on September 17th after Israel and the terrorist organization Hezbollah had been in an escalating War for nearly a year the Israeli spy agency mad launched one of the most daring and sophisticated deceptions in the history of counterintelligence the pager plot a modern take on the Trojan Horse mad created a bomb in a pocket and tricked Hezbollah Fighters into unwittingly wearing these devices on their bodies the repercussions of the plot have been dramatic including aiding in the fall of the Assad regime in Syria the weakening of Iran and the decimating of the target of the plot Hezbollah we spoke with two recently retired senior mad agents with leading roles in the operation to hide their identities we agreed they could wear a mask ask and have their voices altered we started with Michael not his real name the story will continue in a moment you were something called a case ~ Introduction Segment Removed ~ officer what exactly is a case officer a case officer spearheads the operation he's the commander of the operation the operation started 10 years ago not with pagers but with weaponizing walkie Takis a walki talki was a weapon just like a bullet or a missile or a mortar so a walki talkie bomb a Walkin talking BN inside the battery there is an explosive device and that was the invention to put an explosive device that couldn't be detected into the battery correct made in Israel at mad yes as I understand it these walkie-talkies went into a tactical vest that a soldier would put on and then this would go in the pocket correct near the heart yes so Israel sold this device to Hezbollah Hezbollah paid for this this weapon that was to be used against them than G price a good price that couldn't be too low or they'd be suspicious in the end Hezbollah bought over 16,000 of these exploding walkie-talkies that Israel then didn't activate for 10 years until 3 months ago how did you convince Hezbollah to buy this well obviously they didn't know that they were buying it from Israel who did they buy it from or think they were buying it from we have an incredible array of possibilities of creating foreign companies that have no way been traced back to Israel shell companies over shell companies who affect the supply chain to our favor we create a pretend world we are a Global Production Company we write the screenplay we're the directors with the producers were the main actors and the world is our state this is mossad's old office its motto from Proverbs 246 says in so many words wage war through deception and trickery kind of like the CIA smoke and mirrors which is what this operation was all about starting with those walkie-talkies but walkie-talkies are only worn in battle so mosad began developing a new device that Hezbollah Fighters would have in their pockets all the time a pager a pager is almost absolete around the world but hisbah still using it this is Gabriel not his real name or voice in 2022 he and his team started developing the second phase of the operation the booby trapped pagers he found out that Hezbollah was buying pagers from this company in Taiwan called gold Apollo this is the pager that uh Hezbollah was using so it's very Sleek it's very shiny and it certainly can fit in a pocket so what did you do to change this to make it into a bomb so to make it into a bomb we have to enlarge it a little bit in order to put explosives inside but not too much using dummies mosad conducted tests with the pager in a padded glove to calibrate the grams of explosive needed to be just enough to hurt the fighter but not the person next to him if you push the button the only one that will get injured is the terrorist himself even if his wife or his daughter will be just next to him he's the only one that's going to be harmed did you test for that yes we test everything triple double multiple times in order to make sure there's minimum damage could you use it as a tracking device did it have intelligence capability oh no this is a very stupid device by Nature this is the reason they using it there's almost no way how to tap it it's only receiving messages and uh several grams of explosive mosad also tested these ring tones to find a sound urgent enough to compel someone to take it out of their pocket and they tested how long it takes a person to answer a pager on average 7 seconds but how to convince Hezbollah to switch to this bulkier pager I remember the day that I came to our director put it on the table and he was Furious he was telling us there is no chance that anyone will buy such a big device it's not comfortable in their pockets is heavy very heavy very heavy it's no good yeah go back and bring me something else it took me two weeks to convince him that although it's ugly it has character character meaning added features which they touted in fake ads on YouTube robust dustproof waterproof long battery life we make advertising movies and brochures and we put it on internet and it become the best product in the Beeper area in the world did people other than Hezbollah want to buy this based on what was being said about it online yes we received several requests from regular potential customer obviously we didn't send to anyone we just