The AP Spy Story Decoded
Shamai Leibowitz, spied on Israel for the National Security Agency until he was sentenced to 20 months in prison for leaking secret transcripts (Photo by AP)
Let’s decode AP’s alarmist article on how Israel spies on its American ally.
Number of paragraphs in the article: 37
Number of paragraphs dealing with Israel spying, or suspected spying, on U.S.: 25
Number of paragraphs dealing with American spying on Israel: 4
Placement of paragraphs dealing with American spying on Israel: paragraphs 19-23
Number of paragraphs dealing with specific incidents of Israeli spying on the U.S.: 15
Number of paragraphs dealing with specific incidents of American spying on Israel: 0
Language describing Israeli spying on U.S.: “meddling,” “counterintelligence threat,” “intrusions in homes,” “highly sophisticated, professional spy services,” “espionage incidents,” “trying to steal American secrets”
Language describing U.S. spying on Israel: “The tension exists on both sides,” “kept tabs on Israel,” “spying,” “listening to intercepts”
Number of words in an Oct. 31, 2008 secret memorandum (released by WikiLeaks), sent under Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s name, requesting intelligence on topics including “Israel’s decision-making process for launching military operations and determining retaliation for terrorist attacks”; details on Israel Defense Forces operations against Hamas, “including targeted assassinations and tactics/techniques used by ground and air units”; and everything about information technologies used by “government and military authorities, intelligence and security services”: 5000
Number of words in the AP document about that secret memorandum: 0
Daniel Pipes saves us the trouble of tracking known cases of the U.S. spying on Israel. For additional details on American spying on Israel, see here.
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