The Mossad

I remember soon after Desert Storm in July of 1991, when the Soviet Union was near collapse, U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Gorbachev signed the START treaty. The two powers had pledged to reduce their nuclear arsenals to well below six thousand by 2009.

I thought it was such a great, historic world event that I wrote to President Bush and told him so (I had volunteered during his election campaign while still in high school). 

And even though I was still recovering from a 1990 car accident/coma when I wrote the letter, I remember President Bush’s letter back to me (We still lived in California at the time and I’ve since lost it in our moves).

Treating me seriously and with respect, he said that we couldn’t give up all the nukes, we still had to have some in our arsenal. This, he said, is peace through strength. Those words have always stayed with me.

Meanwhile in 1992-1993 Israel, the Mossad - Israel’s spy agency founded in 1949 - was assisting in evacuating Bosnian Jews from war-torn Sarajevo to Israel. Truly, they’ve had a hand in every major Israeli mission and are considered one of the best spy agencies in the world. The Mossad’s reputation of excellence precedes them.

The Hebrew word “Mossad” literally means “Institute,” a shortening of the agency’s full name: המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים or the Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations.

In fact, the Mossad advised the United States FBI and CIA in 2001 that intelligence had been detected that a large-scale attack was being planned in America.

In 2007, the knowledge they had that Syria was building a nuclear reactor led to the reactor’s destruction by the Israeli Air Force - subsequently preventing Syria from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

In the Fall of 2024 the Mossad stunned the world with Operation Grim Beeper, in which they packed thousands of beepers and walkie-talkies around Lebanon and Syria with remotely detonated explosives; these mobile devices strategically ended up in the hands of Hezbolla personnel, and as a result of the simultaneous detonation, Hezbolla suffered thousands of casualties and a devastating blow to their communication abilities.

The Mossad also assisted the IDF in Operation Rising Lion, an aerial assault on Iran that began on June 13, 2025. 

The Mossad had spent years embedding itself in Lebanon and Iran, acting secretly at a drone base, to gather intelligence and conduct sabotage missions as they prepared to strike at the precise moment in concert with IDF attacks. 

They had also been smuggling in weapons in order to sabotage many of Iran’s air defenses and missile launchers, even as the IAF began bombing the country’s nuclear facilities and other military targets.

Truly, the actions the Mossad took protected Israeli pilots and greatly lessened Iran’s retaliation against Israel. Iran had been demobilized.

It was these initial attacks by the IDF on Iran that led to America’s Operation Midnight Hammer.

On June 21, US strikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities were conducted. President Trump on Saturday evening called the strikes a “spectacular military success.”

He said in a national address from the White House, "The U.S. military carried out massive precision strikes on the three key nuclear assemblies in the Iranian regime: Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan. Our objective was the destruction of Iran's nuclear enrichment capacity and a stop to the nuclear threat posed by the world's number one state sponsor of terror."

           General Dan Caine, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that Operation Midnight Hammer involved 125 US military aircraft.

Caine said bombers were sent from Missouri on an 18-hour flight, with some heading west into the Pacific as a "decoy." The main strike package was made up of the seven B-2 bombers that proceeded into Iran.

Just prior to entrance of Iranian airspace, over 24 Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched at targets in Iran from a United States submarine. Additional deception tactics, including decoys, were employed; and fighter jets cleared the airspace ahead of the bombers.

Two out of the 14 GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, “bunker buster” bombs that were used in the strike, were dropped on the nuclear site at Fordo, located south of Tehran. Fordo is believed to be deeper underground than the Channel Tunnel that connects England and France.

Fordo’s nuclear site includes a uranium enrichment plant integral to realizing Iran’s nuclear goals.

The bombers safely exited Iranian airspace and returned to the United States. They remained undetected by Iran the entire time.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth assured the press that the operation did not target Iranian troops or the Iranian people - but solely Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

In total, 75 precision-guided weapons were deployed in the strike against Iran.

Of course Hegseth recognized “our allies in Israel” for the support they had given in the weeks and months of planning in order to carry out the mission.

Central Iowa currently has troops in the region, or headed to the region. Swingin’ Fore Soldiers’ Katelyn Johnson’s goal is to support soldiers, the loved ones of soldiers, and veterans. Contact them to support Swingin’ Fore Soldiers, or if you’re in need, at swinginforesoldiers@gmail.com or 515-351-9573.