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At one time, MANY YEARS AGO, a former German defense minister sarcastically commented that German Intelligence worked for the CIA (post-war occupation arrangement), and the CIA was run by Israel.
"The BND (German secret service) is steered by the CIA and the CIA is steered by Mossad," von Bulow said."
"The BND (German secret service) is steered by the CIA and the CIA is steered by Mossad," von Bulow said."
Clearly such a reputation, based on myth or fact would be damaging for a state institution which represents the power, will and capability of the sole super power on earth, with an official annual intelligence budget of $80 billion, and unofficially...god knows what?!!
Or to put it another way.....$100 billions spent massing 900,000 people in various multiple intelligence organizations which ALL they did in the end was merely to prop up Israeli strategic policy for all intents and purposes, would not seem to make sense logically.
Or to put it another way.....$100 billions spent massing 900,000 people in various multiple intelligence organizations which ALL they did in the end was merely to prop up Israeli strategic policy for all intents and purposes, would not seem to make sense logically.
To be known as the gofer of Israel, an unthinking loyal automaton of Israel would not be very good for the reputation of the institution, either.
At a strategic level it might also not make sense. The USA, and Israel are a little different despite the manic Israeli attempts to converge the perception of interests of the two states.
The linear political situation in the USA, and media bias makes things worse. The perception has been created in Capitol Hill that the USA exists for Israel, and therefore ALL matters of national security in the USA must clear the Israeli TSA groping scanner before there is approval by Capitol Hill.
States institutions from the CIA, State Department and Pentagon onwards have not been able to mount an effective defensive strategy to demonstrate to the American tax paying public that the state pillars of the USA work for American interests first (All right, American elite interests at least)...and only if it is useful and suitable now and then.....work with Israel, as directed and required by the USA.
Nothing of the sort.
It is Israel's Likud which sets the agenda, and then the USA state pillars follow....simple examples abound: the fake narrative of GWoT for 11 years, the operation of "al-CIA-duh" in the Greater Middle East for 14 years....and the promotion of the "Arab Spring" to bring into power Islamic Fundamentalist regimes 2011--2012; the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan for 11 years.....and finally of course the invasion of Iraq.
Looking objectively at these Israeli Likud promoted foreign adventures, all the USA has got in return for these sagas is more security within the USA, defense and war costs of $3 trillion; military personnel deaths; the loss of standing of the USA in greater measures in the world; a fundamental weakening of the state; loss of direction of the STATE.....embroiled in a manic Moby Dick like quest for enemies that the CIA trains, creates, funds and runs in the first place.......simply stupid and delusional.
But presumably the highly intelligent smart people of the USA intelligence community all know these facts already.......before all of us even thought about it?
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Former US Officials: CIA Considers Israel No. 1 Spy Threat in Middle East
Despite the close relationship on the surface, there is lots of distrust and spying on the part of the US and Israel
by John Glaser, antiwar.com
Despite the close diplomatic ties between the US and Israel on
the surface, the intelligence agencies of both countries are
anything but friendly, according to former US officials.
“The CIA considers Israel its No. 1
counterintelligence threat in the agency’s Near East Division” officials
told the Associated
Press. “Counterintelligence is the art of protecting national
secrets from spies. This means the CIA believes that US national secrets
are safer from other Middle Eastern governments than from Israel.”
Israeli intelligence agencies have been implicated in intrusions and
tampering with sensitive equipment of CIA officers in Israel, criminal
espionage cases inside the US, and disciplinary proceedings against CIA
officers.
Israeli agencies were also blamed in the presumed death of an
important CIA spy in Syria during the George W. Bush administration.
These kinds of nuances in the US-Israeli relationship are rarely
talked about in the open. And the relationship is severely
oversimplified in the presidential campaign, which can often appear as a
contest for who supports Israel the most.
One well-known case has colored the alliance skeptical since it
happened in 1987. That year, Jonathan Pollard, who worked for the Navy
as a civilian intelligence analyst, was convicted of spying for Israel
and sentenced to life in prison. In January 2011, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu asked Obama to free Pollard, as Israel has been
doing for years, and admitted that Israel’s behavior in the case were
“wrong and wholly unacceptable.”
After 9/11, the Bush administration had the CIA rank some of the
world’s intelligence agencies in order of their cooperation and
friendliness in the war on terror. Israel was low on the ranking,
considering its deep ties to Washington, and even fell below the
intelligence agencies of Libya.
________________________
Overview: Israeli Spying
Israel Runs One of World’s Most
Aggressive and Damaging Espionage Networks Against U.S.
by Alison Weir
One senior American diplomat explains that inside the State
Department “everybody knows that Israel spies on us. When someone is
caught, they’re ‘punished’ by being promoted.”
In 2006, a Pentagon judge stated categorically: “The Israeli government is actively engaged in military and industrial espionage in the United States.”
Technology Theft
Israel obtains significant advantage by systematically stealing
American technology with both military and civilian applications.
US-developed technology
is then reverse engineered and re-exported minus research and
development costs, providing a huge advantage against foreign
competitors.
