AhlulBayt News Agency: It is often claimed that the United States and Israel are allies. But what is the reality of their relationship?
Then why, if that connection is as strong as appearances would suggest, is the Zionist regime involved in espionage against the US, espionage which even includes spying on the president of the United States of America?
How Israel steals secrets from the US
On the face of it Israel and the United States couldn't be closer. The Zionist colonization of Palestine could not have been maintained without the $10.4 million a day, $430,000 an hour, $7,229 a minute and $120 a second, that the United States government gives to the temporary entity.
However, there is an alternative history that more of us should know. Israel is considered by US intelligence officials to be one of the most aggressive states in launching surveillance operations on US soil, targeting even the very seat of power.
Here are some of the most prominent examples of nefarious Israeli information harvesting in the US.
US Naval Intelligence Analyst Jonathan Pollard began spying for Israel in 1984. He handed over the National Security Agency's 10 Volume manual, which lays out how the US obtains its signal intelligence. He also revealed to Israeli intelligence the names of thousands of US informants.
He also propositioned the Technical Director of the US Navy Ocean Surveillance Information Center, Richard Haver about giving a back channel to the apartheid regime in South Africa. He was caught by the US government and sentenced to life imprisonment for spying for Israel.
It is claimed that Israel attempted to use tapes of former US President Bill Clinton having a steamy conversations with intern Monica Lewinsky to leverage the release of Jonathan Pollard. In the year 2000 an article was published by Insight Magazine claiming that Israel was able to penetrate White House telephone lines and relay real time conversations on those lines from a remote site outside the White House directly to Israel for listening and recording.
It is believed that through the setup Israel obtained knowledge of Bill Clinton's scandalous affair with the White House staffer, Monica Lewinsky.
It is claimed that Netanyahu blackmailed Clinton with this information in an attempt to get the release of Jonathan Pollard. Clinton is said to have been impressed with the argument to free Pollard and to have approached CIA Director, George Tenet, with the issue, however, Tenet threatened to resign if the clemency was granted, with others, like Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, also standing firmly against the idea.
In 2018 figures within the US intelligence community accused Israel of planting cell phone surveillance devices around the White House, known as StingRays. They are believed to look very similar to cell towers and are able to trick cell phones into interacting with them and passing vital information.
In 2021, the Associated Press reported that at least 11 US State Department officials had iPhones that had been hacked by Israelis infamous Pegasus spyware.
This would have given the NSO group companies set up by alumni of Israel's military intelligence unit 8200 wide access to US government secrets. So as we see here, the United States is a key target for Israeli surveillance operations.
This Jonathan Pollard case seems quite extraordinary, doesn't it?
Well, it is an extraordinary case and his involvement in the US intelligence has quite a number of facets to it. He tried to get into the CIA first of all, they wouldn't have him after he failed a lie detector test. And then Naval Intelligence couldn't get access to the data from the CIA, several people inside Naval Intelligence tried to have him demoted or his security clearance removed but that didn't really work and eventually he goes on to give all this material to the Israelis and he claimed it was only stuff which the Americans should have been giving to the Israelis in the first place.
But yeah, he gave them all this stuff which was way beyond what was related to to Israel, and the names of thousands of assets, so, you know, there's (sic) thousands of people in the world you know, who are assets of US intelligence, including of course people in this country who are said in the WikiLeaks famous leaked cables to strictly protected assets.
So there's really no names and identities of all these people and of course, could then, you know, use that for their own advantage. So there's a huge sense in which there is a compromise of US intelligence, and the fact that people like Rumsfeld, Cheney, the head of the CIA, George Tenet, would say, absolutely do not let this guy go, is a real indication of the dividing line between people who would normally be instinctively supportive of Israel's foreign policy interests. In this case, they were absolutely not. This is a red line which we should not cross a very, very extraordinary case, but not the only one.
We've heard of other cases in the film there. But let's remember that the Israelis have got the bombs, the nuclear bombs because they stole all the secrets, and indeed, significant quantities of plutonium directly from the US and no one was ever held to account for that. So this is a pattern of hostile activity by a supposed ally inside the US.
David Miller, Academic
What has Jonathan Pollard been up to since the US released him from prison?
He was interviewed by the newspaper Israel Hayom which is this right wing tabloid in Israel, which is run funded by now Miriam Adelson used to be Sheldon Adelson, but he died and his wife inherited his pro Israel empire and, you know, she defended him in a column that she has.
Pollard has been trying to basically rewrite history, basically, because he, you know, he said in this interview that Miriam Adelson's newspaper gave him, this very sort of fawning interview like a really puff piece interview because they, I mean, they've been campaigning for his release. They've been calling for his release for a long time. And so they're not going to challenge him in this interview. And he said, you know, he claimed that he wasn't all about money. "I didn't want any gifts". But you know, the history of what he actually did was well known and he was very well compensated for this.
But you know, he was completely unrepentant in that interview. He said that if he was he was asked by the interviewer, what would you tell you know, young American intelligence officers today? Would you switch allegiance to Israel and his response was, I'd tell him, this hypothetical new US traitor for Israel, I tell him not doing anything is unacceptable.
