Debate Flares Over Israel’s Access to American Secrets

Why is this even called a “debate?” — Ed.

A bestselling author writing about America’s most secretiveintelligence agency is raising eyebrows with his claims that Israeliintelligence has potentially gained access to sensitive Americancommunications information.

Investigative writer James Bamford contends in his new book, “TheShadow Factory, the Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping onAmerica,” that at least two high-tech companies with alleged ties toIsraeli intelligence mined American communications data on a massscale. The companies were hired to help major Americantelecommunications firms that were cooperating with the NationalSecurity Agency on its controversial eavesdropping program.

In his latest book, published in October by DoubleDay, Bamfordwrites that the largest American telecommunications companiescooperated with the NSA in the “warrantless eavesdropping program byallowing the agency to tap its phone lines and fiber-optic cables.” Todo so, he writes, the telecom giants resorted to the assistance of atleast two high-tech firms, Narus and Verint, founded in Israel and withalleged ties to its intelligence services.

Narus and Verint were involved in tapping phone and Internet communications for, respectively, AT&T and Verizon.

“AT&T have outsourced the bugging of their entire networks —carrying billions of American communications every day -— to twomysterious companies with very troubling ties to foreign connections,”he writes. “What is especially troubling, but little known, is thatboth companies have extensive ties to a foreign country, Israel, aswell as links to that country’s intelligence service — a service with along history of aggressive spying against the U.S.”

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2008-11-20