[Reuters] Dan Williams - The U.S. routinely spies on Israel to try to gather information on its assumed atomic arsenal and secret government deliberations, a new official history of Israel's intelligence services says. According to Masterpiece: An Inside Look at Sixty Years of Israeli Intelligence, American spy agencies use technologies like electronic eavesdropping, and trained staff from the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, for "methodical intelligence gathering." The chapter on counter-espionage was written by Barak Ben-Zur, a retired Israeli internal security service officer. Contacted by Reuters, Ben-Zur described U.S. spying efforts as largely benign, given the closeness of defense ties between Israel and the Bush administration. "At the end of the day, the United States does not want to be surprised," he said. "Even by us."
2008-12-12 08:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive