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WASHINGTON (AROL)
In an investigation published in the May 29 issue of
Insight, which hit newsstands Saturday, the magazine claimed Israeli
intelligence had been routinely intercepting telephone and modem
communications of key US government agencies.
Insight reported that FBI counterintelligence is
tracking a daring operation to spy on high-level U.S. officials by hacking
into supposedly secure telephone networks.
The espionage was facilitated, federal officials say, by
lax telephone-security procedures at the White House, State Department and
other high-level government offices and by a Justice Department
unwillingness to seek an indictment against a suspect.
"The worst penetrations are believed to be in the
State Department," Insight said of its year-long investigation.
"But others say the supposedly secure telephone systems in the White
House, Defense Department and Justice Department may have been compromised
as well." According to the report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), which is probing the matter, has been focusing on an unidentified
Israeli couple in Washington, in which the husband works for a telephone
company and the wife works as an officer of Mossad, the Israeli
intelligence service, operating under diplomatic cover out of the Israeli
Embassy here.
As part of their investigation, US federal agents
searched the Husband’s work area and found a list of the FBI’s most
sensitive telephone numbers, including those giving access to the bureau’s
so-called "black" lines used for wiretapping, Insight reported.
Some of the listed numbers were lines that FBI counterintelligence used to
keep track of the suspected Israeli spy operation, according to the
magazine. The Justice Department, of which the FBI is a part, refused to
comment on the report.
Spying on phones
It is believed Israeli intelligence monitored about four
telephone numbers at the White House and the National Security Council
using a new sophisticated eavesdropping method that allowed it to listen in
to telephone lines from remote sites, Insight reported. According to the
magazine, US President Bill Clinton has been briefed on the matter. The
Israeli Embassy declined comment Saturday. But The New York Times quoted an
unnamed Israeli official as saying, "Israel does not spy on the United
States." The Times also quoted government sources as saying the FBI
closed its investigation after failing to unearth any incriminating
evidence.
"There’s just were not any facts to support a
penetration," the paper quoted an unnamed government official as
saying. True or not, the allegations come at a time when the Clinton
administration has grown increasing sensitive about guarding state secrets
in the aftermath of several widely-publicized security breaches at the
State Department.
Where are the laptops
The department revealed Friday that it was missing
"at least two, possibly more" laptop computers used by
high-ranking diplomats for making notes. That, in addition to a laptop
computer containing top secret information that disappeared without a trace
from the State Department building in January. Last year, a Russian
eavesdropping device was discovered in a conference room located in the
proximity of the office of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and the
year before that, an unknown man casually strolled into a room six doors
from her office, picked up a sheaf of classified
material and walked away. These incidents prompted Albright to gather top
diplomats for an unprecedented "town hall" meeting Wednesday and
read them the riot act. "I don’t care how skilled you are as a
diplomat, how brilliant you may be at meetings or how creative you are as
an administrator, if you are not professional about security, you are a
failure," an irate Albright told her subordinates.
US, Israeli officials deny
US and Israeli officials Saturday denied a report that a
large-scale Israeli intelligence operation compromised sensitive US
government communications lines, including those used by the White House
and the State Department as published in Insight, a conservative political
magazine. "We have no information that the White House sound systems
have been compromised nor have we ever been briefed to that effect,"
White House spokeswoman Jennifer Palmieri told AFP.
Background Info
For years, U.S. intelligence chiefs have worried about
moles burrowed into their agencies, but detecting them was fruitless. The
activities of Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard were
uncovered by accident, but there remains puzzlement to
this day as to how he was able to ascertain which documents to search, how
he did so on so many occasions without detection, or how he ever obtained
the security clearances that opened the doors to such secrets. In all, it
is suspected, Pollard turned over to his Israeli handlers about 500,000
documents, including photographs, names and locations of overseas agents.
"The damage was incredible," a current U.S.
intelligence officer tells Insight. "We're still recovering from
it." Also there has been concern for years that a mole was operating
in the NSC and, while not necessarily supplying highly secret materials to
foreign agents, has been turning over precious details on meetings and
policy briefings that are being used to track or otherwise monitor
government activities.
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