Israeli Security Firm Protecting Egypt's Suez Canal

The Egyptian military reaches out to its historical enemy: Israel, and entrusts the security of its Suez Canal to Seagull Maritime Securities, This was a catastrophic move by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi.

Seagull Maritime Securities loyalty will be to Israel and not it's client, Egypt. As long as it's allowed to protect the Suez Canal, it will be extremely easy for it to collect intelligence on the canal and Egyptian military units near the canal.

If Egypt chooses to challenge Israel's dictates at any point in time, Seagull Maritime Securities can always employ false flag operations to disable the canals maritime traffic, and this will cripple Egypt's economy, since the Suez Canal is the primary and stable source of the nations national revenue.

If war breaks out in the future between Egypt and Israel, Seagull Maritime Securities can always sabotage the canal and blame it on Egypt, and since the canal is a global strategic waterway, it can be internationalized and placed under international supervision, therefore, reversing the nationalization of the canal by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

In the event of a war, Seagull Maritime Securities can employ its Special Operations Units to conduct sabotage operations that would prevent the Egyptian Army from deploying to the Sinai Peninsula, and thus severing the Sinai from Egypt and this will permit Israel to easily occupy the Sinai once again.

Clearly the Egyptian military can't protect the nation or it's people. It can't subdue an infant and amateurish insurgency in the Sinai. It can't subdue peaceful civilian protests that are waged against the military coup that removed and is holding hostage Egypt's first and only democratically elected President, Mohamed Morsi.

If a war was to break out today between Egypt and Israel, the Egyptian army would be easily and quickly
dispatched by the IDF. Even if the Egyptian Army was to invade Gaza and fight Hamas, it would suffer heavy loses and would be unable to win.

The current Egyptian Army is no more than a glorified police force and cannot go head-to-head with an external conventional military, and that's the brutal truth!

Information About Seagull Maritime Securities:

SEAGULL MARITIME SECURITY LTD

Seagull Maritime Security Ltd. was founded in 2008 by Mr. Kfir Magen, an Israeli Navy commando veteran, to address maritime security threats and to supply high quality professional service based on the elite Israeli commando force knowhow.

Seagull Maritime Security is registered in Israel and Cyprus as a Limited Liability Company. This enables us to be in contact and execute our services in all countries and ports worldwide.

Seagull Maritime Security is a subsidiary of the Shahaf Security Group, a well-regarded Security company in Israel, which was established on 1989. Shahaf provides security to a variety of clients, including governmental agencies, local authorities and other institutional organizations and private companies. Shahaf employs more the 2,000 employees and owns hundreds of registered weapons for its missions.

Seagull Management Team

The management of Seagull Maritime Security has extensive experience in commanding and leading special operations, both in the IDF Naval Commando and elite Special Operations units. We bring to the Maritime security industry an approach of comradeship, honesty, loyalty, transparency, sensitivity and professionalism, together with an experienced business environment.

Our Top Management:

Admiral (Ret.) Ami Ayalon – Head of Advisors, is one of Israel's top security professionals. Ayalon served as the Israeli Navy Commander and, later, as an Israeli cabinet minister who was directly involved in the peace process. Ayalon has a Master’s in Public Administration from Harvard University and a Master’s in Law from Bar-Ilan University. Admiral Ayalon if one of few who has been decorated with Israel's highest award, the Medal of Valor.

Kfir Magen – CEO - Served as a commanding officer in the elite Israeli Naval Commando and has acquired years of maritime operational experience. Kfir holds a BSc. degree from the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology.

Jeremy Weiss – VP Business Development, Marketing & Sales - Served for over 20 years as Senior Commander in the Special Forces. Following, he was an Executive Director at InSightec a Hi-Tech medical device company. Jeremy holds an Executive MBA from Northwestern Uni. Kellogg School of Management.

Yuval Brenner – COO - an officer in an elite IDF Scout unit. Yuval Worked at Zim Integrated Shipping services as Logistic and Equipment Senior Manager. Mr. Brenner joined Seagull in 2010. He holds a BSc. Degree from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology.

