US Raises Espionage Threat Level Against Israel to Highest Grade

(Central News Agency, Washington, 7th, Combined Foreign Reports) The Pentagon believes Israel wiretapped senior US representatives negotiating with Iran, raising the counterintelligence threat assessment against Israel to the highest level. Related US intelligence reports also list various espionage activities by Israel against US government and military officials in recent years.

The New York Times reported that the US and Israel have long known about each other's surveillance but tacitly accepted it. However, some US officials say Israel has recently intensified intelligence gathering to understand the US position in negotiations with Iran, crossing a line.

Intelligence indicates Israel appears to have stepped up wiretapping of senior US officials, including President Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff, Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby, and Colby's key aide, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East Michael P. DiMino IV.

Another report, co-authored by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and other military intelligence units, focuses on incidents from several years ago to the present.

The report states that the counterintelligence threat level posed by Israel to the US has been raised from "high" to "critical" in recent weeks, detailing various methods Israel used for espionage against US military personnel and government officials.

Relations between the US and Israel are currently strained over how to end the Iran war. The Trump administration is pushing for a peace agreement with Iran, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is unwilling to stop, seeking to further weaken Iran's capabilities, even overthrow the clerical regime, and strike Hezbollah, its key proxy in Lebanon.

The DIA report mentioned that Pentagon personnel in Israel discovered someone had secretly installed software on their phones capable of intercepting communications.

A US official said that the intensity of Israeli intelligence gathering against senior US officials during Trump's second term has reached an "unhinged" level.

The report details several specific incidents in recent years. In 2021, Israeli military intelligence officers were caught planting listening devices at DIA headquarters. Last year, Shin Bet officials were also caught attempting to plant listening devices in Secret Service vehicles. (Editor: Chen Yiwei) 1150608