When Peter Malkin, the former Mossad agent who captured Adolf Eichmann, saw the Twin Towers collapse in flames, he was walking down 47th Street heading toward his artist’s studio. Immediately he ran to find his son, who worked in the Towers.
“Thankfully, after 2-1/2 days, we met. All that I lost was my sweater,” said Malkin. “Some people might say, ‘You’re used to these kinds of things.’ But I can’t look at it when they show it on TV. They took advantage of the hospitality and studied ways to destroy, not buildings, but our spirit.”
Malkin will be speaking about his experiences Tuesday evening, Oct. 30 at the Stanford University Faculty Club, at a benefit for the Open University of Israel.
He knows about the mentality of murderers. In 1960 he hunted down Eichmann in Argentina, where he used his artist’s skills to disguise the architect of the Final Solution as a drunken Israeli pilot. He and his team smuggled Eichmann to Israel, where in 1962, after a trial, the Nazi war criminal was hanged. During the capture, Malkin’s gloved hands were around Eichmann’s neck. He could have killed him but instead brought him to justice. Would he make the same decision if his hands had been around Osama bin Laden’s neck?
“Yes,” said Malkin, “Crime avenges nothing. I’m not the judge. And if you kill him, it makes his people believe more in themselves.
“The difference between Eichmann and these people is that he did not want to die. Want to shoot a terrorist? Fine. He wants to die. You have to be very, very careful. It could be worse after you catch bin Laden because of his followers.”
According to Malkin, America needs to understand that it’s not an island. That when terrorism occurs in Europe or Japan, Americans need to respond, because “these things are very contagious.” And, according to Malkin, the key to fighting terrorist attacks such as those on Sept. 11 is intelligence.
“These people don’t have Twins; they have mountains,” said Malkin. “You kill their sons, they want revenge. If one woman makes adultery, the family kills her. Revenge, not justice, is a way of life. You have to understand the culture and not take someone from the university and say, ‘Tell me about Pakistan.’
“Intelligence will tell you which mountains and where to ask for water.”
Painstaking, dogged intelligence is what brought Eichmann to justice. Malkin compares the intelligence effort to a marriage: To marry is easy, to divorce is easy, but “maintenance is what kills you.”
“You have to conduct maintenance 24 hours a day; never say you’re done,” he said. “That’s how I found Eichmann. He couldn’t keep alert all the time.”
Also, Malkin believes that America needs to give up some portion of democracy in the war on terrorism.
“The most beautiful thing in America is freedom. People believe strangers. Now America has to sacrifice some of its beautiful things for security. It can’t be so beautiful as before. People have taken advantage of your beauty,” he said.
But Malkin’s biggest message to America is not to look at what groups call themselves, such as freedom fighters, but to look at their past actions. What means are they using against civilization? That’s how you judge character.
“Don’t look at what is the name, bin Laden, [Yasser] Arafat, but what is their method of violence. Deeds make terrorists, not names,” he said. “Today the name is bin Laden; tomorrow it’s another name.”
Malkin expressed concern about bringing Arafat into America’s global anti-terror coalition.
“Look at how he’s killed innocent women and children,” he said. “Evil takes the weak who can’t defend themselves, like children. That what you want in your camp? I don’t want him in my camp.”
Malkin warns against allying with countries because they are good for America now; defining the enemy is paramount.
“Look at their past. You can’t make them kosher,” he said.
Especially bin Laden.
“He’s the head of a new kind of movement where people are happy to kill themselves and go to paradise. This is far from our understanding, sacrificing innocent people,” Malkin said. “These people aren’t normal. And this isn’t a normal world.”
This point was driven home for Malkin when he watched the second plane hit the World Trade Center. He felt sick.
“Even me, after 28 years in the Secret Service, when I saw the Twins hit, I was surprised,” he said. “That they hit the tallest building in the most powerful land, that gives them power.
“Americans, however, are very strong, but I would tell them, watch, watch and see who’s your enemy. True intelligence doesn’t make a move when it’s angry but when it’s ready.