unproductive meetings with U.S. officials, agreeing with [[Ariel Sharon]] that the [[United States]] was holding back on intelligence essential to Israeli security, such as [[KH-11]] photography. He recruited [[Jonathan Pollard]] in October 1981, a move viewed by military intelligence as "the worst fucking thing Rafi could have done."[^1]
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+Eitan's LAKAM operations in the [[United States]] produced a steady stream of routinely transferred scientific and technical documents. Illicitly obtained intelligence flew so voluminously from LAKAM into Israeli intelligence that a special code name, JUMBO, was added to the security markings on the documents. There were strict orders that anything marked JUMBO was not supposed to be discussed with American counterparts.[^1]
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+[[Reuven Yerdor]], then in charge of [[Unit 8200]], had little respect for Eitan and worried about the long-range implications of Israeli intelligence activities in the [[United States]]. Yerdor was convinced Eitan was driven by personal ambition and a need to settle old scores with [[Yitzhak Hofi]], the head of [[Mossad]], and [[Avraham Shalom]], Shin Beth's director. Yerdor also believed that Eitan had recruited two or more Americans, and was dismayed by the fact that [[Jonathan Pollard]]'s material, marked JUMBO, was not supposed to be discussed with American counterparts.[^1]
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+After the [[Sabra and Shatila massacres]], Eitan remained in [[Menachem Begin]]'s cabinet as a minister without portfolio. The Israeli officials most tarnished by the [[Jonathan Pollard|Pollard]] scandal were Eitan and [[Aviem Sella]]. However, Eitan did not suffer financially and was subsequently named to a high administrative position with the [[Israel Chemicals Company]], authorized by [[Ariel Sharon]].[^1]
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+### Footnotes
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+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.