Worry at NSA that Kushner gave away the store to Israel - By The Wayne Madsen Report

Worry at NSA that Kushner gave away the store to Israel

                                                   By The Wayne Madsen Report

There are increasing worries that Donald Trump's special adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, specifically requested Top Secret intelligence files to pass gleaned information to Israeli intelligence. WMR has learned from knowledgeable sources that Kushner's compromise of National Security Agency and allied FIVE EYES partners' intercepts of foreign leaders led to his losing his temporary access to Top Secret/Special Compartmented Information (SCI).

According to our sources, NSA intelligence analysts became suspicious when Israeli companies specializing in not only gathering signals intelligence (SIGINT) information, but also protecting against such collection, began aggressively marketing their services to particular countries, especially those in Africa.

Kushner has already been accused of passing NSA communications intercept transcripts on key government and business leaders in Saudi Arabia to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS). After determining who in the House of Saud and Saudi business community were opposed to his rise to power, MbS singled them out for arrest and torture. In a few cases, MbS's targets were executed.

NSA fears that not only transcripts of its intercepts of Saudi officials were passed by Kushner to MbS, but also to the Israeli government. [right, Kushner pictured with his Israeli handlers in Jerusalem] This not only compromised targets of NSA's wide surveillance net, but also the agency's sensitive sources and methods for collecting such intelligence.

What alarmed NSA officials more than anything else is their observation that Israeli signals intelligence (SIGINT) companies, comprised of former SIGINT officers with Israel's Unit 8200 communications intercept agency, began aggressively marketing offensive and defensive SIGINT capabilities to other countries. These countries are routine targets for NSA collection efforts. Through the use of the joint NSA-Central Intelligence Agency Special Collection Service (SCS), intercepts of diplomatic, military, and other official communications are provided in either full or abridged transcript form to cleared U.S. policymakers. These are the files that were routinely requested by Kushner for no apparent reason, raising eyebrows within the upper echelon of the National Security Council. One of those who raised concerns about Kushner's "curiosity" for such information was Lt. General H. R. McMaster, who was recently fired by Trump, largely at the urging of Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump. National Security Adviser John Bolton, a pro-Israeli neo-conservative, has vowed to fire those who questioned Kushner's motives and those of his father-in-law in not taking immediate steps to curtail Kushner's access to such intelligence.

Kushner, who has no intelligence or military experience, specifically requested intercept transcripts on governments that are now on the receiving end of aggressive Israeli marketing efforts. Although Kushner has reported responsibilities for U.S. relations with the Middle East, Mexico, and China, there is no valid reason for him to have requested and read NSA transcripts of intercepted communications of such African leaders as Senegal's President Macky Sall, Cote d'Ivoire's President Alassane Ouatarra, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, or Gabon's President Ali Bongo.
Many African countries use low-level forms of encryption, mostly supplied by French firms, that are easy to break. NSA is able to decrypt foreign communications, including those transmitted over Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), using a system code-named BIRDWATCHER, which forwards such coded communications to other NSA systems for code-breaking. However, Israeli firms are now able to sell more sophisticated systems to such governments. What the foreign governments do not realize is that Israeli intelligence has the decryption keys. Upgrading foreign government encryption with Israeli products also makes it that much harder for NSA to decrypt the communications, including e-mail. By providing such information on communication security vulnerabilities to the Israelis, Kushner has caused irreparable harm to U.S. national security. If such a security violation resulted in a criminal indictment, Kushner could be looking at multiple life terms in federal prison.
One such Israeli company that has moved into Africa to the chagrin of NSA and its partners in Britain and Canada is SAFNA, a firm headquartered in Israel's "intelligence city" of Herzliya, where Unit 8200, [pictured left] the lesser known Unit 8100, and various Mossad operations are located. The company's president is a Moroccan-born Jew named Didier Sabag, who also runs two Israeli firms based in Hong Kong, Hamsa Ltd. and Orot Ltd., both of which appear to be Israeli intelligence fronts. NSA is concerned that SAFNA will stymie its ability to monitor governments in the Sahel region that are also targets for the Islamic State and Al Qaeda jihadists. Governments courted by SAFNA include Morocco, Guinea-Bissau (a major transshipment point for narcotics from Latin America to North Africa and Europe), Benin, and the Central African Republic.

Another Israeli firm, A.D. Consultants of Nes-Ziona, Israel is marketing communications intercept and security equipment to President Alpha Condé of Guinea. Guinea is the location of mining resources coveted by Kushner's real estate business partners, the Steinmetz family of Israel. Other African countries receiving full-court presses from A.D. Consultants, include Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Cote d'Ivoire, Cabo Verde, Togo, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Gabon, Senegal, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Niger.

Other Israeli SIGINT firms are marketing their services in India. A recent visit by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to India cemented growing military and intelligence links between Tel Aviv and Delhi. Similar aggressive Israeli SIGINT marketing is being reported from Azerbaijan, which shares a border with Iran; Angola; Mozambique; Saudi Arabia; Bahrain; and the United Arab Emirates.

