Hizbullah provides first account of kidnapping Mossad officer

TEL AVIV — Hizbullah has abducted an Israeli arms salesman whom Israeli sources identify as a former Mossad operative.

The Mossad operative was identified as Elhanan Tanenbaum, 54, who today is an Israeli arms salesman. Tanenbaum was said to have been abducted in the Swiss city of Lausanne during a business trip and brought to Lebanon.

Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah provided the first account of the abduction of Elhanan Tanenbaum, a 56-year-old Israeli who was lured from Europe and is now being held in Lebanon. Nasrallah insisted that Tanenbaum entered Lebanon on his free will in what appeared to be a mission to free three Israeli soldiers captured by the Shi'ite militia on Oct. 7.

Tanenbaum, Nasrallah said, is a Mossad agent who was trying to recruit a non-Arab Hizbullah member. Nasrallah said Tanenbaum arrived in Belgium on an Israeli passport then went to Switzerland.

From Switzerland, Tanenbaum met a non-Arab operative for Hizbullah. Tanenbaum was then lured to Lebanon where he was captured by Hizbullah.

"The issue is not kidnapping from a European country or from anywhere else in the world," Nasrallah said. "There is a colonel in the Israeli army, who has been in the Mossad for a long time, working on penetrating Hizbullah at a high level. We affirm that it is the legitimate and legal right of the resistance to capture and hold him."

Nasrallah denied assertions by Israel that Tanenbaum's abduction was aided by either Iran or Syria.

Israel continued to deny that Tanenbaum was a Mossad agent. Officials said Tanenbaum was a businessman.

"My father was kidnapped by Hizbullah in a dastardly and unscrupulous act," Tanenbaum's daughter, Karen, said. "He is an ill man and requires medicine."

"I assume that here they lured him and dragged him to Lebanon, under one premise or another, perhaps business," Communications Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said.

But both officials and analysts said Nasrallah's account cannot be dismissed. "He is very credible and we should take him seriously," Eli Carmon, a counterterrorist expert, said. "But we should see this as psychological warfare."

Nasrallah said he would not relay information on the three Israeli soldiers until Israel releases Lebanese prisoners.

"I wish to tell the mothers of the three soldiers that your government did not work seriously until now for your children or to know their real fate," Nasrallah said. "Israel is still using international pressures on the party [Hizbullah] so that the party gives information without anything in return."

"There is a man with such a name," Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said. "We are talking of a private citizen. It was a kidnapping for ransom purposes."

Tanenbaum is a reserve air force colonel and Israeli sources said he was reported missing 12 days ago amid concern that he was in debt. They said he has negotiated arms deals with Arab and Palestinian clients as a freelance Israeli agent. The sources said Tanenbaum worked for such companies as Tadiran and Rafael, Israel Armament Development Authority, but was not employed by the state.

"This man, who is an officer of the reserves, was abducted in a terrorist action and he is missing," a Defense Ministry statement said. "He had gone abroad on his own initiative for personal reasons. It is a serious act, contrary to all international law."

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak discussed the Tanenbaum abduction with United Nations secretary-general Kofi Annan. Israeli sources quoted Annan as saying he would work to win Tanenbaum's release.

Earlier, Hizbullah announced the capture of an Israeli colonel. But the organization did not identify the officer or say where he was abducted.

"We have taken prisoner an officer of the rank of colonel who serves in one of the Israeli security apparatuses," Hizbullah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday. "We will wait to inform of more details. God should have mercy on the prime minister and see how many phone calls he gets from [U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine] Albright."

Nasrallah appeared to suggest that the abduction was meant to torpedo the U.S.-sponsored Sharm e-Sheik summit between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The summit was held Monday.

Later on Sunday, Hizbullah announced the capture of an Israeli colonel over loudspeakers along the Lebanese border with Israel. Hizbullah militants warned they would abduct more Israelis.

On Oct. 7, Hizbullah captured three Israeli soldiers along the border with Lebanon. Israeli officials said they are still waiting for an international envoy to visit the prisoners and report on their condition. Israel holds 15 Lebanese prisoners.

Israel's Foreign Ministry has evacuated non-essential personnel and families of diplomats from its embassies in Cairo and Amman, diplomatic sources said.