New in SpyWeek: Mossad Guy's Congo Caper

Also: Heightened concerns about espionage on U.S. military bases and the Egyptian intel officer blamed for torpedoing a Gaza ceasefire deal lead.

Was former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen up to some monkey business in the Congo, trying to derail the ICC?? (Miriam Alster/Flash90, 2018)

Rumble in the Jungle: Intelligence agencies steal secrets, break other countries' laws, eavesdrop on allies, and commit all manner of shadowy acts. Still, sometimes there are limits. 

“There are things that spy agencies do not do, things that they won't do, and that are forbidden for them to do,” former Mossad director Tamir Pardo said. “And this is one of them."

Pardo was speaking of a report in The Guardian of London that claimed that the man who succeeded him in 2016 as the head of Mossad, Yossi Cohen, threatened the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor to thwart an investigation into alleged Israeli war crimes. The Guardian quotes Cohen allegedly telling the prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, “You should help us and let us take care of you. You don’t want to be getting into things that could compromise your security or that of your family.”

Pardo doesn’t believe it happened. Or he doesn’t want to believe it. “It sounds like Cosa Nostra-style blackmail,” he told the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz. There’s more.