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Source: Israel-Palestine News
By ALISON WEIR | OCTOBER 8, 2021
Source: Israel-Palestine News
By ALISON WEIR | OCTOBER 8, 2021
An Israeli Ofek (Ofeq) spy satellite is launched into space from a site in central Israel. Few people know that Israel had stolen key technology for Ofek from a US company, Recon/Optical. After Recon's security guards caught three Israeli air force officers stealing 50,000 pages of technical documents, an arbitration panel eventually ordered Israel to pay Recon $3 million in damages for what it found to be "perfidious" illegal acts. (PHOTO:cgtn)
Israel, which receives billions of dollars from the United States, has conducted espionage in the U.S. – especially economic espionage – since its creation in 1948.
The illegal behavior includes fraudulent diversion of U.S. foreign aid, illicit retransfer of sensitive U.S. technologies to third parties, and violation of end-use restrictions on U.S. military items transferred to Israel.
According to the U.S. intelligence community, Israel's motivations appear to be threefold: to strengthen its industrial base, to sell/trade the information to/with other countries (especially China) for profit, and to sell/trade the information to/with other countries to develop favorable political ties and alternative sources of arms and intelligence.
To these, a fourth factor might be added: the certain knowledge that, in the words of a senior former U.S. intelligence official, "Israel can steal right and left, but we will still pump money in."
Israel is the only country whose defense industry is heavily subsidized by the United States. No foreign country has a more effective informational network inside the executive and, especially, legislative branches of the U.S. government…
By Duncan L. Clarke, reposted from Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Summer, 1998), pp. 20-35 (Images added by IAK)
ISRAEL HAS CONDUCTED ESPIONAGE in the United States, especially economic espionage, [1] since its creation in 1948. [2] This espionage principally targets military and dual use items (goods and technology with civilian and military uses) and furthers strategic as well as economic objectives. This article examines the scope and nature of this activity, its distinctiveness, its apparent benefits and costs for Israel, and the U.S. response.
In one sense, Israel is hardly unique: it is just one of the dozen countries identified by the National Counterintelligence Center (NACIC) as active against U.S. interests. [3] Israeli operations are reflective of the larger global phenomenon of economic espionage. Like more than half of these countries, Israel is a U.S. ally whose intelligence and armed services work closely with U.S. counterparts. Like most of the twelve, Israel's defense firms are closely tied to the state and compete actively with American firms. Like South Korea and Taiwan, Israel has sought to exploit potentially sympathetic American ethnic groups. Like Iran and China, Israel has employed economic espionage to advance a nuclear weapons program and the means to deliver such weapons. Like China and Russia, its political-strategic intelligence collection in the United States appears to be ongoing, often merging imperceptibly with its economic collection.
Yet Israeli espionage against the United States is also distinctive. No other country is more frequently said to have a unique "special relationship" with the United States. No ally's security, even survival, is more reliant on U.S. intelligence. No other ally on the list receives U.S. foreign aid. Few countries' defense industries and infrastructures are more dependent on close, cooperative ties with the United States. No other country has a more intimate grasp of the American political system, and no country receives more reliable political protection from Congress. Finally, while allegations of "dual loyalty" are not confined to American citizens supportive of Israel, that explosive charge is particularly disturbing here.
