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Israel/Zionism See other Israel/Zionism Articles Title: How Israeli Tech Firms Act as Global Agents of Repression Israel is, in many ways, an anomaly among nations. While it considers itself a democracy, it is actually a national-security state. Its military- intelligence apparatus is ubiquitous in the everyday affairs of its citizens. These sacrifices of privacy and civil liberties are prices most Israelis are willing, even happy, to pay in return for security. The Israeli army’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) branch, Unit 8200, is the largest unit in the IDF and one of its most prestigious. It is integrated into the overall intelligence apparatus, foreign and domestic, and is used to penetrate the affairs of Palestinians in granular detail, permitting the Shin Bet, Israel’s internal security agency, to cultivate informants and plan covert operations like targeted killings or arrests of security suspects. The cyber-surveillance technologies developed by Unit 8200 and the other intelligence agencies are a key component in maintaining Israeli control over the Palestinian people. But in the past two decades or so, Israel has greatly expanded use of these technologies. Veterans of these spy shops have transferred their knowledge into the commercial sphere and marketed themselves as agents of repression for clients around the globe. This is a dark, dirty secret that lies behind the hype of the “start-up nation.” Two Israeli companies are at the forefront of this commercialization of dirty ops: NSO Group and Black Cube. Those following the Harvey Weinstein scandal will remember that Black Cube was the cyber-surveillance firm that Weinstein’s lawyer, David Boies, hired after former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak introduced Weinstein to the company. Black Cube employed covert schemes to trick Weinstein’s accusers into exposing themselves so that his legal defense might have more ammunition to discredit them in court and in the public realm. When The New Yorker revealed Black Cube’s seamy activities, the involved parties scrambled into damage-control mode. Black Cube at first refused to confirm or deny working for the disgraced Weinstein (later, it apologized). Boies admitted signing a contract with the company, but insisted he had no role in determining the activities it would carry out for Weinstein. That allowed Weinstein’s victims to be exploited twice over—first by his sexually predatory behavior, and then by Black Cube, which sent agents posing as sympathetic individuals offering aid, comfort, and financial support, but who were actually preying on the victims and serving Weinstein’s interests. Although this was the most public scandal involving Black Cube, it wasn’t necessarily the most consequential. Black Cube represents not only individuals like Weinstein; it also contracts with companies involved in litigation against competitors and, perhaps most momentous of all, it fulfills the goals of foreign intelligence services and political leaders by sabotaging those they consider to be enemies. In Romania, two Black Cube agents were arrested in 2016 for attempting to hack the e-mail accounts of the nation’s corruption czar. You would think this might have restrained the company’s ambitions and perhaps lit a yellow light of caution in Israel’s political and security apparatus. But that didn’t happen. When Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie exposed some of the darkest secrets of his former company and its efforts to sabotage the US presidential election, he also revealed that Black Cube partnered with his firm to dig up dirt on Nigeria’s presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari during that country’s 2015 national election campaign. Apparently, the campaign didn’t work, as Buhari was elected. SABOTAGING THE IRAN DEAL After President Trump threw out the P5+1 Iran nuclear deal, former members of Barack Obama’s team who had negotiated that agreement revealed that they too had been hoaxed in a manner that mirrored the tactics used in the Weinstein case. According to Rebecca Kahl, the wife of Colin Kahl, national- security adviser to former vice president Joseph Biden, a mysterious woman e-mailed her in 2017, offering financial support for their children’s school. Rebecca’s e-mail correspondent repeatedly asked to meet with her to discuss how the correspondent’s financial firm could benefit the school. Fortunately, Kahl and her husband were savvy enough not to take the bait. Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council, an Iranian- American NGO that supported the nuclear deal, was also approached in 2017 by a purported journalist. He sought to get Parsi to say that Kahl and another Obama administration official, Ben Rhodes, expected to exploit the nuclear deal for personal financial gain. Like the Kahls, Parsi smelled a rat. The UK Observer reported in May that “aides to Donald Trump” hired “an Israeli private intelligence agency” to conduct a “dirty ops” campaign against Colin Kahl and Rhodes; the purpose of the mission was, presumably, to lay the groundwork for Trump’s abandonment of the Iran nuclear deal. (The Observer’s claim that Trump aides hired the agency has not been confirmed, but on the day after its article was published, Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker reported that the agency in question was Black Cube. The company says it has no relation to the Trump administration, has not worked with Trump aides, and refuses “to confirm or deny any speculation” about its work) ......... Poster Comment: The Nation and The New Yorker getting hip on these subjects? Has to be progress. They (and you and I and everybody) can stop using that silly, frilly term "targeted killings" now, however -- it's ASSASSINATIONS. Everybody please please PLEASE don't talk liberal. DON'T call invaders "refugees" or "immigrants". DON'T say "pro-choice" when you mean pro-feticide. Don't say "anti-Semitic" unless in ref to true Semites, e.g. Arabs. Thank you! Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 5.
#1. To: NeoconsNailed (#0)
(Edited)
Uh, is it okay to point out that this article is anti-Israel? Quote: It should be troubling to Americans that an Israeli dirty-ops firm may have been working to sabotage US foreign policy. Israel is ostensibly an ally of this country. It could be that Black Cube is not merely a private company but a cut-out, an independent contractor that takes on the dirty jobs that Israel’s foreign-intelligence agency, the Mossad, either won’t or can’t pursue itself. This would shield Israel from embarrassment should such operations ever be exposed.
Uh, what if it is?
Uh, well I would say anti-semetic, but you don't like the word so I was looking for euphamism.
You're wrong 4 ways. 1. Jews aren't semites. 2. To criticize somebody doesn't mean you're "anti-" them. 3. Israel doesn't equal jews. 4. It's "semitic", not "semetic". Second attempt: so what if the article's anti-Israel? What's wrong with being anti-Israel? Are some people not entitled to their opinions?
Being anti-Israel is now allowed because it anti-semitic. The ADL will come down on me for being sneaky.
#6. To: Ada (#5)
Congratulations -- that doesn't make any sense at all.
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