ZGram - 1/28/2002 - "What Tiger?"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Copyright (c) 2001 - Ingrid A. Rimland

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

January 28, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

It turns out that I was not the only one who wondered whatever happened to
the "Israely spying" story.  Here is one worthy follow-up:

[START]

WHAT TIGER?

 Al-Ahram Weekly Online (Cairo, Egypt)

 January 24-30, 2002 -- Issue No. 570

 For years, Israel has been busy collecting sensitive information about the
US. Why has it been above suspicion, wonders Mohamed  Hakki in Washington.

 ------

 There is an old Russian joke about Russia's frustration in its
negotiations with China. Former Prime Minister Nikita Krushchev goes
hunting with Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung during his visit to China. Both
see a tiger. Mao takes aim at the tiger, but misses. Krushchev then shoots
and kills the tiger. The two leaders' aides then carry the tiger back to
the guest house. When the party arrives back in Beijing, Krushchev turns to
Mao and asks, "Where's the tiger?" Mao says, "What tiger?" Frustrated,
Krushchev recaps the day's events. "You remember we went out hunting?" Yes.
"And you shot at the tiger we saw, and missed?" Yes. "And I took a shot and
got him?" Yes. "Then, where's the tiger?" To which the same answer came
back: "What tiger?"

 Something very similar is happening between Israel and its benefactor, the
United States. In December, several reports on the Fox news network covered
the sensitive issue of Israel spying on America. One question loomed large:
did Israel know anything about 11 September that it did not share with the
US?

 More than 60 Israelis have reportedly been arrested or detained in the US,
either under the new anti-terrorism law or for immigration violations. Some
were active Israeli military; some failed polygraph questions when asked
about surveillance activities in the US. It  may be that there is no reason
to believe that Israel was involved in the 11 September
attacks, but investigators are leaving open the possibility that Israeli
Intelligence might have gathered information about the attacks that was not
shared with the US. A highly-placed investigator said there are "tie-ins",
but refused to elaborate, saying that evidence linking detained Israelis to
11 September is classified.

 Numerous classified documents obtained by Fox news indicate that even
prior to 11 September, more than 140 Israelis had been arrested in a secret
and extensive investigation into suspected espionage by Israelis in the US.
The documents reveal that investigators from numerous government agencies
are part of a working group that has been compiling evidence on Israeli
espionage since the mid-1990s. These documents detail hundreds of incidents
in cities and towns across the country that investigators say, "may well be
an organised intelligence gathering activity."

 Part of these investigations focus on a group of Israeli art students from
the University of Jerusalem and Bazala Academy. The documents obtained by
Fox news indicate that these students are thought to have "targeted and
penetrated military bases." The Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), the Federal
Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and dozens of government facilities may also
have been breached, as well as "secret offices" and the unlisted private
homes of law enforcement and intelligence personnel. The documents show
that the majority of suspects questioned stated they had served in military
intelligence and were familiar with electronic surveillance intercepts and
explosive ordinance units.

 Another part of the investigation has resulted in the detention and
arrests of dozens of Israelis selling toys at American mall kiosks. The
detentions were reported in the New York Times and the Washington Post last
month and the carts vanished.

 Yet another report focuses on the Israeli-based private communications
company, Amdocs, where a number of those 60 detained suspects worked. Most
directory assistance calls and virtually all call records and billing in
the US are done for the telephone companies by Amdocs Ltd, which has
contracts with the 25 largest phone companies in the US -- and more
worldwide. It is virtually impossible to make a call on a land line without
generating an Amdocs record. Through Amdocs, it would be possible to keep
ahead of investigators by knowing who they are calling.

 In 1999, the Maryland-headquartered National Security Agency issued a
top-secret report warning that records of calls in the United States were
ending up in foreign hands -- Israel, in particular. Investigators do not
believe calls are being bugged, but the data about who is calling whom and
when is very valuable in itself.

 One well-known spy scandal centred on foreign intelligence penetrating the
Clinton White House in early 1997. The story re-emerged in late 1998, when
the Monica Lewinsky tapes indicated that President Clinton had told her
that their private telephone conversations are "monitored" by a foreign
embassy. It is stunning that the president of the only superpower knows
that he is being spied on without taking any measures either to declare it
or stop it. This in itself speaks volumes about the nature of Clinton's
relationship with Israel. The story returned yet again in May 2000, when it
was claimed that Israeli telecommunications companies had penetrated the
White House communications system. The companies named were the leading
Israeli telecommunications company, Telrad, and -- you guessed it --
Amdocs.

 Perhaps the more interesting thing about all of these Israeli espionage
cases is the reaction of the media, which seems to be complicit in the
suppression of this information. Stories run on Fox about Israeli espionage
have even been taken off the network's Web site. Carl  Cameron, the
investigative reporter who broke the story, is nearly losing his mind. On a
C-span television programme, he lamented: "The biggest story of our time,
of Israel spying on all branches of the government, on all our intelligence
agencies -- in the CIA [Central Intelligence Agency], the DEA and the White
House itself, is not picked up by the leading newspapers like the New York
Times and the Washington Post." Buried. Gone.

 But this is not the first time that stories of Israeli spying on the US
have been buried. In her excellent, brief and unparalleled study entitled
"Spy, Steal and Smuggle," Claudia Wright detailed an unnerving record of
Israel's spying on the US for years. This was in 1986, after the whole
affair about Jonathan Pollard had erupted. Pollard, an American Jew, was
convicted of spying for Israel.

 In her report, Wright names names, incidents, history and contacts, in the
most detailed and damning study of this subject so far. She also puts her
finger on an important point: "To government investigators, who have been
ordered by their superiors to drop or close cases involving Israel, the
lesson of the Pollard case seemed to be that if the television cameras were
invited to photograph the arrest, then there would have been a chance -- a
slim one perhaps -- that a public prosecution and trial might result."

 People forget that the whole essence of the Pollard case is that the
guilty pleas ended any prospect of a trial and public exposure of the
extent of the damage incurred by Pollard's espionage. Without a trial,
Pollard's contacts in Israel and the high-ranking Americans who may have
been involved in recruiting him -- and protecting him in his job at Navy
intelligence -- remain unknown. A trial and subsequent media focus might
even have led to the identification of "Mr X", an administration insider
who is said to have given Pollard crucial information on where and how to
find the ultra-secret information he provided the Israelis with.

 Claudia Wright's words 16 years ago are even more relevant today: "Eight
weeks after Pollard's arrest, the US media was preoccupied with Arab
terrorism, not Israeli espionage,              against America. The
investigative reporters of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the
Boston Globe and other newspapers were reassigned, their stories unwritten
or unpublished."

 Espionage? What espionage?

  =====

(Source:   http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/570/in1.htm )

=====

Thought for the Day:

"I kept six honest serving men,
They taught me all I knew,
There names were What and Why and When
and How and Where and Who."

(Kipling)