How Israel Got This MiG-21 That Sean Connery Posed Next To Was Like A Real-Life Bond Movie

Updated Nov 27, 2020 6:15 PM EST

The death of the actor Sean Connery at the age of 90 this weekend saw accolades from across the worlds of cinema, celebrity, politics, and more. Among those acknowledgments of Connery’s passing was an intriguing photo posted on the Israeli Air Force’s Twitter feed , which showed the late actor posing alongside a MiG-21 with the number “007” painted on the side, a reference to the fictional British super-spy James Bond, who the movie star had played in multiple films. The story of how the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad brought this Iraqi jet back to Israel is an extraordinary one, the result of an intelligence coup that could itself have been lifted straight from a Bond movie.

Sean Connery died in his sleep on October 31, 2020, after a period of illness. The Scottish-born actor was perhaps best known for playing Bond in the first film in that franchise, Dr. No , in 1962, and other movies in the series. The British Royal Navy veteran also took on many memorable roles in war and action movies including The Longest Day , A Bridge Too Far , The Hunt for Red October , and The Rock .

Other security services beyond the Israeli Air Force (IAF) also acknowledged Connery’s passing.

The IAF’s Twitter post is certainly the most eye-catching, however.

“In 1967,” the accompanying text read, “Connery visited Israel and took this historic picture with then IAF Commander Maj. Gen. Moti Hod with the background of an Iraqi MiG-21, numbered ‘007’ after Bond. RIP.”

It’s not exactly clear why Connery was in Israel, although the visit seems to have occurred in November 1967, after the Six-Day War fought in June between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

The most well-known part of the story begins with the Iraqi Air Force MiG-21F-13 Fishbed — among the very first production versions of this iconic Soviet-made jet — landing at Hatzor Air Base in central Israel, on August 16, 1966. At the controls was an Iraqi defector, Munir Redfa. When touching down in Israel, the jet still wore its Iraqi Air Force markings and carried the Arabic serial number “534” on its nose.

Redfa was an ethnic Assyrian and a Christian. As such, according to the Israeli official account, he saw no future for himself amid the religious and ethnic persecution that accompanied the increasingly turbulent Iraqi politics of the mid-1960s. Redfa, it is said, requested political asylum, and in return, Israel now had one of the most capable jet fighters flown by its adversaries in its possession.

Taking this evidence alone, the covert acquisition of the Fishbed — under an operation known to Mossad by the codename Diamond and to the Israeli Air Force as Blue Bird — was a success. The reality was much more complex and left a bloody trail of destruction in its wake.

From at least as early as 1960, Israel launched efforts to encourage Arab military pilots to defect with their aircraft, in order to fully analyze their capabilities. In Israel’s Secret Wars , Ian Black and Benny Morris record how, beginning in that year, Jean Leon Thomas, an agent working in Egypt for Israel intelligence, apparently offered cash rewards to Egyptian Air Force pilots to defect to Israel. This early plan backfired after the agent was reported to the Egyptian Air Force Police and then arrested, along with five suspected accomplices. Thomas and two others were executed in December 1962.

Israel did get its hands on a defecting Egyptian aircraft in 1964, but the piston-engined Yakovlev Yak-11 Moose trainer, which first entered Soviet service in the immediate aftermath of World War II. It was hardly the intelligence windfall that it had hoped for. The pilot in question, Captain Mohammad Abbas Helmy, emigrated to South America, where he was assassinated soon after, according to the account provided in Arab MiGs — Volume 2 , by Tom Cooper and David Nicolle.

Mossad then saw its opportunity to get the intelligence on the cutting-edge fighter jets that it needed when it learned that a group of Iraqi Air Force pilots were due to start training on staff courses at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas, in early 1965. The tipoff came from a Mossad contact in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital. His codename was “Yusuf,” and he was an — allegedly — illiterate Iraqi Jew who would play a central role in the story. In the account provided by Ephraim Kahana in Strategic Intelligence , Yusuf’s information was passed to Mossad via Iran, which at that time maintained good relations with Israel.

