'Obama violates 'no snooping on allies' vow, spying on Netanyahu and Congressmen'- Wall St. Journal

National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders also swept up the content of private conversations with U.S. lawmakers

from U.S. Spy Net on Israel Snares Congress by Adam Entous and Danny Yadron in Wall St. Journal, Dec 29, 2015

President Barack Obama announced two years ago he would curtail eavesdropping on friendly heads of state after the world learned the reach of long-secret U.S. surveillance programs.

But behind the scenes, the White House decided to keep certain allies under close watch, current and former U.S. officials said. Topping the list was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The U.S., pursuing a nuclear arms agreement with Iran at the time, captured communications between Mr. Netanyahu and his aides that inflamed mistrust between the two countries and planted a political minefield at home when Mr. Netanyahu later took his campaign against the deal to Capitol Hill.

The National Security Agency’s targeting of Israeli leaders and officials also swept up the contents of some of their private conversations with U.S. lawmakers and American-Jewish groups. That raised fears—an “Oh-s— moment,” one senior U.S. official said—that the executive branch would be accused of spying on Congress.

White House officials believed the intercepted information could be valuable to counter Mr. Netanyahu’s campaign. They also recognized that asking for it was politically risky. So, wary of a paper trail stemming from a request, the White House let the NSA decide what to share and what to withhold, officials said. “We didn’t say, ‘Do it,’ ” a senior U.S. official said. “We didn’t say, ‘Don’t do it.’ ”

Stepped-up NSA eavesdropping revealed to the White House how Mr. Netanyahu and his advisers had leaked details of the U.S.-Iran negotiations—learned through Israeli spying operations—to undermine the talks; coordinated talking points with Jewish-American groups against the deal; and asked undecided lawmakers what it would take to win their votes, according to current and former officials familiar with the intercepts.

Before former NSA contractor Edward Snowden exposed much of the agency’s spying operations in 2013, there was little worry in the administration about the monitoring of friendly heads of state because it was such a closely held secret. After the revelations and a White House review, Mr. Obama announced in a January 2014 speech he would curb such eavesdropping.

In closed-door debate, the Obama administration weighed which allied leaders belonged on a so-called protected list, shielding them from NSA snooping. French President François Hollande, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other North Atlantic Treaty Organization leaders made the list, but the administration permitted the NSA to target the leaders’ top advisers, current and former U.S. officials said. Other allies were excluded from the protected list, including Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of NATO ally Turkey, which allowed the NSA to spy on their communications at the discretion of top officials.

Privately, Mr. Obama maintained the monitoring of Mr. Netanyahu on the grounds that it served a “compelling national security purpose,” according to current and former U.S. officials. Mr. Obama mentioned the exception in his speech but kept secret the leaders it would apply to.

Israeli, German and French government officials declined to comment on NSA activities. Turkish officials didn’t respond to requests Tuesday for comment. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the NSA declined to comment on communications provided to the White House.

This account, stretching over two terms of the Obama administration, is based on interviews with more than two dozen current and former U.S. intelligence and administration officials and reveals for the first time the extent of American spying on the Israeli prime minister.

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Is Obama engendering a World War by over-prioritizing his own re-election campaign?

Conventional wisdom dictates that were Israel to attack Iranian nuclear weapons facilities, Iran would mine the Sea of Hormouz to interfere with Gulf oil passage, thereby temporarily (until the US clears the sea mines) increasing the price of oil. The ripple-effect would increase prices across the world, and slow the economy during the time leading up to the US presidential election.

Israel feels that the US has stalled striking Iran (or blocking Israel) for too long and Iran is now "5 minutes to midnight" close to nuclear weaponizing- and waiting 'til after November would be disastrous.  Obama tells Netanyahu that if Israel waits 'til after the election, if he wins, he will stop blocking them and back them in the aftermath. But should Netanyahu trust Obama, who has arguable the worst administration regarding Israel in memory?  Iran would surely like Obama (whom they perceive as weak) to win another term, because they doubt his mettle to strike directly or support Israel if it does. And if the apocalyptic ayatollah regime manages to develop nuclear weapons within the next 7 months, it will be too late for Israel. The regime is known to be so messianic that they are willing to endure an Israeli counterstrike- if it would mean eradicating Jewish control over the Holy Land.  But Obama will not act, nor permit Israel to act to avert this potential nuclear armageddon against Israel (and perhaps the US) to ensure his re-election.

Iran Lists War Aims Against Israel  Michael Rubin in Commentary 04.01.2012

"In his Alef (Magazine) article, Ali Reza Forqani, an ally of Iran’s Supreme Leader, goes further. After justifying a war against Israel, Ali Reza Forqani delves into how Iran should conduct its war. Lest anyone misread Iran’s intent, in a section subtitled “People of Israel must be Annihilated,” Forqani outlines how to conduct genocide:

The residents of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa can be targeted even by Shahab-3 missiles. These three areas which are located very close to each other are very densely populated and the population there accounts for about 60 percent of Israel’s entire population. Therefore, it is possible to use Sajjil missiles to target the infrastructures in this area including power plants, fuel and energy installations, water and sewage treatment facilities, transportation and communication infrastructures; and in the next stage Shahab-3, Ghadr and Ashura missiles can be used to target and strike residential areas in the cities until the final annihilation of the people of Israel.

