Since the founding of the agents' unit, thousands of items of information about its operations have been scattered.
Unit 504 first contact devices // Photo: IDF Spokesman
No fewer than 40,000 documents and pictures are in the archive of Unit 504, the only operating agent operating outside the borders of the State of Israel. For the most part, you will probably never be exposed. But "Israel Today" has been moved by an exception to exclusive materials, which shed light on the activities carried out by the fighters decades ago.
About four years ago, Modi'in 10 and unit members discovered that thousands of documents related to the unit's activities were scattered around a lot of focal points, embarking on an ambitious project that concentrated the unit's legacy and put it in writing. These materials, which have been transferred to the IDF archives in the Ministry of Defense, will help future fighters learn about the methods in which intelligence was collected in the past through the use of covert agents.
The Six Day War, the agents interview prisoners on the ground // Photo: IDF Spokesman
Last week, the chairman of the association and the unit's commander, Brigadier General (res.) Gadi Zohar, and Brigadier General B, the Heritage Center in the classified unit, were awarded the AMA Head of Creative Thinking. "We created a series of books and pamphlets that summarize operational events," Brigadier General (res.) Zohar says, "We were surprised to find that we were breakthroughs, and that no such material was collected in the intelligence department or any other unit."
"If the public wants to understand how we operate, go into a suspense movie, double, add - and still not understand anything," adds Col. B, sparking the imagination. Indeed, the materials revealed - even if relevant decades ago - are extremely fascinating. For example, the first agents given to agents, which were sometimes disguised as unsuspecting radios, were exposed.
Another and rare record is the "Ionogram". Until after the Six-Day War, the unit used postal pigeons. A third document unveiled is the Intelligence Service Establishment Order - later the Intelligence Division. In June 1948, the first Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Zvi Ayalon, signed on behalf of Chief of Staff Jacob Dori, to establish a service to collect combat intelligence, counter-espionage, censorship and listening. The SM10 unit, from which Unit 504 grew, was the one responsible for operating Arab agents across state borders.
Awarding an Advantage for the Army // Photo: IDF Spokesman
The Unogram // Photo: IDF Spokesman
"We took quantities of undocumented documentation and started working. The unit does not have the references to deal with the issue, but we, as its veterans, can act and assist," explains Zohar. The success was impressive. "There is currently no course in the unit or training course that does not go into the legacy," Col. B reveals.
Contrary to what one might think, the two point out, it is not just a memory, but an effective learning of practices. The technologies have changed dramatically, but finally, as Colonel B says, who is in his daily role as commander of the KTM training (special position officer): "The arenas and technology are changing, but not people."
Contrary to what one might think, the two point out, this is not just an amazing memory, but an effective learning of practices. Admittedly, the technologies have changed dramatically, but in the end, as Colonel B, who is in his day-to-day role as commander of KTM (Special Officers Officer), says, people are people. "It is my job to prepare officers to deploy human forces to provide information. The new archive means carrying out past, present, and future learning processes. Technology is changing, arenas are changing, but people are not changing. 80 percent of the processes that Gadi Zohar operated many years ago are still performed today On the contrary, the materials sharpen the officers, honing them for the mission.
Establishment of the Intelligence Service // Photo: IDF Spokesman
"In the last KTH course, we met with a commander in a unit close to age 90. He told us stories from the era of the Six Day War. You hear the stories and you have a professional discussion on the issue that could have happened today, "adds Lieutenant Colonel B.
And there is an additional and equally important advantage. "The IDF archive is the world's largest pool of knowledge on the Middle East," says Brigadier General (res.) Zohar. "The materials may only be available to researchers in the future, but the mere creation of such a large pool of knowledge in one place is of great intellectual importance to the future. We have created an exclusive pool of threats against Israel from its earliest days to the present."