The agency’s plan reportedly involved deploying female agents to lure the Iraqi pilots in a classic “honeytrap” operation. One of those Iraqi pilots, Hamid Dhahee, was reportedly shot to death in a Texas bar, in June 1965, after apparently refusing the defection proposal offered by one of the agents.

An identical MiG-21 variant as the one Israel sought from Iraqi defectors. , USAF

It seems that the Iraqi Air Force wound up its training program in the United States soon after, but not before Mossad’s agents had managed to establish “relationships” with at least three more of the pilots, and then followed them back to Iraq. One of these contacts quickly broke down, however, leading to an Iraqi Air Force captain reportedly being shot dead in a Baghdad apartment by a local Mossad informant, in July 1965.

A second Iraqi Air Force pilot reportedly met a similar fate, being thrown out of a train while visiting Germany for medical treatment in February 1966. According to Iraqi Air Force accounts, this pilot was assassinated after making excessive financial demands in exchange for his defection.

The third Iraqi pilot was Captain Munir Redfa. He was married, but had supposedly had an affair — with an Israeli agent — while in the United States. Redfa also had a family connection to the agent Yusuf, being married to his girlfriend’s sister.

According to Israeli accounts, Redfa was the most suitable candidate for Operation Diamond as he had been passed over for promotion in the past and was unhappy at having to fly combat missions against the Iraqi Kurds, another marginalized ethnic group in the country.

An alternative account points to Redfa’s appointment as commanding officer of his squadron and the fact he was trusted to attend a training course at Randolph, where the possibility of defection was real.

Ephraim Kahana contends that the relationship between Redfa and the female Mossad agent was set up in Europe, where the two holidayed together in July 1966. In this account, the agent encouraged Redfa to fly with him to Israel, where he was “given VIP treatment” and offered citizenship and a reward of $1 million. If true, this seems like an extraordinary risk to have taken, should the Iraqi authorities have found out once he returned to his country.

Kahana also says that during his visit to Israel, Redfa met in person with Major General Mordechai “Moti” Hod — the commander of the Israeli Air Force who was later photographed with Connery and the prized “007” jet.

Other meetings that seem certain to have happened involved Redfa and the female Mossad agent that he had met in the United States. Reportedly, they met frequently in Baghdad and it seems likely that Mossad would have gathered evidence that could be used to compromise the Iraqi pilot if required.

Whatever the truth of the matter, confronted by the evidence of his affair, a generous financial incentive, offer of Israeli citizenship, and with two of his colleagues apparently already assassinated, it seems that Redfa saw little option but to defect.

After Mossad had helped his family members’ safe evacuation to Iran, to avoid possible recriminations from the Iraqi authorities, Redfa broke off from a routine navigation training mission from Habbaniyah Air Base, west of Baghdad, on August 16, 1966. He turned west, passing over Jordan at a high level, putting his MiG-21 beyond the reach of Royal Jordanian Air Force Hawker Hunter jet fighters that were reportedly sent to intercept him. Once in Israeli airspace, he was met by a pair of Israeli Air Force Mirage IIICJ fighters, which escorted him into Hatzor.

Despite the secrecy surrounding the background of the operation, Israel was quick to show Redfa’s MiG-21F-13 to the foreign press soon after its arrival. That the country was happy to at least reference the cloak-and-dagger approach to securing the jet is made clear by the application of the “007” serial number sometime before Connery’s November 1967 visit to Israel.

At some point the Fishbed received outsized Syrian Arab Air Force markings, apparently to increase the level of realism for the dissimilar air combat training sessions staged for Israeli Air Force pilots. A thorough study of the jet in the course of over 100 hours of flight testing within a 12-month period — and intelligence debriefing of Redfa — provided Israel with plenty of valuable data on the fighter’s capabilities. All this knowledge would be put to good use in subsequent air wars with the country’s Arab neighbors, beginning with the Six-Day War of June 1967.

