The Mossad

An episode in the Discovery Channel-aired Top Secret: Inside the World's Most Secret Agencies series, The Mossad, narrated by actor Johnny Depp, takes a look at the formerly ultra-secret Israeli intelligence service which has had notable successes in terms of "missions accomplished," but whose recent failures in Jordan and Switzerland have led to calls for more public oversight. The organization's most famous raid--re-enacted here--involved the kidnapping of convicted Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann from Argentina in 1960. A former Mossad participant, who had lost members of his family in Auschwitz, says he took along gloves because he dreaded touching Eichmann during the nab. The video also re-enacts the chain of events leading to the Mossad's 1995 assassination of a Palestinian Hamas leader known as "The Engineer." While The Engineer's ordering of three murderous suicide bombings is certainly unconscionable, equating one terrorist with a political agenda to the pure anti-Semitism of Eichmann who saw six million Jews slaughtered is incongruous. Still, for those who aren't squeamish or don't think that taking an eye for an eye will lead to a nation of blind people, this is admirable, macho, action-oriented stuff. Libraries in survivalist and militia country will find a ready audience. Other titles in the boxed set (series price: $39.95) are: National Security Agency and Scotland Yard. Aud: P. (R Reagan)