Cell-phone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, D.C. likely were planted by Israel, Politico reported.
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The article published online on Thursday, cited three unnamed former senior officials that Politico said have “knowledge of the matter.”
Unlike other times when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for Israel’s behavior, one of the former officials told Politico.
The devices, which fool cell phones into providing locations and identity information, as well as the content of calls, likely were intended to spy on President Donald Trump and his top aides, one of the officials said.
Trump has often used an insufficiently secured cell phone to communicate with friends and confidants, Politico noted.
“It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible,” a former senior intelligence official told Politico. The sources said the FBI based its accusation of Israel on a detailed forensic analysis, involving other security agencies.
Israeli Embassy spokesperson Elad Strohmayer denied that Israel placed the devices. “These allegations are absolute nonsense. Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period.”
Efforts of foreign entities to spy on administration officials and other top political figures are fairly common.
“The Israelis are pretty aggressive” in intelligence gathering, a former senior intelligence official told Politico.
One former official told the news magazine that there were “suspicions” that Israel was listening, saying that Israeli officials had a level of detailed knowledge “that was hard to explain otherwise.”
One of the U.S. officials acknowledged that the U.S. spies on Israel, too.
(JTA)
More to the point, after the Pollard disaster, the Israelis said they would stop spying on the Americans. Seems they cannot be trusted.
did you think that someone else could have planted the devices so that Israe is blamed. I believe Bibi has more seichel than to bite the hand which feeds him in more than one way
I’ll sleep better tonight, knowing someone is keeping an eye (and an ear) on all those Many Very Fine People working for Trump.
I have no doubt it was Russia.
Politico just retracted the story and said it was Russia or China who is spying on Trump.
Do you think if it was Israel it would be that obvious??? Please. Israel is a master at communication devices, etc. I doubt they would have been that conspicuous about,
I’m not stating that the Israelis did or didn’t spy in this case; however, the Mossad is capable of performing such an operation, without informing the Prime Minister; hence, if the Prime Minister has no knowledge of such an operation, he can give what is called plausible deniability when he is questioned, as he was today, in Sochi. The Israelis (in answer to PaulinSaudi) stated that they would never employ Americans in the USA, to do their spying. Even though they may have an “official” policy of not spying on us, it doesn’t mean that they don’t spy. I’m sure that the USA spies on the Israelis as well. All countries, including allies, spy on each other. I regret to state that this most recent incident, does not really help Jonathan Pollard out one iota, vis-a-vis rescinding his harsh and restrictive parole conditions. Even though his current parole conditions are supposed to end in November, 2020, there is no guarantee that the Justice Department won’t extend them, since he is technically on parole until November, 2030.
truth is the us goyerment spies on israel by tapping the phone and computer of the meshugga wife of israeli pm bobo notayahud. as well as bobo’s son’s phone and computer. truth is many of the christian missionaries in israel are american spies whose goal is to trick gullible israeli Jews into becoming christians and then becoming spies for america. The arab christian population in israel is known to be disloyal to israel and be filled with those working for intelligence agencies of christian countries.