Hayden Cooper, a Middle East correspondent for ABC News reports an intelligence scandal in Israel in his article, Israeli soldiers from elite wire-tapping unit refuse to use 'extortion', 'blackmail' on Palestinians. An intelligence Unit 8200 has been accused of using any and all personal information it can gather on individuals including their sexual orientation to blackmail and extort their cooperation with the IDF.
These include gathering personal information about a person's sexual preference and using it to blackmail the individual into becoming a collaborator – a Palestinian who hands information to Israeli authorities.
"Any information that might enable extortion of an individual is considered relevant information," one soldier's statement said.
"Whether said individual is of a certain sexual orientation, cheating on his wife, or in need of treatment in Israel or the West Bank – he is a target for blackmail."
"The notion of rights for Palestinians does not exist at all, not even as an idea to be disregarded," one witness statement said.
"Any Palestinian may be targeted and may suffer from sanctions, such as the denial of permits, harassment, extortion, or even direct physical injury."
Israel's Unit 8200 intelligence group has been compared to the NSA in the U.S. and is alleged to use sophisticated means to collect data on individuals both within Israel and overseas. I have read previous reports that have alleged that Israel uses the intelligence functions of both Mossad and the Ministry of Defense to gather intelligence anyone\ deemed to be an enemy of the state, which includes critics and others who contribute to "delegitimization" of Israel.
These allegations do not surprise me.
History has shown over and over again, especially in the United States that when intelligence functions can power without sufficient limits it is misused.
Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
6:24 PM PT: Yesterday's Guardian published a long transcript with three of these refuseniks.
Peter Beaumont of the Guardian writes from Jerusalem, Israel’s Unit 8200 refuseniks: ‘you can’t run from responsibility’
N: The intelligence gathering on Palestinians is not clean in that sense. When you rule a population … they don’t have political rights, laws like we have. The nature of this regime of ruling over people, especially when you do it for many years, it forces you to take control, infiltrate every aspect of their life.
A: It is well known that the intelligence is used. People are arrested in the Palestinian territories. Sometimes without trial. And even when they are taken to trial it’s often with evidence that can’t be exposed [in court] because it is classified. And the intelligence is used to apply pressure to people, to make them cooperate with Israel. These are all things that are known.
There was a big media outcry after [Hamas military leader] Salah Shehade was assassinated [in 2002] and 14 members of his family were killed. There was a big story around that and the commander of the air force then – Dan Halutz – said to the pilots: “You did well.” You’re not responsible. Your job is to deliver the ammunition to the target in the most professional and accurate way you can, and you did that and your hands are clean.
D: What’s important is that it wasn’t only the interpretation … the media and soldiers inside the unit were told a lie about what was the target of the operation. … The [fact that] the ultimate goal was to kill innocent people was hidden. I joined the unit several months after. The response was to kick [the lieutenant] out of his job – not the unit – until he finished his military service.
A: The reason I brought up the whole Lieutenant Alif case was to emphasise that on the one hand the pilots are not responsible and on the other hand we – who are providing the information – are not responsible. The feeling is that it’s never possible to point any fingers. There is no one who is responsible.
N: And when you look at what happened this summer when building after building was destroyed on the inhabitants and hundreds of innocent people were killed. No one raised an eyebrow as opposed to just one decade ago when a killing of a family of a commander of Hamas [Salah Shahade] – then people were shocked. It was a huge story in Israel.
D: The story [of Lieutenant Alif] is very important and representative of the response of senior commanders of the unit to this incident I was referring to. [The fact] that the incident is used to give soldiers in the unit the message: “You’re not responsible.” There’s no such thing as a definite illegal order.
And we think this message has been well understood in the unit, which we think is a part of the fact that in the recent decade we’ve seen a decline in how much the soldiers and the Israeli public cares that innocent people are dying.
We want people to know that being in intelligence is not clean, and to control a population of millions you can’t just do counter-terrorism and hurt the people who want to hurt you.