A Mad-Dog Israeli's Word of Caution

May, 1994 - Bruce Brill - Midstream Magazine

Since the beginning of the Madrid peace initiative, there has been US pressure on Israel to make security concessions to the Syrians in exchange for special consideration from US intelligence. There is no reason to expect that this pressure will not continue, or even increase on Israel's present administration. Yet there is strong evidence to support the claim that American Intelligence has a hidden agenda to seek Israel's demise.

"Mad-dog Israelis," is how Israelis were often referred to by "Hebees" (analysts working the Israel problem) at the National Security Agency in the early 1970's. It developed in part, from the Israeli attack during the Six Day War in 1967 on the US spy ship "Liberty," in which some veteran analysts were wounded or had friends who were killed or injured. By 1973 many of these same analysts had attained supervisory positions at the Agency.

Among the Arabic linguists there was anti-Israel prejudice brought along from the 47 intensive weeks of Arabic language training at the Defense Language Institute (DLI). All instructors at DLI were native speakers and much time was allotted to culture of the target nation. With six hours daily of in-class study, this naturally allowed the instructors ample opportunity to inundate the student with their perspectives on history, religion and politics.

During one class I translated an article (February, 1971) from Egypt's semiofficial daily, Al-Ahram, describing the Passover blood libel. Our instructor's reaction was most telling ... as was some of the students'. The teacher volunteered to describe the methods Jews used in his native Iraq to obtain gentile blood (presumably for our cultural enrichment). The sincerity, authority, and detail with which the instructor told of the Jews' blood passion had actually convinced some ofmy classmates that there had to be something to it." This is the kind of baggage many Arabic language graduates of DLI come on board with at the Agency.Couple this with the traditional anti-Israel bias of the US State Department that filters into the intelligence community, and, it is no wonder that the antagonism toward Israelis, and by extension toward Jews in general, simply found fertile ground in which to flourish. CBS' Daniel Schorr (Clearing the Air, 1977) states that in 1976 this anti-Israel biaswas institutionalized in the American intelligence community.

Note:

  • Secret even within NSA, there was a policy in the 1970's of not allowing Jews admittance into certain areas. Recent direct inquiries to NSA suggest that the policy of discrimination against Jews is still in force today.
  • Intelligence of the coordinated Egyptian-Syrian surprise attack on October 6, 1973 was known at NSA at least 41 hours in advance. Yet, according to Golda Meir and Moshe Dayan, misinformation that no attack would occur was forwarded from the US. Recent direct inquiries to NSA for an explanation have met only with nonresponse.
  • Valuable US spy satellite information that would have been helpful to Israel was sidetracked in the early 1980's by Casper Weinberger.
  • Information in the mid 1980's about the mounting chemical andbiological capabilities of certain Arab countries was withheld from Israel in contravention of an explicit 1983 Intelligence Exchange Agreement, forcing Jonathan Pollard to assume the responsibility.
  • US intelligence has been able to spot every new housing start in Judea or Samaria (the West Bank), but in 1991 somehow managed to lose a Scud-ladened North Korean vessel bound for Iran on the open seas.
  • US real-time information about Iraqi Scud launchings during the Gulf War were not forwarded to Israel, putting Israel's Civil Defense at a critical disadvantage.

    One may add to these the many examples documenting Aaron and Loftus' recent book, The Secret War Against the Jews.

    As antoagonism towards Israelis grew after the attack on the spy ship Liberty, now the time is ripe for an about-face that is more reflective of American public will.

    Soon many of the veteran anti-Israel US intelligence supervisors will be retiring from NSA. Today there is a White House that can once again create the rapprochement between Israel and the US lost during the Bush/Baker administration. Israel, a proven stable democracy based on a long tradition of human rights, should be admitted into the community of trusted co-democracies which pool intelligence as a matter of course.

    However, in light of the record, serious housecleaning in the US intelligence community --including a thorough review of the Pollard Affair-- is prerequisite to Israel's dependence on US security assurances.

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