Sometimes, the military technology winds up in the hands of a US
adversary.
Israel has sold advanced weapons systems to
China that incorporated
technology developed by American companies—including the Python-3
air-to-air missile and the Delilah cruise missile.
Tel Aviv has also stolen Patriot missile avionics to
incorporate into its own Arrow system and it used US technology
obtained in its Lavi fighter development program—which was funded by US
taxpayer provided $1.5 billion—to help the Bejing government develop its
own J-10 fighter.
Governmental Reports on Israeli Spying
Israel features prominently in the annual FBI report
called “Foreign Economic Collection and Industrial Espionage.”
The 2005
report, for example, states:
“Israel has an active program to gather proprietary information
within the United States. These collection activities are primarily
directed at obtaining information on military systems and advanced
computing applications that can be used in Israel’s sizable armaments
industry.”
It adds that Israel recruits spies, uses electronic methods, and
carries out computer intrusion to gain the information. The 2005 report
concluded that the thefts eroded US military advantage, enabling foreign
powers to obtain sophisticated defense technologies.
A 1996 Defense Investigative Service report
noted that Israel has great success stealing technology by exploiting
the numerous co-production projects that it has with the Pentagon:
“Placing Israeli nationals in key industries … is a technique
utilized with great success.”
A General Accounting Office (GAO) examination
of espionage directed against American defense and security industries,
also undertaken in 1996, described how Israeli citizens residing in the
US had stolen sensitive technology to manufactureartillery gun tubes,
obtained classified plans for a reconnaissance system, and passed
sensitive aerospace designs to unauthorized users.
In its report the GAO stated that an Israeli company monitored a Department of Defense telecommunications system to obtain classified information, while other Israeli entities targeted avionics, missile telemetry, aircraft communications, software systems, and advanced materials and coatings used in missile re-entry.
The GAO concluded
that Israel
“conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the United
States of any US ally.”
In June 2006, a Pentagon administrative judge overruled an appeal by
an Israeli who had been denied a security clearance, stating:
“The Israeli government is actively engaged in military and
industrial espionage in the United States. An Israeli citizen working in
the US who has access to proprietary information is likely to be a
target of such espionage.”
125 investigations into Israeli espionage
stopped due to political pressure from above
More recently, FBI counter intelligence officer John Cole has reported
how cases of Israeli espionage are dropped under orders from the
Justice Department.
He provides a “conservative estimate” of 125
worthwhile investigations into Israeli espionage involving both American
citizens and Israelis that were stopped due to political pressure from
above.
Top US Neocons Investigated for Israeli Ties
A number of individuals—many of whom have been senior officials in
the Defense Department, National Security Council and Office of the Vice
President—have been investigated as security risks due to their actions
in regard to Israel.
In April of 1979,
the US Deputy Assistant Attorney General recommended in writing that
Stephen Bryen, then a staff member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Committee, undergo a grand jury hearing to establish the basis for a
prosecution for espionage.There was considerable
evidence to justify this prosecution.
Yet, the case was shut down by Philip Heymann, Chief of Justice’s
Criminal Division. Heymann was a former schoolmate of Bryen’s attorney,
Nathan Lewin.
In 1981 the FBI received an application by the
Defense Department for a Top Secret security clearance for Bryen.
Richard Perle, who had just been nominated as Assistant Secretary of
Defense for International Security Policy, was proposing Bryen as his
Deputy Assistant Secretary.
Within six months, with Perle pushing hard, Bryen received both Top
Secret-SCI (sensitive compartmented information) and Top
Secret-“NATO/COSMIC” clearances.
Bryen then attempted to provide top
secret technology to Israel.
Similarly, In 1983 Richard Perle recommended that a
man named Michael Ledeen be hired at the Department of Defense as a
consultant on terrorism – despite the fact that the CIA had him in their
files as an agent of influence of a foreign government: Israel. Once in
place Ledeen continued to take actions to assist Israel.
An investigative
article asked:
“One might wonder how, with security histories like these, Messrs.
Bryen and Ledeen have managed to get second and third chances to return
to government in highly classified positions.
“And the explanation is that they, along with other like-minded
neo-conservatives, have… friends in very high places.
In particular, Bryen and Ledeen have been repeatedly
boosted into defense/security posts by former Defense Policy Council
member and chairman Richard Perle, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz, and Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.
A Case Study
An interesting story
relating to the pending sale of twenty F-35 fighter planes to Israel
illustrates the problem:
The $130 million F-35, one of the most advanced fighter planes in the
world, will be a gift to Israel from the US taxpayer, but Israel is
balking at the sale and is demanding full access to the plane’s advanced
avionics and computer systems.
But Lockheed-Martin and the Pentagon both know that Israel will steal
whatever it can if it gains access and would then market its own
products at a price below that of US defense contractors. The result is a
triple whammy for Uncle Sam: the expensive planes are given to Israel
free, the technology is then stolen, and future sales vanish.
Many analysts feel that the United States-Israel military assistance entanglement – what we give, sell, and especially what is stolen – is an unaffordable and unjustifiable burden on every American citizen.
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