Huge spy hub uncovered in Israel

It has been described as Israel's ‘big ears' – a huge facility where it is claimed phone calls and emails from all across the Middle East and beyond can be monitored for intelligence.

­Hidden from prying eyes for decades in the desert, it has become a focus for investigative journalists. Many Israelis have probably driven past it and not cast a second glance. A few satellite dishes outside a little known town in the Negev desert. But, this is no ordinary military base.

“This is the largest or the largest equal spying facility that I have ever seen on earth,” says Nicky Hager, an author and investigative journalist from New Zealand.

And Hager should know: he has been studying signal intelligence – or electronic spying – for the last 25 years. A tip off gave him access to people on the inside.

“No one had ever talked about or understood that there could be something of this scale in Israel. It had simply never come on the map, it had never been seen,” Hager continued.

But now it is showing up all over satellite images, with thirty different listening antennas directed high over the equator – each targeting a different dish in the sky.

“They take everything that is passing over the satellite. The system simply doesn’t discriminate and… everyone listens to everybody,” a UK-based investigative journalist Duncan Campbell told RT.

And that is a lot of listening… From the hub every telephone call, every email, can be intercepted. And according to Duncan Campbell, somewhere there, along the coast north of Tel Aviv, large groups of people are listening in.

“Typically, you have large, windowless – what look like industrial – warehouses, but with massive security. I’ve seen many such places across the Untied States and several hundred people will check in the morning, start filing through, checking emails, listening to telephone calls,” Campbell continued.

But inside Israel, no one is talking.

“I haven't heard about Urim, I don't know what the word base refers to,” Israeli investigative journalist and author Ronen Bergman told RT.

“I don't know what exactly the reason behind the focus is on this one. It's just a platform. When it comes to intelligence you need a platform… in order to intercept whatever you want to intercept,” Meir Elran of the Institute for National Security Studies explained.

But why was the platform itself intercepted? It was well hidden until recently, when Hager went public on it.

“My first surprise was the scale, that there was this huge spying facility which will be profoundly influencing the politics of the Middle East and beyond. But then the second surprise was that it had clearly been there for as long as some of the bases that you find in Britain, and Germany, and Russia, and the United States,” Hager said.

"Those who need to know, know exactly where it is and what it is,” Meir Elran pointed out.

*************************************************************************************

Israel’s powerful position in the Middle East is often associated with its armed forces, nuclear weapons arsenal or covert (Mossad) operatives. But just as important is its intelligence gathering – monitoring governments, international organisations, foreign companies, political organisations and individuals. Most of this happens at the installation in the Negev a couple of kilometres to the north of the kibbutz of Urim. Our sources, close to Israeli intelligence, know the base first-hand. They describe lines of satellite dishes of different sizes, and barracks and operations buildings on both sides of the road (the 2333) that leads to the base. High security gates, fences and dogs protect the facility. As you can see on the internet, the satellite images of the base are quite clear. A practised eye easily discerns the signs of an electronic surveillance base. A large circle in the farmland shows the site of a direction-finding antenna (HF/DF) for monitoring shipping.

The Urim base was established decades ago to monitor Intelsat satellites that relay phone calls between countries. It expanded to cover maritime communications (Inmarsat), then rapidly targeted ever more numerous regional satellites. As such, says intelligence specialist Duncan Campbell, it is “akin to the UK-USA pact’s Echelon satellite interception ground stations”. The Echelon system is a network of interception stations around the world, set up in 1996 by the US, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Satellite phones used by the Gaza-bound aid ships were easy targets for this hi-tech equipment.

http://warincontext.org

« The Chabadization of America | Main | Tagar-Jewish extremists in France » ThursdayJan272011

Gilad Atzmon: The Palestine Papers and Us

Thursday, January 27, 2011 at 8:17AM Gilad Atzmon

I have a rule -- I never intervene in Palestinian political matters. I never comment on Palestinian internal debate. I do not think that I have the right to do so : I am an ex-Israeli and an ex-Jew, and I write about Israel, Jewish Identity politics, and Zionism.
 
For me, the leaked Palestinian Papers provide us with a valuable glimpse into Israeli politics and Western complicity in the crimes carried out against the Palestinian people.  I do realise that most Palestinian commentators agree that the leaked papers have “damaged whatever little credibility the Ramallah-based authority still enjoyed among Palestinians” ; yet, more than anything else, the Papers prove beyond doubt that Israel is  not a partner for peace -- In spite of the weaknesses that have been shown by the PA since the 1990’s, Israel has failed to secure a peace deal, and has consistently failed to show any will to bring the conflict to an end. In short -- Israel has always wanted more.
 
The Papers have also clearly shown that whilst Israel likes to present an image of ‘political pluralism’ , that is little more than a deception : there is not much difference at all between  Tzipi Livni and Avigdor Lieberman. Both are Zionist enthusiasts, and both are interested in a ‘Jews only state’ -- Indeed, just like Lieberman Livni too,offered to “transfer Israeli Arabs.”
 
Yesterday, we learned that as far back as 2004, the British MI6 was assisting the PA in the war against Hamas :  according to The Guardian “The Palestinian Authority's security strategy to crush Hamas and other armed groups on the West Bank was originally drawn up by Britain's intelligence service, MI6”.
 
So, at the time that the British Government was supposedly advocating “democracy” in Palestine, the reality was quite different : British 'James Bonds' were investing enormous effort in trying to destroy the rising political power in Palestine. One may wonder : what kind of ‘British interests’ was the MI6 serving in doing so ?  It is far from being a secret that  in 2004 Tony Blair  was primarily funded by Labour Friends of Israel ; his NO 1 fund raiser  was Lord Levy.
 
The Palestinian  people will liberate themselves eventually -- but it is also about time we all liberate ourselves from the grip of Israeli and Jewish lobbies.

2. Gilad Atzmon: Jews against the King

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Along the years we have heard about ‘Jews against Zionism’, ‘Jews against Racism’ and ‘Jews against anti Semitism’. In the last few days we have learned about a new Jewish collective. They are called ‘Jews Against the King.’

Apparently some Jews in Hollywood are not happy with the great cinematic success of The King’s Speech, the latest British film. 

The King’s Speech follows the story of King George VI- a man who never wished to be King, and had trouble with his confidence and public speech as he had an uncontrollable stammer.  From a Jewish perspective King George VI was nothing but an anti Semite.

Hollywood blogger Scott Feinberg cites an anonymous email, supposedly from an Academy member, which claims the picture ignores George VI’s role in preventing Jewish refugees from fleeing Nazi Germany to Palestine.

"I'm an Academy member and there are a LOT of us who won't vote for The King's Speech for this reason," the email reads.

Feinberg speculates that the email may be part of “an orchestrated smear campaign”. Critics claim that George VI indirectly conspired with Hitler to prevent Jews from reaching Palestine, which at the time was under British mandate.  

I guess that sooner or later Hollywood may have to liberate itself of its Holocaust driven agents.