Israel's Intelligence Striptease

Interesting 11 minute video on the reactor which Israel someone bombed in Syria a few months back. These images would have been illegal to broadcast in Israel; due to their extremely sensitive nature Israel's military censor would never allow their publication. Israel's defense establishment worked very hard to obtain this information, yet Israel's Prime Minister wished to earn as many public relation points as possible -- and released them all to the US. (Olmert also bypassed the censor, which is probably illegal in and of itself).

YNET provides an excellent analysis:

The publication of relatively fresh intelligence information is always problematic, but what happened this time can be termed a reckless intelligence striptease. Now, after we praised ourselves in public and boosted our national moral ahead of the 60th Independence Day celebrations, it is time to start monitoring the damage caused by none other than those in charge of classified information security.

Those are the people who explain to us how irresponsible the media are – while they proceed to commit the most severe offences, not to mention turning the military censor into a laughing stock.

Defense officials are now infuriated by the manner and scope of the publication, which exposed our intelligence capabilities. The problem is not with the satellite photos, but rather, with the photos taken in and around the Syrian reactor. We are not talking about mere archive photos, but rather, relatively recent ones taken by someone inside the facility or around it.

It doesn’t matter at all who shot those photos: What we have here is the exposure of capabilities and intelligence sources. We also have a possible exposure of a breach in the Syrian security and intelligence apparatus. The moment these photographs were published, the Syrians were sure to be doing everything in their power to identify and block this breach.

There is no way in the world that an intelligence agency would hand over fresh photos of a target taken by its own agents or other sources to a foreign agency, with the knowledge that these photos will be published internationally almost immediately – as if saying: Look at us, we were here.

Wherever I am, my blog turns towards Eretz Yisrael טובה הארץ מאד מאד