{"id":1255,"date":"1991-01-06T11:00:08","date_gmt":"1991-01-06T09:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/?p=1255"},"modified":"2021-06-27T12:07:15","modified_gmt":"2021-06-27T09:07:15","slug":"compass-nom-de-plume","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/1991-01-06\/compass-nom-de-plume\/","title":{"rendered":"Compass Pointer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[Published in <em>The Independent on Sunday<\/em>, 6 January 1991]<\/p>\n<p>Victor Ostrovsky is a former Israeli agent whose sensational memoirs \u2014 <em>By Way of Deception: The Making and Un-making of a Mossad Officer<\/em> \u2014 leave George Blake&#8217;s looking very dull indeed. Since the book was published, last September, it has sold half a million copies in the United States alone, helped on its way by the Israeli government&#8217;s unsuccessful attempt in the American courts to obtain an injunction blocking publication. It has already been translated into 23 languages.<\/p>\n<p>Amid all this global hype, James Rusbridger&#8217;s review of the book last month in a Cornish newspaper, the <em>Western Morning News<\/em>, may not be particularly notable. But Rusbridger&#8217;s fierce condemnation of Mossad&#8217;s &#8220;excesses&#8221; annoyed at least one reader: just before Christmas, the <em>Western Morning News<\/em> printed a letter from one Anthony Compass of Eaton Terrace, London, complaining of the reviewer&#8217;s &#8220;bizarre opinions&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>The letter was pretty bizarre itself. For one thing, the <em>Western Morning News<\/em> does not circulate widely in London. More suspiciously, there is no one called Anthony Compass on the electoral roll for either of London&#8217;s Eaton Terraces, in E3 or SW1. Nor is this elusive character on the telephone, even ex-directory.<\/p>\n<p>Victor Ostrovsky now lives at a secret address in Canada, ever fearful of a Vanunu-style kidnap by his former comrades in Israeli intelligence. When I told him about the Compass letter last week, he burst out laughing. &#8220;There is some humour in it&#8221;, he Said. &#8220;It&#8217;s like an inside joke, you know?&#8221; In the early 1970s, he explained, there was a left-wing group in Israel called Matspen, which was obliterated by the security forces. The name Matspen was then taken over by Mossad&#8217;s disinformation department as a<em> nom de plume <\/em>when planting bogus letters or articles. &#8220;It means that everybody who has to know will know it&#8217;s by one of us&#8221;, Ostrovsky told me.<\/p>\n<p>What, you may be wondering, does this have to do with our man in Eaton Terrace? Perhaps I should translate: Matspen is the Hebrew word for compass.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP\/\/\/yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7\" data-src=\"https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-217x300.jpg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1256 aligncenter lazyload\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\"><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1256 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-217x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"217\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-200x277.jpg 200w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-217x300.jpg 217w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-400x554.jpg 400w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-600x831.jpg 600w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-740x1024.jpg 740w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-768x1063.jpg 768w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-800x1108.jpg 800w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-1109x1536.jpg 1109w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991-1200x1661.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/matzpen.org\/english\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/compass-pointer-1991.jpg 1285w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 217px) 100vw, 217px\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Who was Anthony Compass, who wrote a letter to a local newspaper in Cornwall, and what could be his connection to the Socialist Organization in Israel \u2014 Matzpen? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-documents"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - 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