Shin Bet Chief on Internet Dangers

They say when you have a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail. I suppose when you're an internal security service, everything begins to look like it's helping your enemies.

Israeli Shin Bet Chief Yuval Diskin told a conference on homeland security that Google Earth, the Internet, and smartphone apps have given terrorists access to intelligence they didn't have before. He said:

"The terrorist threat in the future has become more complex," Diskin said. "The world has turned into a 'global village' and everything is available to everyone. The world is smaller and broader and technology can cross continents."

Don't you just hate it when that happens?

The Internet has made it possible for a lot more openness: this blog once had some fun with Google Earth that might not sit well with Shin Bet, but that I would consider liberating, not threatening. On the whole, I think technology has opened things up, because it empowers everyone, not just the terrorists. Arabs can read the Israeli media. Arabs and Israelis quarrel all the time on forums, but at least they're interacting. Technology is opening up the world, and that's for the best. They can have my Google Earth when they pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Oh, yes: those dangerous IPhone apps Diskin mentioned: are they available for Android?

Settler Arrested for Identifying Shin Bet Official on YouTube

Israeli police have arrested a 17-year-old Jewish settler from Hebron for posting a video on YouTube clearly showing the face and identifying the head of the Jewish Division of Shin Bet, the General Security Service (the internal security service). His role is to keep an eye on settler violence, so the teenage settler has revealed his name and identity.

There was a time when neither the head of Shin Bet nor of Mossad were publicly identified; today the chiefs are well known but the second-echelon officers are referred to only by initials. Thus Ha'aretz, due to military censorship, has to be circumspect:

The Shin Bet official, known only as A., is the head of the service's Makhlaka Hayehudit ("The Jewish Division"), which is tasked with monitoring the activities of the extreme right wing in the West Bank.

A. resides in a tiny settlement in the West Bank. Military censorship laws do not permit media outlets to publish A.'s full name and place of residence, though this information is common knowledge among wide swaths of the settler population in the territories.

The video allegedly uploaded by the 17-year-old Hebron resident, and which has been available online in recent months, clearly exposed the face of the top Shin Bet commander as he was patrolling the West Bank city, and included a caption indicating his full name.

I don't generally care for exposing security officials' identity since it can subject them to danger, but this has been on YouTube since July (an earlier story before the leaker was identified is here) and besides, if the hardline settlers are out to get him, he must be doing something right. As the Israeli press (who tend to find continuing military censorship of stuff everyone already knows annoying in the age of the Internet) no doubt expected their readers to do, it took me only minutes to learn that "A." is Avigdor Arieli, that the "tiny settlement in the West Bank" is Kfar Edumim, and to find the YouTube video, shown below.

Though the video claims it was posted by a whistleblower outside of Israel, it appears the authorities have concluded otherwise.

A Murky Chain of Custody?

Now that the gag order has been lifted on the Anat Kam security leaks case in Israel, Ha'aretz, the recipient of the leaked materials, is reporting the case extensively. Latest report: Shin Bet can't find the two CDs on which Kam supposedly copied 2000 classified documents. Can you say "chain of custody," Shin Bet? Of course I suspect Israeli security case law does not have the same chain of custody requirements as the US, with the fourth amendment and all that, but this case looks more and more embarrassing as it emerges.

The Anat Kam Case Comes Out of the Closet: With a Flood of Detail

Now, this is Israeli democratic values at work, as the press finally breaks the lock of the government censors.

As expected, Israel has wisely lifted the gag order on the case of arrested IDF whistleblower Anat Kam. Accordingly, Ha'aretz, which is itself in the middle of this case but was previously barred from publishing details, is starting to gush with detail: Uri Blau, the Ha'aretz correspondent who published the leaked material and is now sitting in London for fear of prosecution if he he goes home, offers his own story; a Ha'aretz editorial says the Shin Bet broke its word to Ha'aretz and the IDF violated a High Court order; and some of Ha'aretz' star commentators come out swinging and take no prisoners: Akiva Eldar on the cult of secrecy; and Gideon Levy plows into the IDF and Shin Bet.

On the other hand, the Jerusalem Post emphasizes Shin Bet's claims that the leaked material clearly jeopardized Israeli security.

And meanwhile, Netanyahu has decided not to attend the nuclear security summit in Washington, apparently because Egypt and Turkey — both of which have diplomatic relations with Israel, of course — planned to mention the fact that one Middle Eastern country acquired nuclear weapons before anyone else did. (Ahem: Clears throat.)

Israel and Press Censorship: The Absurdity of Blocking What Everyone Else Knows

IMPORTANT UPDATE HERE.

Here's an editorial in Ha'aretz, deploring government censorship of a "security case" reported on in the foreign press but barred by state censors from being mentioned in the Israeli press. And here's their news report, which is equally uninformative. But retired Supreme Court Justice Dalia Dorner, who heads the Israel Press Council now, has been strongly opposed to the ruling.

Okay, now that your curiosity is engaged, here's the NYT with the background story. Here's Britain's The Independent helping break the story. And here's The Guardian.

Now the point is, an Israeli journalist has reportedly been held in house arrest since December, suspected of copying classified documents. While I don't like journalists being arrested on general free press principles, if she violated the law, prosecute her.

But she's been under house arrest since last year, and it's now April. And a Ha'aretz journalist accused in the case, Uri Blau, is staying in London until it's resolved; this expose in 2008 allegedly was based on the documents the accused leaked.. But what's particularly bizarre is that Israelis can surf the web, too. So why can't this be published in Israel?

I've had a couple of personal experiences with Israeli military censors in the days (mostly the 1980s) when I was writing a lot about Israeli defense issues. Anything filed from Israel had to be cleared by the censors, but since I was usually there a week at a time at most, it was easiest to write the story from the US on my return. Facts that literally everyone knew were still barred by the censors.

But in the age of the Internet, what the hell is the point of this gag order? Ha'aretz can only refer obliquely to an issue which involves one of its own. Do they think the Arabs might find out? Gosh, they probably can Google it, just as I did. Do they think their own people can't find out? I rather doubt that.

I know, and recognize, that most Arab countries have equally or more ridiculous censorship laws. But Israel has always portrayed itself as a democracy and the freest country in the region. A gag order on a story that anyone can quickly learn with a Google search suggests a strange pattern: your enemies already know, and so do your allies, so your "classified" or "security sensitive" arguments suggest this is just a case of not wanting your own people to know. But they already do. So why preserve the censorship? CYA? And nothing else?

It's not the fifties anymore, folks. Information wants to be free. Israel cannot gag this story with stupid regulations because the story is out there. The old guard still don't get the new communications media.

Another Blow to Hamas Security

After yesterday's allegations, this doesn't add to Hamas' internal security confidence: Ha'aretz is reporting that the son of a founding Hamas figure whose (the son's) conversion to Christianity was already a major scandal, worked for Shin Bet for years.

If true, and disinformation is always a concern in these issues (especially given the timing), it's just another blow to Hamas' sense of operational security, though this guy converted to Christianity and has been living in California.

The fact that his handler "Captain Loai" is quoted in the article, makes it clear that he's coming in from the cold primarily at the instigation of his former employers. So that should be kept in mind in judging his story.