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Last update - 20:14 21/06/2009
Mossad chief kept on for another year to monitor Iran
By News Agencies
Tags: Israel News, Mossad 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday extended the tenure of Mossad chief Meir Dagan for an eighth year, a testament to the spymaster's perceived success in waging shadow wars against Iran and its allies.

Dagan, a former commando and retired general, took over Mossad in 2002 with what security sources described as a mandate to monitor and sabotage the Iranian nuclear program ahead of any decision by Israel to launch full-scale preemptive strikes.

The Mossad has also been credited with spotting an alleged Syrian nuclear reactor which Israel bombed in 2007, and with assassinating Islamist guerrillas such as Imad Moughniyah of Lebanon's Hezbollah militia, who was slain in Damascus in 2008.
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"This is an excellent man who, at the head of an excellent team, has improved the country's capabilities," an aide to Netanyahu quoted him as telling the Israeli cabinet in its weekly session.

The son of Holocaust refugees, Dagan, 64, has spearheaded assessments that a nuclear-armed Iran would present a mortal threat to Israel. Iran - which denies seeking the bomb - could produce its first such warhead by 2014, Dagan said last week.

He also played down prospects of the current civil upheaval over Iran's disputed June 12 election leading to a change in government, but said Tehran could be persuaded to curb sensitive nuclear technologies if U.S.-led sanctions are intensified.

Failing that, Israel, which is widely assumed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, has hinted at a military option, though many analysts think Iranian sites are too dispersed and fortified for its air force to take on alone.

That leaves covert action as a stop-gap countermeasure, something Israeli officials privately confirm is under way.

Western media reports have spoken of Mossad involvement in sabotage at Iranian nuclear facilities and sneak attacks on Iranian scientists and military personnel. Iranian media have reported the disruption of some suspected Israeli spy cells.

Mossad's purview is "human intelligence" - recruited agents with first-hand information about, and access to, enemy plans. Security sources say this has lent Dagan authority among Israeli decision-makers reluctant to design their Iran strategy around satellite pictures or electronic eavesdropping transcripts.

Mossad's headquarters, north of Tel Aviv, has almost doubled in size since 2002 - an indication of Dagan's budgetary clout.

"If there is one service that has brought us close to knowing what's really going on in Iran, it's Mossad," said a recently retired government official, who formerly had a top post in a rival Israeli spy agency.

Israel's military top brass and civilian defense chiefs generally serve for four years, with a traditional one-year extension. Dagan's tenure was extended twice before. He is now due to step down in 2010
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  1.   Way to go Dagan 19:29  |  Michael 21/06/09
  2.   This article by "News Agencies" is Mossad praising itself. 20:15  |  Fortuna Benmayor 21/06/09
  3.   Add on "aid to insurgents" as part of his duties. 20:29  |  Witness 21/06/09
  4.   Mossad 20:38  |  Jonathan Goldberg 21/06/09
  5.   Shhh, Hush Hush 21:14  |  Not an Idiot 21/06/09
  6.   Mission Possible 21:49  |  Charles marks 21/06/09
  7.   Did he foresee this? 22:36  |  Mark Lincoln 21/06/09
  8.   Isn`t He the Same Guy Who 22:38  |  Persian Kitty 21/06/09
  9.   Hats off to Meir Dagan`s Mossad. 02:09  |  Al Revesz 22/06/09
  10.   I hope Israel has just as good talent in the future 03:45  |  Tom 22/06/09
  11.   Al reves # 8 means "it`s the other way around" in Spanish. 12:02  |  An Idiot 22/06/09
  12.   for Jonathan Goldberg 12:11  |  An Idiot 22/06/09
  13.   This talkback is better than Mel Brooks` "Get Smart" 12:36  |  Fortuna Benmayor 22/06/09
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