NSA hands Gaza targeting data to Israel, say latest Snowden docs

[bemildred]

According to the latest drop of leaks from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, the US spy agency provides financial assistance, weapons and signals intelligence to Israel.

The Intercept reports that Canadian, British and Jordanian signals intelligence is also shared with Israel. This intelligence relates to Palestinian targets, including those in Gaza, according to the documents handed to Snowden confidante Glenn Greenwald.

According to Greenwald, one document dated April 2013 reads: “[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.”

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“The new Snowden documents illustrate a crucial fact: Israeli aggression would be impossible without the constant, lavish support and protection of the U.S. government, which is anything but a neutral, peace-brokering party in these attacks," wrote Greenwald. "The relationship between the NSA and its partners on the one hand, and the Israeli spying agency on the other, is at the center of that enabling.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/08/04/snowden_latest_nsa_helps_israel_target_palestinians_gaza/

[The Magistrate]

1. The Hell You Say, Sir....

"It was his life's work to announce the obvious in terms of the scandalous."

[bemildred]

2. Gee, who could have predicted this?

On the other hand, I doubt they want that bandied around in public like this.

[The Magistrate]

3. True Enough, Sir, But Still

Is there anyone able to out-wit a cabbage who did not assume this to have been so?

[bemildred]

4. Of course not, Sir. nt

[Jefferson23]

5. Things are definitely getting interesting. K&R

[bemildred]

6. Yes.

Maliki has instructed his air force to support the Kurds resisting IS in the North.
The Kurds in Iraq and Syria are uniting to resist IS (Edit: and losing, they need weapons).
Lebanon is about to be dragged into that war too.
Assad is back on the defensive.
Can Jordan be far behind?
The Nagorno-Karabagh mess is heating up again too.

The Magistrate's comments some time back WRT the Ukraine crisis as to the drawbacks of all this redrawing of boundaries and balkanization and inflaming of passions going on are very apropos.

[Jefferson23]

7. I think Jordan is not far behind, not at all.

I am not aware of the Nagorno-Karabagh situation getting worse..I thought there
was good reason there would be a settlement, no?

Although the information on our helping Israel as revealed is not shocking in any
way, I like documentation..it can be valuable in the right hands and the appropriate
arena...legal courts as well as public courts of opinion.

[bemildred]

8. The Nagorno-Karabagh flareup is recent, I have not really looked into why it is happening yet.

But I would not be surprised to find that refugees are behind it there too.

[Jefferson23]

9. ah, ok...thanks. n/t

[bemildred]

10. Ah, here you go:

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In Dispute

Armenia took over Nagorno-Karabakh, a mountainous enclave about the size of Rhode Island, and seven adjacent districts from Azerbaijan in a war after the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991. More than 30,000 people were killed and over a million displaced before Russia brokered a cease-fire in 1994.

With historical and cultural ties to both countries and demarcated as part of the Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic by the Soviets as an Armenian-majority autonomous region, Nagorno-Karabakh remains internationally recognized as part of Azerbaijan. Four United Nations Security Council resolutions were passed demanding an Armenian withdrawal from Azeri territory adjoining Nagorno-Karabakh.

About 700,000 Azeris were forced to leave the districts in what Azerbaijan describes as ethnic cleansing. The two nations’ presidents met in November in Vienna for the first time in two years.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-03/armenia-azeri-war-risks-grow-as-clashes-intensify.html

[Jefferson23]

15. Damn, I thought I read just about a week ago, at most, they were closer to settling this out.

Shit can happen fast..what an understatement below, huh?

Abrahamyan said. “We are not afraid of war, I just think it is not clever to solve problems with wars in the 21st century.”

[bemildred]

17. I didn't know there was trouble until a couple days ago.

I read the Armenians started it, but you know how that is, nobody ever started it themselves. The Azeri government is not a good one, either, rich with oil money. I found it interesting to read about it thoug, in the sense that so much of the rhetoric echoes what we've been reading in I/P.

[Jefferson23]

19. It was fast: July 31

Sargsyan: Nagorno-Karabakh settlement possible exclusively though peaceful means

http://en.trend.az/news/karabakh/2298674.html

[bemildred]

20. Yeah, I remember that one.

Didn't bother to read it at the time.

[bemildred]

11. ‘U.S. inputs enabled Israeli assaults’

The U.S. directly enabled, for many years, Israel’s military assaults on neighbouring territories such as the recent assault on Gaza, said multiple reports this week.

