What has Israel done for us? - An answer from RST

On March 30, the Colonel challenged this blog’s readers to answer his question: “What has Israel EVER done for the US?” 

There have been 73 posts so far, but no one has yet answered the question – though J did proffer one Tartar (sic, ouch) contribution.* So I propose not one, but three candidates: Comverse, Verint, and Narus. As James Bamford recently explained in his article, “Shady Companies With Ties to Israel Wiretap the US for the NSA”:

  [link: http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/04/shady-companies-nsa/all/1] 

…Secretive contractors with questionable histories and little oversight were also used to do the actualbugging of the entire US telecommunications network. According to a former Verizon employee briefed on the program, Verint, owned by Comverse Technology, taps the communication lines at Verizon….At AT&T the wiretapping rooms are powered by software and hardware from Narus….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 US. 

Policymakers in the Bush and Obama administrations, who since 9/11 have determined that the warrantless wiretapping of millions of Americans is a good thing, are thus faced with aparadox. To best secure their objective, they must rely on Israeli-born companies - but these companies may not be so secure. It reminds me of an old Jewish joke: 

My brother is impossible. He thinks he’s a chicken.

Why don’t you send him to a psychiatrist?

I can’t. I need the eggs. 

Verint was incorporated in Delaware and is now headquartered in Melville, New York. Boeing acquired Narus in July  2010. Many of the engineers in both companies are American, and much of the tech behind the companies' innovations is US-derived. So my question is, does the NSA need the eggs? 

*Incidentally, other notable Tatar contributors to America’s cultural life include Rudolf Nureyev, Charles Bronson, and Irina Shayk.  RST

    

Comments

[The Beaver]

FWIW

Comverse owns 52% of Verint and it was Comverse Infosys who gave Turkey via the Israeli govt or Mossad the location of the PKK chief Abdullah Ocalan in Kenya back in 1999.
Now we just have to wait for a false flag for the upcoming Olympic games in London !!!! all thanks to Verint (like the Vancouver games - FUD works).

[Morocco Bama]

For what it's worth, it's not what has Israel done for the U.S., but it's what will Israel do for the U.S. The marker is yet to be called in. It's a significant marker, and Israel doesn't know it.

[Roy G.]

This is just the latest manifestation of an long-term effort by the Israelis to penetrate US telecom at all levels. Remember during the Bush salad days, Jack Abramoff almost got an Israeli client put in charge of the Congressional network infrastructure. These guys are good, but their skills are inflated and rely on political hacks like this to gain access.

They had root access to Lebanon's entire telco, but they eventually got outed, and now they sit in prison there, awaiting death-level charges. This is probably one reason why they prefer to work in the US, where they can grease the skids so much easier, and secrets like this are covered up, not prosecuted among friend$.

[The beaver]

Don't tell that to CBC Television. Even though there was an infiltration of the Lebanese telecom network by the Israeli spies, the CBC's Senior Washington correspondent keeps maintaining that the whole evidence gathered by Lebanese police and UN investigators “points overwhelmingly” to the fact that “an eight-member hit squad backed by Hezbollah was behind” former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri’s 2005 assassination.

[Ken Halliwell]

A related subject: The April 2012 edition of Wired magazine has an interesting "exclusive report", by James Bamford about NSA's new data center being built in Utah.

Purportedly, the data center will be able to store yottabytes of data, both encrypted and non-encrypted. The report says that NSA made a technology breakthrough that aids in cryptoanalysis or decryption of "unfathomably complex encyption systems" in use today. Thus, opening the door for gleaning intelligence from the yottabytes of encrypted data that can be stored at the new data center; e.g., financial transactions, military and diplomatic communications, etc.

[Ken Halliwell]

Here's a link to an online version of the Wired article:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/03/ff_nsadatacenter/all/1

[Rufus T. Firefly]

KH: As usual, Bamford overhypes.

All: As for "warrantless wiretapping" FISA is alive and well at NSA.

[Roy G.]

The evidence is all based on cell phone records - something the Israelis could easily 'spoof' with their root network access. The investigation has dragged on so long, and been so compromised that it will never be the smoking gun that Jeffrey Feltman prays for in his nighty pipe dreams about Hizb.

[rst]

Dear Rufus,

I believe you, but Bamford overhypes what, exactly?
And how does FISA protect the millions alluded to?

[J]

RST,

Former DIRNSA/DCI Hayden should have been, and still should be held accountable for his role in allowing Israel's penetration of NSA.

Hayden should have never been allowed to become DIRNSA to begin with, based on other matters he was involved in.

[J]

RST,

Also one should include former DIRNSA Adm. McConnell alongside former DIRNSA Hayden for aiding and abetting Israeli penetration of NSA.

[J]

Colonel,

What is a nation to do with the now ingrained pro-Israeli NEOCONS now buried within several of our sensitive government agencies.

Israel has had (and still does) a steady track-record for taking (a.k.a. stealing) U.S. sensitive tech and using it against as well as selling it back to U.S. with some of their slight modifications.
I find it very interesting how that the Israels dirty dealings (theft) with our Patriot systems is now coming back to haunt them in a big way.

With back-stabbing 'friends' like Israel who have repeatedly and still continues to stab U.S. in the back, who needs enemies?

[yannisorolov]

Nothing except take money