British and US Spies Over Israel’s Drones Programme

For almost 20 years, British and US intelligence have cracked the codes of Israeli drones operating in the Middle East and monitored their surveillance feeds, according to documents leaked by an American whistleblower and published in international media.

The details emerged from documents leaked by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, who leaked millions of documents about US government surveillance in 2013, according to reports by the German daily Der Spiegel and investigative website The Intercept.

The intelligence agencies were able to watch information that the drones and other aircraft broadcast back to their handlers, the reports said.

The project has operated since 1998 and was based near the highest point in Cyprus, according to the reports.

Israel was the focus of the programme but it also hacked into systems in Egypt, Turkey, Iran, and Syria, the reports said.

The hacking granted intelligence agencies a “virtual seat in the cockpit” as Israeli drones hit militant targets, the Intercept report said.

In one instance in 2008, an NSA internal newsletter boasted of the programme successfully collecting video from the cockpit of an Israeli F-16 fighter, the report said.

There was no official comment on the reports in Israel but Israeli cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz, said: “We are not surprised; we know that the Americans spy on every country in the world and on us as well, on their friends.

“It is nevertheless disappointing because among other reasons, we haven’t been spying or collecting intelligence or cracking codes in the US for decades.”

Source : irishexaminer

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