IDF's Star Wars program?

First of all, congrats (perhaps the wrong word) to Tannenbaum for not divulging state secrets. Second, anyone have any idea what sort of ‘missile’ is mentioned in the article? How did Hizbullah know of his importance?
—————————————————————————- Posted: 17-Feb-2004

FOREIGN REPORT – FEBRUARY 19, 2004

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Are Israel’s top secrets safe?
IN SPITE of three years of torture at the hands of his captors, Colonel Elhanan Tannenbaum, the Israeli who was swapped two weeks ago for hundreds of Arab prisoners, appears to have kept his country’s dearest military secrets intact.

“Tannenbaum was tortured by Syrian and Iranian intelligence officers, but kept the country’s most sensitive secrets,” said an Israeli security source. It emerged this weekend that Tannenbaum was exposed during his 100-days-a-year of reserve service to Israel’s top secrets of future battlefield tactics and its state-of-the-art weapons.

“We can march to Damascus quicker than the USA captured Baghdad,” said Brigadier-General Eyval Giladi, head of strategic planning at the Israeli Ministry of Defence. It appears that in the last 20 years, Israel has secretly developed a formidable, advanced ‘stealth army’ to be used only in a war when the future of the Jewish state is in danger.

A vivid, if vague, example of this capability was exposed by an Israeli officer. “In one of our recent mutual training exercises with US pilots we tested an advanced air-to-air missile against a US F-15. The US pilot was ‘shot down’ immediately,” said the Israeli officer who participated in the drill. “Later at our briefing with the US pilots, they could not understand which of our jets had shot them down. We explained what happened, and the US pilots listened with eyes wide open. The next day they put an urgent request on their commanders to buy our system. The problem was that: we were not willing to sell them this state-of-the-art secret technology and their commanders do not want to buy this new generation of air-to-air missile, because they want their own aviation industry to develop it. It will take them several years to reach our current know-how and to begin production.”

Hizbullah trap

When Tannenbaum was lured to a business opportunity by an Arab friend, it turned out to be a trap laid by Hizbullah agents and he ended up in a Hizbullah dungeon in Beirut. Soon after, Hizbullah’s leader, Sheikh Hassan Nassarallah, announced that his people held an Israeli colonel. Immediately, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) computers searched thousands of Israeli colonels – none of whom were reported missing. It was only the next day when Keren, Tannenbaum Ekhanan’s daughter, called the army to report the disappearance of her father, that the IDF learned about it.

At first the Israelis were not worried. Tannenbaum was registered as an artillery reserve colonel – not a big deal as far as state secrets are concerned. It was only when a further check was made later in the day when the Israeli top brass felt the cold chill of fear. They learned that Tannenbaum was deeply involved in Israel’s ‘Star Wars’ programme.

Israeli security sources were reluctant to go into details regarding the project Tannenbaum was exposed to, but one source said: “It is like giving David a guided missile to hit Goliath instead of his stone.” As the Israeli leadership absorbed what Tannenbaum knew, several actions were taken. A comprehensive court gagging order was issued to prevent any leak to the press. Then the Israelis implemented their strategy: first, to do everything possible to bring Tannenbaum home; and second, to pretend that they were not in a hurry to secure his release, so as not to raise Hizbullah suspicions. At one stage a commando operation was considered, but it was not approved as the risk to the rescue forces would be too great.

Meanwhile, Tannenbaum was interrogated by Syrian and Iranian intelligence officers. Tannenbaum was tortured. “Our father returned from three years in hell,” said his daughter Keren. The worst tortures were in the first six months when the Iranian and Syrian interrogators sought to find out what Tannenbaum knew of the artillery, perhaps also including the tactical use of nuclear artillery shells. But as the interrogators did not suspect he was hiding other information, Tannenbaum succeeded in keeping the critical secrets.

Prisoner exchange

“I told them nothing,” said Tannenbaum to the security delegation that met him in Germany upon his arrival from Beirut. The news was transferred to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who was preparing his speech at the arrival ceremony of the bodies of three Israeli soldiers. Sharon changed his speech to include Tannenbaum.

A security source said: “Do you really think that the government would have released more than 400 hundred Arab prisoners, some of them convicted murderers, 59 bodies of Hizbullah soldiers, the Hizbullah Sheikh Obeid and Mustafa Dirani who tortured the Israeli navigator Ron Arad, just for the remains of the three soldiers? It was all set up to get back Tannenbaum, first to know whether he revealed the state secrets and if he did not, to take him far enough from the hands of the Iranians and Syrians in case they tortured him again.”

Tannenbaum’s next interrogation began during the four-hour flight from Germany back to Israel, conducted personally by the deputy head of the security service. Upon his arrival in Israel, Tannenbaum was allowed to meet his family and a lawyer for over an hour and was then escorted under tight security to a nearby hospital for an in-depth medical examination. Tannenbaum is allowed to meet his family for a certain time each day, but will not yet be allowed to go home.

It will now take time for Tannenbaum to fully brief the Israeli security services on the details of his incarceration.

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