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UK Intelligence: ’Israel’ True Threat to Middle East

UK Intelligence: ’Israel’ True Threat to Middle East
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A 2008 document, leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden, revealed that the British were concerned about "Israel's" stance on Iran. GCHQ also spied on "Israeli" diplomats, and war firms.

UK Intelligence: ’Israel’ True Threat to Middle East

British intelligence spied on "Israeli" diplomats and firms in addition to its military, the French daily Le Monde reported on Wednesday, based on leaked documents that came into the possession of whistleblower Edward Snowden. In one of the files, Britain's GCHQ intelligence-gathering apparatus defined "Israel" as "a true threat" to the Middle East.

"The "Israelis" constitute a true threat to regional security, notably because of its position on the Iran issue," a leaked top secret document from 2009 said.

According to Le Monde, the GCHQ collected information on "Israeli" diplomats, including a person described by the newspaper as the second-highest ranking official in the "Israeli" foreign ministry. That person was not named. The British also spied on the Palestinian Authority, the report said.

Email correspondence belonging to the "Israeli" ambassadors to Nigeria and Kenya was also the subject of British intelligence-gathering efforts as was Ophir Optronics, a firm deemed to be tied to the "Israeli" war establishment that specializes in fiber optics, and the entity's University of Jerusalem's Racah Institute of Physics.

According to Le Monde, the GCHQ kept track of the phones of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as well as that of his two sons, Yasser and Tarek Abbas, on December 9, 2008. Noting that these interceptions occurred three weeks before "Israeli" aggression in Gaza in January 2009, the newspaper suggests they may have served to aid "Israel" to prepare for the operation.

From the end of 2008 through 2009 the British agency monitored communications among the PLO secretary general and numerous Palestinian delegations, in particular those in France, Belgium, Portugal, Pakistan, South Africa and Malaysia. It also spied on Arab Knesset Member Ahmad Tibi, and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei.

A 2008 note from the American security agency, the NSA, revealed in the Snowden archives, and cited on the American site The Intercept, described the Palestinian Authority's security forces as "no threat to the United States or its allies...and these forces are frequently the best informed on violence in the region."

The Le Monde report followed a previous publication based on documents stolen by Snowden dealing with spying by US and British intelligence on "Israeli" military aircraft.

For 18 years, GCHQ and its American counterpart, the NSA, had collected drone transmissions after cracking the "Israeli" army's encryption for communication among fighter jets, drones and army bases.

The information was reported in January by The Intercept and the German newspaper, Der Spiegel.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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