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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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To: Vendome

How about every single nation on the planet being linked to spying on the US and vise versa.... It is only natural:)


41 posted on 08/30/2013 6:31:54 AM PDT by Jumper
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To: lbryce
I assume you are of the Jewish faith and if so you are a shameless embarrassment to the rest of us deserved of the status of pariah. It's people like you, the duplicitous, ungracious, exploitative persona that festers within, that belie the high moral ground most of us as Jews choose to take in life, things like honor, patriotism, service in duty of, that comes too hard for you but is to the rest of us a noble, divine calling.

Oh well. I have six years in military service to my country (not Israel.) I don't really know what you mean about duplicity, ungraciousness, and exploitatin but you are right in saying that I, and everyone else who knows what is going on in the world, knows also that it is naive to think that allies don't spy on each other. The difference of course with Pollard is that he was an American. Now: Is it wrong? Maybe and maybe not. Is it unsavory? Maybe, to some. Do you trust your own government wholly, absolutely? Maybe you do. Do you trust others, or allies, like France? Maybe so. These are personal, subjective questions. Objectively, factually, everybody spies on everybody. Sorry!
42 posted on 08/30/2013 7:09:05 AM PDT by golux
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To: lbryce; golux

I believe the phrase is ‘Trust, but verify’?


43 posted on 08/30/2013 7:23:42 AM PDT by Ultra Sonic 007 (Hope for the best. Prepare for the worst.)
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To: dennisw; Cachelot; Nix 2; veronica; Catspaw; knighthawk; Alouette; Optimist; weikel; Lent; GregB; ..
Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

..................

44 posted on 08/30/2013 7:47:44 AM PDT by SJackson ( The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself. BF)
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To: Third Person
The U.S. spies on Israel, Israel spies on the U.S. Been going on since 1948.

Given the current U.S. regime, I'd spy on us too. Actually if I were Israel, I would assign more agents to the U.S....

5.56mm

45 posted on 08/30/2013 8:03:32 AM PDT by M Kehoe
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To: Third Person
I wish people would quit calling this regime “The US.”
46 posted on 08/30/2013 8:08:48 AM PDT by demshateGod (The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.)
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To: Third Person

I always figured they spy on us to see what we are doing as it relates to their security. They need to know, it isn’t like they get clear signals of support from DC.

At least I don’t think they sell info our enemies (the muslims) but who knows.


47 posted on 08/30/2013 8:28:10 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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Only Two Days Until
September.

Less than $3k to go!!
We can do this!!

48 posted on 08/30/2013 11:54:20 AM PDT by RedMDer (http://www.dontfundobamacare.com/)
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To: Piranha

Congratulations, (I suppose.) But you did effectively make this a “thinking man’s thread.” Too late, of course! LOL


49 posted on 08/30/2013 3:32:03 PM PDT by golux
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...

Thanks Third Person.

U.S. counterintelligence targets Israel with Iran and China, secret budget reveals
http://www.jta.org/2013/08/29/news-opinion/united-states/u-s-spies-on-israel-secret-budget-reveals


50 posted on 08/31/2013 9:13:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: Third Person

That can happen if there are any HTML-specific elements in the pasted text, such as special characters.


51 posted on 08/31/2013 9:14:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (It's no coincidence that some "conservatives" echo the hard left.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Thanks. I was lazy.

I asked the Mods to format it for me, but they did not reply.


52 posted on 08/31/2013 7:18:09 PM PDT by Third Person (Welcome to Gaymerica.)
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To: Third Person

“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. “

The fools!/sarc


53 posted on 09/01/2013 6:41:39 PM PDT by Eleutheria5 (End the occupation. Annex today.)
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