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Leaked documents reveal US sees Israel as a major spying threat
The Hill ^ | August 29th, 2013 | Julian Pecquet

Posted on 08/29/2013 4:46:09 PM PDT by Third Person

The Obama administration views Israel as one of the top spying threats facing its intelligence services, leaked documents reveal. A secret budget request obtained by The Washington Post from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden lumps Israel alongside U.S. foes Iran and Cuba as “key targets” for U.S. counterintelligence efforts. The document suggests Israel does not believe U.S. assurances that its interests are aligned with Israel's on crucial issues such as Iran and peace talks with the Palestinians. “To further safeguard our classified networks, we continue to strengthen insider threat detection capabilities across the Community,” reads the FY 2013 congressional budget justification for intelligence programs. “In addition, we are investing in target surveillance and offensive CI [counterintelligence] against key targets, such as China, Russia, Iran, Israel, Pakistan and Cuba.” The White House and the Israeli Embassy did not respond to requests for comment. The revelations come as no surprise to Georgetown University's Paul Pillar, who retired as the national intelligence officer for the Near East in 1995 after a 28-year career in U.S. intelligence. Israeli spying, he said, has remained a major threat since U.S. citizen Jonathan Pollard received a life sentence in 1987 in a massive spying case that gravely strained relations between the two countries. “Israel should be assumed to continue to have an aggressive intelligence collection operations against the United States,” Pillar said. While much information is collected through traditional political contacts, “I would personally have no doubt that that is supplemented by whatever means they can use to find out as much as they can about what we're doing, thinking, deciding on anything of interest to Israel, which would include just about any Middle Eastern topic.” The issues of continued Israeli settlement construction and Obama's strong interest in reaching a negotiated settlement to avoid a confrontation with Iran over its nuclear program, Pillar said, are two issues where U.S. and Israeli interests “certainly diverge,” he said. Spying, he said, could give Israel “warning indicators” before any public decisions, and enable the country to put its “political machine in action” and get the United States to reconsider. “If I were in [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's shoes and had his perspective,” Pillar said, “I would spare no effort to try to collect every bit of intelligence I could, in secret as well as openly.” He said the public revelations won't impact U.S.-Israeli relations. “Everything is trumped by political realities,” Pillar said. “Don't expect any statement by the White House press secretary tomorrow that says, 'Oh my gosh, we are really upset with the Israelis for trying to spy on us'. You're never going to hear anything like that, because politically it is hazardous for basically any American politician – and certainly an incumbent American administration – to underscore ... the divergence of U.S. and Israeli interests.”


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; Israel; Politics/Elections; Russia; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: barrysoetero; china; cuba; dajooz; iran; israel; kenyanbornmuzzie; lebanon; obamaforeignpolicy; obamalegacy; obamanation; pakistan; proislamist; propalestinianwar; russia; syria; thekenyan; turkey; waronterror
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Shocking.
1 posted on 08/29/2013 4:46:09 PM PDT by Third Person
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To: Third Person

I don’t believe it either.


2 posted on 08/29/2013 4:47:33 PM PDT by spawn44 ( MOO)
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To: Third Person

What’s shocking is the paucity of formatting and paragraphs.

But, one is compelled a very big yawn.

I’m more worried about those losers known as Germans, French, English and the Chinese...


3 posted on 08/29/2013 4:48:25 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: Third Person

You took the word out of my mouth.


4 posted on 08/29/2013 4:49:08 PM PDT by mylife (Ted Cruz understands the law, and he does not fear the unlawful.)
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To: Third Person

Uh, Israel sees US as spying juggernaut.


5 posted on 08/29/2013 4:49:30 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Third Person

This administration sees Israel as the enemy. Period.


6 posted on 08/29/2013 4:50:39 PM PDT by sport
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To: Third Person

I worry about the anti-Israel enemy within, the one who has usurped executive power and abuses it at every turn.


7 posted on 08/29/2013 4:50:52 PM PDT by Seeing More Clearly Now
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To: Paladin2

Obama is trying to make Israel seem “the bad guy”...Goes right along with his Muzzie background...An excuse to turn his back on Israel...


8 posted on 08/29/2013 4:51:51 PM PDT by JW1949
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To: Third Person

Israel knows the truth about Odungo...THEY ARE A THREAT


9 posted on 08/29/2013 4:52:06 PM PDT by Doogle (USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: Third Person

The religion and culture of the more influential constituents and their politicians today are different from those of the influential constituents from our nation’s first settlements until about 50 years ago.


10 posted on 08/29/2013 4:54:00 PM PDT by familyop
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To: Third Person

...Pelosi, Napolitano and all.


11 posted on 08/29/2013 4:55:31 PM PDT by familyop
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To: Vendome

Yeah, well, sorry about that. I cut and pasted from The Hill and [in my haste] didn’t preview the copy.

All of the paragraphing was lost in the transition to FR.


12 posted on 08/29/2013 4:59:55 PM PDT by Third Person (Welcome to Gaymerica.)
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To: Third Person

On one side are Patriots, Christians, Jews,
the educated, the wise and the caring.

On the other side is Obama, al Qaeda, and the
Moslem Brotherhood with their crucifixions, beheadings,
cannibalism, now armed with WMD.


13 posted on 08/29/2013 5:00:55 PM PDT by Diogenesis
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To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, Ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


14 posted on 08/29/2013 5:06:20 PM PDT by Nachum (I am Breitbartacus!)
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To: Third Person

>> The document suggests Israel does not believe U.S. assurances ...

This has been the case for a long, long time. Can’t blame them.


15 posted on 08/29/2013 5:06:32 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: Third Person

>> The document suggests Israel does not believe U.S. assurances ...

This has been the case for a long, long time. Can’t blame them.


16 posted on 08/29/2013 5:07:04 PM PDT by QBFimi (When gunpowder speaks, beasts listen.)
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To: Third Person

When we’re consistently allied with The Muslim Brotherhood and it’s offshoot Al Qaeda, of couse Israel is a threat.


17 posted on 08/29/2013 5:12:45 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Cram black misbehavior down their throats until they change.)
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To: Third Person

LOL

Dunn it plenty of times myself...


18 posted on 08/29/2013 5:12:54 PM PDT by Vendome (Don't take life so seriously, you won't live through it anyway)
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To: Third Person
The Obama administration views Israel as one of the top spying threats facing its intelligence services

Translation: Obama has plans that he doesn't want Israel to know.

19 posted on 08/29/2013 5:19:20 PM PDT by LoneRangerMassachusetts (The meek shall not inherit the Earth)
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To: Third Person

I’m sure that Israeli intelligence is as good as it gets.

My bet is that they have multiple sources inside US intelligence agencies. I bet they have at least a couple of sources inside the white house and several inside the House and Senate.

It’s a sure bet that all of the highly technical operations undertaken by US intelligence agencies have technical experts that report to Israel all details. There are no US national technical means that Israel does not understand.

Israel knows exactly what is going on over here.

I’d sure hate to be tasked with handling 100,000+ US employees of the intel agencies and insuring that no details get back to six million smart Jews in Israel ;-)

Take any highly technical system created in the US for gathering intelligence data and it was probably a group of Jews who built the thing.


20 posted on 08/29/2013 5:20:59 PM PDT by Bobalu (Bobo the Wonder Marxist leads Operation Rodeo Clown against Syria)
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