The US intelligence community's vindictive attitude towards Israel

...All these – the attempt to prevent the release of Pollard, the attempt to block Israel's ascension to the Visa Waiver program, and the attempt to shame the Israeli intelligence community for its past transgressions, as well as the possible attempt to head-butt Obama, make up the motivation behind Newsweek's second, but no less embarrassing, report on Israel's alleged spy efforts against the US.

Ron Ben-Yishai..
Ynet/Israel Opinion..
11 May '14..

The second Newsweek article on Israel's alleged spying efforts in the US, titled "Israel’s Aggressive Spying in the US Mostly Hushed Up", embarrasses its author and sources almost more than the original piece published last Tuesday.

It serves as additional proof to what anyone who has ever worked in Washington DC and with the White House knows – American analysis of events pertaining to foreigners is at times distorted or even downright mistaken.

US security and intelligence officials have a tendency to judge the actions of others as if they were undertaken by the Americans, resulting in the pot calling the kettle black.

The US intelligence community, which eavesdrops on every corner of the known world, attributes the same to us at times, especially when it serves US interests. The best example of this is actually the incident regarding Israel's alleged attempt to place a spy in Al Gore's hotel room, the incident which opens Jeff Stein's second Newsweek's article.

The article cites a Secret Service man who reportedly secured the then-vice-president's hotel room in Jerusalem, probably, the Kind David Hotel, and made sure the room was free of wire taps.

As is protocol in such cases, and this is well known to Israel's security and intelligence officials, one Secret Service man remains in the hotel room to make sure it remains 'clean' and no would be assassins attempt to enter while the room is vacant.

According to the Newsweek report, the bodyguard was alone in the room when he suddenly heard a noise from the air-condition vent and saw its cover being removed from within the vent. Someone was allegedly attempting to enter the room through the now open duct.

The Secret Service agent then coughed to alert the intruder of his presence and the "Israeli spy" whom he reportedly caught red-handed, did an about-face and returned up the vent to whence he came. That is the article's proof of Israel's "aggressive" spy tactics.

Anyone in the loop knows that if Israeli intelligence services wanted to spy against Al Gore, it could have done so in numerous ways, especially while in Israel where they enjoy a home field advantage.

In this case, sadly and embarrassingly for Newsweek, it is probably no other than a hotel maintenance worker taking care of the AC system. It was probably nothing but a routine examination, one conducted in anticipation of the State visit of such a senior ranking figure.

The story is full of additionally 'embarrassing' stories for the Israeli spy service, including stories of senior Israeli military industry CEOs being invited to the US for tours of possible business opportunities and these business trips were framed in the article as clear-cut proof of Israel's malicious intentions.

A “key target” for US intelligence? Israel

...The obsessive interest in Israel surely can’t be about the ‘peace process’. I mean, really, how important or potentially dangerous is this when compared to the aggressive spread of radical regimes in the Muslim world, the possible implosion of Egypt, or a Syrian civil war that has so far taken about 100,000 lives including children killed by Sarin gas?

Antenna of the US AN/TPY-2 X-band
radar system set up in the Negev.
It is ostensibly there to monitor Iranian
missile launches, but it can also see a small
aircraft taking off from anywhere in
Israel. Only American personnel are
allowed anywhere near it.

Fresnozionism.org..
30 August '13..

The Washington Post has a document that it says it obtained from Edward Snowden which it calls the ‘black budget’ of the various US intelligence services. It has published only a small part of the material “after consultation with U.S. officials who expressed concerns about the risk to intelligence sources and methods.”

The Post notes the growth of the CIA budget to almost $15 billion in 2013, which I have to admit is a remarkable number, comparable to the GDP of Jamaica or Mozambique, and 50% more than that of the NSA — which, after all, has to read our email and listen to our phone calls. The total for all the intelligence agencies is $52.6 billion, close to the GDP of Croatia.

But naturally, the first thing I did was search for ‘Israel’ and here is what I found on pages 4-5:

Investments

Although the budget is declining, the mission is not. Prioritizing our requirements was a key element to produce a budget that meets customer needs, supports critical capabilities, addresses gaps, and helps to maintain a strategic advantage. In the FY 2013 NIP [National Intelligence Program] budget, the IC [Intelligence Community] makes targeted investments in:

…

o Counterintelligence (CI). To further safeguard our classified networks, we continue to strengthen insider threat detection capabilities across the Community. In addition, we are investing in target surveillance and offensive CI against key targets, such as China, Russia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan, and Cuba. [my emphasis]

Wait, what?

