The former chief editor of Danish newspaper Politiken, Herbert Pundik, has spoken out for the first time of his time as an Israeli Mossad spy.
The well-respected foreign affairs journalist revealed the details of his employment with the Israeli intelligence agency on the website of fellow news provider Information.dk, where he denies that his journalistic impartiality was affected by his allegiance to Mossad.
Pundik began working as a spy in the 1960s, having lived in Israel since 1954. Pundik was born in the Danish capital of Copenhagen in 1927 and went on to have a successful career as both reporter and correspondent for Politiken and Information newspapers in addition to serving public broadcaster DR. He spent considerable time in Africa where he used his journalist role as a cover to garner information for Mossad, reports The Copenhagen Post.
“I did a detailed analysis of the distribution of tribes in Somali areas and their relationships to political parties … I also did a study of the political conditions in northern Nigeria,” said Pundik. He also faced questions pertaining to the ethical border between investigative journalism and spying. “It was all material that the newspaper could have used, but there just wasn’t interest in this and that person’s relationship to this and that man.”
Pundik denied providing intelligence to Mossad on Denmark, stating that not only was his homeland of little interest to the Israelis, but that they adhered to a strict policy of never recruiting foreign nationals to spy on their homeland. He says he worked for Mossad under the condition that all intelligence uncovered also be shared with Danish authorities.