Wall Street Journal: Black Cube: The Bumbling Spies of the ‘Private Mossad’
A secretive Israeli investigative firm employs aggressive tactics that sometimes blow up.
In 2017, a private investigator masquerading as an adviser to a wealthy Indian businessman blundered trying to dig up dirt on an outspoken Russia critic. An undercover operative unsuccessfully tried to prod a former Canadian judge to disparage Jews in the same year. Last year, agents were exposed engineering a smear effort against financier George Soros.
The would-be secret agents all worked for Black Cube, a private Israeli investigative firm often referred to in press reports as a “private Mossad.”
The firm has helped clients by covertly eliciting damaging information about competitors or legal opponents, among other things. But a number of its cases in recent years have been marred when flimsy cover stories were exposed by bumbling agents and risky tactics, according to a review of past cases and Black Cube internal documents, along with former employees, rivals, targets and clients.
In an interview, Efraim Halevy, a member of Black Cube’s advisory board, defended the firm’s use of fake identities, saying businesses need these tactics because “documents are becoming less prevalent” and the only evidence is “human sources.” He stressed that creating “virtual” situations to gain access and information have “to be done in a legal manner.”
Despite some missteps, Black Cube “has to turn clients away because it cannot service all the demands,” said Mr. Halevy, a former head of the Mossad, an Israeli government intelligence agency. He said Black Cube has worked on 300 cases since being founded in 2010 by two former Israeli military intelligence officers, Dan Zorella and Avi Yanus. He objected to the term “private Mossad,” arguing that the firm specializes in business rather than political espionage.
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WNU Editor: This is a critical report from the WSJ on this Israeli firm. But even though WSJ points out their failings, it looks like this Israeli firm's business is booming. But to me the big winner by far in the world of providing private intelligence has got to be Christopher Steele's Orbis Business Intelligence, Ltd.. The fact that he was paid $10 million by a firm working for the Hillary Clinton campaign to produce a ridiculous Russian dossier that is false .... but was still used by former officials in the Obama officials to justify spying on then candidate Trump and later as President Trump .... proves to me how valuable these firms are to clients who want to damage their opposition.
