Lebanon releases German suspected of spying for Israel

Bekaa Valley

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
German officials have confirmed reports from Lebanon that a German citizen has been released after being questioned in connection with Israeli espionage activity in eastern Lebanon. Manfred Peter Mog, 58, who has lived in Lebanon since 1999, was detained on Monday by Lebanese counterintelligence officers, who suspected him of sharing “sensitive information” with Israeli intelligence operatives. It is believed that Mr. Mog, an engineer who has worked since 2009 at the Liban Lait dairy factory in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, was questioned in connection to “sophisticated transmitters” found in his possession. But the German Foreign Ministry on Wednesday firmly denied that the German citizen had had any charges brought against him by the Lebanese government. Soon afterwards, unnamed Lebanese officials confirmed that Mr. Mog had indeed been released without charges, following intense questioning by counterintelligence officers. It is worth noting that there have recently been several intelligence stories linking Israel and Germany. In June, Berlin and Tel Aviv clashed over the fate of “Uri Brodsky”, an alleged Mossad intelligence agent, who was arrested in Poland. “Brodsky” is wanted by German prosecutors for using a forged German passport to enter Dubai, United Arab Emirates, last January. While there, he allegedly joined a team of Mossad assassins that killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a Hamas weapons procurer, who was found dead in his luxury hotel room on January 20, 2010. And last week, Rasan al-Jud, who Lebanese authorities accuse of having aided Israel with the help of employees at Alfa, Lebanon’s state-owned cellular telecommunications provider, reportedly fled to Frankfurt, Germany, although the German Foreign Ministry denied having “any particular knowledge about the news item”. Since April of 2009, Lebanese counterintelligence authorities have arrested nearly 100 individuals on charges of spying for Israel, three of whom have been sentenced to death.