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Book of the dead By Yossi Melman Tags: Israel Several weeks ago, historian Dr. Aharon Bregman was summoned by the London Police's special investigations department to give testimony. Bregman is one of the last people who spoke to Egyptian businessman Dr. Ashraf Marwan, a Mossad agent who died in a mysterious fall from the balcony of his London home almost exactly a year ago, on June 27, 2007. Bregman, who teaches at a London university, presented the British investigators with, among other things, copies of recordings from his home answering machine, where Marwan left several short messages. In them, Marwan tries to arrange a meeting between the two that day, which of course did not take place. The contents of the recordings were first published in Haaretz shortly after the news of Marwan's death became known. Another subject raised while the police were taking Bregman's testimony is the manuscript that Marwan wrote and planned to publish as a book. After Marwan's death, it turned out that the material (recordings and a manuscript) he collected for the book, which was to have dealt with the Yom Kippur War, had disappeared from the safe in his home. This increased the mystery surrounding the circumstances of his death. Advertisement The hope is that if the material is found, it will perhaps be possible to solve the mystery of his death. Did he commit suicide? Was he murdered? And if so, by who? Egyptian agents taking revenge on him for betraying their homeland and providing information to Israel, including the warning of the impending Yom Kippur war? Or was it Israeli agents, as is believed by his well-connected family (his wife is a daughter of the late Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser)? Or perhaps he was killed because someone did not want the book published? But while his statement was being taken, Bregman had the impression that the investigators were not at all convinced that there was "a manuscript." If there was a manuscript, wasn't there a backup? And if so, where is it? Who was the publisher? These are some of the questions troubling the investigators. From all these details and information from other sources, it is possible to conclude that the British investigators are feeling in the dark. Despite the reputation of Scotland Yard's investigators, it seems that the fact that foreign elements - primarily intelligence agencies - are involved in the matter is impeding their progress, and perhaps even weakening their efforts. Given the reasonable assumption that this was not a suicide (and this possibility was ruled out after a review of the crime scene - a balcony with a high wall that would have to be climbed and accounts of foreigners seen in the apartment a short time before the death), it is highly doubtful that the case will ever be solved. Bregman was apparently the only Israeli who managed to maintain contact with Marwan over the last few years. The connection between them was established following "an incident." Bregman was the first to openly disclose in a 2002 interview to an Egyptian newspaper that Marwan, who in the early 1970s was a confidante and adviser to Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, was a Mossad agent. But Bregman stubbornly maintained until Marwan's death that he was a double agent, because he remained loyal to his homeland, mocked his handlers and misled Israel. In doing so, Bregman adopted the thesis that was thoroughly and stubbornly spread since the 1990s by the head of military intelligence during the Yom Kippur War, Eli Zeira, in order to absolve himself of responsibility for the intelligence failure during the war. Zeira, as former Supreme Court Justice Theodore Or determined about a year-and-a-half ago (while arbitrating in the reciprocal libel suits filed by Zeira and the Mossad chief at the time, Zvi Zamir), revealed Marwan's identity to several journalists and writers from Israel (but not to Bregman). Marwan, who denied the claims that he was a Mossad agent, contacted Bregman after the interview and the two talked and met occasionally during the five years prior to his death. Bregman helped Marwan, providing him with newspaper clippings (primarily reports about him in Haaretz by the author of this article), and telling him about the prevailing moods in Israel. Bregman learned during the course of their conversations that Marwan was writing a book. The truth is that Marwan did not really want to write a book that much - it was Bregman who pushed and encouraged him to do so. In their October 2003 meeting at the Intercontinental Hotel on London's Park Lane, he was surprised to hear Marwan tell him: "I'm writing a book - it will take some time - I'll consult with you from time to time." The title Marwan chose for his book was "October 1973 - What Happened?" After his death, Bregman began to have some doubts as to whether Marwan really was a double agent. Those who did not, and continue not to doubt that he was a double agent are Zvi Zamir and Mossad and military intelligence officials well-versed in the ins and outs of the matter. They think that Marwan, who volunteered to work for the Mossad in 1969 and over the years received about a million dollars (contacts with him were cut off), was one of the best agents that the Mossad ever had. Zamir and his colleagues (Colonel Yossi Langutzki and Brigadier General Amos Gilboa) are still awaiting the decision of Attorney General Menachem Mazuz in the matter of the materials submitted to him over four years ago against Eli Zeira, for supposedly disclosing state secrets without being authorization. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Bridging the gap A flashy addition to Jerusalem's entrance merges the old and the new. Two years later Captive soldiers' families lash out during ceremony marking Shalit's kidnapping.

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