CONSTANCY OF ISRAELI ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE
With the cooperation of some American Jews, Israeli espionage in the United States was underway throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s. [4] A far more concerted, systematic effort to collect scientific and technical information was initiated in 1960 when Israel's Defense Ministry created what was to evolve into its
[5] LAKAM soon became a technical penetration and acquisition network designed to strengthen Israel’s defense industry [6] by giving top priority, according to a CIA report, to "the collection of scientific intelligence in the U.S." [7]
During the cold war, says John Davitt, former head of the Justice Department's internal security section, U.S. counterespionage specialists "regarded Israel as being the second most active foreign intelligence service in the United States." [8] When in 1996 the CIA finally exposed Israel (and France) publicly for being "extensively engaged in espionage," [9] the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) also issued a report stating that Israel “conducts the most aggressive espionage operations against the United States of any ally…. [It] routinely resorts to state-sponsored espionage [to steal] classified military information and sensitive military technology [and] sensitive U.S. economic information."[10]
No foreign country has a more effective informational network inside the executive and, especially, legislative branches of the U.S. government. [11] It appears that several units within Israel's intelligence community are engaged in economic espionage. [12] They include Israel's foreign intelligence service (Mossad) and a new organization within the Defense Ministry – the Security Authority (Malmab). [13]
According to the U.S. intelligence community, Israel's motivations appear to be threefold: to strengthen its industrial base, to sell/trade the information to/with other countries (especially China) for profit, and to sell/trade the information to/with other countries to develop favorable political ties and alternative sources of arms and intelligence. [14] To these, a fourth factor might be added: the certain knowledge that, in the words of a senior former U.S. intelligence official, "Israel can steal right and left, but we will still pump money in."[15]
The United States and Israel agreed in 1951 not to spy on one another. [16] There is little evidence that the United States has conducted economic espionage against Israel, [17] but the agreement has been flouted repeatedly and flagrantly by Israel. Israeli economic espionage has infuriated the U.S. intelligence community, especially the FBI and the Customs Service, and has left a legacy of distrust in that community. [18] Still, such espionage does not have the same impact as attempts to penetrate the national security bureaucracy, as in the notorious 1985 Jonathan Pollard case, which strained diplomatic relations and disrupted intelligence cooperation for some time. [19] Economic espionage, on the other hand, has not significantly affected strategic cooperation, including the sharing of intelligence. Indeed, U.S.-Israel strategic ties are closer today than ever before. Among other things, since the U.S.-Israel Counterterrorism Accord was signed in 1996, the United States has continued to preposition munitions in Israel, and financial aid to Israel for counterterrorism and ballistic missile defense increased. [20]
Israeli Defense Industrial Base
Israel maintains a strong defense industrial base. Both the quality of Israel’s arsenal and the competitiveness of its armaments industry are enhanced by economic espionage.
Representative targets of Israeli economic espionage have included: U.S. technology for artillery gun tubes, coatings for missile reentry vehicles, avionics, missile telemetry, and aircraft communications systems. [21] One particularly notorious case concerned Recon/Optical, an Illinois firm producing state-of-the-art aerial surveillance equipment for the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community. In 1986, Recon's security guards caught three Israeli air force officers stealing 50,000 pages of technical documents relating to the company's proprietary information. For at least a year, these officers had been exploiting contractually provided visitation rights and passing Recon's documents to a competing Israeli firm, El Op Electro-Optics Industries. An arbitration panel eventually ordered Israel to pay Recon $3 million in damages for what it found to be "perfidious" illegal acts. [22] Nonetheless, Recon suffered grievous damage and barely escaped bankruptcy. The optics technology stolen from Recon apparently provided critical elements of Ofek-3, Israel's first durable reconnaissance satellite. [23]
There were other troubling episodes throughout the 1980s. For example, in the early 1980s some Israelis were caught illicitly taking classified blueprints of the F-16 fighter out of the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth, Texas. A separate facility was then set up outside the plant for the Israelis (who were awaiting delivery of about fifty-five F-16s). [24]
In another case, the Customs Service intercepted Israeli agents who were suspected of plotting to export U.S. cluster bomb technology to Israel. In 1982, the Reagan administration had banned the export of such weapons to Israel when Israel violated, during its war on Lebanon that year, its end-use agreement with the United States not to employ cluster weapons against civilians. Although there was abundant evidence of intentional wrongdoing, the State Department prevailed on the Justice Department not to prosecute. [25]
A third case involved NAPCO, Inc., a Connecticut company. NAPCO worked with Israeli agents to illegally export sensitive new technology for chrome plating the inside of 120mm tank barrels. Indeed, U.S. foreign aid paid for building a plant in Israel to utilize this process. NAPCO pleaded guilty to violating U.S. export law and was fined $750,000. No Israelis were prosecuted. [26]
Please go to Israel-Palestine News to read more.
