The NSA "maintains a far-reaching technical and analytic relationship with the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU) sharing information on access, intercept, targeting, language, analysis and reporting," according to an NSA document dated April 13, 2013, which is among other documents revealed by The Intercept on Monday.
The documents show the US has provided Israel with cash, raw data and analysis under agreements reached between the NSA and Israeli SIGINT National Unit also known as Unit 8200, the secretive signals intelligence organization.The Intercept's Glenn Greenwald wrote that the documents "underscore the indispensable, direct involvement of the US government and its key allies in Israeli aggression against its neighbors. That covert support is squarely at odds with the posture of helpless detachment typically adopted by Obama officials and their supporters."
The documents also show Unit 8200 along with the US, Britain and Canada attempt to collect signals from throughout the Middle East.
In 2003 and 2004, the US explored a "massively expanded intelligence-sharing relationship called 'Gladiator.'" But the Israelis demanded hundreds of millions of dollars in exchange for the project, which "appears never to have been consummated," one document shows.
Comment: Do we think for one minute the United States is exempt from Israeli spying and espionage activities? Think again! A CIA-led National Intelligence Estimate on cyberthreats in 2013 ranked Israel the third most aggressive intelligence service against the U.S., behind only China and Russia (likely a low estimate!). And, the U.S. routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first filtering out information about U.S. citizens (as per Snowden). All phone calls and emails are included in this data mine. And, the agreement between the U.S. and Israel places no legally binding limits on the use of this data by the Israelis, nor does it have any legal obligations to international law. Constitutional rights of Americans to privacy?Who owns the NSA? Just another couple of lousy illusions.