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Julian Assange
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General Yoav Galant
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Bahrain's secret Mossad ties revealed?

New Wikileaks cables expose classified documents that include evidence of alleged cooperation between Persian Gulf state and Israeli intelligence agency

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange released additional classified documents about Israel and the Middle East: Britain's Guardian newspaper stated that the sensitive documents expose, among other things, Israeli criticism of the man who is the de facto head of state in Egypt, Hussein Tantawi Chairman of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.

 

The diplomatic cables were transferred to Yedioth Ahronoth and some have been published on Friday.

 

One of the documents leaked to the Wikileaks site and published in the Guardian, addresses alleged relations between Israel's security services and Bahrain.

 

In a cable describing a meeting between the US ambassador to the emirate and King Hamad in 2005, the US diplomat noted that the king admitted "that Bahrain already has contacts with Israel at the intelligence/security level (ie with Mossad) and indicated that Bahrain will be willing to move forward in other areas."

 

In another cable, a US document from November 2009 newly released by Assange, Israeli security sources claim that Tantawi is an "obstacle" in efforts to foil smuggling from Sinai to the Gaza Strip. On the other hand, the document noted that Israel praised the actions of the man who was director of the General Intelligence Directorate at the time, Omar Suleiman, who now acts as Egypt's vice president. Israeli security sources stated that he supports smuggling prevention.

 

In another document from 2009, Israeli intelligence sources revealed that it was within Hezbollah's ability to launch over 20,000 missiles directly at Tel Aviv. "Hezbollah was preparing for a long conflict with Israel in which it hopes to launch a massive number of rockets at Israel per day.

 

"A Mossad official estimated that Hezbollah will try to launch 400-600 rockets and missiles at Israel per day – 100 of which will be aimed at Tel Aviv. He noted that Hezbollah is looking to sustain such launches for at least two months."

 

Other cables detail secret talks between the US and Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin and Southern District commander General Yoav Galant over Hamas' role in Gaza.

 

According to the Guardian, In November 2009 Galant told the US that "Israel's political leadership has not yet made the necessary policy choices among competing priorities: a short-term priority of wanting Hamas to be strong enough to enforce the de facto ceasefire and prevent the firing of rockets and mortars into Israel; a medium priority of preventing Hamas from consolidating its hold on Gaza; and a longer-term priority of avoiding a return of Israeli control of Gaza and full responsibility for the wellbeing of Gaza's civilian population."

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 04.08.11, 09:14
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