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US agencies told to keep their mouth shut on Israeli spying: Activist

Friday, 13 September 2019 10:34 AM [ Last Update: Friday, 13 September 2019 12:18 PM ]

A man cycles beneath an Israeli electoral billboard for the Likud party showing US President Donald Trump shaking hands with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a caption in Hebrew reading "Netanyahu, in another league" in Tel Aviv on September 10, 2019. (Photo by AFP)

An anti-war activist says Israel has been spying in the US not only against its government, but any individual critical of the occupying regime.

Richard Becker, a regional coordinator for the ANSWER Coalition protest umbrella group, consisting of many antiwar and civil rights organizations, made the remarks on Press TV’s The Debate show on Thursday.

“There is the spying not only on the US government, but there are clandestine intelligence operations being carried out against anyone in the United States, who is critical” of Israel, he said.

PressTV-Israel accused of placing spy devices near White House

The US government has concluded that Israel placed surveillance devices near the White House and other sensitive locations around Washington, DC.

In contrast to other instances of foreign spying, however, President Donald Trump’s administration has not rebuked Israel, and there were no consequences for the regime’s behavior, Politico reported on Thursday, citing three former senior US officials with knowledge of the matter.

Becker also explained that “the White House, and the FBI and the other agencies are being told to keep their mouth shut about this,” because it could cause problems ahead of Israeli elections next week.

“The Trump administration wants [Benjamin] Netanyahu back as Prime Minister again,” he added.

He further pointed out that the reason Israel is so interested in carrying out such wide-ranging intelligence gathering in the US is that the regime is very isolated in the world, while its protector is the United States.

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