Gilad Appelbaum – CFO – Graduated the Academic College of Management in Rishon Lezion, Israel, and holds a B.A in Finance and a M.B.A. Gilad worked at the Central Bank of Israel as a supervisor at the Book Keeping Department, and at the Central Department of Banking Supervision as an inspector.

Amir Mavor (Advocate) - Legal Advisor – founder of the legal firm Amir Mavor & Co. Lawyers Incorporated which he established in 1993. Amir graduated the City of London College in 1988. Following his studies he worked at the leading maritime law firm Holman, Fenwick & Willan in London. Among others, Amir specializes in Maritime Law and international contracts in a variety of fields.

Yaniv Perelshtain – Manager, Operations Dept. – is a veteran of the Israeli Navy. Mr Perelshtain holds a BSc in Aeronautical and Space Engineering from the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology.

Yaniv manages the daily operations and logistics of Seagull's deployed security teams and operations.

Ron Ben-Simhon - Regulatory & Intelligence Manager – is a veteran of the IDF Special Operations Forces, where he served as a team commander. Ron studied Terrorism, Security, and Society at King’s College London and graduated with merit. Mr. Ben-Simhon worked as a security project manager for a fuel distribution facility in Haiti where he conducted risk assessments & incident investigations.

Seagull Maritime Security Offer The following:

1.  Professional Security Guards: Highly professional and experienced armed security guards who have been trained and instructed by       Israeli Naval Commando commanders. Our Security professional are trained to adapt their combat and security qualifications to the           maritime business environment.

2.  Legal and Regulatory Compliance: Compliance with all legal and regulatory requirements

3.  SOP & RUF: Clear, in-depth and efficient maritime security doctrine (SOP & RUF)

4.  Embark/Disembark In All Ports: Embark and disembark in all ports throughout the HRA and proven ability with clearances to enter        ports with armed teams on board (detailed ports list-below)

5.  Intelligence & Risk Analysis: Up-to-date intelligence and risk analysis

6.  24/7 Call Center: Call and Operations Center - 24/7, 365 days a year - for quick response, intelligence updates and risk assessment.

7.  Security Equipment: A range of non-lethal prevention equipment and advanced firearms suitable for the naval combat. All equipment      and weapons are owned by Seagull.

The Security Implications Of The American Lifestyle

By Michael Shank,
Courtesy Of "Al-Jazeera"

The riots across the Muslim world give warning to something much direr than a diplomat's death, however deplorable the Benghazi tragedy. What we say, do, and eat has global implications, and on these three major security frontiers we must do better: Religious, food and climate security. Each of us has a role to play, and each of us is capable of making a difference.

On religious security, when are we going to prioritise co-existence over intentionally blatant expressions of free speech? This is for Europe's Dutch and Danish press and for America's Google and YouTube and the powers that can prevent "a clear and present danger" (the clause that allows companies to pull offensive content in order to avoid crises).

We must do better at respecting, not enabling the denigration of, religion, while preserving rights and liberties. All religions have experienced extensive persecution, some longer than others, some more devastating. Now, thanks to the internet, it is quite easy to offend and then defend the offence by citing freedom of expression. There must be a better way to balance this, and leaders must find a way to legislate responsible parameters lest this continues.

On food security, America's summer drought - which devastated food crops - highlights a trend that will become prevalent. We keep kicking this food security can down the road by reassuring ourselves that we have enough food supply and that it's merely a matter of distribution. The answer is sustainable agriculture: Ensuring that people have an opportunity to pursue it (see Africa's underdeveloped farmland) and that those who have access to agriculture use it sustainably.

To the first point, we have all but forgotten Africa, reneging on donor pledges, letting impoverished countries, like Somalia, get poorer unless they have a terrorism connection. Case in point: Libya. The invasion was all we cared about. We employed excessive force but little focus on post-Gaddafi institutions. We distributed weapons to opposition groups, but did little to develop necessary long-term democratic infrastructure for sustainable governance.

