SPY CABLES
Israel's Africa policies 'an exercise in cynicism'
South African intelligence accuse Israel of "fuelling insurrection,"
selling arms and "appropriating" African resources.
Will Jordan, Rahul Radhakrishnan | 25 Feb 2015 17:28 GMT | Spy Cables, Israel
Secret documents obtained by Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit expose a
deep disdain by South Africa's spies for their Israeli counterparts,
with intelligence assessments accusing Israel of conducting "cynical"
polices in Africa that include "fuelling insurrection," "appropriating
diamonds" and even sabotaging Egypt's water supply.
Political wariness on the part of the South Africans is hardly
surprising given Israel's extensive military and security cooperation
with the apartheid regime ousted in 1994. The current South African
government is led by the African National Congress, which aligned
itself with the Palestine Liberation Organisation.
A secret analysis from South African intelligence dismisses a tour of
African countries by the Israeli Foreign Minister in 2009 as "an
exercise in cynicism."
It says Avigdor Lieberman's nine-day trip to Ethiopia, Nigeria, Ghana,
Uganda and Kenya laid the groundwork for arms deals and the
appropriation of African resources, while hiding behind "a
philanthropic façade".
Israel has long maintained ties with African countries based on its
own security and diplomatic needs. Its ties with the old apartheid
regime in South Africa were strongly based on military needs, and
reportedly included cooperation in the development of nuclear weapons.
Kenya, from where Israeli special forces staged a commando raid to
free hostages held at Uganda's Entebbe airport in 1977, has long been
counted as an important ally.
Reports in the Israeli and Nigerian media last month said the US had
blocked Israel's planned sale of military helicopters to Nigeria.
Israeli media hailed Israel's deepening ties with President Goodluck
Jonathan for putting an end to a December 30 UN Security Council
resolution setting a timetable for Israeli withdrawal from occupied
Palestinian territories. Nigeria had signaled it would support the
Palestinian-backed resolution, but its switch to an abstention denied
the resolution the necessary majority in the Council.
'Destructive Policies'
South Africa's "Geopolitical Country and Intelligence Assessment" of
October 2009 accused Israel of pursuing "destructive policies" in
Africa that include:
Compromising Egypt's water security : Israeli scientists, the report
claimed, "created a type of plant that flourishes on the surface or
the banks of the Nile and that absorbs such large quantities of water
as to significantly reduce the volume of water that reaches Egypt."
The report offers no additional evidence for this claim.
Fueling insurrection in Sudan: Israel is "working assiduously to
encircle and isolate Sudan from the outside," the report wrote, "and
to fuel insurrection inside Sudan." Mossad agents have also "set up a
communications system which serves to both eavesdrop on and secure the
security of presidential telecommunications." Israel had long been at
loggerheads with Khartoum, and supported the secessionist movement
that eventually broke away and created South Sudan, with which it has
diplomatic ties. Khartoum continues to accuse the Israelis of being
responsible for attacks in Sudan.
Co-opting Kenyan intelligence: "As part of Mossad's safari in Central
Africa it had exposed to the Kenyans the activities of other foreign
spy networks". In return, the report wrote, Kenya granted permission
for a safe house in Nairobi and gave "ready access to Kenya's
intelligence service".
Arms proliferation : Israel has been "instrumental in arming some
African regimes and allegedly aggravating crises among others,
including Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea and South Africa", according to the
document. Today it "is looking for new markets for its range of
lightweight weapons" and covertly supplies armaments to "selected
countries inter alia India" including "nuclear, chemical, laser and
conventional warfare technologies".
Acquiring African mineral wealth : Israel "plans to appropriate
African diamonds", the South African spies alleged, as well as
"African uranium, thorium and other radioactive elements used to
manufacture nuclear fuel".
Training armed groups: "A few Israeli military pensioners are on the
lookout for job opportunities as trainers of African militias," the
reported said, "while other members of the delegation were
facilitating contracts for Israelis to train various militias."
'Exercise in cynicism'
In 2009, when Lieberman took his official tour of Africa, the Israeli
Foreign Ministry issued a statement quoting him as saying "the visit
to Africa is very important in reinforcing and improving Israel's
standing in the international community."
But South African intelligence analysts took a jaundiced view of the exercise.
"While Liberman [sic] talked with African leaders about hunger, water
shortage, malnutrition and plagues afflicting their nations," they
wrote, "Tel Aviv's promises to African states could be seen as the
gloss on an exercise in cynicism."
The South African document said "Israel's military, security, economic
and political tentacles have reached every part of Africa behind a
philanthropic facade". And it saw Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as
launching a diplomatic offensive to win friends in Africa.
South African will not currently be counted as among those friends,
though, if the assessment of the State Security Agency is anything to
go by. Lieberman further annoyed the South African government in
November 2013 when he warned the country's 70,000-strong Jewish
community that it faced a "pogrom" and could only save itself by
immigrating to Israel "immediately, without delay, before it's too
late."
"The government of South Africa is creating an atmosphere of
anti-Israeli sentiment and anti-Semitism," Liberman said, "that will
make a pogrom against Jews in the country in just a matter of time".
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies dismissed Liberman's
comments as "alarmist and inflammatory", and noted that South African
Jews experienced comparatively low rates of anti-Semitism.
THE SPY CABLES
A leak of hundreds of secret intelligence papers from agencies all
over the world, offering a glimpse into the murky world of espionage.
Al Jazeera's Investigative Unit is publishing a selection of the
documents and the stories contained within them.
Click here for more
http://www.aljazeera.com/investigations/spycables.html
Received on Wed Feb 25 2015 - 21:09:37 EST