We are making “targeted investments” (read: spending more money) in spying on these ‘targets’ and attempting to prevent them from spying on us — and Israel is a “key target” in the company of China, Russia, Iran, Pakistan, and Cuba!

Can Israel Rely on US Intelligence?

Shoshana Bryen..
American Thinker..
09 September '12..

Jerusalem and the resettlement of Palestinian refugees disappeared from the Democratic Party platform; language that characterized Hamas as unacceptable to the United States -- not only to Israel -- disappeared. Jerusalem is back. But the crucial part of the Democratic Party Platform for Israel is related only tangentially to Israel. It is about Iran:

(The) window for diplomacy will not remain open indefinitely and that all options -- including military force -- remain on the table. But we have an obligation to use the time and space that exists now to put increasing pressure on the Iranian regime...

The crucial questions are:

 - How much time and how much space exist before the window slams on our fingers?

 - What is the U.S. track record on recognizing, assessing and timing an emerging threat?

 - What is the consequence to us and to others if we miss?

The answers are not comforting. There were important intelligence misses -- Pearl Harbor, the 9-11 attack, Saddam's WMD, the outbreak of the Korean War, the third stage of North Korea's rocket capability, and the Russian atomic bomb among them. We knew about India's nuclear program, yet were surprised by the 1998 Indian nuclear weapons test, followed by a surprise Pakistani test emerging from a program we had been watching.

In The Washington Post, intelligence officials said of Syria's nonconventional capabilities:

"We think we know everything, but we felt the same way about Libya. We had been on the ground in Libya, yet there were big surprises, both in terms of quantities and locations." The Post continues, "The stockpile appears to be larger and more widely distributed than originally suspected, according to two officials who have seen the intelligence reports."[1]

This is the central issue between the United States and Israel. They agree on what Iran is doing, they agree that an Iran with nuclear weapons poses an intolerable threat to Israel, the region and the world. And Israel may indeed be grateful that the President has announced himself a staunch defender of Israel. But even if Israel was willing to permit the President to assume responsibility for its security as he insists he will not permit Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon -- and Israel is anything but willing to cede sovereign responsibility for the security of its citizens -- America's history makes it clear that we could fail as well as succeed.

Israel spies on the US? Why?

Fresnozionism.org..
29 July '12..






A recent AP piece tells us that the CIA considers Israel its “number one counterintelligence threat” in the Middle East.

The CIA considers Israel its No. 1 counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division, the group that oversees spying across the Middle East, according to current and former officials. Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that U.S. national secrets are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.

The article describes several incidents illustrative of the mistrust between the intelligence agencies of the two nations, including of course the cases of Jonathan Pollard and Ben-Ami Kadish.

One wonders why this article appears now. Did the story idea suddenly pop into the heads of the AP writers? I don’t think so. Someone at the CIA decided to stick it to Israel today, when Mitt Romney is going around (correctly, in my opinion) criticizing the Obama Administration for tilting against Israel.

The piece strains mightily to find an example of a case in which Israeli spying actually damaged US interests (at least, interests that the CIA is willing to publicly admit). The best it can do is point to a Syrian scientist who was working for the CIA who might have been caught because of an Israeli leak.

Tobin - Can Obama Interpret Iran’s Mixed Signals?

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
09 April '12..

As we first noted last week, Iran’s program of diplomatic gamesmanship aimed at confusing and unnerving the Obama administration has begun. Last week, the Iranians started to dicker about the site of the scheduled talks with the West about their nuclear program that had already been decided. Now, as this report shows, the Iranians are proceeding to muddy the waters further by sending out conflicting messages–with one of their high-ranking officials signaling their willingness to compromise on their uranium enrichment and another that they would not. It’s the same old song they’ve been singing for years whose only purpose is drag out any negotiations so as to give their scientists more time to get closer to their nuclear goal.

But to focus on these shenanigans is somewhat beside the point. The problem is not what the Iranians are saying but Washington’s ability to interpret its true meaning. And it is on that score that Washington seems to be the most at sea. The Obama administration has been leaking reports about its intelligence prowess so as to undermine any notion that its evaluation of Iran’s capabilities is not underestimating Tehran’s nuclear progress or wrong about its not having made a decision to build a bomb. But as with previous intelligence disasters, including the one in Iraq that the CIA seeks to atone for, it doesn’t seem to have occurred to the president or his team that they are desperately short of human insight on what the ayatollahs are thinking.