To the second point, the West doesn't do sustainability well. As meat-eaters, our diets are heavily energy- and- environmentally intensive. When a pound of meat consumes 10 to 15 times the water, land and grains that a pound of vegetables/legumes consumes, this is not smart or sustainable. We do not have ample amounts of water, land or grain to sustain meat diets. Resource wars are happening and will become more frequent as resources become scarcer, polluted or privatised.


On climate security, since 2000 we've witnessed the hottest nine years on record (2012 was the hottest ever), an unprecedented Arctic ice melt, and more extreme and erratic weather patterns. We are in radically different times and yet few seem ready to do things radically different. With Americans emitting some of highest carbon per capita, at 20 to 25 tonnes of carbon per year, and the rest - notably China and India - playing catch-up on western-style consumerism, we will have a serious problem on our hands in the next decade.

While China and India's per capita carbon contribution is only at 5 tonnes and 1 tonne, respectively, their populations have the potential to triple the damage that America did. Before adaptation becomes our recourse, producing galactic mirrors that reflect sun rays and cloud-producing machines that cool the planet, we must find ways to do more with less, to conserve and to be cognizant of the security implications of lifestyle choices.

This is not a moral imperative; this is a security situation. All of these are security situations, from religion to food to climate, and it is time we do something about it. Collaborating on the real and lasting security quagmires of this century is exactly how we should be spending our time and energy. We must think at least 50 to 100 years out with everything we do today, because if we don't, there won't be a tomorrow to write or worry about.

Michael Shank is an adjunct professor at George Mason University's School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, on the National Peace Academy's board of directors, and a senior fellow at the French American Global Forum.

Recognizing There Is A Problem

The First Step In Solving Any Problem, Is Recognizing There Is one

Beginning scene of the new HBO series The Newsroom explaining why America's Not the Greatest Country Any Longer... But It Can Be.

A Biblical Threat To National Security

By Kelley B. Vlahos,
June 19, 2012
Courtesy Of "Anti-War"

Can A Bible Be A “Threat To National Security”?

For years, the government has employed the risk of “national security” excuse to infringe on a wide range of freedoms — like the right to pass through an airport security checkpoint unmolested, or read library books without Big Brother peeking over your shoulder.

Michael L. “Mikey” Weinstein is trying to prove that there is more than one way to put the country at risk, and he’s found it in a heretofore unlikely place: the Bible.

Mikey Weinstein

Well, the Holman Bible. To be more exact, a version of the Bible that, for reasons still undetermined, was authorized with the trademarked official insignia of the U.S. Armed Forces emblazoned on the front cover. There is The Soldier’s Bible with the Army’s seal, The Marine’s Bible with the Marine Corps seal,The Sailor’s Bible and The Airman’s Bible, both with their respective insignia. The books have been sold for nearly six years throughout Christian bookstores, commissaries and PXs on U.S. military installations — and are still available on Christianbook.com,Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.

It’s not the King James Version that the Gideonsleave behind in hotel rooms drawers. The Holman Bible was commissioned and published by LifeWay Christian Resources, a subsidiary of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Baptist denomination in the world, in 2003.

In a 1999 press release announcing the edition’s progress, Broadman & Holman Publishers called the new version “a fresh, precise translation of the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek of the Old and New Testaments.” LifeWay President James T. Draper Jr. weighed in, saying there was a “serious need for a 21st-century Bible translation in American English that combines accuracy and readability,” adding, “the Holman Christian Standard Bible is an accurate, literal rendering with a smoothness and readability that invites memorization, reading aloud and dedicated study.”

The Holman Bible, or HCSB, has been popular with evangelicals for its references and study tools. Someone convinced each branch of the service they’d be perfect for the military, too. So the HCSB became the “official” Bible of the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines in 2004, complete with reader-friendly text and custom “designed to meet the specific needs of those who serve in the most difficult of situations,” according to the publishers.

In other words, aside from the text, the books are filled with “devotionals” and “inspirational essays” tailored to each branch of service. I was unable to get my hands on a copy by press time, but Amazon’s “peek” inside the book and several positive reader reviews confirm some of the contents, revealing what could only be described as a guileless conflation of both Christian and American military iconography. War and service as religious devotion.

