The U.S. Has Been Spying On Israel For Over A Decade: Report

[oberliner]

Source: Huffington Post

JERUSALEM, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The United States and Britain have monitored secret sorties and communications by Israel's air force in a hacking operation dating back to 1998, according to documents attributed to leaks by former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden.

Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, which were published on Friday in three media outlets and might further strain relations with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians.

Israel's Yedioth Ahronoth daily said the U.S. National Security Agency, which specializes in electronic surveillance, and its British counterpart GCHQ spied on Israeli air force missions against the Palestinian enclave Gaza, Syria and Iran.

The spy operation, codenamed "Anarchist," was run out of a Cyprus base and targeted other Middle East states too, it said. Its findings were mirrored by stories in Germany's Der Spiegel newsmagazine and the online publication The Intercept, which lists Snowden confidant Glenn Greenwald among its associates.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/us-israel-hacking-spying_us_56ab2cdee4b00b033aaea731

[BillZBubb]

1. That's a good thing.

[leftynyc]

2. Now watch all those

"ALLIES SHOULD NEVER SPY ON ALLIES" posters that trashed Israel for doing the same to be silent on this. It's pathetically predictable.

[atreides1]

6. They spy, we spy

Over the years I have come to a conclusion that the word "ally" has different definitions! It's no longer defined by trust between nations...it's more of a "what do they have, that I need" mentality!!!


In this day and age, alliances are little more then a convenience...mainly used to keep an eye on each other!

[leftynyc]

23. Which is what everyone with a brain

said when it came out that Israel was spying on the US. But we do have agreements like NATO which is why we need to keep an eye on country's like Turkey who we're LEGALLY bound to defend if they're attacked.

[leveymg]

3. It's entirely mutual, for a lot longer than that. n/t

[Vogon_Glory]

4. I Should Hope So

I should hope that the US is spying on Israel. While I have little love for Israel's neighbors and no particular admiration for the rampant misogyny, thuggery, corruption, religious bigotry and pogroms that occur beyond Israel's borders, I do not believe that Israel's interests are the same as those of the US, nor do I like the way that right-wing Israeli pols helped scam the US into invading Iraq and tried to get the US to bomb Iran.

Such an outfit OUGHT to be spied on, and I hope that the US is still doing so.

[oberliner]

5. Poor Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld - scammed by Israel into invading Iraq

When all they wanted was to live in peace and harmony with all the peoples of the world!

[Vogon_Glory]

7. A Case Of Coke (tm) Would Have Been Cheaper

Sending Saddam a case of Coke (tm) would have been far cheaper than Operation Iraqi Freedom and it's ghastly aftermaths, and the US's strategic interests would have been little th worse off, if at all.

By the way, you wouldn't know where Saddam H's massive stockpiles of WMDs were cached, would you?

[oberliner]

13. I think the Bush Cabal was dead set on the Iraq War with or without Coke

I don't think they needed to be scammed or cajoled into doing so.

[olddad56]

41. The Bush crime family has been in the business of 'war for profit' since before WW2.

Prescott married into the Walker crime family to learn the trade.

[azurnoir]

8. but allies spied on each other all the time well when it was Pollard -however Israel wasn't targeted

as the headline says, no it seems the entire ME has been under watchful eye and for that I am glad

[karynnj]

16. Remember that Pollard was an American who was an intelligence analyst who betrayed his own country

by giving a foreign country classified information. It is NOT the right of anyone in his position to consider that some country, because it is an ally or because it is a good country in his estimation, should rightly get classified information that he has access to.

What is more equivalent than Pollard is whe the US learned that Israel was bugging the US and other countries in Vienna.

[azurnoir]

39. .......

I'm quite aware of that to be honest I was being snarky with Pollard remark, the rest however was quite in earnest

[Ford_Prefect]

9. Another Day, Another Satellite...

[Sunlei]

10. amazing how they hacked right in and had access to the same recon. mission information.

We probably wrote the original software programs using old Microsoft flight. left in plenty of backdoor hooks.

[frizzled]

11. Might be the first unalloyed good thing I've seen attributed to US spies. Thanks!

I hope they're keeping a very close watch on those assholes.

[oberliner]

14. What's that supposed to mean?

Why the antipathy towards our ally?

[frizzled]

19. Ally? You mean albatross.

What treaty of alliance would that be, again?

How many wars has Israel fought along side the USA?

What has the USA got out of that wonderful "alliance"? Other than the corruption of US politics, the undying hatred of the Arab world, resulting in 9/11 and the Iraq war, of course.

[oberliner]

26. Obama: "Our commitment to Israel’s security is and always will be unshakeable"

It’s particularly important to remember now, given the tumult that is taking place in so many corners of the globe, in one of the world’s most dangerous neighborhoods, those shared values compel us to reaffirm that our enduring friendship with the people of Israel and our unbreakable bonds with the state of Israel -- that those bonds, that friendship cannot be broken. (Applause.) Those values compel us to say that our commitment to Israel’s security -- and my commitment to Israel’s security -- is and always will be unshakeable. (Applause.)

