Israel's hitech industry a branch of the Mossad?

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1029006.html

Is Israel's booming high-tech industry a branch of the Mossad?

By Yossi Melman

Tags: NSA, Mossad, high tech 

In 2006 the Check Point Software Technologies company, which specializes in
protecting computer systems from hackers and data theft, wanted to acquire an
American company called Sourcefire, which works in the same field. The great
advantage of Sourcefire was that its clients include the American Defense
Department and the National Security Agency. The U.S. administration,
however, by means of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United
States, did not approve the acquisition.

The committee made its decision based on an opinion by the Federal Bureau of
Investigation and NSA security officers. The two organizations were afraid
that Check Point, which was founded by Gil Shwed and fellow graduates of Unit
8200, the Israel Defense Forces' high-tech intelligence unit, would have
access to top-secret information, which it could pass on to Israel's
intelligence community.

The fear and suspicion currently is directed not only toward Check Point, but
also other Israeli high-tech companies like Verint, Comverse, NICE Systems
and PerSay Voice Biometrics, some of which work in data mining and engage in
software development for tapping telephones, fax machines, e-mail and
computer communications.

The above accusations come from journalist and writer James Bamford, whose
new book, "The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the
Eavesdropping on America" (Doubleday), came out this week in the United
States.

Bamford, a former producer for the ABC television network, has spent the last
30 years writing about the NSA - one of the most important and least-known
intelligence agencies in the United States, but usually in the shadow of the
Central Intelligence Agency. The NSA is responsible for eavesdropping on
telephones, fax machines and computers; intercepting communications and
electromagnetic signals from radar equipment, aircraft, missiles, ships and
submarines; and decoding transmissions and cracking codes. It has contributed
immeasurably to U.S. intelligence and national security.

In this respect, the United States resembles Israel: Successes attributed to
the Mossad should often be credited to other intelligence units - first and
foremost Unit 8200, the Israeli equivalent of the NSA.

This is Bamford's third book, and it affords a look into the mazes of the
NSA. In 1982 the Justice department threatened to prosecute him for revealing
agency secrets in his first book, "The Puzzle Palace: Inside the National
Security Agency, America's Most Secret Intelligence Organization." In his
second book, "Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security
Agency," he described the NSA with a great deal of enthusiasm, which made him
the organization's hero of the day. The NSA even organized a party in his
honor at headquarters in Fort Meade, Maryland. His new book, which is
critical of the NSA, has sent him back to his starting point.

Bamford's main thesis is that before September 11, 2001, the agency failed
along with other intelligence agencies in understanding the Al-Qaida threat,
even though it had intercepted members' phone calls and e-mails. This stemmed
in part from excessive caution for upholding laws and respecting citizens'
privacy. In April 2000, then-NSA director general Michael Hayden (currently
the director of the CIA), vividly described to a Congressional committee how,
if at that very moment Osama bin Laden were to step onto the Peace Bridge at
Niagara Falls and cross into the United States, "my people must respect his
rights."

After the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon,
the organization swung over to the other extreme. According to Bamford, since
September 11 the NSA has had no compunctions about violating the Constitution
and has been eavesdropping on American citizens.

One of the outstanding examples in the book, which has been well-covered in
the American media, is the fact that the NSA has listened in on bedroom
conversations of journalists, military officers and officials serving in
Iraq. The NSA may eavesdrop on and intercept transmissions outside the United
States, but cannot do so to American citizens without a court order.

Another of Bamford's important assertions, which also concerns Israel, is
that the largest telephony and communications companies in the United States
- in fact all of them except QWEST - have cooperated with the NSA, allowing
it to tap their lines and optic fibers.

The above-mentioned Israeli companies and others are important software and
technology suppliers for not only the American telephony companies, but for
the NSA itself. Bamford claims that 80 percent of all American telephone
transmissions are conducted by means of the Israeli companies' technology,
know-how and accessibility. Thus, Bamford believes, the American intelligence
community is exposing itself to the risk that the Israeli companies will
access its most secret and sensitive digital information.

Bamford does not provide any backing for this thesis; he only points to a
circumstantial relationship. The Israeli companies were largely established
by graduates of 8200, and therefore he says they are connected by their
umbilical cords to Israeli intelligence, and their CEOs and boards of
directors include senior Shin Bet officials like Arik Nir or former Mossad
chief Ephraim Halevy (Nir is the CEO of Athlone Global Security, a hedge fund
that has invested inter alia in PerSay Voice Biometrics, and Ephraim Halevy
is a member of the Athlone Advisory Board).

To put it mildly, Bamford has no love lost for Israel. In his articles, he
publishes claims by American Navy officials who believe Israel maliciously
attacked the American spy ship Liberty during the 1967 Six-Day War. He holds
that the September 11 attack did not stem from radical Islam's basic hatred
of America, but rather from its anger at the United States' support for
Israel. He calls the nineteen September 11 terrorists "soldiers" and
describes them with a great deal of sympathy - Davids who "only" demolished
four airplanes of the American Goliath.

In this context, and apparently because of his deep hostility, Bamford
asserts that in light of the problematic record of Israel, which did not
hesitate to spy against America on American soil, Israeli companies should
not have been given the keys to the kingdom of America's secrets. His
attitude toward Israel apparently pushes him over the psychological brink, as
his book hardly mentions the close cooperation between the two countries'
intelligence communities, mainly in the war against international jihad
terror or in monitoring Iran.