Mossad unearths ‘proof’ of opposition’s links with anti-Adani campaign

A massive, months-long probe initiated by Israeli intelligence agency Mossad—codenamed Operation Zeppelin—has reportedly found that Indian activist lawyers, journalists, hedge funds, and opposition political figures, along with individuals linked to the Joe Biden administration and billionaire George Soros, were involved in a plot with Hindenburg to target Indian billionaire Gautam Adani, Sputnik India reported.

The Mossad investigation is said to have begun in January 2023, shortly after Adani met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel. Quoting sources, Sputnik reported that Mossad launched its operation to uncover the global network supporting Hindenburg, “as it targeted Adani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government”.

Two of Mossad’s elite units—Tzomet (HUMINT) and Keshet (cyber operations)—were activated for the purpose, Sputnik said. The Hindenburg charges against Adani surfaced just a week before Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone (APSEZ) signed a $1.2 billion deal to acquire a controlling stake in Haifa, Israel’s largest port. According to the report, the operation was “activated on Adani’s case after 24 January, 2023, the day New York-based short-seller accused Adani of pulling off the biggest ‘con’ in India’s corporate history, wiping off around $150 billion of the company’s assets and triggering India’s biggest stock market crash.”

As a result, Hindenburg’s New York office and its founder, Nathan Anderson, were soon placed under Mossad surveillance, the report said.

For Israel, the stakes were high. The Hindenburg report was seen as a deliberate attempt to undermine the Haifa port deal, which Tel Aviv considered crucial for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC), the report said. “Moreover, they said that the vetting of bids, 18 in total, for the Haifa port had taken almost 18 months. Finally, a joint venture of Adani Ports and Israel’s Gadot Masofim for Chemicals Ltd won the contract,” it added.

“As Israeli intelligence started to uncover the Hindenburg plot, it found the involvement of activist lawyers, journalists, hedge funds, and political figures, sources said, adding that many of them were linked to the Biden administration, the US Deep State and George Soros,” the report added.

According to sources cited by Sputnik India, the operation was personally ordered by Netanyahu to counter what was perceived as a global campaign against Adani. Mossad allegedly hacked into the home servers of Sam Pitroda—the head of the Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) and a political mentor to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi—to seek evidence of the Indian opposition’s alleged links to Hindenburg Research.

Pitroda is based in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, USA.

According to the Sputnik India report, “Cting Mossad’s findings, sources claimed that Gandhi (referred to as “bitter dynast” in Mossad’s chats) was “coordinating” with Anderson’s team to damage Adani and Modi. As far as Pitroda is concerned, sources said that hacking of his US-based home servers “exposed” encrypted chatrooms and backchannel coordination. The claims point to the fact that India’s main opposition leaders were being closely watched by Mossad during the period”.

Adani, for his part, has consistently maintained that the charges levelled by Hindenburg were fabricated.

The Zeppelin dossier, nearly 353 pages long, reportedly concluded that various Western media outlets, the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), and Indian opposition politicians were involved in the “coordinated sabotage,” according to Sputnik India. It added that USAID played a “central role” in amplifying anti-Adani narratives via Western media and groups such as OCCRP.

In November 2024, Mossad allegedly shared excerpts of the dossier exposing USAID’s involvement with media organisations such as Reuters, Bloomberg, and The Guardian. “Most of them buried the story, except French outlet Mediapart, which subsequently put out a report,” sources told Sputnik India.

Open magazine had reported extensively on Hindenburg’s charges in February 2023 in an article titled ‘The Truth Behind Targeting Adani’.

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