WarSclerotic

Israel assails latest allegations of brazen spying on US | JPost | Israel News.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

05/10/2014 17:58

In response to Newsweek report, Strategic Affairs Minister Steinitz accused “someone of trying to maliciously harm relations between Israel and the United States.”

A top government minister on Saturday angrily rejected claims of Israeli spying on the United States for the second time in a week after the American newsmagazine Newsweek once again quoted unnamed US intelligence officials as decrying what they believe to be overly aggressive espionage on the part of the Jewish state.

Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who also holds the intelligence portfolio in the Netanyahu government, accused “someone of trying to maliciously and intentionally harm relations between Israel and the United States.”

Just days after Israeli officials denied a report of “unrivaled” Israeli espionage in the United States, a new report has surfaced detailing a US cover-up of Israel spying on then-Vice President Al Gore in 1998.

The report in Newsweek claimed that Secret Service agents caught an Israeli “agent” in an air duct who was in the process of bugging the vice president’s hotel room.

“The Secret Service had secured [Gore’s] room in advance and they all left except for one agent, who decided to take a long, slow time on the pot,” Newsweek quoted a senior former US intelligence operative as saying. “So the room was all quiet and he hears a noise in the vent. And he sees the vent clips being moved from the inside. And then he sees a guy starting to exit the vent into the room. He kind of coughed and the guy went back into the vents.”

Newsweek alleged that the incident “’crossed the line’ of acceptable behavior between friendly intelligence services,” and that “it was quickly hushed up by US officials” because of America’s commitment to Israel.

According to the report, US intelligence officials and congressional sources claim that Israel has been caught carrying out aggressive espionage operations against American targets for decades, but that they are rarely punished.

Steinitz said that in all his meetings with his American counterparts on intelligence matters, he has yet to hear any complaints over supposed Israeli espionage activities. On the contrary, Steinitz said that he has only heard praise from Washington over its close intelligence cooperation with Israel.

“This Tuesday, I will meet the head of the Senate intelligence committee and I will insist that false reports of this kind be repudiated,” said Steinitz.

On Wednesday, Steinitz and other senior Israeli cabinet officials dismissed claims made by Newsweek earlier in the week that “Israel’s espionage activities in America are unrivaled and unseemly.”

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