Remarkably, the MiG-21F-13 was also pressed into action by the Israelis in the 1967 conflict, at a time when the Israeli Air Force needed every serviceable aircraft it could lay its hands on. Repainted in high-visibility Israeli markings, it was armed with Israeli-made Shafrir air-to-air missiles. The jet stood on quick reaction alert duty at Hatzor, but Israeli accounts suggest it was never scrambled.

As well as providing intelligence to the Israeli Air Force, the ex-Iraqi MiG-21 also took part in the Have Doughnut program in the United States, for which Israel loaned the jet for use by the Air Force Systems Command’s Foreign Technology Division. According to Steve Davies’ account in Red Eagles: America’s Secret MiGs , Israel agreed to the transfer only on the condition that the United States would sell it F-4 Phantom II fighter jets in return.

The “007” jet was active in the United States between January and April 1968, completing 102 flights and 77 flying hours, operating over Groom Lake, Nevada, using the designation YF-110. This clandestine program was a forerunner to Constant Peg , during which a variety of captured and acquired Soviet-made fighter jets were operated under extreme secrecy from Nevada’s Tonopah Test Range Airport in the late 1970s and 1980s.

A MiG-21F-13 painted up as the famous “007.” This particular aircraft was acquired from Indonesian stocks., BUKVOED/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

While an aircraft painted to resemble the ex-Iraqi MiG-21 is now on display at the Israeli Air Force Museum in Hatzerim, very few details about the subsequent life of its pilot, Munir Redfa are available. Redfa, however, is known to have remained in Israel, where he died of a heart attack in “around 1998.”

On the other hand, much like James Bond himself, the legend of the “007” MiG-21 looks set to endure.

Contact the author: thomas@thedrive.com

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更新于美国东部时间2020年11月27日下午6:15。

本周末，著名演员肖恩·康纳利逝世，享年90岁。来自电影界、娱乐界、政界等各界人士纷纷致以哀悼。其中，以色列空军在其推特账号上发布了一张引人注目的照片，照片中这位已故演员与一架机身涂有“007”字样的米格-21战斗机并肩而立。“007”正是英国超级间谍詹姆斯·邦德的代号，康纳利曾在多部邦德电影中扮演过这一角色。以色列情报机构摩萨德如何将这架伊拉克战机带回以色列，其过程堪称传奇，堪称一次堪比邦德电影情节的情报壮举。

肖恩·康纳利于2020年10月31日在睡梦中去世，享年64岁。这位出生于苏格兰的演员最著名的角色或许是1962年上映的邦德系列电影首部《007之诺博士》中的邦德，以及该系列的其他影片。这位英国皇家海军退伍老兵还在战争片和动作片中塑造了许多令人难忘的角色，例如《最长的一天》、《遥远的桥》、《猎杀红色十月》和《勇闯夺命岛》。

除以色列空军（IAF）外，其他安全部门也对康纳利的去世表示哀悼。

不过，印度空军的推特帖子无疑是最引人注目的。

“1967年，”随附的文字写道，“康纳利访问以色列，并与当时的以色列空军司令莫蒂·霍德少将合影，背景是一架伊拉克米格-21战斗机，编号为‘007’，取自邦德的名字。安息。”

尚不清楚康纳利当时为何身在以色列，尽管这次访问似乎发生在 1967 年 11 月，也就是以色列与其阿拉伯邻国之间于 6 月爆发的六日战争之后。

故事中最广为人知的部分始于1966年8月16日，一架伊拉克空军的米格-21F-13“鱼窝”（MiG-21F-13 Fishbed）——这款标志性的苏联制造喷气式飞机的首批生产型号之一——降落在以色列中部的哈佐尔空军基地。驾驶这架飞机的是一名伊拉克叛逃者，名叫穆尼尔·雷德法（Munir Redfa）。飞机降落在以色列时，机身仍保留着伊拉克空军的标志，机头上印有阿拉伯语序列号“534”。

雷德法是亚述族人，信奉基督教。因此，根据以色列官方的说法，在20世纪60年代中期伊拉克日益动荡的政治局势下，宗教和种族迫害让他看不到任何前途。据说，雷德法请求政治庇护，而作为交换，以色列获得了其对手当时最先进的喷气式战斗机之一。

