U.S. Spied on Israel Even as They Shared Intelligence
Israel has been the target of spying by the United States’ National Security Agency, the New York Times reported, citing documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.
According to the report published Saturday, the U.S. and Israel collaborate on intelligence gathering, with the Israel Signals Intelligence, or Sigint, National Unit, a high level intelligence unit, receiving raw NSA eavesdropping material from the U.S. and providing raw material from its own surveillances in return.
According to the documents, the NSA tracked “high priority Israeli military targets,” including drones and the Black Sparrow missile system.
The report also shows that the United States has spied on world leaders, including was Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon.
The NSA, according to the documents, has for decades shared intelligence information from eavesdropping with rest of its “Five Eyes” partners, the Sigint agencies of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. More limited cooperation occurs with many more countries, including formal arrangements called Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes and Nacsi, an alliance of the agencies of 26 NATO countries, according to the New York Times.
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