And he said that just moving to Israel is not acceptable and that it was not enough. And he said, You have to make a decision whether your concern for Israel is more important than your life.
Asa Winstanley, Journalist
Pollard had access to some very, very sensitive information. How did that impact the balance of power in the region?
Well, the way in which the Mossad operates is to assume and to treat the US as a hostile power, though it's supposed to be an ally, but they are treated differently. There's no allegations, no information, that the Jordanians or the Saudis or other Western related intelligence agencies have done the same kind of thing. It's only the Israelis who are doing this.
The Mossad are regarded as being the most aggressive of the foreign intelligence agencies, and it's supposed to be an ally.
So this is partly about shifting the balance of power in favor of Israeli interests, even though the Americans are already extremely favorable towards the Israelis. And it helps to tip the balance against the possibility of any sensible activity in relation to the Palestinian issue, for example.
David Miller, Academic
How shocking was the news that Israel was tapping the phones of the White House under both Clinton and Trump?
I didn't find it very surprising at all. I mean, I wasn't surprised but that's only because I'm familiar with the history of all this. It's something that's always been there. A decade ago, when the Edward Snowden files came out, Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency US intelligence contractor, was working on state secrets for the United States government.
And he became a very brave whistleblower, and he revealed a lot of NSA files about a decade ago to journalist Glenn Greenwald, he (Snowdon) is now still living in exile in Russia.
Those files showed us a tremendous amount of revelations and evidence of a great many things, you know, the mass surveillance by the US government on its own civilians, on its own citizens for no justifiable reason, just doing it because they want to have control over the population.
But one of the things I found really interesting there was that, I mean, and it wasn't entirely new, but it showed that it was confirmed up until the recent times is that those files, the Snowden files, showed that US counterintelligence considers Israel to be one of its top security threats.
Asa Winstanley, Journalist
The Pegasus software that was used to hack the phones of State Department employees is said to be rather sophisticated, how exactly does Pegasus operate?
Since 2011, over a decade and it's been a kind of cat and mouse game whereby it was discovered, I think, first of all in 2013. And then what happens is that the the software companies who've made the software which it penetrates, then put patches on software, for example, Apple, or the Android phones, or WhatsApp.
It uses what's called either one click or zero click installation, which means that sometimes you would click a link that you're sent by text message or through your photos or through your music app, or sometimes, in fact that you you'll be called, and you don't even have to answer the phone, the software can install itself. And then indeed, it can then cover its tracks and delete itself.
It can access everything on your phone, your passwords, your call history, your position, your text messages, etc. So it's extremely effective at entering your phone and using it to gather all the data that you've got, and you wouldn't even know and it can cover its tracks so that it's not traceable.
David Miller, Academic
Do you think there may have been elements in the US national security state that opposed what Israel has been doing, given that, as David has already said, Rumsfeld, Tennant and Cheney, were all apparently vehemently opposed to Pollard's release?
Yeah, I mean, I think that's absolutely true. I think these decisions are quite often made by politicians rather than intelligence operatives. In other words, the the pro Israel decisions, such as the decision to release Pollard, because even though he'd served 30 years in jail, rightfully so in my view, but there were still voices saying that he should, know.
And I'm not talking about activist voices, I'm talking about voices within the US intelligence community, they always quote the intelligence community, but mainstream American spies, high level spies who were saying this man shouldn't be released, there was even senior people saying that he should have been executed because he's, this is high treason what he did you know, there's (sic) crazy politicians who say that Julian Assange should have been executed and he wasn't even a US citizen.
And what he did was actually in the public interest, unlike what Jonathan Pollard did, you know, this was information on, this was military information. This wasn't trying to expose war crimes by the United States. It was quite the opposite. It was trying to allow Israel to carry out war crimes against the Palestinians and against its Arab neighbors.
Asa Winstanley, Journalist
How Mossad pressured Bill Clinton to pardon Israeli assets
It has been established that the Israeli blackmail of Bill Clinton over Monica Lewinsky was not enough to obtain the release of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. but the Israeli targeting aided in the official pardoning of two Israeli intelligence assets by Bill Clinton on his last day in office in 2001. Commodities trader, Marc Rich, and his partner, Pincus Green, fled the United States in 1983, before federal charges were filed against them for tax evasion and defrauding US taxpayers to the tune of $48 million.
Both of these Israeli intelligence assets were protected for 20 years by the Zionist entity while remaining on the FBI's most wanted list. The Israeli Prime Minister at the time, Ehud Barak, intervened several times to pressure Clinton for the pardon of rich citing his contributions to Israel's national security. Former Chief of Israel's external intelligence services Shabak (Shin Bet), also sent a letter to Clinton, arguing that Marc Rich had provided vital assistance to Mossad.
Overall more than 50 prominent Israeli figures sent letters lobbying Clinton to release Rich and his partner, Pinkus Green. These included key political and intelligence figures. An Israeli cabinet minister has remarked that Rich and Green had provided information vital in obtaining special strategic supplies during the war against Iraq in 1991 when the Zionist entity was faced with Iraqi rockets. Rich was also widely credited with personally acting as a frontman for Israeli intelligence non military operations, not only supplying the funds but also allowing the branches of his company in the Middle East to be used to gather intelligence and recruit agents for the Mossad. Rich was reported by the LA Times to have become a sign on for Israeli intelligence.
