Israeli spies tapped Clinton e-mail

[William Knowles <wk () C4I ORG>]

http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/sti/2000/05/21/stifgnusa02003.html

May 21st, 2000

MORE than 20 years of Israeli spying operations in Washington
culminated in the interception of e-mails from President Bill Clinton,
intelligence sources claimed last week.

The revelations come at a sensitive time as Ehud Barak, the Israeli
prime minister, is ex-pected to fly to Washington today for talks with
Clinton about the Middle East peace process.

The latest spying operation is said to have taken place in 1998 while
Benjamin Netanyahu was Israel's prime minister. According to the
sources, it entailed hacking into White House computer systems during
intense speculation about the direction of the peace process.

Sources in Israel say intelligence agents infiltrated Telrad, a
company that had been subcontracted by Nortel, America's largest
telecommunications conglomerate, to help develop a communications
system for the White House.

Company managers were said to have been unaware that virtually
undetectable chips installed during manufacture made it possible for
outside agents to tap into the flow of data from the White House.

Information being sent from the president to his senior staff in the
National Security Council and outside government departments could be
copied into a secret Israeli computer in Washington, the sources said.
It was transferred to Tel Aviv two or three times a week.

One opportunity for Israeli agents to mount the operation arose when
Nortel, Telrad and another firm won a 33m contract to replace
communications equipment for the Israeli air force. Members of the air
force were allowed access to manufacturing areas as a result.

Company and White House Officials last week denied any knowledge of
the intelligence operation. "We have no information that our phone
system has been compromised," said Jake Siewert, the deputy White
House press secretary.

An Israeli government official said that Mossad, the country's
intelligence service, was banned from conducting illicit surveillance
in America. "Spying on the US is out of the question," he said.

However, the FBI has conducted a highly classified investigation into
previous claims that Israeli intelligence has breached White House
security.

The inquiry was revealed earlier this month by the Washington Times
Insight magazine, which reported that Israeli agents used a software
company in Missouri to intercept telephone conversations from the
White House, State Department and other departments.

The FBI inquiry began some years ago after an investigation by the
State Department led to suspicions that Israel might have the
technology to overhear the conversations of American officials in
their offices.

It shifted to the White House in September 1998 when Kenneth Starr,
the independent prosecutor, reported that the Israelis may have
listened to amorous conversations between Clinton and Monica Lewinsky,
the White House trainee with whom he had an affair. The allegation was
denied by both Israel and the United States.

Both countries have been wary of the harm that could be caused by
Israeli intelligence operations since Jonathan Pollard, a former
American navy analyst, was jailed for spying for Israel in 1986.

Sources familiar with past operations, however, said penetration of
the White House was considered so secret that even some members of
Mossad's hierarchy were not informed.

They cited at least three occasions on which Israel had monitored the
White House, starting shortly after Gerald Ford became president in
1974.

A source who participated in the infiltration of Ford's White House
said the Israelis were interested in American plans to sell the Awacs
early warning aircraft to Saudi Arabia, a prospect that would have
allowed the desert kingdom to monitor Israeli air force activity
throughout the Middle East.

During the Carter administration, agents targeted Zbigniew Brzezinski,
the national security adviser, who was considered anti-Israeli. This
operation is said to have been conducted by a Mossad burglary unit
known as Keshet (Arrow).

A third operation straddled President Ronald Reagan's second term and
the early years of his successor, George Bush. The target was James
Baker, the former White House chief of staff and secretary of state
who was considered pro-Arab.


*-------------------------------------------------*
"Communications without intelligence is noise;
Intelligence without communications is irrelevant."
Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC
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