What British spies tell – and don’t tell – Israel
Snowden wows his Danish fans at the Roskilde Festival June 28, 2016. Photo by Scanpix Denmark, Reuters
British Intelligence Spied on Israeli Diplomats, Snowden Leaks Reveal
Britain’s GCHQ reportedly collected information on the second highest ranking official in the Israeli foreign ministry, as well as Israeli envoys to Nigeria and Kenya.
By JTA
Dec 07, 2016
British intelligence spied on Israeli diplomats and defence firms in addition to its military, the French daily Le Monde reported based on leaked documents.
The report on Wednesday [December 7th] was based on documents that came into the possession of Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who worked for U.S. intelligence before publishing in 2013 classified material and fleeing to Russia, Le Monde reported.
Espionnage des avions, d’Israël et de l’Autorité palestinienne : nouvelles révélations Snowden
Le Monde, December 7th, 2016
According to the newspaper, Britain’s GCHQ intelligence-gathering apparatus collected information on a person described by Le Monde as the second highest ranking official in the Israeli foreign ministry. That person was not named. The British also spied on the Palestinian Authority, the report said.
Email correspondence belonging to the Israeli ambassadors to Nigeria and Kenya was also the subject of British intelligence-gathering efforts as was Ophir Optronics, a firm deemed to be tied to the Israeli defence establishment that specializes in fibre optics.
The Le Monde report followed a previous publication based on documents stolen by Snowden dealing with spying by U.S. and British intelligence on Israeli military aircraft.
GCHQ and its American counterpart, the NSA, had collected for 18 years drone transmissions after cracking the Israeli army’s encryption for communication among fighter jets, drones and army bases.
The information was reported in January by The Intercept and the German newspaper Der Spiegel.
Britain and the United States reportedly have used this access to monitor Israel Defence Forces operations in the Gaza Strip, watch for a potential strike on Iran and keep tabs on the drone technology that Israel exports.
U.K. Intelligence Called Israel ‘True Threat’ to Middle East
A 2008 document, leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, says the British were concerned about Israel’s stance on Iran. GCHQ also spied on Israeli diplomats, and defence firms.
By Haaretz and JTA
December 10, 2016
EXTRACT
In one of the files, Britain’s GCHQ intelligence-gathering apparatus defined Israel as “a true threat” to the Middle East.
“The Israelis constitute a true threat to regional security, notably because of the country’s position on the Iran issue,” a leaked top secret document from 2009 said.
According to Le Monde, the GCHQ collected information on Israeli diplomats, including a person described by the newspaper as the second-highest ranking official in the Israeli foreign ministry. That person was not named. The British also spied on the Palestinian Authority, the report said.
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According to Le Monde, the GCHQ kept track of the phones of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well as that of his two sons, Yasser and Tarek Abbas, on December 9, 2008. Noting that these interceptions occurred three weeks before Israel’s military offensive in Gaza in January 2009, the newspaper suggests they may have served to aid Israel to prepare for the operation.
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