The Green Prince Page #3

I was curious.

I wanted toknow

what was going on.

It crossed my mind that

when I bring someone

to the meeting,

basically,

I'm destroying his life.

But what was important is

tobring this guy.

So recruit the son

of Sheikh Hassan Yousef

was a very,

very important issue.

At the beginning,

it was a secret,

even inside the Shin Bet.

Even the guards that

brought him to the meeting

didn't know who he was.

I did not know

how far the Agency

is going to take

the promise that I gave them.

I was afraid that

if he said "Yes,"

maybe this is

on a camera somewhere.

They could expose

that thing to public,

to embarrass my family.

"Your son give his word

towork for the enemies."

This is somehow shameful.

When you bring the source

to the first meeting,

he's not with you.

You need to bring

a Palestinian guy

and make him betray

his own people.

For most Palestinians,

Sh*t Bet handler

is the devil himself.

And he expects that the devil

will react like a devil.

I found myself in a room

with closed windows.

Going into the room,

I asked him, "Why didn't you

rescue your people?

Why? The people whoworked

for you were tortured,

they were in pain,

and nobody did anything

tocome rescue them."

He said, "And whotold you

that those people

were working for us

from the first place?"

I told him,

"What doyou mean?"

He said, "Those guys have

norelationship with us at all."

He said, "How Hamas

got toknow those people?

Bring in somebody

and ask him about a network?"

I said, "Yes."

"Let me ask you this question.

What is your network?"

I told him, "I have nonetwork.

You did not

connect me with anybody."

He said, "Whotold you that

we connect people with anybody?

That's not

how intelligence work.

You are responsible

for yourself,

and you only know

about yourself.

Noone else knows about you,

and you're supposed

not toknow about anyone else

and that's it."

And suddenly,

everything changes.

Nobody had a gun

in my head telling me,

"We're gonna shoot you

if your don't work for us."

Nobody came tome

with secret files

and told me, "We're gonna

send you to jail

or expose you."

It was against everything

that we learned

about the Israeli Intelligence.

Maybe the Shin Bet

did not realize

what was happening

in my mind at that point,

and they did not intend

totell me anything

tochange me mind.

But for me,

I start to realize that

we are living a lie.

And people are dying

because of this lie.

That's it.

I know that he's hooked.

And this is why I continued,

because I needed toanswer

those questions

for my soul.

If you want a good source,

he needs tobe with you,

not against you.

And you need tobe with him,

and not against him.

From the early beginning,

the Israeli Intelligence

made it very clear to me

that you have to finish

your high school

that you did not finish.

Honor your parents.

Take care

of your brothers and sisters.

Take care of your school.

Actually, they were

just like my father.

When he gets an education,

he meets people.

He becomes more important

in his community.

He becomes

more important for me.

I was saying,

"How can I guarantee

that you just don't use me

and one day, either kill me,

or send somebody tokill me,

or maybe I get killed

because of this.

It's like, why would

I continue with you guys?"

He told me, "Listen, how old

is your grandfather's

Roman olive trees?"

I told him, "Some of these trees

are hundreds of years old."

"To us, you are like olive tree.

Of course, we need towater you,

we need tobuild you up.

We need togive you

enough support

tobe able

at some point togive fruit."

You also give him

the notion that

he's important for you,

and you're not just using him.

In Mosab's case,

it help us to use him.

For the Shin Bet,

it was like, you know,

a real achievement

in the war against Hamas.

It's like recruiting the son

of the Israeli Prime Minister.

This is the way we looked at it.

For me as a handler,

my sources are

somehow like toys.

You know, this is a big game,

and I'm a player.

I play

in the intelligence field,

but it's a game.

We didn't know much

about Hamas at that time.

Recruiting someone

soclose toHamas,

and you know, Mosab was

not a Hamas member.

He was not a Hamas member.

He was his father's son.

Sowe needed tofind a way

tomake him

bring the information.

A few months after

I agreed to work for the Agency,

my father's release

from prison was arranged.

My father needed someone

to be his assistant,

and he could not find

better person

than his oldest son,

the closest to him,

that he can trust.

Hassan Yousef was

always in the middle of things.

He got money,

and he spread the money,

in order tolet Hamas

dowhat they do.

Some of it was civil work,

and some of it wasn't.

Now, people came

to meet Hassan Yousef.

They always met Mosab

before they met Hassan Yousef.

He was the gatekeeper.

All of Hassan Yousef's

phone calls

we answered by Mosab.

Someone from Gaza,

someone from Nablus,

someone from Syria

called Hassan Yousef.

He will talk first with Mosab

and then with Hassan Yousef.

If Mosab decides

that it's important enough,

and when he decided it,

we decided it.

My dad had

no clue what I was doing.

He wanted to take me with him

everywhere he goes.

Sometimes we would go

intoan office

and we have, let's say,

a coffee table.

We took picture

of that coffee table.

The artists of the Agency

would create

the exact same table.

And I gojust inside

and change tables,

sonow the person

would come next day

and he wouldn't know

the difference

that we gave him

a brand new table

that was a table

that could listen.

The people that take decisions

are not necessarily

the people you see on TV.

Mosab helped us understand

and uncover part of this system.

The experience was amazing.

I got a chance tolearn things

and tosee things

that average person can't see.

He loved it.

He was addicted to the action.

Sofor me

as a handler, I used it.

You need to teach him

how to ask questions,

how not toask questions,

otherwise, he will be

exposed after a week,

and he will be dead,

or I will be dead

after twoweeks.

When I was asked

to go do something,

the first command I had was

don't act like Abu Arab,

or don't act like James Bond.

The best way,

just to act like yourself.

When I was working out a lot,

you know,

and I started to get buff,

the Agency asked me

toreduce that a little,

because it was getting

lots of attention.

We tried hard toconvince Mosab

tobecome Hamas member.

We told him togotothe mosque,

to pray, to grow his beard.

He wouldn't listen.

In the beginning,

it was really frustrating,

because you have a great source,

you want to push him

togodeeper and deeper intoHamas.

He wouldn't doit.

He wouldn't doit.

There were red lines that I had

that I could not cross.

It was not Hamas

moral code anymore.

It was not the Israeli

Intelligence moral code.

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