Agent only identified as ‘A’ is the recipient of the highest lifetime achievement award for defending the country, but all the details are classified.
By Yakir Benzion, United With Israel
Israel’s top defense award was given recently to a Mossad agent described as “genius” who chose to work in secret behind the scenes for Israel’s defense rather than take a lucrative job in high tech, Channel 12 reported.
But who is the secret agent who can only be identified as “A”?
An acquaintance who knows A says that “he is recognized in our intelligence community and by the Americans as a real phenomenon in the cyber field” who is grooming a generation of students under him.
They also say the 40-year-old father is a real character and a unique figure at the Mossad, Israel’s equivalent of the CIA, who chose to work for the secret intelligence organization over a career in the private sector.
The decision to award the lifetime achievement award reads, among other things: “Contribution to state security while demonstrating extraordinary talent.”
The Channel 12 report talked about the recent “very intrusive operation into the heart of a major enemy of Israel” whose secrecy as a counter-terrorism operation means that the release of any detail could compromise the country’s security.
However, the contribution of the operation to Israel’s defense was deemed “extraordinary” and “a unique contribution to Israel’s security.”
Only 40, A is receiving the award “for a long-standing contribution to national security and for initiating many technological solutions, while demonstrating exceptional talent, creativity, curiosity and daring.”
Along with A, three outstanding projects are being recognized for the Israel Security Award that are different joint efforts involving the Mossad, the IDF, the Ministry of Defense, private defense contractors and the Shabak General Security Service – Israel’s equivalent of the FBI.
No details of the three projects could be revealed, other than who were the participating agencies that revealed that one of the project had something to do with the Israel Air Force.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz called the winners to tell them of their achievement, saying he was proud of Israel’s human capital that spans the different organizations.
Those organizations “prove time and time again that we have and will have no borders in the war on Israel’s security,” Gantz said. ” Thanks to their talent, dedication and dedication to the task, the security of the citizens of Israel is guaranteed, and we possess groundbreaking capabilities – in every dimension, and everywhere.”