States Do Not Have Friends, They Only Have Interests

One of the key points that people seem to often forget when it comes to international relations is that countries do not have friends, only interests. It may be that those interests largely coincide, in which case countries may have a "special relationship" or be "allies," but, in the end, nations look out for number one. This seems aptly illustrated by a report today indicating that Israel has been accused of planting "sting ray" cell phone interception devices near the White House.

     Politico reports:

      The U.S. government concluded within the past two years that Israel was most likely behind the placement of cellphone surveillance devices that were found near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, according to three former senior U.S. officials with knowledge of the matter.

       But unlike most other occasions when flagrant incidents of foreign spying have been discovered on American soil, the Trump administration did not rebuke the Israeli government, and there were no consequences for Israel’s behavior, one of the former officials said.

       The miniature surveillance devices, colloquially known as “StingRays,” mimic regular cell towers to fool cellphones into giving them their locations and identity information. Formally called international mobile subscriber identity-catchers or IMSI-catchers, they also can capture the contents of calls and data use.

       The devices were likely intended to spy on President Donald Trump, one of the former officials said, as well as his top aides and closest associates — though it’s not clear whether the Israeli efforts were successful.

Israel, of course, denied the accusation, with Prime Minister Netanyahu issuing a statement that "There is a longstanding commitment, and a directive from the Israeli government not to engage in any intelligence operations in the US." It can't be too longstanding since Israel has a long history of spying in the United States. In fact, one of the most infamous cases of a foreign spy in U.S. intelligence was the case of Jonathan Pollard who pled guilty in 1986 to spying for Israel. At the time, Pollard was working as an analyst for the U.S. Naval Intelligence Command. In 2000, reports emerged of Israel spying on the White House and other sensitive telephone networks via upgrades made to communication networks for the White House, including installation of a high speed internet connection. In 2014, Newsweek published an article on Israel's spying that stated, among other things, that:

      According to classified briefings on legislation that would lower visa restrictions on Israeli citizens, Jerusalem's efforts to steal U.S. secrets under the cover of trade missions and joint defense technology contracts have "crossed red lines."

       Israel's espionage activities in America are unrivaled and unseemly, counterspies have told members of the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees, going far beyond activities by other close allies, such as Germany, France, the U.K. and Japan. A congressional staffer familiar with a briefing last January called the testimony "very sobering…alarming…even terrifying." Another staffer called it "damaging."

       The Jewish state's primary target: America's industrial and technical secrets.

      "No other country close to the United States continues to cross the line on espionage like the Israelis do," said a former congressional staffer who attended another classified briefing in late 2013, one of several in recent months given by officials from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the State Department, the FBI and the National Counterintelligence Directorate.

       The intelligence agencies didn't go into specifics, the former aide said, but cited "industrial espionage—folks coming over here on trade missions or with Israeli companies working in collaboration with American companies, [or] intelligence operatives being run directly by the government, which I assume meant out of the [Israeli] Embassy."

So, for Israel to claim that it has a policy of not conducting intelligence operations in the United States is disingenuous, if not false, depending on how you define "intelligence operations."

    Notwithstanding all of the above, Israel is not the only nation that conducts spying in the United States. Obviously, and as I've written about before, China is involved in whole scale attempts to steal secrets and technology from the United States and American companies. India's space program is probably built on a foundation of stolen United States' technology. I had an engineer for Ford Aerospace tell me many years ago that he had been approached by the Japanese to reveal satellite launch technology and know-how.

      I will end with this, however: an April 2018 article from Wired entitled "DC's Stingray Mess Won't Get Cleaned Up." That article reports that the Department of Homeland Security is aware of the presence of stingray devices in D.C., but also that there is little motivation to increase wireless security because our domestic law enforcement makes use of the same vulnerabilities. In June 2018, the Washington Post followed up on the story, relating:

      ESD America, a defense and law enforcement technology contractor based in Las Vegas, has reported detecting IMSI catchers throughout the Washington area while conducting testing for private clients.

      The company, which said it has federal contracts, declined to comment on work it has done for the U.S. government but said in a statement, “ESD America has several corporate and foreign government clients whom we have assisted in the detection of potential IMSI Catcher operation across many cities including Washington, D.C.”

     In the tests that ESD conducted for private clients, which took place over the past three years, the company said it had detected signs of IMSI catchers near the White House, the FBI headquarters, the Senate, the Pentagon, the Russian Embassy and along the collection of other foreign embassies in an area known as Embassy Row in Northwest Washington.