• NSA expert exposes role of Unit 8200 in massive snooping op
By Victor Thorn
Despite denials by Google spokesmen that they willingly permitted any of their data to be mined, it appears they did allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to passively infiltrate their networks.
The missing link in this cyber-spying conundrum can be traced to two Israeli companies founded in the 1990s. According to a June 8 article by syndicated columnist and peace activist Richard Silverstein, “The NSA hired two secretive Israeli companies to wiretap the U.S. telecommunications network. Verint and Narus created programs which offered the NSA back-doors to all major U.S. technology companies, including Facebook, Microsoft and Google.”
On June 9, investigative reporter Jon Rappoport cited James Bamford, author of three books on the NSA, to confirm the role of Verint and Narus. “They played a key role in developing and selling the technology that allowed NSA to deploy its PRISM spying program.”
Even more interesting, Silverstein explained how the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) maintained a top-secret department called Unit 8200 which served as their version of our NSA.
“[Unit 8200] developed Stuxnet and Flame along with its colleagues in the NSA. Unit 8200 veterans founded numerous start-ups that commercialized their military applications for security use by companies and intelligence agencies.”
One of these companies was Verint, which is conveniently owned by Comverse, an entity that, prior to 9-11, provided computers to the federal government which allowed them to install wiretapping equipment into practically every phone across the U.S. The ties go deeper. Former Comverse CEO Jacob “Kobi” Alexander also purchased the Odigo instant messaging service which alerted Jewish workers employed at the World Trade Center towers two hours before they were struck by airliners on September 11, 2001.
With these capabilities in mind, a June 7 Washington Post article contained this line: “98% of PRISM production is based on Yahoo, Google and Microsoft.”
Google, it should be noted, is referred to in some quarters as a distinct branch of the government, especially since its CEO, Eric Schmidt, has developed a special relationship with Obama. According to White House advisor David Plouffe, “On election night [2012] he was in our boiler room in Chicago.”
Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and author of over 50 books.