In addition to the Pledge of Allegiance and the first and fourth verses of the Star Spangled Banner, there are excerpts from one of George W. Bush inaugural addresses and the Republican president’s remarks at a National Prayer Breakfast. Gen. George S. Patton’s famous Christmas prayer card from the field of battle 1944 is also included, as is “George Washington’s Prayer,” which has been widely circulated (and debunked) as proof of America’s Christian paternity.

These Bibles also feature “testimonials and encouragement from the Officers’ Christian Fellowship,” which has approximately 15,000 members across the military and whose primary purpose is “to glorify God by uniting Christian officers for biblical fellowship and outreach, equipping and encouraging them to minister effectively in the military society.” In other words they proselytize within the officer corps as part of an evangelical “parachurch” within the military.

A largely unfettered one, apparently, as one watches Pentagon officers commenting freely on camera — and in uniform — for this Bush-era promotional video for Christian Embassy, another federal government-wide “fellowship” with similar missionary goals.

One officer, Air Force Maj. Jack Catton, who said he worked on the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, described himself as “an old fashioned American and my first priority is my faith in God.” Pointing to his meeting with other officers under the auspices of Christian Embassy, he said, “I think it’s a huge impact because you have many men and women who are seeking God’s counsel and wisdom as we advise the Secretary of Defense.”

U.S. Brigadier Gen. Bob Caslan went so far as to say he sees the “flag officer fellowship groups … hold me accountable.”

“We are the aroma of Jesus Christ,” he added.

Something smells, all right, said Weinstein, who heads the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF). The roles of the officers in the video were later deemed improperafter MRFF demanded an investigation in 2007. As for the Bibles, Weinstein said he received some 2,000 complaints about them from service members over the last year. Weinstein, a former Air Force Judge Advocate (JAG) whose 2005 charges against the Air Force Academy in Colorado led to an investigation that officially found religious “insensitivity” against non- fundamentalists there, has gone on to expose a much wider climate of “top-down, invasive evangelicalism” at the institution and throughout the military as a whole.

“We’re fighting a Fundamentalist-Christian-Parachurch-Military-Corporate-Proselytizing-Complex,” Weinstein said told Antiwar.com last week, “and we have been fighting this for some time.” MRFF just posted a video montage, which could easily be called the military evangelicals’ greatest hits, here.

He said aside from “prostituting” the military insignia, the military’s endorsement of the Bibles violated federal separation of church and state, and continue to sanction an insidious culture of radical evangelicalism and discrimination throughout the services (as a Jew, Weinstein said he felt the sting of prejudice when he attended the Air Force academy in the late 1970s; his sons had it even worse, he claims, prompting his first formal complaint seven years ago).

Since then, “(MRFF) has had 28,000 clients and a hundred more each month,” said Weinstein, rejecting claims by his critics that they are all atheist. He insists that 96 percent of his clients are Christians (Catholic and Mainline Protestant) and that his is not a religious crusade. On the other hand, some 33 percent of chaplains are now evangelical Christians, while only 3 percent of service members describe themselves as such.

“They are spiritually raping the U.S. Constitution, the American people and the men and women who are fighting for us,” said Weinstein, who never, ever minces words.

MRFF’s lawyers sent a formal letter to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta’s office in January. In it, MRFF charged that authorizing LifeWay to print its Bibles with the service insignia “is in violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment of the United States Constitution … and several regulations,” and that the authority should be withdrawn immediately or face legal action from MRFF.

Interestingly, according to the documents now available online, the Army, Navy and Air Force responded to the letter in February, insisting that the summer before Weinstein’s lawyers at Jones Day contacted the Pentagon, they had already pulled their trademark authorizations to LifeWay, for “unrelated reasons.” So, in effect, according to the military, the Southern Baptist Convention subsidiary no longer had use of the trademarks and the question was moot.