And I’ve said this before: It would be a moral failing on the part of the U.S. government and the American people, it would be a moral failing on my part if we did not stand up firmly, steadfastly not just on behalf of Israel’s right to exist, but its right to thrive and prosper. (Applause.) Because it would ignore the history that brought the state of Israel about. It would ignore the struggle that’s taken place through millennia to try to affirm the kinds of values that say everybody has a place, everybody has rights, everybody is a child of God. (Applause.)

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2015/05/22/remarks-president-jewish-american-heritage-month

I'd encourage you to read the entire transcript of President Obama's speech.

[shawn703]

37. What shared values do we have with Israel?

Other than forced relocation of native peoples.

They act like a petulant child and we are their enabling parents.

[oberliner]

38. Spend a week in Tel Aviv

It should be pretty obvious.

[frizzled]

40. You could probably have had a pleasant week in Apartheid Johannesburg too

nt

[oberliner]

42. Not if you were black

Tel Aviv is one of the most ethnically diverse, progressive cities in the world.

It is a model for everything US cities should strive to become.

If you want to find a taste of peace in the Middle East, the dance floor at Anna Lou Lou, a cultural center and underground bar in Old Jaffa, is a good place to look. Utopia reigns at this smoky, hipster-happy party spot, where locals of every stripe — Muslim and Jewish, gay, straight and undefined — shake their sweaty selves to electro-Arab and African beats well into the wee hours. A revolving collection of cultural events and visiting D.J.s adds to the appeal.

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/12/30/travel/what-to-do-in-36-hours-in-tel-aviv.html?_r=0

[leftynyc]

24. I think we've got

a live one here.

[FLPanhandle]

12. Everyone spys on everyone else.

Hardly surprising.

[oberliner]

17. There are 4 countries that the US is not authorized to spy on by the NSA

Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand,

[FLPanhandle]

29. Which means we probably spy on France to get their information on New Zealand.

I doubt we don't have info on every country and everyone else is spying on us.

[bananas]

36. Spying on British citizens by US was allowed by Blair’s government - and still goes on

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/spying-on-innocent-britons-by-us-intelligence-was-allowed-by-tony-blair-s-government-and-still-goes-8952747.html

Spying on innocent British citizens by US intelligence was allowed by Tony Blair’s government - and still goes on

[Des Moines De Mon]

15. In Other News

Water Is Wet, Scientists Report

[malthaussen]

18. How naive can you get?

The U.S. has been spying on everybody since WW2. Possibly not so much before, but we didn't think so much of intelligence then.

-- Mal

[NCjack]

20. Good. I hope we use spying results to mess with them. /nt

[oberliner]

27. To mess with them?

What are you suggesting?

[NCjack]

31. My granddaughter likes for me to let her "mess" with my fire ants. She jabs their

mound with a sharp stick and gets them chasing around to find something to bite. We withdraw before they can locate us. After they have rebuilt the damage, she repeats the cycle.

[GoneFishin]

21. Don't care. Right wingers spying on right wingers.

[hopeforchange2008]

22. And how long has Israel been spying on the US? /eom

[Blue_Tires]

25. ah, yes... more "whistleblowing in the public interest"

This is the part where for the 2,447,819th time I remind this forum that everyone spies on everyone, but most of you don't really give a shit anyways... So what good would it do?

[oberliner]

28. The US does not spy on Britain, Canada, Australia, and NZ

It would be against US law to do so.

[Blue_Tires]

33. It would also be redundant, since there is

an intelligence sharing agreement between those nations...

An agreement that Mr. Snowden seems hellbent on profiting off of, even if it destroys the alliance in the process...

[ShrimpPoboy]

30. Trust but verify

Friend or foe. It's a crazy world out there.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

32. A well armed, nuclear state, populated with insane leaders?

It would be unbelievably foolish of us NOT to spy on them.

[Bigmack]

34. la dee f'ing dah....the US spies on EVERYONE

including it's own citizens.... Ms Bigmack

[Wounded Bear]

35. The U.S. Has Been Spying On Israel since 1948

FIFY

[Blue_Tires]

43. Stop me if you've heard this one:

1. The Intercept runs the latest Snowden leak with a dressed-up headline and sensationalist lede

2. Garden-variety outrage from the "HOW DARE THE UNITED STATES SPY ON A FOREIGN ENTITY" -crowd

3. Sometime between 36-72 hours later, that dynamite piece of investigative journalism is shown to be a non-story:
http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/No-surprise-but-changes-needed-443320

4. Nobody from the Snowald Cabal is ever called to answer or respond for their sensationalist non-story

5. Rinse and repeat.