Code named Caesarea?

"There is no reason why we should not do the same abroad. They will have nowhere to hide," said one source who is said to be familiar with Dagan's plans for the Mossad.

"Gone are the days of black-tie parties around the globe and fat expense accounts," he said. "Whatever we can't shoot will be closed down."

The source said Dagan's regime will "trim years of useless fat and rebuild the famous Mossad muscles. We have a war to win and there's no reason why the Abdullahs and Muhammads in Damascus, Teheran, and Beirut should sleep better than their brothers in Gaza."

The paper reported that Dagan is particularly determined to resurrect the reputation of the Caesarea Squad, which suffered a major setback following the abortive attempt to kill Hamas official Khaled Mashaal in Amman five years ago.

The squad is said to have been responsible for hunting down Adolf Eichmann in 1960 and eliminating the Palestinian terrorists who were responsible for planning and executing the 1972 Munich Olympic massacre, which resulted in the deaths of 11 Israeli athletes.

According to the Sunday Times report, the squad comprises no more than 30 individuals, all former commandos, who are considered the "elite of the elite" of Israel's security services.

The report adds that all are fluent in a foreign language, their faces are never exposed even to other Mossad employees and they often live as "sleepers" in the foreign capitals to which they are assigned.

Many receive no orders during a four-year tour of duty, "but when the command comes, action is immediate, be it the hiring of a vehicle for a secret commando operation or the assassination of a local target," said the paper.

Former Caesarea member Mishka Ben-David was quoted by the paper as saying only one in a thousand applicants to the Mossad receives an offer; only one in a hundred who graduates from the three-year Mossad cadet course is judged suitable for the Caesarea Squad "and during an operation in a foreign city, only one of the five to ten people on the ground does the hit."

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is reportedly confident that Dagan will deal effectively with Israel's enemies abroad, and the paper quoted an insider as saying: "The Sharon-Dagan team will be the terrorists' nightmare."