In 1986 former head of the Justice Department's internal security section John Davitt said: "The Israeli intelligence service, when I was in the Justice Department, was the second most active in the United States, to the Soviets." (PHOTO:Boston Globe)
No foreign country has a more effective informational network inside the executive and, especially, legislative branches of the U.S. government. [11] It appears that several units within Israel's intelligence community are engaged in economic espionage. [12] They include Israel's foreign intelligence service (Mossad) and a new organization within the Defense Ministry – the Security Authority (Malmab). [13]
According to the U.S. intelligence community, Israel's motivations appear to be threefold: to strengthen its industrial base, to sell/trade the information to/with other countries (especially China) for profit, and to sell/trade the information to/with other countries to develop favorable political ties and alternative sources of arms and intelligence. [14] To these, a fourth factor might be added: the certain knowledge that, in the words of a senior former U.S. intelligence official, "Israel can steal right and left, but we will still pump money in."[15]
The United States and Israel agreed in 1951 not to spy on one another. [16] There is little evidence that the United States has conducted economic espionage against Israel, [17] but the agreement has been flouted repeatedly and flagrantly by Israel. Israeli economic espionage has infuriated the U.S. intelligence community, especially the FBI and the Customs Service, and has left a legacy of distrust in that community. [18] Still, such espionage does not have the same impact as attempts to penetrate the national security bureaucracy, as in the notorious 1985 Jonathan Pollard case, which strained diplomatic relations and disrupted intelligence cooperation for some time. [19] Economic espionage, on the other hand, has not significantly affected strategic cooperation, including the sharing of intelligence. Indeed, U.S.-Israel strategic ties are closer today than ever before. Among other things, since the U.S.-Israel Counterterrorism Accord was signed in 1996, the United States has continued to preposition munitions in Israel, and financial aid to Israel for counterterrorism and ballistic missile defense increased. [20]
SPECIFIC TARGETS OF ECONOMIC ESPIONAGE
Israeli Defense Industrial Base
Israel maintains a strong defense industrial base. Both the quality of Israel’s arsenal and the competitiveness of its armaments industry are enhanced by economic espionage.
Representative targets of Israeli economic espionage have included: U.S. technology for artillery gun tubes, coatings for missile reentry vehicles, avionics, missile telemetry, and aircraft communications systems. [21] One particularly notorious case concerned Recon/Optical, an Illinois firm producing state-of-the-art aerial surveillance equipment for the Pentagon and the U.S. intelligence community. In 1986, Recon's security guards caught three Israeli air force officers stealing 50,000 pages of technical documents relating to the company's proprietary information. For at least a year, these officers had been exploiting contractually provided visitation rights and passing Recon's documents to a competing Israeli firm, El Op Electro-Optics Industries. An arbitration panel eventually ordered Israel to pay Recon $3 million in damages for what it found to be "perfidious" illegal acts. [22] Nonetheless, Recon suffered grievous damage and barely escaped bankruptcy. The optics technology stolen from Recon apparently provided critical elements of Ofek-3, Israel's first durable reconnaissance satellite. [23]
There were other troubling episodes throughout the 1980s. For example, in the early 1980s some Israelis were caught illicitly taking classified blueprints of the F-16 fighter out of the General Dynamics plant in Fort Worth, Texas. A separate facility was then set up outside the plant for the Israelis (who were awaiting delivery of about fifty-five F-16s). [24]
General Dynamics plant at Fort Worth where Israelis were caught sneaking classified blueprints of the F-16 fighter (PHOTO:Lockheed)
In another case, the Customs Service intercepted Israeli agents who were suspected of plotting to export U.S. cluster bomb technology to Israel. In 1982, the Reagan administration had banned the export of such weapons to Israel when Israel violated, during its war on Lebanon that year, its end-use agreement with the United States not to employ cluster weapons against civilians. Although there was abundant evidence of intentional wrongdoing, the State Department prevailed on the Justice Department not to prosecute. [25]
A third case involved NAPCO, Inc., a Connecticut company. NAPCO worked with Israeli agents to illegally export sensitive new technology for chrome plating the inside of 120mm tank barrels. Indeed, U.S. foreign aid paid for building a plant in Israel to utilize this process. NAPCO pleaded guilty to violating U.S. export law and was fined $750,000. No Israelis were prosecuted. [26]
Please go to Israel-Palestine News to read more.
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