SpyingIsrael Planted Eavesdropping Devices to Spy on Trump, WH officials: U.S. Intelligence Officials

The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that Israel was behind the placement of cellphone surveillance equipment near the White House and at other locations in Washington, D.C.

Politicoreports that a former senior U.S. official with first-hand knowledge of the issue said that the U.S. intelligence community believes the devices were installed to spy on President Donald Trump and top administration officials.

U.S. officials did not say whether the eavesdropping effort was successful or not.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was on his way to Sochi to meet President Vladimir Putin, vehemently denied the accusation, describing them as a “complete lie… Not a scintilla of truth.”

“There is a longstanding commitment, and a directive from the Israeli government not to engage in any intelligence operations in the U.S. This directive is strictly enforced without exception,” a statement from Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office read.

Politiconotes that Israel has not been punished — or even reproached in private — by the Trump administration, in contrast to measures taken by the Obama administration against other nations caught spying.

“The reaction … was very different than it would have been in the last administration,” a former US senior intelligence official said. “With the current administration, there are a different set of calculations in regard to addressing this.”

The former official criticized the administration’s approach to the matter. “I’m not aware of any accountability at all,” the official said.

“The Israelis are pretty aggressive” in their intelligence gathering operations, said a former senior intelligence official. “They’re all about protecting the security of the Israeli state and they do whatever they feel they have to achieve that objective.”

The Politico report says that Israeli agents placed small devices known as “StingRays,” which “masquerade” as cell towers in order to fool cellphones into revealing their location and identifying information.

The FBI conducted a “detailed, forensic analysis” and determined that the devices were planted by Israeli agents.

Three senior officials told Politico that DHS and the Secret Service were involved in the investigation, with assistance from the NSA and CIA.

“It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible,” a former U.S. senior intelligence official said.

A former official said such investigations are typically spearheaded by the FBI’s counterintelligence division. The devices would be examined to “tell you a little about their history, where the parts and pieces come from, how old are they, who had access to them, and that will help get you to what the origins are,” the official said.

However, one former official noted that although it was worrying that Israel was allegedly spying on the US, “on the other hand, guess what we do in Tel Aviv?”

Times of Israel reports that Netanyahu was not the only Israeli current or former official to deny the allegations.

Foreign Minister Israel Katz issued a statement, saying: “The U.S. and Israel share a lot of intelligence information and work together to prevent threats and strengthen the security of both countries,” Katz said.

Gen. (Ret.) Amos Yadlin, former head of Military Intelligence, said the report was “fake news spiced with anti-Semitism.”

A spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, Elad Strohmayer, denied to Politico that Israel placed the devices in Washington, saying: “These allegations are absolute nonsense. Israel doesn’t conduct espionage operations in the United States, period.”

Trump’s aides have repeatedly warned him that his cellphone calls are not secure. The New York Times reported that Trump has been advised that the U.S. intelligence community has evidence that operatives of the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence service, routinely eavesdrop on the calls — but White House aides told the Times that Trump has adamantly refused to stop using his personal iPhones even for the most security-sensitive calls.

Trump has three personal iPhones. Two of them were modified by the National Security Agency, but a third personal phone remains unaltered. Trump uses the three iPhones, interchangeably, for state business

The president’s aides have been more successful in persuading Trump to use his secure White House landline when he is behind his desk at the Oval Office.

In May 2014, Newsweek published a story which said that the 2013 U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on cyber threats “ranked Israel the third most aggressive intelligence service against the US” behind only China and Russia.