These point men form a security net which can be called on by Israel in emergencies to fulfill unusual assignments. It is known that Bill Clinton's White House phone lines were attacked by Israel at the time creating significant vulnerabilities. But what about his friendship with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein has been described by his former mentor, Steven Hoffenberg, as boasting about selling Secrets of the rich and famous to Mossad.
Epstein was also found to have significant business interests with former head of Israeli military intelligence. Ehud Barak. Hoffenberg is quoted as saying that Epstein had to deal with the Israelis to gather intelligence and information from people. Was Bill Clinton also been spied on by Israel through his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein? And if so, was the information obtained used to pressure him to sign off on the pardon of Israeli intelligence assets Mark Rich and Pincus Green in 2001.
David, what do you know about Marc Rich and Pincus Green?
So these guys were arrested or there's an attempt to arrest them and charge them and they were spirited away in 1983 and the Israelis stopped them being extradited, stopped them come to justice (sic). And there's a long period of of not cooperating with the US authorities.
And the reason for this was because they were assets of Israeli intelligence, that they were using their companies to allow Mossad to spy and indeed, to recruit people and they were effectively acting as a cover, as a front group, for Mossad to operate in ways which wouldn't be detected.
So this is, you know, the kind of thing which Mossad does, the kind of thing which most intelligence agencies do, actually, but we know with Mossad that they have been doing this in, for example, in the US, which is supposed to be an ally, which you know, is where they're not supposed to be doing this kind of activity. So, both Green and Rich were assets. of Israeli intelligence. So there are many, many more of those in action all around the world.
David Miller, Academic
What was the reaction to Bill Clinton pardoning these two Israeli assets?
I think there was far more questioning of it on (sic) the time, from what I've seen, than there was recently of Pollard's release last year. Pollard's release last year was a really muted affair (which) was barely reported in the West, let alone his interview in the Israeli press, where he encouraged further treason by US intelligence officers for Israel.
You know, so that wasn't covered at all, but that, you know, people did question it, you know, it was regarded as something that, like, why is this happening? Should this really be happening and you know, people have questioned whether Bill Clinton was essentially blackmailed by the Israelis into releasing them and you know, it is certainly a possibility when we look at all the intelligence connections there.
Asa Winstanley, Journalist
Who are the so called little helpers of Mossad?
These are people who work for Mossad, who are not paid by Mossad, they might be given expenses and given infrastructure to work with for operations, but then effectively, Mossad's little helpers, and they operate all around the world.
According to the author, Gordon Thomas, I'm not sure what the basis of his evidence is, but he says there are thousands and thousands of these people, including thousands in this country, in the UK, as well as many more than that in the US. I don't know how accurate that is, but they certainly exist and certainly Mossad employs them to run errands for them. We have previously looked, for example, at the case in Morocco where the Mossad was involved in spiriting Jewish kids out and then getting them back to Israel intending to increase the numbers of settlers in occupied Palestine.
We know that this happens and that they they're used to to kind of magnify the ability of Mossad to operate in places where they don't have any personnel. These guys Rich and Greenberg wear them to the right of everyone. This is a different from the people who they send out as propaganda emissaries for what they call explanation or Hezbollah. In Hebrew, they're called sleeping right so there are literally 1000s of them around the world as well.
So they've got intelligence operatives all over the place, and they've also got people do propaganda and propagandizing for the occupation of Palestine as well.
David Miller, Academic
What did Jeffrey Epstein's mentor Steven Hoffenberg have to say about his activities?
Hoffenberg actually was part of an operation, he was working with Mossad that he did that through, for example, Robert Maxwell and his daughter Ghislaine Maxwell, and he's not the only person who's made these kind of allegations, it seems perfectly plain that she was used or was in contact with Mossad.
So the whole Maxwell family, it seems, are effectively assets of Israeli intelligence, Ghislaine's brothers and sister, so it's pretty clear now I think that what was going on here was that Epstein was using the knowledge that he got from his various abusive relationships, including trafficking of minors to celebrities, so that he could then pressure them.
He was in contact with Mossad clearly, Mossad were using this to pursue their own interests. We don't know the full extent of it, but it's pretty clear know that there was a Mossad rule here. And that's why there's such such a lot of intrigue in relation to this.
David Miller, Academic
Epstein's friendship with Clinton has been pretty significant in this whole affair, hasn't it?
Well, I mean, you don't want to overemphasize personal relationships and operations by intelligence agencies over the kind of broader interests of domestic and foreign policy, but certainly, we know that these kinds of networks, they are and can be influential.
So the friendship with Clinton is of course important and should be looked into, but it's really very evident that large numbers of very powerful individuals in the public eye, from royalty in this country to politicians to business people, had contact with Epstein and were involved, to a greater or lesser degree, in the abuse of minors as part of his operation.
And so we shouldn't be surprised to have questions raised about what kind of influence that gives foreign intelligence services like Mossad who had who had the connections with him,
David Miller, Academic
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