Philip Giraldi: For Once, Don’t Blame the Israelis

The recent revelation that the Israelis had obtained classified information relating to the P5+1 negotiations with Iran over the latter’s nuclear program should not really surprise anyone. Israel has invested a great deal of political capital in confronting Iran and convincing the American public that it poses a genuine threat. So, it would be a given that its intelligence service, Mossad, would be tasked with finding out what information is not being shared by the White House.

But the truly intriguing back-story to this development is, “how did the Israelis do it and with whom exactly did they share their information?” The information obtained was described by the White House as “eavesdropping,” which would suggest some sort of electronic interception. But as the meetings undoubtedly took place in a technically secured room, which means that it was electronically “swept” before, during, and after meetings, the conversations could not be picked up either from bugs planted inside – which would be detected – or from penetration techniques originating outside, which is possible but would require a major deployment of high-tech gear close to the target.

Eliminating a “sigint” source suggests that the intelligence was either obtained from careless conversations on unsecured phones (possible but unlikely given the tightened security in response to recent flaps over such use), or through a spy in the room feeding the information to the Israelis. A spy is, regrettably, more likely and one has to wonder if the leaker was/is part of the American delegation because the information appears to be of such a nature as to come from US sources. This would mean that the American negotiating team has been penetrated by the Israelis.

And the other issue is, of course, the question of who in Congress received the stolen information during the regular briefings that Israeli embassy staff, including intelligence officers, give to legislators on Capitol Hill. Did they know or suspect that what they were being told was obtained through Israeli espionage? Did it occur to them that the Israeli narrative on what was taking place differed in detail from what they were hearing from the White House, suggesting that something was afoot? Deference to Israeli interests is normal in many in Congress, perhaps all too normal, but a lack of awareness of the American interests at stake in the game constitutes malfeasance at a much higher level.

Reprinted with permission from the Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity.

18 thoughts on “Philip Giraldi: For Once, Don’t Blame the Israelis”

  1. You can usually tell just what has transpired by good analysis like this. It remains to be seen, even if discovered en flagrante,delicto, whether that would make any difference, given that high level leakers are rewarded, even hidden by national security invocations, unlike conscience-driven whistleblowers.

  2. It is more than a little ironic that the US openly admits to spying on Israel, which is how they became aware that Israel had obtained the classified information in the first place.
    That Israel had obtained it by spying is pure speculation, so Israel may well have obtained the information directly from one of the other parties as they claim.

  3. Dr. Giraldi – It would be great to get your take on the recent DoJ intervention into the Restis vs UANI lawsuit. It appears that a bunch of snarky Neocons, including Joe Lieberman and Fran Townsend, have a private, tax exempt 501(3)c organization that uses classified insider information to smear private individuals. When those individuals seek redress, the government invokes "state secrets" to block civil proceedings. That a non-governmental entity has been granted privileges and immunities based on "state secrets" indicates extraconstitutional sanctioning of a veritable mafia-like organization. This is the stuff of which totalitarian nightmares are made. I'd love to know – who decided that Fran Townsend should be trusted with "state secrets", and what makes her and Joe Lieberman answerable to no one? There's got to be a big blackmail scandal hiding in here somewhere.

    1. Or they could be covering for an Israeli operation that for some reason is being protected. The whole thing stinks and if I manage to get some kind of handle on it I will write an article untangling it.

  4. "For once?"

    Since when is Israel is "blamed" for anything? Including, but not limited to, its endless aggression against and violations of the sovereignty of its neighbors, is apartheid policies toward the Palestinians whom it oppresses, its theft of their land, water, political rights, dignity, human rights, etc, its grotesquely cavalier attitude the USA, which bankrolls it and protects it militarily and diplomatically (to its own great detriment), and which routinely manifests itself as interfering in the USA's political affairs (see, most recently, the PM of Israel's uninvited speech, demanding that the USA fight Iran for Israel's benefit) and, yes, as spying on the USA's government.

    And even in this case, assuming the article is correct, Israel has "penetrated" (one way or another) the US negotiating team. I see no reason NOT to blame Israel for that. Imagine if Iran had done it!

    1. Actually I blame them quite a bit but in this case their intelligence service was doing exactly what one would expect an intelligence service to do. The sloppiness or dare I say treason clearly occurred on the US side.

      1. OK, YOU blame them quite a bit but not in this case. While I think the latter position is debatable, I won't press it. But, still, in general, most folks (and the MSM and the US government), as I said, almost NEVER blame Israel, even in all the instances, including those I outlined above, where there really is no room for debate. And your title, at least as I took it, is aimed at what other people generally do, in terms of blaming Israel, and not your own personal practice.

  5. Is Wendy Sherman still on the negotiating team? (The one who said, "We know deception is part of the Iranian DNA.")

    BTW, the penetration could have occurred in one of the European teams.

    1. Yes, I wonder about Wendy. Yes, it could have been one of the other teams but it appears from reading between the lines in the media coverage that it was US info that was obtained.

  6. I'm wondering if the Israelis are as deeply imbedded in Saudi political/intelligence circles- and if not, how soon will they be considering the Saudi's announcement that they'll never give up the right to nuclear weapons. I'm guessing Tel Aviv will label Saudi Arabia as the next 'existential threat' to Israel.

  7. The Saudis and Israel are a lot closer then one can believe. Both have and support oppressive regimes.

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