'Prisoner X' sabotaged Israeli spy mission to retrieve bodies
Zygier exposed informer, forcing Mossad to axe plan to retrieve soldiers' remains, says report
Australian-Israeli Mossad agent Ben Zygier unwittingly sabotaged a top secret spy operation aimed at bringing home the bodies of Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon, a report said yesterday.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation, which broke the story in February of Zygier's arrest, detention and suicide in a Tel Aviv jail, said his recklessness forced Mossad to abort the sophisticated mission.
The Israeli government went to extreme lengths to cover up the existence of Zygier, known as "Prisoner X", and the reason for his imprisonment.
ABC said Israel gagged his existence due to the sensitive nature of the operation he compromised.
The mission would have meant closure to a 30-year campaign for the return of the remains of three tank crewmen who were captured and killed by Syrian forces during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982, it said.
Recovering soldiers' remains was important to Israel, with only six still missing from all the conflicts it had been involved in, the report said.