---
category: Foreign Government
created: 2025-07-22
description: Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel.
location: Tel Aviv, Israel
start: 1949
summary: Mossad is Israel's national foreign intelligence agency, whose extensive
  relationship with the CIA - including 28 formal cooperative ventures in strategic
  intelligence since the 1950s and the KK MOUNTAIN financial subsidy program - is
  a central subject of this vault.
tags:
- organization
- intelligence
- international
title: Mossad
updated: 2025-07-22
---

[Mossad](/organizations/mossad/) is the national intelligence agency of [Israel](/places/israel/). Its relationship with the [CIA](/organizations/central-intelligence-agency/) was extensive, involving 28 formal cooperative ventures in strategic intelligence since the 1950s. Many of these arrangements were financed off-the-books through a special contingency fund maintained by the Director of Central Intelligence. One such operation, code-named KK MOUNTAIN, provided millions in annual cash payments to Mossad, in return for which Mossad agents acted as American surrogates in North Africa and other regions. Other agreements financed Israeli operations in [Syria](/places/syria/) and the [Soviet Union](/places/soviet-union/), where the CIA found it difficult to operate.[^2]

In 1977, [Stansfield Turner](/people/stansfield-turner/), then Director of Central Intelligence, abruptly cut back intelligence liaison with [Israel](/places/israel/), leading to a sharp reduction in the flow of intelligence from [Israel](/places/israel/) to [Washington, D.C.](/places/washington-dc/). However, the CIA's "embarrassingly inept reporting on [Iran](/places/iran/)", particularly their failure to anticipate the overthrow of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, forced the American leadership to turn back to Israeli help in anticipating world events. This contributed to the March 1979 [KH-11](/concepts/kh-11/) agreement, which granted [Israel](/places/israel/) access to high-tech satellite imagery.[^2]

[Yitzhak Hofi](/people/yitzhak-hofi/), the director of Mossad, opposed the Israeli bombing of the Iraqi nuclear reactor at [Osirak bombing](/events/osirak-bombing/) in June 1981, primarily because there was no evidence that [Iraq](/places/iraq/) was yet capable of building a bomb.[^2]

In the context of the *Remote Viewers* narrative, [Uri Geller](/people/uri-geller/) claimed to have worked with Mossad officials, along with Israeli military intelligence and Shin Bet. He stated that he was tested by these agencies and began to work for them, performing tasks such as clairvoyantly viewing intelligence targets and predicting troop deployments.[^1]

However, Geller later chose to pursue a high-profile career as a stage performer rather than a psychic operative for Israel. Mossad officials, along with other Israeli intelligence, also visited [SRI](/organizations/stanford-research-institute/) to assess Geller's abilities, seeking to determine if his psychic talents were genuine and how valuable he could be as an intelligence asset.[^1]

[^1]: Schnabel, Jim. *Remote Viewers*. Dell, 1997.
[^2]: Hersh, Seymour M. *The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy*. Random House, 1991.