The compromise of SIGINT by Kushner followed the revelation that Lt. General Michael Flynn, Trump's short-lived National Security Adviser, had a contractual relationship with another large Israeli cyber-warfare firm specializing in hacking computer systems. The firm was NSO Group Technologies, also located in the Herzliya espionage metroplex. Trump --whose presidential campaign's links to the data mining firm Cambridge Analytica have been established -- may also be linked to another Israeli electronic surveillance firm, Black Cube, primarily consisting of ex-Mossad officers. Black Cube cyber-spies were retained to penetrate the email and medical records of Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, while he was a presidential candidate; and to dig up dirt on Kenyan opposition politicians; Mexican, United Arab Emirates, Moroccan, and Bahraini human rights activists; and women who accused disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault.

Declassified U.S. documents prove Israeli-South African N-Test in 1979 By The Wayne Madsen Report

Declassified U.S. documents prove Israeli-South African N-Test in 1979

By The Wayne Madsen Report
As with anything relating to covert Israeli operations, the U.S. National Archives must tread carefully when releasing formerly classified documents that reveal Israeli secrets. Due to the immense influence of Jewish organizations and the Israel Lobby in the United States, verboten classified documents have included those relating to the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty, the Jonathan Pollard spy ring, and, most importantly, Israel's secret nuclear weapons program. However, due to the release of files from President Jimmy Carter's administration, including those originating with Carter's special envoy for nuclear non-proliferation matters, Ambassador Gerard Smith, the public now knows much more about the joint Israeli-South African nuclear test conducted in 1979. The test occurred on September 22, 1979 in a remote area of the South Atlantic, near the Prince Edward Islands, a possession of South Africa.

A U.S. Vela satellite, designed to detect nuclear explosions, identified a double flash in the South Atlantic. In 2010, Carter, himself, wrote in his book that he believed the Israelis, working jointly with the apartheid government of South Africa, tested a nuclear device either using a ship or another type of platform. Carter was in a political quandary. If he publicly announced that Israel and South Africa tested a nuclear weapon, U.S. law required him to apply sanctions against Israel. Sanctions were already in effect against South Africa due to its apartheid racial policies. However, Israel, which had and continues to have undue influence over U.S. politics, was another matter. Carter, who had staked his reputation on the Camp David peace accords between Israel and Egypt, could ill-afford to see his marquee foreign policy success unravel. So the U.S. government officially remained silent.

The declassified Smith files now prove that Tel Aviv and Pretoria became members of the nuclear club on September 22, 1979. The files document the conclusions of the 
Air Force Technical Applications Center (AFTAC)-- which ran a series of acoustic detection facilities around the world to detect underground seismic harmonics of nuclear blasts in a range below 1 hertz -- the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the Central Intelligence Agency that the September 22 double flash picked up by the Vela satellite was from a nuclear blast. Radioactive substances, including high levels of Iodine 131, an isotope resulting from nuclear explosions, were found in rainwater samples collected by the New Zealand Institute of Nuclear Science (INS) and in thyroid gland tissue samples of Australian sheep analyzed by the  DIA. However, this and other evidence was buried by officials in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand who were fearful of the vengeance that could be expected from the Jewish community and Israeli Lobby.



Although Politico reported on Smith's findings on December 8, WMR revealed the details of the Israeli-South African nuclear test on July 15, 2006:

"On September 22, 1979, Israel and South Africa conducted a joint nuclear test in the southern Indian Ocean, near the Prince Edward Islands. A U.S. Vela spy satellite detected the blast. In addition, the radio telescope at Arecibo, Puerto Rico detected a ionospheric disturbance at the time of the nuclear detection by the Vela satellite. In addition, a TIROS geophysical satellite detected an electronic event at the time of the blast and the CIA dispatched teams to study acoustic data captured by U.S. Navy Sound Surveillance System (SOSUS) underwater hydrophones. Analysis of the acoustic data also indicated a nuclear detonation had taken place. After Israeli-South African nuclear cooperation was discovered, the two nations' intelligence agencies worked closely together. South African intelligence strongly relied on Israeli intelligence assets in Washington, DC, including individuals who are now key operatives of the Bush administration's neo-con cells within the Pentagon, National Security Council, State Department, and CIA."

This editor assisted a CIA analyst who traveled under MITRE Corporation contractor cover. The analyst arrived in Keflavik, Iceland subsequent to the South Atlantic nuclear test to examine the SOSUS low frequency passive acoustic sonar grams, as well as the lower-frequency seismic acoustic grams of the AFTAC unit, gathered under the auspices of the U.S. Naval Facility where this editor was serving as Maintenance Officer. Although there were no acoustic traces of the nuclear blast found above 1 hertz, the analyst hit pay dirt when examining the AFTAC unit's data. He confided that the data pointed to a nuclear blast in the South Atlantic that involved Israel, South Africa, and another nation, Taiwan.

