CIA spies consider Mossad ‘most unfriendly’ agency

September 7, 2010 by intelNews

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |

This blog frequently considers the issue of US-Israeli intelligence relations, said to be undergoing a turbulent period in recent times. Indeed, the change of guard at the White House, the rearrangement of Washington’s policy priorities following the economic crash, as well as the dramatic rightwing shift in Israeli politics have rapidly altered the political playing field between the two nations. To this extent, it is worth noting that Meir Dagan, director of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, told a Knesset committee last July that “Israel is gradually turning from an asset to the United States to a burden”. How is this evident in intelligence relations between Washington and Tel Aviv? The Washington Post’s security correspondent Jeff Stein may be able to help fill in the picture. He wrote a few days ago that an internal poll, which was recently administered to CIA operatives, found that Israeli intelligence agencies are considered the world’s least friendly and most uncooperative with their US counterparts. The survey, which was administered primarily to personnel within the Agency’s National Clandestine Service (which handles actual spies on the ground), also revealed that Israeli spy services are the world’s third most aggressive in their operations on American soil. In fact, the only intelligence agencies considered more aggressive than Israel’s in the survey were those of China and Russia. Stein spoke with retired CIA and FBI officials, who told him that Israeli agencies are indeed “all over the place” in the US, and that they have been “called on the carpet [by FBI counterintelligence] more than any other country by probably a factor of three times as often”. The Washington Post correspondent attempted to contact a spokesperson at Israel’s embassy in Washington DC, but it appears that nobody could be “immediately reached for comment”.