The Pentagon’s Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to “critical” amid escalating tensions between Washington and Israel over the conflict with Iran, US media reports.
– Citing two US officials and one former official, the report states that the DIA posted an internal message detailing the change, which was viewed by one of the current officials.
– The designation stems from growing concerns within the Pentagon that Israel was making a targeted effort to surveil top US officials.
– According to the sources, this surveillance was aimed at gathering intelligence on the Trump administration’s internal deliberations and decision-making regarding Middle East conflicts.
– The DIA assessment included a seven-page document and featured a specific chart, one of the current US officials said.
– The document noted that Israel’s capabilities to conduct both human espionage and technical information collection had reached a “critical level”. The official added that the document also identified a series of specific incidents that heightened US concerns.
– “The US already takes extra precautions when visiting Israel,” one of the current US officials was quoted as saying.
– “They’re well-known to aggressively collect,” the official said of Israel.
https://aje.news/h8ipko?update=4630509