quot them with expensive price mosad wanted to use the name gold Apollo on its pager so it set up shell companies including one in this building in Hungary to dup the Taiwanese into partnering with them so the company in Taiwan one gold Apollo did they know that they were working with people from Assad gold Apollo had zero clue that they are working with the mad and neither did Hezbollah when they are buying from us they have zero clue that they are buying from the mad we make like Truman Show everything is controlled by us behind the scene in their experience everything is normal everything was 100% culture including businessmen marketing Engineers showroom everything to further the plot mosad hired the gold Apollo saleswoman Hezbollah was used to working with before she offered them the first batch of pagers as an upgrade free of charge by September 2024 Hezbollah had 5,000 pages in their pockets the question for Israel when to activate the sleeping bombs there were hints Hezbollah might be getting suspicious of the devices so most OD head Dy Bara gave the goahead triggering the attack and shocking people around the world as it seemed more like a spy movie than reality on September 17th at 3:30 p.m. pagers started beeping all over Lebanon as I understand it people with this pager got a message that said you have an encrypted message in order to access it you have to push the two buttons meaning that it would explode in their hands that was the whole point so if someone did not push the two buttons what happened it's the same effect it's going to explode anyway the explosive was triggered in Israel yes what ensued was Mayhem people with pagers blowing up on the street on motorcycles hospitals filling up with the wounded limbs fingers torn off bloodied blinded holes in stomachs for the most part the explosions worked as planned they say watch the man on the [Music] left those right next to him were unscathed the very next day mad finally activated the walkie-talkies that had been dormant for 10 years some going off at the funerals of those killed by the pagers All In All About 30 people died including two children around 3,000 were injured the aim it wasn't killing hasbalah terrorist if he just dead so he's dead but if he wounded you have to take him to the hospital take care of him you need to invest money in efforts and those people without hands and eyes are living proof walking in Lebanon of Don't Mess with us they are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East two days after the pager attack Hezbollah leader Hassan nasala known for his fiery oratory gave a subdued speech if you look at his eyes he was defeated he already lose the war and Soldier look at him during that speech and they saw a broken leader and this was the Tipping Point of the war I don't know if you know that nasrala when we operate the beer operation just next to him in the bunker several people at the Beeper receiving the message and in his own eyes he saw them collapsing how do you know that it's a strong rumor in the ensuing days the Israeli Air Force hit targets all across Lebanon killing over a thousand many of them civilians on September 27th it dropped massive bombs on noala bunker assassinating him 2 months later after more Israeli strikes over leanon and more civilian deaths the war between Israel and Hezbollah ended with a ceasefire did you completely destroy and Crush Hezbollah I think it's a big question and I think the honest answer will be no but I think after this spping point of the Beeper operation and the walkietalkie and then IDF attack put hisbah in a very very difficult situation no chain of command no spirit in their soldiers asking begging for a ceasefire so you restore your sense of superiority but what about your moral reputation don't you think Israel has to worry about its reputation definitely but there is a prioritization first you have to defense your people not being killed by the thousands and then the reputation the pagers have had a profound Rippling effect severely weakening Iran by leaving its proxy Empire in Ruins with Hezbollah shattered in Lebanon Assad toppled in Syria we asked agent Michael about the effect on Gaza how does that affect the situation with Hamas the wind was taken out of f bala's fight after the pager operation and I'm hoping that it will have an effect also on the Hamas and hostage situation because they're looking at their sides and they're seeing no one next to them they are completely isolated now in terms of uh the kind of warfare that was conducted with the walkie-talkies and the pagers would you call it a psychological War the day after the pagers uh exploded people were afraid to turn on the air conditioners in Lebanon because they were afraid that they would explode so there was there is real fear was that an intention we want them to feel vulnerable which they are we can't use the pages again because we already did that we've already moved on to the next thing and they'll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is a Lebanese journalist on Iran's ~ Introduction Segment Removed ~ waning influence Iran has been weakened tremendously at 6 60 minutes overtime.com Back To Top