Weinstein responded with one word: “lies.” He told Antiwar.com that they were just informed of the letters in June, not in February. Furthermore, according to MRFF senior research director Chris Rodda, MRFF has obtained documents through Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests that indicated the “AAFES (the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, which runs the BXs, PXs, and other stores on military bases) was clearly concerned about the complaints about the Holman Bibles, with emails as early as June 6, 2011 from AAFES to LifeWay saying that these Bibles had ‘become a hot issue,’ and referencing and linking to a June 2, 2011 article on MRFF’s website as the reason they were becoming a hot issue.”

Nevertheless, according to a Fox News Radio story, LifeWay insists it’s “sold” all existing copies of the military Bible in question, and instead is printing the same Bibles with “generic insignias, which continue to sell well and provide spiritual guidance and comfort to those who serve.”

The AAFES told Fox News Radio it has 961 copies of the Bible left on shelves at 83 facilities. Weinstein doesn’t know how many are out there but contends that until each and every one is gone, “they’re still aiding and abetting the cause of al- Qaeda.”

Why? Because it is a national security issue if America is perceived as waging a religious war against the Muslim world. One can’t help but get that impression reading the added material in these Holman Bibles, suggesting that that God has blessed the American warrior for his existential struggle of good versus evil.

A crusade — and one playing right into the religious extremism on the other side, putting Americans overseas, and at home, at risk, said Weinstein.

His approach — which is as fiery and combative as the preachers he rebukes (he’s taken to calling the Pentagon, “Pentacostal-gon,”) — has drawn fire from a number of conservative Christian organizations and websites, which have labeled MRFF a bunch of zealous atheist agitators.

“Why should these Bibles be removed because of the demands of a small activist group?” Ron Crews, head of The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, asked last week, adding in an interview with Fox News Radio that the Department of Defense was acting “cowardly” by backing down to MRFF.

“MRFF must cease and desist their reckless assault on religious liberty. The Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty calls on Congress to investigate this frivolous threat and apparent discrimination against religious views by the DoD.”

(Credit: Associated Press)

But this “reckless assault” has offered the public a window into how much evangelicalism threads through the military ethos today — from the Pentagon buying guns with sights outfitted with biblical references, to born-again chaplains directing soldiers to hand out Bibles and proselytize among the Muslim locals in Afghanistan.

MRFF has accused Army chaplains of using religion in lieu of mental health counseling to aid battlefield stress, and drew attention to provocative displays of religious murals and crosses sprawled on walls at U.S. bases and on vehicles driven through the urban battlefront. MRFF has protested the taxpayer-funded “Spiritual Fitness Concert Series” performed on bases here in the states, and followed up on complaints by service members at Fort Eustis in Virginia who said they were punished by a superior officer for not attending.

More recently, MRFF criticized a fighter squadron’s decision to switch back to its old “Crusader” moniker, complete with a Knights Templar red cross emblazoned on its planes. Under pressure, the Marines have since reversed that decision, returning to its old World War II-era “werewolves” nickname, earlier this month.

Weinstein said “predatory” evangelicals in the military “believe the Separation of Church and State is a myth, like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster,” and he doesn’t mind putting his own reputation and safety on the line to smash that myth to pieces.

“If we’re catching them on things like this Bible, what the hell else is going on? Well, we know,” he said. “The Bible situation is not innocent, it is not innocuous, it is another raging example of this cancer.”

Follow Vlahos on Twitter @KelleyBVlahos.

Spying On The Spies

Outsourcing Intelligence-Gathering To The Israelis Imperils National Security

By Justin Raimondo,
April 04, 2012
Courtesy Of "Anti-War"

Stewart Nozette, a brilliant scientist whose work was instrumental in advancing the US space program, was convicted last year of attempting to spy on behalf of Israel, and this month was sentenced to 13 years in prison and a substantial fine. Under investigation for over-charging the government for various services performed by his nonprofit, Nozette was found to be in possession of classified documents – and, in the course of their inquiry, FBI agents discovered an email written by him threatening to turn over classified information to the Israelis if the government pursued its fraud case.

In the indictment [.pdf], prosecutors went out of their way to absolve the Israeli government of any fault, since agents had snared their prey by conducting a sting operation. Nozette was approached by an FBI agent who claimed to be a Mossad agent, and asked to hand over classified documents in return for money. As the prosecutors put it: “The indictment does not allege that the government of Israel or anyone acting on its behalf committed any offense under U.S. laws in this case.”

