Fact, or Fiction?*

I wrote previously about the foolish and inadequate security measures here in the United States, and how they compare with the rational and effective Israeli measures in public places and at airports.

So you can imagine how I felt when I recently received an email (originally circulated in 2007) from a friend about Juval Aviv, a "former Mossad agent" who supposedly advised the U.S. government on security measures. He also investigated the Lockerbie bombing for Pan Am, and produced a report describing a complicated Middle-East-to-U.S. heroin smuggling operation which involved connections to Hezbollah and hostages from the West.

Problem is, Mr. Aviv's past is not so verifiable. What he claims is his past profession as a secret Israeli agent seems to have been refuted by the Israeli government: was he a security agent, or merely an airport gate guard?

Snopes (updated today) questions his legitimacy and states that his claims of having predicted terrorist attacks in the U.K. and U.S. are false.

Some of his security measure ideas sound good, though; read them on Truth or Fiction.

Since this was circulating again in 2009, it once again brings up the question of whether this man is legitimate, or just a terrific con artist who parlayed his story into a career as a TV and cult "security" personality?

Here is a Fox News interview with Mr. Aviv after the Glascow airport attack in 2007:

Let the reader decide. . .

(*Nablopomo day #17)