US and UK spied on Israeli jet video links
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
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US and UK spied on Israeli jet video links
Another reason Snowden and his collaborators need locking up and the key thrown away. That's another source blown..
Snowden files reveal US and UK spied on feeds from Israeli drones and jets
A joint UK-US intelligence programme has been spying on electronic feeds – including video – from Israel’s military drones and jet fighters going back to 1998.
In a potentially embarrassing disclosure for Israel, which prides itself on its technical capabilities, a new release from material held by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has revealed that UK and US intelligence officials have been regularly accessing Israeli cockpit cameras even in the midst of operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Codenamed Anarchist, the programme was revealed by the Intercept, a US website. The revelation – while played down by Israeli defence sources – has demonstrated again the level of surveillance aimed at Israel by countries usually regarded as friendly.
The drone feeds were reportedly hacked using freely available software similar to that used to access subscriber-only TV channels, the report said. According to the Intercept, the surveillance operation is run from GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and the actual surveillance undertaken from a UK base in Cyprus.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that the US had continued spying on the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and other top Israeli officials despite a promise after the Snowden revelations to stop intercepting the communications of friendly heads of state.
Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s energy minister and a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, sought to play down the issue but said lessons would be learned. “I do not think that this is the deepest kingdom of secrets, but it is certainly something that should not happen, which is unpleasant,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. “We will now have to look and consider changing the encryption, certainly.”
The ability of the UK and the US to intercept encrypted military communications – including being able to hack into Israeli operations as they are occurring – exposes the deep vulnerabilities in Israel’s military communications, leading to questions over who else may have penetrated them.
According to the leaked documents, GCHQ first began intercepting Israeli drone communications as early as 1998, and there is evidence that the practice was still continuing until recently. In one instance, the leaked documents reveal, GCHQ ordered officials working on the programme in 2008 to access drones flying over the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria.
“This access is indispensable for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military training and operations and thus an insight to possible future developments in the region,” a GCHQ report from 2008 is quoted as saying. “In times of crisis this access is critical and one of the only avenues to provide up to the minute information and support to US and allied operations in the area.”
The surveillance was carried out from an RAF installation in the Troodos mountains in Cyprus used to target the eastern Mediterranean and north Africa.
According to the documents, interest in the Israeli drones was at its highest during Israeli military operations, and the drones were also monitored for any signs that Israel might be preparing for military action against Iran. In one memo reporting on interception of an Israeli drones, an official in Cyprus noted: “Our ability to collect and track and report this activity is important for the initial detection and tip-off for any potential pre-emptive or retaliatory strike against Iran.”
In 2008, according to the documents, the programme managed to intercept a video feed from an Israeli jet targeting Gaza for the first time. According to a report in an internal newsletter for the NSA, analysts had “collected video for the first time from the cockpit of an Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jet, [which] showed a target on the ground being tracked.”
Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, which might further strains ties with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians. The US embassy in Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A British embassy spokeswoman said it did not comment on intelligence matters and there was no immediate response from the Foreign Office in London.
Snowden files reveal US and UK spied on feeds from Israeli drones and jets
A joint UK-US intelligence programme has been spying on electronic feeds – including video – from Israel’s military drones and jet fighters going back to 1998.
In a potentially embarrassing disclosure for Israel, which prides itself on its technical capabilities, a new release from material held by the former NSA contractor Edward Snowden has revealed that UK and US intelligence officials have been regularly accessing Israeli cockpit cameras even in the midst of operations in Gaza and Lebanon.
Codenamed Anarchist, the programme was revealed by the Intercept, a US website. The revelation – while played down by Israeli defence sources – has demonstrated again the level of surveillance aimed at Israel by countries usually regarded as friendly.
The drone feeds were reportedly hacked using freely available software similar to that used to access subscriber-only TV channels, the report said. According to the Intercept, the surveillance operation is run from GCHQ in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, and the actual surveillance undertaken from a UK base in Cyprus.
Last month, the Wall Street Journal disclosed that the US had continued spying on the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, and other top Israeli officials despite a promise after the Snowden revelations to stop intercepting the communications of friendly heads of state.
Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s energy minister and a member of Netanyahu’s security cabinet, sought to play down the issue but said lessons would be learned. “I do not think that this is the deepest kingdom of secrets, but it is certainly something that should not happen, which is unpleasant,” he told Israel’s Army Radio. “We will now have to look and consider changing the encryption, certainly.”
The ability of the UK and the US to intercept encrypted military communications – including being able to hack into Israeli operations as they are occurring – exposes the deep vulnerabilities in Israel’s military communications, leading to questions over who else may have penetrated them.
According to the leaked documents, GCHQ first began intercepting Israeli drone communications as early as 1998, and there is evidence that the practice was still continuing until recently. In one instance, the leaked documents reveal, GCHQ ordered officials working on the programme in 2008 to access drones flying over the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza, as well as Israel’s borders with Lebanon and Syria.
“This access is indispensable for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military training and operations and thus an insight to possible future developments in the region,” a GCHQ report from 2008 is quoted as saying. “In times of crisis this access is critical and one of the only avenues to provide up to the minute information and support to US and allied operations in the area.”
The surveillance was carried out from an RAF installation in the Troodos mountains in Cyprus used to target the eastern Mediterranean and north Africa.