However, Nozette worked as a consultant for Israel Aerospace Industries, an Israeli government-funded company with strong links to Israeli intelligence, from 1989 to 2009, during which time he had a “Q” security clearance which gave him access to our most closely guarded secrets. It’s worth noting that when the FBI agent masquerading as an Israeli intelligence operative first approached Nozette with the proposal that he work for the Mossad, the sneaky space scientist replied: “I thought I was working for you already,” and said he had handed over sensitive intelligence to the Israelis in the past.

Israeli spying in the US is a topic the government, and the news media, don’t like to talk about, and yet the GAO has stated [.pdf] the Israelis run the “most aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any US ally” and that “classified military information and sensitive military technologies are high-priority targets for the intelligence agencies of this country.”

In view of this, a new Wired report that Israeli companies are a key link in the government’s top secret high-tech spying operation, code-named “Stellar Wind,” is sure to raise eyebrows. Intelligence expert James Bamford relates:

“In addition to constructing the Stellar Wind center, and then running the operation, secretive contractors with questionable histories and little oversight were also used to do the actual bugging of the entire U.S. telecommunications network. According to a former Verizon employee briefed on the program, Verint, owned by Comverse Technology, taps the communication lines at Verizon, which I first reported in my book The Shadow Factory in 2008. Verint did not return a call seeking comment, while Verizon said it does not comment on such matters.

“At AT&T the wiretapping rooms are powered by software and hardware from Narus, now owned by Boeing, a discovery made by AT&T whistleblower Mark Kleinin 2004. Narus did not return a call seeking comment. What is especially troubling is that both companies have had extensive ties to Israel, as well as links to that country’s intelligence service, a country with a long and aggressive history of spying on the U.S.”

Paranoia? Anti-Israel Derangement Syndrome? After all, Israel is one of our closest allies – right? Why should we be leery of out-sourcing intelligence-gathering to them? But it isn’t paranoia, as Bamford goes on to relate:

“In fact, according to [former National Security Agency official Bill] Binney, the advanced analytical and data mining software the NSA had developed for both its worldwide and international eavesdropping operations was secretly passed to Israel by a mid-level employee, apparently with close connections to the country. The employee, a technical director in the Operations Directorate, ‘who was a very strong supporter of Israel,’ said Binney, ‘gave, unbeknownst to us, he gave the software that we had, doing these fast rates, to the Israelis.’”

There has been no prosecution, and this incident has never been made public: why is that? If someone high up in the NSA has been handing over sensitive technology to a foreign government, doesn’t this qualify as a criminal act – or even news? Yet this is the first anyone has heard of it.

According to Bamford, Binney suspects “Israeli intelligence in turn passed the technology on to Israeli companies who operate in countries around the world, including the U.S. In return, the companies could act as extensions of Israeli intelligence and pass critical military, economic and diplomatic information back to them. ‘And then five years later, four or five years later, you see a Narus device,’ he said. ‘I think there’s a connection there, we don’t know for sure.’”

Don’t we? All’s fair in love, war, and espionage – which is nothing but war conducted covertly.

When we unpack the boxes within boxes within boxes of Israeli front companies, we find the foot soldiers of Israel’s undercover army inside an electronic Trojan horse.Narus, an Israeli company which boasts its spying capabilities are second to none, has had a working relationship with Israeli intelligence, according to founder and former chairman Ori Cohen. Another Narus founder, chief technology officer Stanislav Khirman, previously worked for our old friend, Israel Aerospace Industries – the company Nozette assumed was a Mossad front.

Verint, formerly Comverse/Infosys, is another familiar name to longtime readers of this column. Back in 2001, Carl Cameron of Fox News reported Israeli agents in the US had been tracking Mohammed Atta and his terrorist team prior to the 9/11 attacks, and may have had foreknowledge of the event. One leg of this steadfastly ignored four-part series detailed the Israeli government’s intimate connection to a company with the exclusive contract to work on the technical aspects of our eavesdropping operations: Comverse-Infosys, now known as Verint.

