Former Israeli surveillance agents hold hundreds of positions with big tech giants like Google, Facebook, Microsoft
By jdheyes // 2022-11-29
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If you still think that the big tech platforms don't really spy on your online activities, you should probably put that notion to rest once and for all. According to a report published this week, in fact, hundreds of Israeli surveillance experts from the country's Intelligence Unit 8200 hold key positions in nearly all the major big tech platforms and companies, including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft. MintPress News reported that scores of agents from "the notorious" spy unit had acquired major positions of influence within those companies. Citing the report, Lifesite News noted: According to professional profiles on LinkedIn, the outlet reported that Google currently employs, at a minimum, 99 former Unit 8200 agents and Microsoft retains the services of 166 such veterans. And as journalist Alan MacLeod explained, these numbers certainly underestimate the collaboration between these big tech corporations and this Israeli intelligence unit as these numbers do not include former employees or those without LinkedIn accounts, or those who maintain such profiles but have obeyed Israeli military law that requires them to conceal their affiliation with this special unit. The unit has been described as "Israel's NSA," lending to the significance of the surveillance skill level of the former agents. The unit has also reportedly been linked to a number of repressive surveillance tactics, first against Palestinians and then for the development of cutting-edge tech that has been employed to spy on tens of thousands of important figures around the world, Lifesite News reported, citing the Mintpress News story. "Though often overlooked in the West, there exists an overwhelming world consensus of international law that favors the Palestinian cause for a free and sovereign state 'within internationally agreed borders,'" notes LifeSite News. "The Catholic Bishops of the Holy Land, along with the Holy See, have unanimously and consistently joined their voices to this cause demanding the Israeli government 'put an end to the [illegal military] occupation' of Palestinian territory, including their ongoing confiscation of land, the demolition of homes, the building of illegal settlements, and the detention of political prisoners." The reports noted that in 2014, a group of 43 reserves from Unit 8200 published an open letter to then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu informing him and their military superiors they would no longer serve in the outfit because of alleged "political persecution" of Palestinians. “We refuse to take part in actions against Palestinians and refuse to continue serving as tools in deepening the military control over the Occupied Territories,” the reservists wrote. “Our military service has taught us that intelligence is an integral part of Israel’s military occupation over the territories.” MacLeod went on to explain that, like the late billionaire pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, allegedly an Israeli spy who collected damning information on powerful men so they could be exploited, Unit 8200 used “big data to compile dossiers on huge numbers of the indigenous domestic population, including their medical history, sex lives, and search histories, in order that it could be used for extortion later.” Dylan Howard, author of the 2019 book "Epstein: Dead Men Tell No Tales," Epstein initially escaped going to prison for his first case of having sex with underage girls because of his dirt on politicians, Newsmax reported in December of that year. “If a certain individual needed to travel across checkpoints for crucial medical treatment, permission could be suspended until they complied,” MacLeod wrote. “Information, such as if a person was cheating on their spouse or was homosexual, is also used as bait for blackmail.” Even more relevant, the dissenting reservists were not on board with treating the entire Palestinian population as enemies of Israel. “There’s no distinction between Palestinians who are, and are not, involved in violence,” the letter said. Sources include: Newsmax.com LifesiteNews.com MintPressNews.com
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