Israel & intelligence (merged thread)

[Adam L]

Look, everybody spies on everybody. It's been that way throughout history (recent and ancient.) I'm sure the Brit's are spying on us, and we are spying on them. If the US, UK, Israel, Russia, or for that matter anybody didn't spy on everybody they would be derelict. With how we manage to lose our own intelligence "inter" and "intra" agency, I would think that it's the reasonable thing to worry about us sharing appropriate intel. I don't get pissed at anybody when we find out thier spying on us. It's their job and they have to do it. On the other hand, I want to do everything possible to make sure they can't do it. If we catch them, hopefully that means we are doing a good job.

Adam L

[davidbfpo]

I'm sure the Brit's are spying on us, and we are spying on them.

Our mutual activity would never be called spying by diplomats, politicians and even spymasters. What I do find odd is that on the UK's senior intelligence body, the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), the USA has a pernament seat at the table, reportedly filled by the CIA Station chief. Nothing I have seen suggests this is reciprocal, dispite the widely reported "special relationship" in intelligence matters.

Even odder a few years ago an ex-CIA analyst sat (may well still sit) on the UK's leading monetary policy decision making body in the Bank of England. Now to my very limited knowledge no-one from the UK, let alone ex-MI6, ever sat on the equivalent in the Federal Reserve.

davidbfpo

[Adam L]

Our mutual activity would never be called spying by diplomats, politicians and even spymasters. What I do find odd is that on the UK's senior intelligence body, the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), the USA has a pernament seat at the table, reportedly filled by the CIA Station chief. Nothing I have seen suggests this is reciprocal, dispite the widely reported "special relationship" in intelligence matters.

Even odder a few years ago an ex-CIA analyst sat (may well still sit) on the UK's leading monetary policy decision making body in the Bank of England. Now to my very limited knowledge no-one from the UK, let alone ex-MI6, ever sat on the equivalent in the Federal Reserve.

davidbfpo

That's Interesting. I'm going to look into that.

Adam L

[bourbon]

Trojan Horse: How Israeli Backdoor Technology Penetrated the US Government's Telecom System and Compromised National Security, by Christopher Ketcham. Antiwar.com, September 26, 2008.

Pentagon Finds Religious Bias In Army Probe: Jewish Scientist Was Suspected of Spying, By Vickie Elmer. The Washington Post, August 24, 2008.

Two articles on this sensitive subject. The Ketcham article aggregates numerous stories from over the years, under the tent of CI vulnerabilities in our domestic telecom system. The Elmer article captures exactly why this issue needs to be handled calmly and methodically.

[sullygoarmy]

Worth a read on the interaction of Israeli Lobby Groups and U.S. Foreign Policy. Walt and Mearsheimer expanded an article they had written and turned it into a very interesting and informative book. These two are power players in the world of Foreign Policy and theory.

Even though the book starts out by and repeating throughout the right for Israel to exist as a state, they were instantly labeled as anti-semetic and forced to cancel some of their lectures. As you can imagine, the book received instant fire from pro-Israel lobby groups. Really ashame because the book asks some hard questions and can serve as the basis for some really great discussion points.

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

[Tom Odom]

Worth a read on the interaction of Israeli Lobby Groups and U.S. Foreign Policy. Walt and Mearsheimer expanded an article they had written and turned it into a very interesting and informative book. These two are power players in the world of Foreign Policy and theory.

Even though the book starts out by and repeating throughout the right for Israel to exist as a state, they were instantly labeled as anti-semetic and forced to cancel some of their lectures. As you can imagine, the book received instant fire from pro-Israel lobby groups. Really ashame because the book asks some hard questions and can serve as the basis for some really great discussion points.

The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy

I posted the original London Book Review article on here a couple of years ago. It is a ground breaking effort and drew all the expected criticism from the expected sources. At its heart it asks for a hard review of policy versus knee jerk reactions.

Tom

[sullygoarmy]

Tom,
I figured some had already read it or reviewed it. I agree 100%. While I wasn't surprised at the reactions, it did catch me off guard was the ferocity of some of the attacks. A good, open debate can only help us in the long run, whether the political action committees agree or not.