Israel concerned by U.S. intelligence leaks

By Barry Shaw

Barry Shaw

NETANYA, Israel — Behind the scenes, Israel intelligence experts are worried about the consequences of the leaks coming from the US National Security Council and other American intelligence agencies.

Israel shares a great deal of covert information with the United States some of which goes through intelligence sources to the National Security Council before it reaches the president.

The Flynn incident in which conversations between this American general and a Russian ambassador was leaked by a US intelligence agency to the media is deeply disturbing for Israel. It reveals a flaw, a weakness, in the United States intelligence community.

The collusion between anti-Trump intelligence personnel and an anti-Trump media has dire consequences for foreign diplomatic and intelligence operatives and decision makers.

For Israel it raises the question of trust.

Would these US intelligence leakers cause the same distress to Israeli intelligence and diplomatic sources as we continue to relay and share vital but covert information with or from America? Would we find our shared information revealed in lurid detail in the American press if it does not find favor with politically biased intelligence officials?

The Wall Street Journal reported that some US intelligence officials are withholding information out of concern that it may be compromised or leaked. This is not an atmosphere conducive to healthy intelligence sharing or transmission.

The Jerusalem Post reported that sandwiched between Michael Flynn’s conversations with Russian officials the NSC chief held secret meetings with Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel’s Mossad, in which information was shared. Israel is nervous about whistleblowers in the American intelligence community.

The intelligence protocol between Israel and the United States is that information is fed directly to the CIA or the National Security Council who then decide what the president gets to see without the White House needing to know the source of the intelligence.

However, if an intercept is leaked by someone within US intelligence this could compromise agents and sources.

Compounding the precarious situation for overseas intelligence agencies such as those in Israel is the revelation that Obama expanded Executive Order 12333 that now allows the NSA to share globally intercepted personal communications with governments to sixteen other agencies before applying personal protection and he did it just seventeen days before he left the White House. This became clear with the Flynn leak.

If the need for this Executive order was so imperative for President Obama why did he wait until moments before he was no longer in power to enforce such a sensitive move? In a real sense he created a shadow government in which biased officials could invade privacy that was sacrosanct by spying and revealing issues that would adversely affect and compromise the ability and actions of the new president rather than these employees offering the duty and loyalty to the United States government in which they serve.

The Washington Post published an article on February 10 in which Maria J. Stephan reported that federal employees have created social media accounts to leak information about new policies and directives from the Trump Administration and advising them to become “whistle-blowers.” When intelligence agencies are staffed with people unwilling to serve the president and work to torpedo the Administration in which they serve, chaos reigns.

Such a poisonous environment is of deep concern and risk to intelligence sharing and covert communiques.

There is little option but for the Trump Administration to investigate and purge their intelligence network of moles and informers that endanger and potentially compromise allies such as Israel as well as America’s own intelligence and security.
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Barry Shaw is the Senior Associate for Public Diplomacy at the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies.