Report: U.S., U.K. Hacked Israel Drone Footage; Israel “Disappointed”
U.S. and U.K. intelligence forces hacked into Israeli drones to monitor their intelligence over a nearly 20-year period, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the infamous former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor-turned American whistle-blower now living in Russia.
MSN is reporting that, per German newspaper Der Spiegel and investigative website The Intercept, intelligence agencies from both countries monitored hacked drone and aircraft footage as far back as 1998.
This project, which has been code-named “Anarchist,” focused on Israeli activity out of its Cypress location, but also surveyed hacked video systems from Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Syria as well, per the report.
Codename “Anarchist": #UK & #US spied #Israel drones live video – #Snowden @the_intercept https://t.co/qyJZWbuWqx pic.twitter.com/iV6MCAKtms
— José Miguel Sardo (@jmsardo) January 29, 2016
The documents classified the hacked data that it collected as “indispensable for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military training and operations” as well as “an insight to possible future developments in the region,” per The Intercept. The report also indicated, via MSN, that the footage provided U.S. and U.K. intelligence a “virtual seat in the cockpit” as Israeli forces took out militant target areas.
Some of this hacked footage could have included video of armed, unmanned Israeli drones, an account that Yahoo News noted Israel “neither confirms nor denies.”
These images, believed to be missile-carrying drones and other pictures captured by surveillance video, were separately posted by The Intercept.
“It certainly looks like the missile-shaped objects are weapons. The bodies appear to have cruciform tail fins. The distortion makes it a bit hard to tell size, but — assuming they are bombs — these are definitely less than 500-pound class.”
Sweetman did not, however, rule out the possibility that the missiles could actually be decoys for helping “force a response from Iran’s air defenses.”
Israel, meanwhile, expressed deep disappointment with the U.S. and U.K. hacking and spying policy.
“We are not surprised; we known that the Americans spy on every country in the world and on us as well, on their friends,” said Israeli Cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz, who categorized the hacking as “disappointing.”
“It is… disappointing because among other reasons, we haven’t been spying or collecting intelligence or cracking codes in the United States for decades,” he continued, “I do not think that this is the deepest kingdom of secrets, but it is certainly something that should not happen, which is unpleasant. We will now have to look and consider changing the encryption, certainly.”
At the time, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu denied the rumor outright, stating, “The state of Israel does not conduct espionage against the United States or Israel’s other allies.”
Perhaps more concerning to Israeli forces than issues of distrust with its two biggest allies, however, is the fear that Germany and other countries that purchase Israel-manufactured drones in the future might be wary of aircraft network security concerns. It was Germany, in particular, that Yahoo News noted would lease a series of drones manufactured by Israel’s state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries. Steinitz shrugged this notion off, noting that “every country carries out its own encryption.”
Spokespeople for the U.S. and the U.K. embassies in Israel noted that they do not comment on foreign intelligence issues.
[Photo by Uriel Sanai/Getty Images]
