The Best Tech School On Earth Is Israeli Army Unit 8200
AMERICAN FREE PRESS
June 27, 2013
NSA expert exposes role of Unit 8200 in massive snooping op
By Victor Thorn
Despite denials by Google spokesmen that they willingly permitted any of their data to be mined, it appears they did allow the National Security Agency (NSA) to passively infiltrate their networks.
The missing link in this cyber-spying conundrum can be traced to two Israeli companies founded in the 1990s. According to a June 8 article by syndicated columnist and peace activist Richard Silverstein, “The NSA hired two secretive Israeli companies to wiretap the U.S. telecommunications network. Verint and Narus created programs which offered the NSA back-doors to all major U.S. technology companies, including Facebook, Microsoft and Google.”
On June 9, investigative reporter Jon Rappoport cited James Bamford, author of three books on the NSA, to confirm the role of Verint and Narus. “They played a key role in developing and selling the technology that allowed NSA to deploy its PRISM spying program.”
Even more interesting, Silverstein explained how the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) maintained a top-secret department called Unit 8200 which served as their version of our NSA.
“[Unit 8200] developed Stuxnet and Flame along with its colleagues in the NSA. Unit 8200 veterans founded numerous start-ups that commercialized their military applications for security use by companies and intelligence agencies.”
One of these companies was Verint, which is conveniently owned by Comverse, an entity that, prior to 9-11, provided computers to the federal government which allowed them to install wiretapping equipment into practically every phone across the U.S. The ties go deeper. Former Comverse CEO Jacob “Kobi” Alexander also purchased the Odigo instant messaging service which alerted Jewish workers employed at the World Trade Center towers two hours before they were struck by airliners on September 11, 2001.
- Bee's note: Odigo is a U.S.-based company whose headquarters are in New York, with offices in Herzliya.
- As an instant messaging service, Odigo users are not limited to sending messages only to people on their "buddy" list, as is the case with ICQ, the other well-known Israeli instant messaging application.
- Odigo usually zealously protects the privacy of its registered users, said Macover, but in this case the company took the initiative to provide the law enforcement services with the originating Internet Presence address of the message, so the FBI could track down the Internet Service Provider, and the actual sender of the original message. read more here.
With these capabilities in mind, a June 7 Washington Post article contained this line: “98% of PRISM production is based on Yahoo, Google and Microsoft.”
Google, it should be noted, is referred to in some quarters as a distinct branch of the government, especially since its CEO, Eric Schmidt, has developed a special relationship with Obama. According to White House advisor David Plouffe, “On election night [2012] he was in our boiler room in Chicago.”
Victor Thorn is a hard-hitting researcher, journalist and author of over 40 books. - See more at: http://americanfreepress.net/?p=11302#sthash.oTz95Cfe.dpuf
Note: See: HAARETZ - Sept. 26, 2001
Odigo says workers were warned of attackFURTHER READING
Odigo, the instant messaging service, says that two of its workers received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, and the company has been cooperating with Israeli and American law enforcement, including the FBI, in trying to find the original sender of the message predicting the attack.
By Yuval Dror | Sep. 26, 2001 | 12:00 AM
Washington Post, "Instant Messages To Israel Warned Of WTC Attack", 28 September 2001.
OFFICIALS at instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed today that two employees received text messages warning of an attack on the World Trade Center two hours before terrorists crashed planes into the New York landmarks. Citing a pending investigation by law enforcement, the company declined to reveal the exact contents of the message or to identify the sender.
But Alex Diamandis, vice president of sales and marketing, confirmed that workers in Odigo's research and development and international sales office in Israel received a warning from another Odigo user approximately two hours prior to the first attack. Diamandis said the sender of the instant message was not personally known to the Odigo employees. Even though the company usually protects the privacy of users, the employees recorded the Internet protocol address of the message's sender to facilitate his or her identification.
Soon after the terrorist attacks on New York, the Odigo employees notified their management, who contacted Israeli security services. In turn, the FBI was informed of the instant message warning. FBI officials were not immediately available for comment today. The Odigo service includes a feature called People Finder that allows users to seek out and contact others based on certain interests or demographics. Diamandis said it was possible that the attack warning was broadcast to other Odigo members, but the company has not received reports of other recipients of the message.
In addition to operating its own messaging service network, Odigo has licensed its technology to over 100 service providers, portals, wireless carriers, and corporations, according to the company.