Foreign Intelligence in Control of US Critical Infrastructure

The FAA Outage was Just the Beginning

Jan 19, 2023

Just last week, FAA contractors added corrupted files to the primary and the backup NOTAM software system.[1] Booz Allen Hamilton, former employer of Edward Snowden, is the primary FAA contractor[2] and known for the controversial PRISM surveillance program.[3] Israel was flagged a top spy threat to the United States according to Edward Snowden and others.[4] They were caught spying on the Trump Administration[5], Palestinians, and created backdoors on foreign countries’ critical infrastructure.[6] Israel is known for stealing U.S. high technology (including nuclear weapons) and on-selling it to our enemies in China and Russia.[7]

So, ask yourself why Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis are running back and forth to Israel to sign deals putting our critical infrastructure at risk? The Texas – Israel Alliance is a cybersecurity risk to local critical infrastructure and has national security implications. It seems the darlings on the right are just controlled opposition.

NSO Group, Candiru, Black Cube, and Dark Matter, Guardium, Carbyne 911 and Cybereason are cyberespionage firms heavily recruited from Israeli intelligence Unit 8200[8] and American intelligence forces to develop cyber weapons that end up being used on civilian populations, including Americans. This is a largely unregulated market and will take more than blacklisting to rein in these companies when Israel’s private sector and military intelligence are intimately bound with one another. The military and private sector in Israel has allowed dangerous cyber weapons like NSO's Pegasus spyware that led to journalist Jamal Kashoggi’s death[9] and even targeted U.S. officials[10] to flourish worldwide. “Israeli intelligence veterans say the connections between the military and private surveillance firms go much further than hiring practices. ‘These aren’t free market initiatives,’ G said [an anonymous Unit 8200 veteran]. ‘The military relies on private companies to develop many of its weapons, including malware, because it takes a huge number of resources,’”

“We spent our time essentially carrying out surveillance of a civilian population who had no access to legal counsel and were denied civil rights,” G said of his experience in army intelligence. “We were trained to violate people’s privacy for a living, and then were offered even more money to do it abroad.”[11]

Here are just a few of the Israeli critical infrastructure contracts with the State of Texas that has ties to the Israeli military’s Talpiot Program and Unit 8200 veterans: Radwin, Carbyne 911, Elbit Systems of America, Moovit, Checkpoint Software, and Team8. Radwin’s parent company, RAD Group, was founded by Talpiot Program graduate and Unit 8200 veteran Zohar Zisapel. RAD Group is a provider for more than 100 telecom operators and critical infrastructure in the banking, commerce, education, finance, government, military, transportation, and utility sectors.[12] Carbyne 911 was reversed engineered by Human Rights Watch and they determined the application is very similar to China’s “integrated Joint Operations Platform” that is used for mass surveillance of the Uyghurs.[13] Elbit Systems in Australia was cancelled by the Australian Army over alleged concerns of backdoors[14] and later by the Australian Future Fund over the allegation of Israel giving Russian forces cluster munitions used during the invasion of Ukraine.[15] Cluster munitions are outlawed under international convention and banned by 110 states because of their devastating effect on civilians. Israel is not a signatory to the treaty. Moovit also has backdoors that leaks your location, username, and email address.[16] Team8 CEO is founder of The Israel Defense Forces Cyber Command and former Unit 8200 Commander Brig. Gen. (ret.) Nadav Zafrir.[17] He was a guest speaker at the 2018 Texas – Israel Cybersecurity Conference.

These Israeli start-ups are also integrated with companies that received funding from the CIA’s venture capital firm In-Q-Tel (U.S. taxpayer funded) such as Planatir, Dell, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Apple that all opened research and development centers in Israel in recent years.[18] Forbes noted the world’s top 10 tech companies were now “doing mission-critical work in Israel that’s core to their businesses” in their headquarters. Key U.S. technology and cyber is handled by Israeli coders, including all Microsoft products (Windows and Azure Cloud). Russia has also gained access to all the key coding of Microsoft products, along with the Intel chip, via their intelligence penetration of Israel.