单从这些证据来看，秘密获取“鱼窝”导弹系统——摩萨德代号“钻石”，以色列空军代号“蓝鸟”——无疑是成功的。但事实远比这复杂得多，而且事后留下了血腥的破坏痕迹。

至少从1960年起，以色列就开始鼓励阿拉伯国家的飞行员携飞机叛逃，以便全面分析他们的作战能力。在《以色列的秘密战争》一书中，伊恩·布莱克和本尼·莫里斯记录了从那一年开始，一名在埃及为以色列情报部门工作的特工让·莱昂·托马斯如何向埃及空军飞行员提供现金奖励，诱使他们叛逃到以色列。然而，这项早期计划最终以失败告终，托马斯被举报给了埃及空军警察，随后他与五名同伙一同被捕。托马斯和另外两人于1962年12月被处决。

以色列确实在1964年获得了一架叛逃的埃及飞机，但这架雅克-11“麋鹿”活塞式教练机，是二战结束后不久苏联开始服役的机型。这远非以色列所期望的情报宝藏。据汤姆·库珀和大卫·尼科尔在《阿拉伯米格战机——第二卷》中的记载，这架飞机的飞行员穆罕默德·阿巴斯·赫尔米上尉后来移居南美，不久便遭到暗杀。

摩萨德随后发现，一批伊拉克空军飞行员将于1965年初在德克萨斯州兰道夫空军基地接受参谋培训，这为他们获取所需的尖端战斗机情报提供了良机。这条情报来自摩萨德在伊拉克首都巴格达的一名线人。他的代号是“优素福”，据称是一位不识字的伊拉克犹太人，他将在整个事件中扮演关键角色。埃弗雷姆·卡哈纳在《战略情报》一书中写道，优素福的情报是通过伊朗传递给摩萨德的，而当时的伊朗与以色列保持着良好的关系。

据报道，该机构的计划包括派遣女特工以经典的“美人计”引诱伊拉克飞行员。其中一名伊拉克飞行员哈米德·达希据称于1965年6月在德克萨斯州的一家酒吧被枪杀，此前他显然拒绝了其中一名特工提出的叛逃提议。

与以色列此前向伊拉克叛逃者索要的米格-21战机完全相同的型号。（美国空军）

伊拉克空军似乎很快就结束了在美国的训练计划，但在此之前，摩萨德特工已经设法与至少三名飞行员建立了“关系”，并跟踪他们返回伊拉克。然而，其中一条线索很快破裂，导致一名伊拉克空军上尉据称于1965年7月在巴格达的一间公寓内被一名当地的摩萨德线人枪杀。

据报道，第二名伊拉克空军飞行员也遭遇了类似的命运。1966年2月，他在前往德国接受治疗期间被从火车上扔了下来。根据伊拉克空军的说法，这名飞行员在叛逃前提出了过高的金钱要求，随后遭到暗杀。

第三名伊拉克飞行员是穆尼尔·雷德法上尉。他已婚，但据称在美国期间与一名以色列特工有染。雷德法还与特工优素福有亲属关系，因为他娶了优素福女友的妹妹。

据以色列方面称，雷德法是“钻石行动”最合适的候选人，因为他过去曾被剥夺了晋升机会，而且不愿执行针对伊拉克库尔德人的作战任务，库尔德人是该国另一个被边缘化的民族群体。

另一种说法是，雷德法被任命为他所在中队的指挥官，并且他被信任去兰道夫参加训练课程，在那里叛逃的可能性是真实存在的。

埃弗雷姆·卡哈纳声称，雷德法与那位摩萨德女特工的关系是在欧洲建立的，两人于1966年7月在欧洲共度假期。据他所述，这名女特工怂恿雷德法与他一同飞往以色列，在那里他将享受“贵宾待遇”，并获得以色列公民身份和100万美元的奖励。如果属实，这似乎是一项极其冒险的行为，一旦他返回伊拉克，一旦被伊拉克当局发现，后果不堪设想。

