vault backup: 2026-05-13 21:30:09

10 - PEOPLE/(A-G)/Rafael Eitan.md

@@ -1,8 +1,14 @@
 ---
+category: "Intelligence & Government"
+created: 2024-04-25
+updated: 2026-05-01
 tags:
   - Person
-  - Intelligence
+  - CIA
   - Israel
+  - Military
+  - PROMIS
+summary: "Rafael Eitan, also known as 'Rafi the stinker,' was an ambitious Israeli clandestine operative and a crony of Ariel Sharon."
 ---
 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]
 
@@ -14,6 +20,17 @@ Eitan's LAKAM operations in the [[United States]] produced a steady stream of ro
 
 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]
 
+### PROMIS and LAKAM Intelligence Operations
+
+Eitan is alleged to have played a central role in the Israeli acquisition and international distribution of the [[PROMIS]] software. According to Gordon Thomas's account in *Gideon's Spies*, Eitan traveled to the [[United States]] posing as an Israeli Ministry of Justice assistant prosecutor and met with [[INSLAW]] founder [[Bill Hamilton]], acquiring a copy of PROMIS through back-channel contacts with the [[Department of Justice]].[^2] Eitan then assembled a team of former [[LAKAM]] programmers who deconstructed the software, rearranged its components, and embedded a "trapdoor" — a built-in chip enabling covert remote monitoring of any database queried by a user of the modified program.[^2]
+
+Eitan stated regarding PROMIS: "We can use that program to stamp out terrorism by keeping track of everyone. But not only that, we can find out what our enemies know too."[^3] He reportedly admitted collaborating with CIA officials in selling "more than half a billion dollars worth of INSLAW's PROMIS to foreign intelligence and law enforcement agencies" as part of joint covert operations to steal intelligence from foreign governments.[^3]
+
+Distribution of the backdoored software was handled in part through British media mogul [[Robert Maxwell]], who used his Israeli computer company [[Degem]] and a network of international holdings as vehicles for sales to intelligence and law enforcement agencies worldwide.[^2] Eitan's involvement in what became known as the [[PROMIS Software Scandal]] was never formally adjudicated; U.S. government investigations, including the [[Nicholas J. Bua|Bua Report]] (1993), found no credible evidence that enhanced PROMIS was distributed internationally.[^4]
+
 ### Footnotes
 
-[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
+[^1]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991. Chapter 21.
+[^2]: Thomas, Gordon. *Gideon's Spies: The Secret History of the Mossad.* St. Martin's Press, 1999.
+[^3]: U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary. *The INSLAW Affair: Investigative Report.* House Report 102-857, 102nd Congress, 2nd Session, September 10, 1992.
+[^4]: U.S. Department of Justice. *Report of Special Counsel Nicholas J. Bua to the Attorney General of the United States Regarding the Allegations of Inslaw, Inc.* March 1993.