He then outlines Iran’s missile capability, explaining how Iran could best exploit each missile in its arsenal and bragging that used properly, “Iran Could Destroy Israel in Less Than Nine Minutes.” That the Iranians might soon be able to fit the Sajjil with nuclear warheads should only heighten concern.

Iran may be lots of things; deterrable does not appear to be one of them."

Is Israel a strategic asset or liability to the West?  Middle-east analyst, Mark Langfan demonstrates what steps would follow a potential conquest of Israel by Islamist forces, either through ceding the West Bank for an Iranian sought state of Palestine, or through an Iranian axis (Syria, Lebanon, Hezbollah, Hamas, and potentially Egypt) missile and land war. 

Mr. Langfan shows that by Israel, by militarily restricting Islamist Iran and her allies, and (potentially Islamist) Egypt from laying siege to the coveted Saudi and Gulf oil fields, Israel is the lynchpin which maintains Middle East stability. Iran's true motivation behind its "World without Zionism" crusade may not be "Palestinian nationalism" but to gain control of more of the world's petroleum resources.  An Iranian/Egyptian war against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, would draw the involvement of the US to defend Saudi Arabia against Russia and China, allied with Iran. Iran has already warned of its intention to strike inside the US homeland, with its allied bases in Latin America and sleeper Hezbollah cells marbled thoughout North America.


This World War could catapult the price of petroleum to the $500-$1,000 per barrel range, thrusting world's economy into a global depression.  It is therefore in the world's best interest, Mr. Langfan shows, to support Israel against Iran in maintaining Middle-Eastern political and global economic stability

Israelis blame administration leaks for ‘diplomatic, military and even operational damage’  Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Israel has been alarmed by what officials determined were leaks by the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama of purported Israeli preparations to attack Iran.

A leading U.S. analyst who returned from talks with the Israeli leadership reported that the Obama administration was accused of staging a campaign to undermine Israel. The analyst, Robert Satloff, said Washington was also blaming Israel for the rise in global crude oil prices, deemed as harming the U.S. economy.

“I cannot underscore how deep and visceral the [Israeli] comments of the leaking that came out of Washington were,” Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said.
In late March, several reports were published by leading American newspapers and journals [including Foreign Policy: Israel-Azerbaijan ties could expedite Iran strike] that questioned Israel’s military capability.

Obama bungles Mubarak crisis, "shatters the mystique of America's superpower status"; Iran sails warships Red Sea to oppose Egypt & Israel

Two excellent columns about the Obama Administration's bungling Mubarak's crisis:
As the lies come crashing down by Caroline Glick

The Obama administration's decision to ban relevant language from the official US policy discourse was ideologically motivated. And in choosing ideology over reality, the Obama administration has induced a situation where rather than construct policies to deal with reality, at all levels, US officials have been charged with constructing policies to deny and ignore reality.

Against this backdrop it becomes fairly clear why the Obama administration's handling of the political turmoil in Egypt has been so incompetent.

Upon entering office, Obama made a determined effort to ignore the political instability percolating under the surface throughout the authoritarian Arab world. US government officials were instructed to curtail programs aimed at developing liberal alternatives to authoritarianism and the Muslim Brotherhood. The justification for this behavior was again ideological.

The Obama administration's ideologically driven strategic ineptitude is evident everywhere.

From its slavish devotion to appeasing Iran, its single-minded insistence on withdrawing from Iraq, its announced commitment to withdrawing from Afghanistan, to its tolerance of Hugo Chavez, and its infantile reset button diplomacy towards Russia, the Obama administration's foreign policy is on a collision course with reality.

But nowhere is its premeditated incompetence more evident than in its obsession with the establishment of a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River.

Our leaders are doubtlessly tempted to simply take the path of least resistance and join Obama and his merry band of blind men as they move from lie to lie to defend their ideology from reality. ...

But doing so will not protect us when the dangers sown by the US's strategic dementia provoke the next conflagration.

Israel's best option is to simply tell the truth as loudly and forcefully as it can and base our policies on it. While doing so will win Israel no friends in the Obama administration or in Europe, it will prepare us for the day when the wall of lies they are building from Islamabad to Cairo to Ramallah come crashing down.

Egyptian women supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood demonstrate in this Tahrir Square video against Pres. Hosni Mubarak as a supporter Israel and America, the "infidel" states they've been inculcated to hate.
(Video courtesy NTEB2012)

Prof. Barry Rubin, back from the Herzliya Policy Conference around his office at the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel, returns to analyze: "Egypt: Mubarak's not the one who should resign."

... The quality of the American leadership has grown worse.

There has been an attempt to spin President Husni Mubarak’s speech as some type of victory for the Obama Administration. Yet within hours this effort collapsed. The nation’s highest intelligence officials showed they had no idea what the Muslim Brotherhood represents, joked that they didn’t know any more than did CNN, and provided completely inaccurate information on the course of events in Egypt.