卡哈纳还说，雷德法在访问以色列期间，亲自会见了以色列空军司令莫迪凯·“莫蒂”·霍德少将——他后来与康纳利和那架珍贵的“007”喷气式飞机合影。

其他一些似乎确凿无疑的会面涉及雷德法和他在美国结识的那位摩萨德女特工。据报道，他们经常在巴格达见面，摩萨德很可能已经收集了必要时可以用来扳倒这位伊拉克飞行员的证据。

无论真相如何，面对婚外情的证据、丰厚的经济奖励、以色列公民身份的诱惑，以及两名同事显然已被暗杀，雷德法似乎别无选择，只能叛逃。

在摩萨德协助其家人安全撤离至伊朗后，为避免伊拉克当局可能的报复，雷德法于1966年8月16日中断了从巴格达以西的哈巴尼亚空军基地起飞的例行导航训练任务。他转向西飞，高空飞越约旦，使他的米格-21战斗机脱离了据称奉命拦截他的约旦皇家空军霍克猎人喷气式战斗机的射程。进入以色列领空后，他与两架以色列空军幻影IIICJ战斗机会合，并被护送至哈佐尔。

尽管行动背景高度保密，但以色列在雷德法的米格-21F-13抵达后不久便迅速向外国媒体展示了这架战机。在肖恩·康纳利1967年11月访问以色列之前，以色列就给这架战机加上了“007”的序列号，这表明以色列乐于至少提及这种秘密获取战机的做法。

在某个阶段，“鱼窝”战斗机被涂上了尺寸夸张的叙利亚阿拉伯空军标志，显然是为了提高以色列空军飞行员进行异型机空战训练的真实性。在12个月内，以色列对这架喷气式飞机进行了超过100小时的飞行测试，并对“雷德法”战斗机进行了情报汇报，从而对它进行了深入研究，获得了大量关于该战斗机性能的宝贵数据。所有这些知识都将在随后与以色列阿拉伯邻国的空战中得到充分利用，其中就包括1967年6月的六日战争。

值得注意的是，在1967年的冲突中，以色列也曾投入使用米格-21F-13战斗机。当时，以色列空军急需所有可用的飞机。这架飞机被重新涂装成醒目的以色列标志，并配备了以色列制造的“沙夫里尔”空空导弹。它驻扎在哈佐尔空军基地，处于快速反应警戒状态，但以色列方面的说法表明，它从未被紧急升空执行任务。

除了向以色列空军提供情报外，这架前伊拉克米格-21战斗机还参与了美国的“甜甜圈行动”（Have Doughnut program）。以色列将这架战机借给美国空军系统司令部外国技术部门使用。根据史蒂夫·戴维斯在《红鹰：美国的秘密米格战机》（Red Eagles: America's Secret MiGs）一书中的描述，以色列同意转让这架战机的条件是美国向其出售F-4“鬼怪II”战斗机作为交换。

这架代号为“007”的喷气式飞机于1968年1月至4月在美国活动，共完成了102次飞行，飞行时间为77小时，主要在内华达州格鲁姆湖上空活动，编号为YF-110。这项秘密计划是“恒线飞行”（Constant Peg）计划的前身。在20世纪70年代末和80年代，“恒线飞行”计划中，美国军方在内华达州托诺帕试验场机场秘密操作了各种缴获和获得的苏联制造的战斗机。

一架涂装成著名“007”的米格-21F-13战斗机。这架飞机是从印尼的库存中购得的。（图片来源：BUKVOED/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS）

虽然一架涂装成伊拉克米格-21战斗机模样的飞机目前在哈泽里姆的以色列空军博物馆展出，但关于其飞行员穆尼尔·雷德法后来的生活却鲜为人知。据了解，雷德法一直留在以色列，并于“大约1998年”因心脏病去世。

另一方面，就像詹姆斯·邦德本人一样，“007”米格-21的传奇似乎注定会延续下去。

联系作者：thomas@thedrive.com

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