---
category: "Intelligence & Government"
tags:
  - Person
  - CIA
  - Politician
  - Israel
  - Military
summary: "Acting and later full Director of Mossad who, according to Ari Ben-Menashe, served on the Iran-Israel Joint Committee for supplying arms to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War."
born: 1929-11-21
location: "Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine"
---

[[Nachum Admoni]] was the acting Director of [[Mossad]] and later its full Director. He was the first Mossad chief to be appointed from the bureaucracy rather than the military. He was appointed after [[Yekutiel Adam]], who was in line for the position, was assassinated.[^1]

According to [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], Admoni was involved in the [[Iran-Israel Joint Committee]], which was assigned the task of supplying [[Iran]] with arms in its war with [[Saddam Hussein|Saddam Hussein's]] [[Iraq]], and he had equal power with the Director of Mossad on the subject of arms to Iran.[^1] The Joint Report of the October Surprise Task Force identifies [[Yitzhak Hofi]] as head of Mossad during 1980 to 1982.[^2]

Admoni was briefed by Ari Ben-Menashe on the [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence network's arms sales to Iran for [[George H.W. Bush|Vice President George Bush]] in July 1986. He also received a phone call from [[Robert Gates]] in early February 1989, expressing [[United States|U.S.]] unhappiness about Israeli activities in [[Chile]].[^1]

Admoni was involved in the decision to move [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] money, which was under Israeli control, to the [[East Bloc]] in 1989. He was one of the three signatories to the slush-fund accounts, along with Ari Ben-Menashe.[^1]

Admoni left Mossad in 1989, but continued to advise [[Yitzhak Shamir]] on intelligence matters. He later became the chair of a public utility in Israel.[^1]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
[^2]: U.S. House of Representatives, *Joint Report of the October Surprise Task Force*, January 3, 1993, p. 98. https://archive.org/details/JointReportOfTheOctoberSurpriseTaskForce