Jeff Stein, writing about intelligence matters at the Washington Post, notes a recent poll of CIA personnel ranking U.S. allies from best to worst in terms of the nature of their coöperation and relationship with our spy agency. Here’s the result:
“Israel came in dead last,” a recently retired CIA official told me the other day.
Not only that, he added, throwing up his hands and rising from his chair, “the Israelis are number three, with China number one and Russia number two,” in terms of how aggressive they are in their operations on U.S. soil.
But not only are they the snoopiest, most intrusive and among the most duplicitous in their operations here, now they’re attempting to recruit American Muslims as intelligence assets. Hard to believe they could have that much chutzpah to operate here in this fashion. But nothing surprises me on this score.
Stein quotes an article by Phil Giraldi, himself a retired former CIA officer on these efforts:
One of Israel’s major interests, of course, is keeping track of Muslims who might be allied with Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, or Iran-backed Hezbollah, based in Lebanon.
As tensions with Iran escalate, according to former CIA officer Philip Giraldi, “Israeli agents have become more aggressive in targeting Muslims living in the United States as well as in operating against critics.”
“There have been a number of cases reported to the FBI about Mossad officers who have approached leaders in Arab-American communities and have falsely represented themselves as ‘U.S. intelligence,’ ” Giraldi wrote recently in American Conservative magazine.
“Because few Muslims would assist an Israeli, this is done to increase the likelihood that the target will cooperate. It’s referred to as a ‘false flag’ operation.”
Giraldi’s piece continued, “Mossad officers sought to recruit Arab-Americans as sources willing to inform on their associates and neighbors. The approaches, which took place in New York and New Jersey, were reportedly handled clumsily, making the targets of the operation suspicious.”
“These Arab-Americans turned down the requests for cooperation,” Giraldi added,”and some of the contacts were eventually reported to the FBI, which has determined that at least two of the Mossad officers are, ironically, Israeli Arabs operating out of Israel’s mission to the United Nations in New York under cover as consular assistants.”
“Oh, sure, they do that,” the other former CIA official said, waving a dismissing hand, when I asked about Giraldi’s story. “They’re all over the place.”
One of a number of extraordinary things about this activity is that the Mossad has recruited Israeli Palestinians to become agents. I have to wonder what would motivate such a person to enlist in Israeli intelligence especially given the history of relations between Israel and its Palestinian citizens.
Stein also quotes an FBI counterintelligence officer on the subject of Israel’s penetration of the U.S.:
…A retired senior FBI counterintelligence official told SpyTalk, “They have always been extremely aggressive, and seem to feel they can operate whenever and wherever they want, in spite of being called on the carpet more than any other country by probably a factor of three times as often.”
Those of you who have been reading this blog for the past year or so will note that I have covered a number of stories involving Israeli activities in the U.S. which seek to influence domestic opinion in favor of war with Iran. In the business, it’s called a perception management campaign to exploit media, political leaders and other influential figures to favor aggressive action against Iran. The influence is exerted in ways overt and covert, transparent and oblique, straightforward and duplicitous.
As part of this operation, members of Congress were rated for the unfriendliness to Israeli interests, those deemed hostile were scrutinized closely by local Jewish community leaders who reported on the member’s activities that might be of interest to the embassy. Articles planted in local newspapers hostile to Iran were written by embassy personnel but fronted by local Jewish community leaders. Locally, the Israeli consulate utilized the cover of the local Aipac chapter and Jewish federation to organize an anti-Iran dog and pony show that featured a Jerusalem Post reporter, an Aipac flack and the Israeli consul general warning the Jewish community of the existential danger posed by Iran to Israel and the world.
An Israeli-American like Max Singer, living in Israel and a citizen of that country, publishes advocacy through the Hudson Institute which explicitly seeks to undermine a sitting U.S. president. Retired IDF generals openly and publicly wish for the defeat of the Democrats in the November elections. There is seemingly no red line Israel isn’t willing to cross in boosting its perceived interests. What’s more nefarious though is the argument that the policies advocated (belligerency towards Iran, for example) are good for the U.S., when in reality the policies are advocated because they are good for Israel (at least in the eyes of these war hawks).
And this is the more or less above-board activities in which they’ve engaged–not the deep cover activities of which I have no direct knowledge. So you imagine to yourself what that might entail.
You’ll also remember that the Mossad exploited Israeli-owned U.S. finance companies with close ties to the Israeli military intelligence community to finance the Dubai assassination of Mahmoud al-Mabouh. I’ve been waiting for months for the other shoe to drop on this one. But it appears, at least so far, that the FBI isn’t prepared to make a stir over this though it should. I suppose Obama thinks he has bigger fish to fry in bringing home an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement. Of course, the danger is he may not get the agreement AND he may never uncover the abuse of the U.S. financial system to fund Israeli terror (something we claim to be in favor of exposing when it involves Arab terror).
We mustn’t lose sight of the fact that for Israel, the U.S. is the mother lode. We are the world’s superpower. We hold Israel’s fate in the balance, or at least we could if it were attacked. From the Mossad’s point of view, they MUST have a robust presence here. The problem is how they manifest that presence. By importing to this country the traditions of opacity, duplicity and surreptitiousness for which Israeli intelligence is known in Israel, they risk degrading our own standards and values, especially if our own Justice Department and president allow them to behave with impunity.
giraldi is a paulbot richard
paul supporters are neonazis and troofers
that the article would use him as a source makes the entire thing very questionable
“an internal cia poll” rofl
wonder if it was conducted by the same guys who helped cheney cherry pick the intel for going to war with iraq
A former CIA officer, that’s what he is professionally which is why his view is important.