New revelations stemming from documents made available by Edward Snowden, former National Security Agency contractor-turned-whistle-blower, included information on the NSA increasing the surveillance assistance to its Israeli counterpart, the Israeli SIGINT National Unit, also known as Unit 8200 over the last decade.

This cooperation by the NSA included “data used to monitor and target Palestinians,” said a report by The Intercept, the publication founded by investigative journalist Glen Greenwald and others who had worked with Mr. Snowden in bringing NSA surveillance reports to light.

On at least one occasion, a “covert payment of a large amount of cash to Israeli operatives,” was made by U.S. intelligence. It also offered surveillance coverage of “geographic targets [that] include the countries of North Africa, the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, South Asia, and the Islamic republics of the former Soviet Union,” the Intercept report noted.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/us-inputs-enabled-israeli-assaults/article6281174.ece?utm_source=RSS_Feed&utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=RSS_Syndication

[bemildred]

12. Britain reviewing Israel arms export licences

LONDON: Britain is reviewing licences to sell arms and military goods to Israel in the light of ongoing operations in Gaza, Prime Minister David Cameron's office said on Monday (August 4).

Britain's government has approved licences for the sale of military goods to Israel worth at least 42 million pounds (US$71 million, 53 million euros) since 2010, according to government figures obtained by the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT). These are mostly to supply weapons control and targeting systems and components for ammunition, drones and armoured vehicles.

"We are currently reviewing all export licences to Israel to confirm that we think they are appropriate," said a Downing Street spokeswoman. "Clearly the current situation has changed compared to when some licences will have been granted, and we're reviewing those existing licences against the current situation, but no decisions have been taken beyond going back again and reviewing," the spokeswoman said. The decision to review the contracts was taken last week, she added.

CAAT spokesman Andrew Smith welcomed the review but called for an immediate embargo on the selling of military equipment to Israel, insisting the government "should never have agreed the licences in the first place". "It not only facilitates, but signals approval to the actions of the Israeli government," he added.

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/britain-reviewing-israel/1296666.html

[Jefferson23]

16. I would not be surprised to see the US/EU form a concerted effort to pressure Israel

to get back to the Kerry Initiative that fell apart. Not that I believe from anything I have
read that would secure a viable state for the Palestinians but something has to give, they're all sick of
this mess. I have read one prediction I won't repeat, and hope it does not come true.

Too soon to say, regardless.

[bemildred]

18. That would be nice. nt

[Jefferson23]

21. I think they're going to try, they want it before they leave office. Bibi

would prefer they leave asap.

[bemildred]

22. We'll see. It's hard to sort the posturing out from the serious intent at this point. nt

[bemildred]

13. Stop US shipment of fuel to Israel's armed forces as evidence of Gaza war crimes mounts

Amnesty International is appealing to the US government to immediately halt the transfer of a US fuel shipment currently on its way to Israel for use by the Israeli military. The organization has repeatedly called for a comprehensive arms embargo on all parties to the conflict, amidst mounting evidence that war crimes are being committed by both sides in the past four weeks in Gaza.

The US government has continued to supply hundreds of thousands of tons of fuel, including fuel for fighter jets and military vehicles, to Israel’s armed forces despite a soaring civilian death toll from aerial and other military attacks. The last US jet fuel delivery arrived in Israel on 14 July, a week after the conflict began. Nine previous shipments were made from the US to Israel during 2013 and 2014. A fuel tanker with the latest US fuel shipment is now sailing past the Azores and is due to arrive in Israel on 12 August.

“By continuing to supply fuel for military vehicles and fighter jets being used in attacks resulting in mounting civilian deaths and horrific injuries, the US government will have more blood on its hands,” said Brian Wood, Head of Arms Control and Human Rights at Amnesty International.

“Instead of continuing to send shipments of fuel and arms to the Israeli military, the USA must immediately suspend all such transfers and back an international investigation into the atrocities being carried out by both sides.”

http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/stop-us-shipment-fuel-israels-armed-forces-evidence-gaza-war-crimes-mounts-2014-08-04

[bemildred]

14. ICRC president on his way to Gaza

Tel Aviv/Gaza/Geneva (ICRC) – The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer, will begin a three-day mission to Gaza, Israel and the West Bank tomorrow to see for himself the human cost of the on-going conflict.

http://www.icrc.org/eng/resources/documents/news-release/2014/08-04-gaza-israel-palestine-maurer.htm