Post by TotalInformation on Mar 5, 2006 16:00:11 GMT -5
Britain told future Israeli PM had cosmetic surgery in 1940s: secret files
uk.news.yahoo.com/05032006/323/britain-told-future-israeli-pm-cosmetic-surgery-1940s-secret-files.html
Sunday March 5, 12:07 AM
LONDON (AFP) - The British security services viewed future Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin as a terrorist and were told he had undergone cosmetic surgery to change his appearance, secret files from the 1940s show.
Declassified documents show the country's domestic intelligence agency MI5 was told that Begin, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, was said to have gone under the knife in the 1940s.
At the time, Begin strenously opposed Britain's role in Palestine, heading the militant Irgun Zvati Leumi that was waging a campaign of violent resistance to the post-World War I British Mandate.
At the time, MI5 and its overseas intelligence counterpart MI6 were involved in monitoring armed opponents in the Middle Eastern territorities, which included modern day Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A February 1947 note reported to MI5 that "the head of IZL (Begin) has undergone a plastic facial operation and that his appearance is totally from that displayed on police photographs.
"I pass this to you for what it may be worth. We have no description of the new face."
The documents, held at Britain's National Archives in Kew, west London, were released as part of an ongoing policy to put security service documents that are no longer politically sensitive into the public domain.
The files reveal how bitterly the British viewed Polish-born Begin, who viewed London's policies in the region as pro-Arab.
He was reported in 1947 to have described himself as "enemy number one of the British government".
Following debate about Begin's planned visit to the United States in 1948, the British Embassy in Washington told the Director General of the Security Service in London: "Both the State Department and the FBI have been kept thoroughly informed of this man's past -- if he causes any trouble it will be on their own heads."
Objections brought to the State Department's attention included the fear that "he may be a Soviet agent", that he was a deserter from the Polish army and that he was a terrorist responsible for British deaths.
"We do not believe in his late conversion into a 'politician'," the list of objections concluded. "We continue to regard him as a gangster and would not allow him into this country even in transit."
Another minute from 1953 reminds an officer of Begin's "career as a terrorist and his subsequent history as an Anti-British politician".
The former chief secretary for the government of Palestine refers to the IZL bombing of the King David Hotel -- the British military and administrative headquarters -- in Jerusalem in 1946.
[...]
uk.news.yahoo.com/05032006/323/britain-told-future-israeli-pm-cosmetic-surgery-1940s-secret-files.html
Sunday March 5, 12:07 AM
LONDON (AFP) - The British security services viewed future Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin as a terrorist and were told he had undergone cosmetic surgery to change his appearance, secret files from the 1940s show.
Declassified documents show the country's domestic intelligence agency MI5 was told that Begin, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978 with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, was said to have gone under the knife in the 1940s.
At the time, Begin strenously opposed Britain's role in Palestine, heading the militant Irgun Zvati Leumi that was waging a campaign of violent resistance to the post-World War I British Mandate.
At the time, MI5 and its overseas intelligence counterpart MI6 were involved in monitoring armed opponents in the Middle Eastern territorities, which included modern day Israel, Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
A February 1947 note reported to MI5 that "the head of IZL (Begin) has undergone a plastic facial operation and that his appearance is totally from that displayed on police photographs.
"I pass this to you for what it may be worth. We have no description of the new face."
The documents, held at Britain's National Archives in Kew, west London, were released as part of an ongoing policy to put security service documents that are no longer politically sensitive into the public domain.
The files reveal how bitterly the British viewed Polish-born Begin, who viewed London's policies in the region as pro-Arab.
He was reported in 1947 to have described himself as "enemy number one of the British government".
Following debate about Begin's planned visit to the United States in 1948, the British Embassy in Washington told the Director General of the Security Service in London: "Both the State Department and the FBI have been kept thoroughly informed of this man's past -- if he causes any trouble it will be on their own heads."
Objections brought to the State Department's attention included the fear that "he may be a Soviet agent", that he was a deserter from the Polish army and that he was a terrorist responsible for British deaths.
"We do not believe in his late conversion into a 'politician'," the list of objections concluded. "We continue to regard him as a gangster and would not allow him into this country even in transit."
Another minute from 1953 reminds an officer of Begin's "career as a terrorist and his subsequent history as an Anti-British politician".
The former chief secretary for the government of Palestine refers to the IZL bombing of the King David Hotel -- the British military and administrative headquarters -- in Jerusalem in 1946.
[...]