As for Ron Paul, irrelevant. Besides, I don’t even know that what you’re claiming is true since as usual you don’t provide any support.
I’m tiring of you rapidly. Keep up the snark & yr shelf life here will be short.
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ROckville MD – or other DC neighborhoods- backgammon tournaments seem like a good place to make friends. Well, later the israeli gov will blame a “rogue” organization that will be dismantled wink wink, and we know the rest.
The question is why does the CIA allow that, if they are so much against it.
i guess the CIA has a problem with american “rogue” agencies which are not loyal to the new administration.
I can’t imagine why any American Muslim would be inclined to allow themselves to be recruited by the likes of the Mossad.
Besides, shouldn’t there be something illegal about such a thing as a foreign intelligence agency attempting to recruit American citizens for spying? Isn’t this called espionage? Or is this part of the “special relationship” enjoyed by Israel with the US?
BLOG: “There have been a number of cases reported to the FBI about Mossad officers who have approached leaders in Arab-American communities and have falsely represented themselves as ‘U.S. intelligence,’ ” Giraldi wrote recently in American Conservative magazine.”
MARY: “I can’t imagine why any American Muslim would be inclined to allow themselves to be recruited by the likes of the Mossad.”
WELL, with FALSE FLAGS fluttering everywhere, I can easily believe that ANYBODY can and will pretend to be ANYBODY ELSE in order to seek clandestine help.
I am quite sure that the Saudi folks who performed the 9/11 aircraft crashes BELIEVED they had been recruited, paid, supported, etc.,by Al-Qaeda (or the like). I am equally sure that there is little way they (or anyone else) can now (or could then) determine who ACTUALLY organized 9/11.
The organizers of 9/11 either CALLED OFF MILITARY INTERVENTION WHICH WOULD OTHERWISE HAVE SHOT DOWN THOSE PLANES or benefited largely from someone else (Vice President’s office?) calling off the normal military response.
Who do I think organized 9/11? CIA (or some fragment of it) or (Vice-President’s office or some fragment of it) or MOSSAD (or some fragment of it) seem as likely to me as Al-Qaeda, and each of these seems al lot more powerful than Al-Qaeda– and FAR MORE ABLE to call off the military response which should have prevented the destruction of the Twin Towers and the deaths of almost 3000 people.
I think you could possibly be right. But I also believe that we’ll never know what really happened on 9/11. Maybe our great-grandchildren might someday know the truth but I doubt it will be revealed in our lifetimes.
Loonytunes.
Ahem, what I meant was that so much of the information is classified that it’s impossible to know the whole scenario. I’m not an afficionado of “troofer” conspiracy theories.
Mary, I expect Richard was commenting on and distancing himself from my post. If so, he would not be alone in the characterization “Loonytunes”.
Some people are not comfortable with FALSE FLAG allegations/suppositions even though we know about many in history including American ones.
there are two reasons to distance oneself from conspiracies such as 9/11 truthies. one is practical and reasonable, and that it is a huge waste of energy, and usually even when the truth comes out, it has little effect on political realities. The ability to carry false flag operation speaks for itself, and the victims dont count. One such example that did come out was the Isaeli “parasha”, when Israel meant to bomb American targets in Egypt and frame the arabs etc. Despite the “earthquake”, nothing really changed. There were rumors in Israel w/r to several terrorist attacks, in and outside Israel, as being “false flag” (one famous theory claims that Argov assassination was such), and these events were meant to spin public opinion and prepare for larger moves. The tragedy, besides the victims of the terror, lies with those who are manipulated and framed, but they are considered “broken eggs” on the way to make the big omelette. This is just a form of military cunning, nothing else. In such case, I would not call the theory “looney” in respect to memory and history and the many dupes who lost life and name in such events. Its enough to pass the subject and move on.
the other reason is less innocent and more self serving. The main cadre of Jewish progressives is part of a larger cultural phenomenon, I jestfully call “the Jewish brigade of the State department”. The boundaries of this critique are very clear and marked, and false flags of sorts are way beyond that, given the role of Israel and Jews in the USA in the campaign against Iraq, from the Bush era (even Ragen) and till now.
It would be fascinating to see the results of a similar internal Poll at MI6.
One suspects that Russia would easily make first place for aggression, Iran second, Israel indeed third and China fourth, if that.
(Iranian Intelligence did get a double agent into the post of translator to the British general in charge in Afghanistan a few years back, on the basis of his being “the only fluent Pashtoon speaker in the TA.” However, the double agent, who used the name “Garry James”, only became the “only fluent pashtoon speaker in the TA” when Jonathan Kitulagoda happened to be one of the first British soldiers deliberately killed in the country. Up till then, there had been almost no systematic attacks on British soldiers. I have wondered for several years, if Jonathan was singled out precisely because he could communicate with ordinary Afghans and not leave his unit dependent on dubious outsiders for translation services. There was a newspaper article, where Jonathan said that it was immensely helpful that he could speak to people and that all sorts of problems had been averted – and then he was dead. I know people die on the battlefield, but it wasn’t a battlefield in that area prior to the attack which killed him. I just don’t see how the Taliban could have managed the feedback, and it wasn’t THEIR cause that was advanced by his death, either.)
http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/MilitaryOperations/PrivateJonathanKitulagodaKilledInKabulFourInjured.htm
Chinese intelligence may be present in the UK, perhaps on a large scale, but they are not killing anyone. Which is courteous of them.
I want to make a difference in the world. At the moment I have only language skills, but I would like to learn more. I do not question commands but to tell you the truth I am 27 and I don;t have an idea what to do with my life. I am not an agent for any agency, all I want do is something significant
only a email reply. you do not have to trace it, just ask me