The risk is not only from the close relationship between Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin,[19] but also from the mass immigration of Soviet “non-Jews” from Russia and Ukraine that influenced Israeli culture, hi-tech industry, language, education, and most significantly, Israeli politics.[20] "They didn't want to integrate. They wanted to lead. They changed the nature of the country." Lily Galili, and Israeli journalist writing a book about the impact of the tidal wave from the former Soviet Union.

Elements inside of Israeli intelligence have warned that Israel is heavily penetrated by Russian GRU and SVU assets.[21] The KGB has had a long history of running agents in Israel.[22] [23] Thus, Israeli and Russian penetration of Texas critical infrastructure has come through Israel’s Talpiot Program and Unit 8200 military intelligence units.

Toba Hellerstein, the CEO of the Texas – Israel Alliance, was also a Middle East Analyst at Stratfor from November 2015 to June 2016. Her areas of expertise include politics, economics and security in the Levant, North Africa, and Gulf regions.[24] Stratfor is also known as the “Shadow CIA”[25] and has links to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[26] The Paul E. Singer Foundation, who is also funding the Alliance, has ties to Benjamin Netanyahu through his Start Up Nation Central. SUNC management team: Eugene Kandel, who served as Netanyahu’s national economic adviser; Wendy Singer, long-time director of Israel’s AIPAC office; and Guy Hilton, the long-time marketing executive at Israeli telecommunications company Amdocs. Amdocs is known for its alleged role in an aggressive espionage operation that targeted the U.S. government. Hilton worked at Microsoft prior to joining Amdocs. SUNC’s board of directors includes Paul Singer (not related), Dan Senor, and Terry Kassel. They also work for Singer at his hedge fund, Elliott Management—and Raphael Ouzan. Ouzan founded BillGuard the day after he left Unit 8200. Within the first five months of its founding, that company was backed by Peter Thiel (In-Q-Tel’s Planatir) and Eric Schmidt former CEO of Google.[27]

Jewish Israeli journalists have no problem addressing this issue, but for some reason the mainstream media and even the “alternative” media won’t report on this vital topic. Jeremy Roth Kushel, a Jewish American activist, filmed himself telling Tulsi Gabbard and Bernie Sanders about the Pentagon JEDI cloud contract with Microsoft. Microsoft CEO Assaf Rappaport, a Unit 8200 veteran, stepped down two week later and the Pentagon cancelled the contract. It was just lip-service because all core coding is done in Israel by Unit 8200 veterans.

I am not a BDS activist and absolutely support the right for Israel to exists, albeit as a secular state with equal rights for Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Israelis. I am a concerned citizen asking that all of you contact your city council, mayor, and representatives to request we have local oversight of all our critical infrastructure and its security. There needs to be more oversight of local and state contractors and if they have connections to private military contractors or foreign and American intelligence agencies. The amazing thing about the U.S. Constitution is that local government has more authority over its citizens than the president does. It’s also a bulwark against federal overreach.

Feel free to copy and paste this article into a letter addressed to your local representatives.

-D.C.

[1] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/software-blamed-faa-outage-three-decades-old-years-upgrade-official-sa-rcna65562

[2]https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/ang/grants/se2020/2020teams

[3] https://www.theverge.com/2013/6/24/4460028/edward-snowden-booz-allen-nsa-contractor-job

[4] https://www.newsweek.com/israel-flagged-top-spy-threat-us-new-snowdennsa-document-262991

[5] https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house-spying-devices-1491351

[6] https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2012/10/26/software-backdoor-makes-critical-infrastructure-vulnerable-to-attacks/

[7] https://www.military.com/defensetech/2013/12/24/report-israel-passes-u-s-military-technology-to-china

[8] https://scheerpost.com/2022/11/01/revealed-the-former-israeli-spies-working-in-top-jobs-at-google-facebook-and-microsoft/

[9] https://www.timesofisrael.com/nsos-pegasus-used-to-target-khashoggis-wife-before-his-murder-washington-post/

[10] https://www.dw.com/en/israeli-pegasus-spyware-used-to-spy-on-us-officials-reports/a-60015869