NEW YORK — Israel has been the target of spying by the U.S. National Security Agency and also collaborates on intelligence gathering with the United States, the New York Times reported.
The Times in its report published Nov. 2, citing documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, said the NSA tracked “high-priority Israeli military targets,” including drones and the Black Sparrow missile system.
The report also shows that the United States has spied on world leaders, including Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
It also said the Israel Signals Intelligence, or Sigint, National Unit, receives raw NSA eavesdropping material from the United States and in return provides raw material from its own surveillances.
According to the documents, the NSA for decades has shared intelligence information from eavesdropping with the rest of its “Five Eyes” partners – the Sigint agencies of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
More limited co-operation occurs with many more countries, including formal arrangements called Nine Eyes and 14 Eyes and Nacsi, an alliance of the agencies of 26 NATO countries, according to the Times.
