Monday, August 06, 2007

Amos

JJA: Yeah. If it wasn’t for him, I might not have received Khrushchev’s secret speech to the Politburo, which was the great turning point in the Cold War. He gave it to a courier who flew from Tel Aviv to Washington, and came directly to my house. I gave it to Dulles, who personally delivered it to Eisenhower.
JJA: The Soviets permitted a lot of Jews to emigrate to Israel — remember they hoped that Israel, since it was a socialist state in their view, would help them — and every one of those emigrants was forced to sign an agreement to work for Soviet intelligence, to spy against both Israel and us. A few did, but most of them cooperated with Shin Bet, and Amos provided us with the raw debriefs. It was a treasure trove, spectacular, unique I dare say.