(Newswire.net — September 13, 2019) — Spyware monitoring devices located near the White House over the past two years have been apparently installed by Israel, former US officials told Politico magazine.
What is spyware? Spyware is a software that aims to gather information about a person or organization, sometimes without their knowledge, and send such information to another entity without the consumer’s consent.
According to a news report, mobile phone surveillance devices that were allegedly intended to spy on US President Donald Trump were discovered during his presidency.
A spokesman for the Embassy of Israel in Washington Elad Strohmayer stressed that “these allegations are absolute nonsense,” adding that Israel does not conduct espionage operations on US soil.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also denied that Israel was behind the devices. “We have a directive, I have a directive: No intelligence work in the United States, no spies,” he stressed, adding that the report is a “complete fabrication.”
However, a former U.S. intelligence official said it was “pretty clear that Israelis were responsible.”
The White House declined to comment on the situation, according to a report transmitted by Israeli media. The US President Donald Trump is still in disbelief that his closest allies could spy on him.”I don’t think the Israelis were spying on us,” Trump said. “My relationship with Israel has been great…Anything is possible but I don’t believe it.”
Politico writes that Israel is suspected of eavesdropping on communications from the White House.
“The Israelis are pretty aggressive” in their intelligence gathering operations, said a former senior intelligence official. “They’re all about protecting the security of the Israeli state and they do whatever they feel they have to to achieve that objective.”
The report states that the Trump administration has failed to respond to Israel’s behavior.
The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security declined to comment on a US magazine report about the origin of the surveillance devices found in October 2018 near the White House as well as several other sensitive locations around Washington, the report said.
The FBI, along with other agencies investigating the case, blamed Israel based on a thorough forensic analysis, unnamed officials told Politico.
The report quoted statements by three former officials and individuals who had worked for the earlier administrations and said there were concerns that Israel was spying on the White House.
Unlike previous cases of foreign espionage, the Trump administration did not reprimand the Government of Israel, they claim.
As for Israel’s recent surveillance of the White House, one of the former senior U.S. intelligence officials acknowledged that the situation raised serious security concerns but also joked, “On the other hand, guess what we do in Tel Aviv?”