Post by Paddy by Grace on Dec 14, 2008 10:50:42 GMT -7
'US spies on Israel to gain info on its atomic capabilities'
www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=6363
December 12, 2008
‘US spies on Israel to gain info on its atomic capabilities’
By JPOST.COM STAFF
The United States routinely attempts to gather information on Israel’s assumed atomic arsenal and secret government deliberations, a new official history of Israel’s intelligence services, reviewed by Reuters, says.
While espionage by allies on their friends is not uncommon, a new Israeli state-sponsored publication acknowledges it openly. Bilateral ties have been especially touchy in this regard since a Jewish US Navy analyst, Jonathan Pollard, was jailed for life in the US for treason in 1987 for passing classified documents to Israel.
The book “Masterpiece: An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Israeli Intelligence,” claims American spy agencies use technologies like electronic eavesdropping, and specially trained staff located in the US embassy in Tel Aviv, for “methodical intelligence gathering.”
“The United States has been after Israel’s non-conventional capabilities and what goes on at the decision-making echelons,” says the book in a chapter on counter-espionage written by Barak Ben-Zur, a retired Shin Bet officer.
Asked about the assertions, the US embassy spokesman said only: “We don’t comment on intelligence matters.”
Israel is widely believed to have been armed with nuclear weapons since the late 1960s, but a policy of “strategic ambiguity” has prevented state officials in the know to confirm or deny the claims.
While successive US administrations have accepted this reticence, Israel’s so-called “bomb in the basement” has been a worry for Washington - especially during the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when fighting inflamed the wider Cold War.
Declassified Pentagon documents published in a 2004 book about then US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld estimated that Israel had 80 nuclear warheads. Last May, former US President Jimmy Carter put the number of Israeli bombs at around 150. The estimates on Israel’s nuclear arsenal range from about 80 to more than 200, as do estimates on its launching capabilities, which apart from ballistic missiles may or may not include special custom-designed torpedoes.
The issue has taken on new relevance recently given Western fears that Iran’s nuclear program is an attempt at acquiring a bomb; despite Teheran’s insistent denial, Israel’s policy has been not to allow any Middle Eastern state to acquire nukes. Some analysts believe Israel should instead “take the bomb out of the basement and create an overt nuclear deterrence against Iran.
Ben-Zur declined to give Reuters operational details on how the United States might be conducting its espionage on Israel. But he described the effort as largely benign, given the closeness of defense ties between Israel and Washington.
“At the end of the day, the United States does not want to be surprised,” he said. “Even by us.”
Due out later this month, “Masterpiece” is published by the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center and includes prefaces by chiefs of Israel’s military intelligence, the domestic Shin Bet and the Mossad spy service active abroad.
www.israpundit.com/2008/?p=6363
December 12, 2008
‘US spies on Israel to gain info on its atomic capabilities’
By JPOST.COM STAFF
The United States routinely attempts to gather information on Israel’s assumed atomic arsenal and secret government deliberations, a new official history of Israel’s intelligence services, reviewed by Reuters, says.
While espionage by allies on their friends is not uncommon, a new Israeli state-sponsored publication acknowledges it openly. Bilateral ties have been especially touchy in this regard since a Jewish US Navy analyst, Jonathan Pollard, was jailed for life in the US for treason in 1987 for passing classified documents to Israel.
The book “Masterpiece: An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Israeli Intelligence,” claims American spy agencies use technologies like electronic eavesdropping, and specially trained staff located in the US embassy in Tel Aviv, for “methodical intelligence gathering.”
“The United States has been after Israel’s non-conventional capabilities and what goes on at the decision-making echelons,” says the book in a chapter on counter-espionage written by Barak Ben-Zur, a retired Shin Bet officer.
Asked about the assertions, the US embassy spokesman said only: “We don’t comment on intelligence matters.”
Israel is widely believed to have been armed with nuclear weapons since the late 1960s, but a policy of “strategic ambiguity” has prevented state officials in the know to confirm or deny the claims.
While successive US administrations have accepted this reticence, Israel’s so-called “bomb in the basement” has been a worry for Washington - especially during the Six Day War of 1967 and the Yom Kippur War in 1973, when fighting inflamed the wider Cold War.
Declassified Pentagon documents published in a 2004 book about then US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld estimated that Israel had 80 nuclear warheads. Last May, former US President Jimmy Carter put the number of Israeli bombs at around 150. The estimates on Israel’s nuclear arsenal range from about 80 to more than 200, as do estimates on its launching capabilities, which apart from ballistic missiles may or may not include special custom-designed torpedoes.
The issue has taken on new relevance recently given Western fears that Iran’s nuclear program is an attempt at acquiring a bomb; despite Teheran’s insistent denial, Israel’s policy has been not to allow any Middle Eastern state to acquire nukes. Some analysts believe Israel should instead “take the bomb out of the basement and create an overt nuclear deterrence against Iran.
Ben-Zur declined to give Reuters operational details on how the United States might be conducting its espionage on Israel. But he described the effort as largely benign, given the closeness of defense ties between Israel and Washington.
“At the end of the day, the United States does not want to be surprised,” he said. “Even by us.”
Due out later this month, “Masterpiece” is published by the Israel Intelligence Heritage and Commemoration Center and includes prefaces by chiefs of Israel’s military intelligence, the domestic Shin Bet and the Mossad spy service active abroad.