The saga of the Israeli-South African nuclear test in 1979 is yet another case in which the influence of the Israel Lobby and Jewish political donors has been used to obscure and alter U.S. intelligence.

After Obama in Hiroshima: Israel’s Gigantic Nuclear Elephant

By contributors | May. 29, 2016 |

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The criminalization of truth when it comes to Israel’s nuclear capabilities means that its arsenal has been converted into a gigantic elephant in the room.

The online version of a recent Economist magazine article comes equipped with the tantalizing headline “Israel’s atomic angst: A textile factory with a difference.” The summary reads: “One of the world’s oldest nuclear plants helped build the Jewish state’s secret nuclear arsenal.”

The textile reference is to a spontaneous alibi deployed in 1960 by an Israeli official accompanying then-U.S. Ambassador to Israel Ogden Reid on a flyover of the Negev Desert. An intensive construction operation near the town of Dimona, site of the now-aging nuclear plant, caught the inquisitive ambassador’s eye — and “textile factory” was apparently the first thing that came to the official’s mind.

The magazine offers a photograph of the Dimona reactor and cupola, complete with the caption: “Tough times in the garment trade.”

And you thought The Economist couldn’t do sarcasm.

The article notes that at a conference in April, representatives of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission reported “1,537 small defects and cracks” in the reactor’s aluminum core. While the typical lifespan of such reactors is said to be 40 years, Dimona has kept on ticking for 53.

Despite having ostensibly done its time on earth, however, there doesn’t seem to be a funeral in sight for Dimona. The Israeli newspaper Haaretzexplains that, “for political, scientific and economic reasons, Israel has no capability or desire to replace the core, an operation that would mean building a new reactor.”

As for related items that might also be conceived of in terms of ticking,The Economist cites the common estimate that Israel possesses between 80 and 200 nuclear warheads. Of course, self-imposed immunity from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty has not prevented the Jewish state from throwing a permanent hissy fit over Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions.

Meanwhile, the essential criminalization of truth when it comes to discussing Israel’s own nuclear capabilities means that its arsenal has been converted into a gigantic elephant in the room—and a very dangerous one at that.

For what happens to insiders who dare draw attention to the beast, one need look no further than the case of former Israeli nuclear technicianMordechai Vanunu, kidnapped by the Mossad in 1986 and imprisoned for 18 years, 11 of them in solitary confinement.

Blocked from leaving the country (and recently hit with new charges), Vanunu is still seen by the state as a “security threat”—a far greater threat, no doubt, than stockpiles of weapons capable of eliminating vast swathes of humanity, or nuclear reactor cores containing 1,537 flaws.

The United States, for its part, never really bought into the whole “textile” factory scenario, and the American intelligence community suspected almost from the start what the Israelis were up to. But aside from some pressure from John F. Kennedy — who, as Avner Cohen and William Burr detail at the National Security Archive, pushed for international inspections of Israeli nuclear facilities — the U.S. has pretty much been wholeheartedly strung along by ambiguous Israeli explanations of its supposedly peaceful activities at Dimona.

In their book “Spies Against Armageddon: Inside Israel’s Secret Wars,” American journalist Dan Raviv and Israeli journalist Yossi Melman document a political convergence in 1969 that proved most auspicious for Israel’s nuclear industry: the respective ascents to power of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir, U.S. President Richard Nixon, and Nixon’s National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger.

“The trio,” Raviv and Melman write, “agreed that no more inspections of Dimona would be required …  Moreover, the new White House team had apparently concluded that an unquestionably strong Israel would be good for American interests: pushing the Arab countries to negotiate peace by dispelling their dreams that they could, with Soviet assistance, wipe out the Jewish state.”

The special relationship has proved enduring, with American weaponslending a hand as Israel regularly wipes out portions of area Arab populations. American companies were also among the entities that previously supplied Israel with key materials for nuclear weapons. Never mind that nukes are a pretty good way to increase one’s own chances of self-destruction.

Meanwhile, should The Economist be seeking to augment its arsenal of sarcasm, “Spies Against Armageddon” provides plenty of robust material. Consider the section on how, while shopping for their nuclear program in the 1960s, the Israelis relied on none other than former Nazis in West Germany.

One character, a Luftwaffe officer-turned-businessman who Raviv and Melman note was “still convalescing from his wartime injuries,” paid a personal visit to Israel to make the acquaintance of Israeli defense officials: “The Israelis referred to him as ‘the Nazi pilot,’ and they went out drinking together in Tel Aviv.”

Shipments destined for Dimona were also procured from Degussa, a German company that “had profiteered during the war from gold teeth and other metal items stolen from murdered Jews.”

Half a century later, as the old reactor plugs away into eternity, one can think of at least 1,537 reasons it shouldn’t exist in the first place.

Belén Fernández is the author of “The Imperial Messenger: Thomas Friedman at Work,” published by Verso. She is a contributing editor at Jacobin magazine.

Via TeleSur

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Related video added by Juan Cole:

RT: “‘Israel may have one of biggest nuclear stockpiles in the world’ – whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg”

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