The counterintelligence threat level was raised by the Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks after growing concerns that Israeli espionage had become more aggressive than at any other time
ed note–pay close attention to the fact that the ‘peeps’ involved in this ARE NOT–
–The Russians…
–The Chinese…
–The North Koreans…
–The Iranians…
–The ‘Ay-rabs’…
–The Martians…
–The ‘Illuminati’…
–The Jesuits, Vatican, British Monarchy, etc…
It’s the Jews, always the Jews…
Perhaps it was POTUS Richard M. Nixon who said it best during his own time in the White House–
‘The Jews are born spies. You notice how many of them are? They’re just in it up to their necks in it…’
And perhaps just as relevant were the concerns of Egypt’s Pharaoh as recounted in the book of ‘Jenesis’–
‘And with great alarm, Pharaoh said to his people ‘The Israelites have become far too powerful for us as a nation… We must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more powerful, and if war breaks out, they will join with our enemies, conspire against us, and leave our country in ruins’…
As the old saying goes, L&G, ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same’
NBC News
The Pentagon has recently raised the counterintelligence threat level from Israel, America’s ‘top ally’ in the Middle East, to the highest possible level, according to two U.S. officials and one former U.S. official.
The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency in recent weeks issued the new counterintelligence threat assessment amid rising tensions between Israel and the U.S. over the way forward in the war with Iran, the officials said.
They said the DIA posted an internal message, viewed by one of the current officials, that raised the level for Israel to ‘critical.’
The designation stems from concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a particular effort to surveil top U.S. officials to get information on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making on the conflicts in the Middle East, the officials said.
The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a chart, according to one of the current U.S. officials. The document says the assessment is that Israel’s ability to conduct human espionage and technical collection is at a ‘critical level,’ according to the official.
It also identifies a series of specific incidents that heightened U.S. concerns, the official said.
A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement that it is ‘completely false’ that Israel spies on the U.S. ‘Israel does not gather intelligence on American entities, let alone US government officials,’ the spokesperson said. ‘Israel intelligence collection efforts are aimed at its enemies, not its allies. Any claims to the contrary are either misinformed or politically motivated.’
While it is commonplace for allies and adversaries across the globe to spy on each other, current U.S. officials said Israel’s recent efforts have gone well beyond what is typical and expected espionage. The officials did not know if a specific incident triggered the DIA’s decision to raise the counterintelligence threat level.
The heightened alert comes as President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clashed over the war with Iran and Israel’s military operations in Lebanon, including in a tense phone call this past week, NBC News reported. Trump acknowledged afterward to reporters that he called Netanyahu ‘crazy’ during the call, as questions are mounting about whether the two countries’ objectives in the Middle East are beginning to significantly diverge.
Since a ceasefire went into place in early April, Trump has been pursuing a diplomatic deal with Iran to end the war that Israel and the U.S. launched on Feb. 28. Israel has publicly expressed skepticism that Iran would abide by any negotiated deal. Netanyahu has demanded a resumption of bombing raids against Iran and disagreed with Trump, who has pressed him to scale back attacks against Hezbollah in Lebanon, according to Western officials.
Israel is keenly interested in whether Trump decides to resume major combat operations against Iran or to end the conflict, current and former U.S. officials and outside experts said.
The most practical outcome for the Pentagon is that U.S. officials will use extra caution when traveling to Israel or visiting with Israeli officials, the current and former U.S. officials said.
‘The U.S. already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel,’ one of the current U.S. officials said. ‘They’re well-known to aggressively collect intelligence against us.’
The U.S., like other countries, maintains elaborate counterintelligence or ‘spy catcher’ efforts to prevent and track espionage by foreign adversaries as well as by allies and partners, seeking to safeguard state secrets and monitor attempts to recruit or coerce U.S. officials. Under U.S. law, the FBI has the leading role in counter-intelligence efforts, but they also involve a range of government agencies and the military.
According to current and former diplomats and former national security officials, for decades Israel has had a reputation for aggressive espionage even against the U.S., its closest ally. It’s a practice that has long raised concerns among national security and diplomatic officials, and U.S. intelligence officials closely monitor the issue.
Top U.S. officials often take extra care when traveling to Israel, sometimes using burner phones and computers and extreme caution when speaking in hotel rooms during official trips, the current and former U.S. officials and experts said.
Israel has ‘a hyper-aggressive intelligence service,’ said Emily Harding, vice president of the Defense and Security Department and director of the intelligence, national security and technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank in Washington. ‘They are exceedingly interested in what we are up to,’ Harding said of the Israelis.
In the 1980s, spying by Israel caused a serious political and diplomatic rift with Washington, with U.S. Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard spending 30 years in prison after he was found to have sold suitcases of top-secret documents to Israel.
The U.S. and Israel remain ‘close allies’ and the two countries’ intelligence services have forged a close, working relationship over decades.
But concerns about possible Israeli espionage at such a sensitive moment — when the two governments are not in full agreement about the war with Iran — carry the risk of undermining trust between the two countries, two additional former U.S. officials said.