An international lawyer says the recent disclosures that the US is directly enabling Israel’s military assaults on Gaza vividly proves Washington’s complicity in every war crime committed by Tel Aviv. Barry Grossman made the remarks in a phone interview commenting on recent reports that showed the US National Security Agency is sharing intelligence on “Palestinian targets” with Israeli spy services. “These disclosures not only expose the US to culpability in the spate of war crimes currently being perpetrated once again by Israel, but also give lie to President Obama’s public pose which implies that the events taking place in Gaza somehow are the inevitable result of factors entirely out the Unites States’ control,” Grossman told Press TV. “Indeed, I take the view that for all intents and purposes, the US security apparatus has been largely hijacked by rogue elements or, if you prefer, a 5th column within its agencies, and that these elements operate to advance agendas which are often at odds with any claim that their primary loyalties are to the United States,” he added. Israel has been pounding the besieged Gaza Strip for 28 consecutive days. At least 1,865 Palestinians have been killed during offensive including over 400 children. The attacks have also left over 9,400 people injured. Documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden and published recently by The Intercept show the NSA “maintains a far-reaching technical and analytic relationship with the Israeli SIGINT National Unit (ISNU) sharing information on access, intercept, targeting, language, analysis and reporting.” According to Glenn Greenwald, editor of The Intercept and confidante of Snowden, the “documents illustrate a crucial fact: Israeli aggression would be impossible without the constant, lavish support and protection of the U.S. government.” Grossman says Israel’s control over the US intelligence apparatus is nothing new but many American officials have long feared that criticizing Israel’s operations in the US would be “career suicide.” “The cozy relationship between the Israeli and US intelligence services has been an open secret for a long time, with many insiders complaining that any criticism or investigation of actions by Israeli operatives in the US, even those which might be considered criminal, is career suicide,” he said. “Sadly, it comes as no surprise that we are now learning this cozy relationship has developed to the point of unrestricted ‘data sharing’ which involves the NSA actually providing information to Israel, even during a belligerent military offensive,” Grossman added. “Based on what we now know,” the analyst noted, “It must be assumed that Israel has essentially unlimited access to all the facilities and data available to the 16 agencies comprising the US security apparatus, not to mention the work product of their international partners in the global intelligence and ‘eavesdropping’ apparatus.” “The implications are enormous and exceed even the worst nightmares of George Orwell,” he said.
Posted on: Tue, 05 Aug 2014 00:07:35 +0000