It was the Egyptian army that decided that Mubarak had to go in order to preserve its own power and privileges.

When the New York Times can write,

"American officials said Mr. Panetta was basing his statement not on secret intelligence but on media broadcasts,” It seems that Panetta—not Mubarak--should resign not so much for getting the story wrong but for not understanding what his job is supposed to be.

The president of the United States leapt into an issue he didn’t understand, put forward a bad policy, showed he didn’t comprehend the most basic principles of statecraft and diplomacy, publicly celebrated as if he were making a campaign speech projected events in Egypt that didn’t happen, and then admitted that he had no idea what was going on.

Even some of his biggest left-wing fans had to admit this was a debacle. "The mystique of America's superpower status has been shattered," said Steve Clemons, of the New America Foundation.

From the Middle East itself, the reviews are indeed shattering. The Saudis, just about the most cautious and conservative government there is in the world, publicly rebuked President Obama on his strategy. This is not primarily an issue concerning Israel. It’s an issue affecting anyone in the Middle East who opposes revolutionary Islamism and looks to the United States as a protector.

Iran's destroyer docks in Jeddah opposite Israel & Egypt

Prof. Rubin adds the news that:  two Islamic Republic of Iran warships just visited the Saudi port of Jeddah in the Red Sea. No, that wasn't a misprint, I said "Red Sea," and not "Persian Gulf." This is the first time Iranian warships have been in the Red Sea, just down the coast from Israel and just across from Egypt.

Not only is this a strategic alarm bell for the United States and Israel but also for the Saudis themselves. Bereft now of their last significant Arab ally and feeling unable to depend on the United States, the Saudis are facing their worst strategic situation since the 1950s at a time when Iran is spreading its influence and racing toward nuclear weapons.

Former CIA-Director, James Woolsey explains Islamic imperialism's threat to the free world - over the Obama administration's spin

Former CIA Director, James Woolsey, gives informed insights into threats which challenge Western stablity - and coping strategies. He is candid about Iran's President Ahmadinejad implementing the apocalyptic, Hojattieh worldview. Presented by Iranian-American cultural group, 30 Years After, in Los Angeles on Wednesday 28 July.

Palestinians Fail to Protect Sensitive U.S. Intel Secrets - Captured by Islamists

DebkaFile reports that Hamas (and its Syrian and Iranian sponsors) have captured priceless Palestinian Authority intelligence archives in Gaza putsch.

"The Fatah-led general intelligence and security services caved in too fast to shred, wipe or burn documents, computer disks and archives. The entire collection fell into Hamas’ hands when they seized Palestinian Preventive Intelligence HQ at Tel Awa (henceforth Tel al-Islam) and the Palestinian General Intelligence center near Gaza port.

DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources say: Never before has a bonanza of Western intelligence secrets on this scale ever reached an implacably hostile Islamist terrorist gang. The US, British and Israeli intelligence services may have suffered their greatest debacle in the war on Islamist terror. It will take them many years to recover.

Hamas has taken possession of hundreds of thousands of documents cataloguing the clandestine operations of Western intelligence services in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the oil emirates.

It is now the owner of complete archives of Palestinian undercover links with foreign intelligence services going back decades, with names of spies, political collaborators and double agents.

The documentation covers the secret ties Palestinian intelligence maintained from the 1970s, when Yasser Arafat was based in Lebanon, with the Americans, the British, the French, the Israelis and many others.

Most intelligence experts say Israel should have bombed the two buildings and destroyed their contents rather than letting them fall into the hands of an organization and country dedicated to its eclipse.

For Hamas, this booty is priceless – and not only as the repository of bombs for planting under Mahmoud Abbas and his cohorts. The Palestinian group’s Syrian and Iranian sponsors will pay a king’s ransom for this unique collection of explosive secrets hidden by many a Western intelligence agency and government.

Damascus and Tehran will be hugely empowered with the means to stay a jump ahead of American moves in the region and tools to sabotage US policies at any time. They will have a store of national secrets and compromising information to hold over the heads of Western leaders and officials, lists of undercover agents, and records of covert operations carried out by the Israeli Mossad, Shin Bet and Military Intelligence, CIA, British MI6 and other Western agencies.

Iran, Syria and Hamas will know the names of politicians, including Israelis, who worked secretly with Palestinians and their shady deals.

One intelligence expert said that the Gaza hoard left in enemy hands by Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan are the crown jewels compared with the Saddam Hussein’s intelligence archives.

In the Palestinian security service building, Hamas found computer hard disks covering years of undercover activity and a complete set of sophisticated wiretapping and surveillance equipment and sensors which the CIA and MI6 gave Mahmoud Abbas and his forces. It was all in perfect condition ready to switch on.

After the Nazi regime was defeated at the end of World War II and Eastern Germany fell in the 1990s, there were officials willing to make a desperate effort to destroy or hide their intelligence treasure. Palestinian intelligence officers did not burn a single page."