---
born: 1927-11-03
category: Intelligence & Government
died: 1982-06-10
location: Tel Aviv, Israel
summary: General Yekutiel Adam was an Israeli military leader who was in line to take
  over as Director of Mossad in 1981.
tags:
- Person
- Israel
- Military
---

General [Yekutiel Adam](/people/yekutiel-adam/) was an [Israeli](/places/israel/) military leader who was in line to take over as Director of [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/) in 1981. However, he was assassinated by his own people, according to [Rafi](/organizations/rafi/), who claimed it was an inside job. The old guard in [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/) were reportedly afraid of him because he had told people in the Prime Minister's Office that he would make a clean sweep of the intelligence network.[^1]

Prior to his assassination, [Adam](/people/yekutiel-adam/) lost a number of top-secret documents when he left his briefcase behind in a [Los Angeles](/places/los-angeles/) gas station, which caused a huge internal row within [Mossad](/organizations/mossad/) and an unsuccessful attempt to stop his appointment.[^1]

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. TrineDay, 1992.