According to the documents, interest in the Israeli drones was at its highest during Israeli military operations, and the drones were also monitored for any signs that Israel might be preparing for military action against Iran. In one memo reporting on interception of an Israeli drones, an official in Cyprus noted: “Our ability to collect and track and report this activity is important for the initial detection and tip-off for any potential pre-emptive or retaliatory strike against Iran.”
In 2008, according to the documents, the programme managed to intercept a video feed from an Israeli jet targeting Gaza for the first time. According to a report in an internal newsletter for the NSA, analysts had “collected video for the first time from the cockpit of an Israeli Air Force F-16 fighter jet, [which] showed a target on the ground being tracked.”
Israel voiced disappointment at the disclosures, which might further strains ties with Washington after years of feuding over strategies on Iran and the Palestinians. The US embassy in Israel did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A British embassy spokeswoman said it did not comment on intelligence matters and there was no immediate response from the Foreign Office in London.
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Don't think anyone would be surprised - any electronic signal can be intercepted and when you've built most of the kit installed it's got to be quite easy
Thats What GCHQ & The Puzzle Palace are for after all
I know a US University that tells it students that NOTHING committed to an electronic device is guaranteed to stay secret or safe these days
Thats What GCHQ & The Puzzle Palace are for after all
I know a US University that tells it students that NOTHING committed to an electronic device is guaranteed to stay secret or safe these days
The spying goes both ways, I highly suspect. I doubt that Snowden's revelations were Israel's first clue of that.
What was that old saying?
In God we trust, all others we monitor.
In God we trust, all others we monitor.
But in all seriousness, do we still not have the D Notice system? Do newspapers these days not realise there are certain things that in the national interest just shouldn't be published? Another nail in the DT coffin as credible defence reporters (I won't use the word journalist).
The Israelis will probably be miffed that it's confirmed their relationship with the US isn't as solid as people might imagine - will be interesting to see how that plays out with the Jewish vote in the forthcoming elections. Elements of the U.K. will undoubtedly be miffed also - is it not tradition that we don't comment on SF and intelligence in the press? That's what did it for Greenwald and Poitras in the Snowden affair.
I think this was a definite error by the DT and I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the impacts, even if they are not obvious or made public.
I think this was a definite error by the DT and I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss the impacts, even if they are not obvious or made public.
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What can one say? shocking lol or are we provided the equipment and we would like to see how it performs in what is the closest it has been used in a real life military offensive. I think the latter, let's be honest you can't fart when talking on the phone these days without GHCQ going into melt down over a biological attack..
My worry is when some muppet simply launches a rocket into orbit and detonates, bye bye GPS , spy satellites and all the other monitoring crap as the resulting debris takes out everything, both passive and offensive, then all your smart tech is rendered scrap.
My worry is when some muppet simply launches a rocket into orbit and detonates, bye bye GPS , spy satellites and all the other monitoring crap as the resulting debris takes out everything, both passive and offensive, then all your smart tech is rendered scrap.
Well, after Pollard, Israel can hardly point fingers.
The US needs some confidence in knowing what Israel is doing, but it wouldn't surprise me that there are ways to hide especially troublesome details.
The US needs some confidence in knowing what Israel is doing, but it wouldn't surprise me that there are ways to hide especially troublesome details.
I wonder if this story lends any credence to the claims the Iranians made about tapping into US drones and of course about taking over the controls of the Sentinel i.e. if the US can do it to Israel could Iran have done it to the US?
And Mossad is innocent.
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This is a game-changing capability; is the fact of Israel being the "victim" here really the issue? Israel doesn't hesitate to spy on whoever it feels like, even close allies, not to mention using the identities of real British people to carry out extra-judicial killings. By comparison this is hardly rifling through Mrs Netanyahu's underwear drawer. If the Israelis don't have such a capability we can be quite sure they're working on it.
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We have always kept an eye on our 'friends', for a variety of reasons ...
- They won't tell us, but we want/need to know.
- We need to know what they're really doing/thinking.
- We don't actually trust them, but we still need them.
Doesn't surprise me in the least - and I'm sure it wouldn't surprise the IAF either. It's just another SIGINT exploit. If you are transmitting or receiving data it can more than likely be monitored regardless of where it sits on the electromagnetic spectrum.
The Israelis wouldn't be so naive as not to think the US were monitoring everything.
Just as I'm sure the US monitors every single UK diplomatic and security related communication they can.
As the above poster says - friends are always spied on.
The IAF may change the encryption but still needs data links. And then the new code will be cracked and the exploits will begin again,
The Israelis wouldn't be so naive as not to think the US were monitoring everything.
Just as I'm sure the US monitors every single UK diplomatic and security related communication they can.
As the above poster says - friends are always spied on.
The IAF may change the encryption but still needs data links. And then the new code will be cracked and the exploits will begin again,
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"..general standards of decency "?? Really? It's long been accepted that every scrap of radio/radar signals are hoovered up by anyone who can. Is this even spying?
Could we perhaps debate the practical, rather than moral dimension. Like, what if unpleasantly disposed persons got the keys to a Reaper... it might smart a bit!
Could we perhaps debate the practical, rather than moral dimension. Like, what if unpleasantly disposed persons got the keys to a Reaper... it might smart a bit!