Verint makes customized computers and software designed to cut into the system of circuits and switches that make up the nation’s phone system in order to capture, store, and record wiretapped conversations, simultaneously sending them to government agents. The problem, however, is that the producers of this valuable tool have constant access to the computers and the information contained therein for “maintenance” purposes. This amounts to what many in law enforcement regard as a “back door” left wide open. What this means, in practice, is that the entire system has been compromised, as a letter from 15 law enforcement officials to then-Attorney General John Ashcroft asserted. Cameron concluded his report with these words:

“What troubles investigators most, particularly in New York, in the counter terrorism investigation of the World Trade Center attack, is that on a number of cases, suspects that they had sought to wiretap and survey immediately changed their telecommunications processes. They started acting much differently as soon as those supposedly secret wiretaps went into place.”

Fox News has never retracted this story, which was broadcast in the first half of December, 2001. Although the smoke had barely cleared from the skies over Manhattan, they erased it from their web site three days after its release. A few honestjournalists [.pdf] followed up the story, but it soon went down the Memory Hole and was never heard from again – until now, when a tentacle of the octopus surfaces for a moment, only to sink back down into the miasma of major media indifference, and official complicity.

The implications of this story – the pervasive penetration of America’s secure communications networks by Israeli intelligence and a possible connection to the 9/11 terrorist attacks – are too hot to handle for the “mainstream” news media. Indeed, even reportage on matters such as Nozette’s trial is rare to nonexistent: we only heard about the duplicitous space scientist on two occasions – when he was arrested, and when he was sentenced.

Appended to most of these stories was the prosecutors’ contention that the Israeli government was not in any way involved. Nozette’s long association with a “company,” Israel Aerospace, that for all practical purposes is an adjunct of the Israeli government, makes nonsense of this claim, as does Nozette’s surprise at being double-recruited by the Mossad. “I thought I was working for you already”!

Why is the government not prosecuting whoever handed the NSA’s software over to the Israelis? Why does Washington deny or deflect all questions dealing with Israel’s extensive covert operations in the US?

When it came to light the FBI had issued a memo instructing local offices to conductsurveillance on Antiwar.com and its employees, the item that brought us to their attention and caused so much ire on their part revolved around this issue of the Israeli connection to the events of 9/11. While we are still going through the long and involved legal process of discovering just what the extent of that surveillance was, what is clear at this point is the peculiar sensitivity of the authorities whenever this subject comes up. It is as if someone had probed an old injury, or subjected them to an electric shock: the response is automatic and emphatic.

What are they so afraid of?

No, it’s not the vaunted power of the Israel lobby, or, at least, not only that. After all, what we’re talking about here is an Israeli “back door” into our most sensitive government communications, a penetration so complete that it places the security of the nation in mortal danger – and puts the privacy and civil liberties of all US citizens at risk. In Britain, they are proposing legislation that would allow real-time snooping on every sort of communication device, giving the government access to everyone’s phone conversations, emails, and web-surfing habits. We have the technology to do this, and no doubt are already doing it: that’s what operation “Stellar Wind” is all about.

If the Israelis have access to this comprehensive monitoring system, via an electronic “back door,” this means personal information could be readily passed around and used to discredit Israel’s perceived enemies in the US. Can fear be a big part of the explanation for the free pass given to Israel’s covert activities – fear of blackmail?

Oh, so you’re a vocal opponent of Israel’s policies in Palestine? Listen buddy, do we have a thick dossier on you! You’d better shut up – or else. What will your wife say when she sees that email – complete with lurid attachment – you sent the other night?

It’s the alleged function of government to protect us from foreign invaders, bad guys from overseas who would do us harm. In this instance, however, they haven’t just failed – they’ve shirked their sworn duty. This may be one of the biggest stories since September 11, 2001 – which is why you won’t hear a word about it from the legacy media and their online imitators. Kudos to Wired for breaking this latest aspect of an ongoing story. How long, I wonder, before they’re darkly accused of spreading pernicious “conspiracy theories”? Place your bets below, in the comments section.