4 ms·

> The Israeli's were using stingrays in Washington, DC just last year to spy on officials. Did this make the news? I've never heard of it.

wahern 7y ago
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house-spying-devices-1491351 https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house...
shauhdej 7y ago
At a glance I see a few articles, it looks like the topic came up in 2018 and 2019, potentially in different but related circumstances. One of those stories is from the Associated Press but the article I skimmed from them didn't make the Israel assertion and was more general. If I had to guess, the topic didn't gain much reaction because the most 'in-depth' articles are from infotainment rags like Gizmodo, Common Dreams, and Politico. Politico seem to have been there ones to break the 2019 story but I'm still reading so can't confirm that.
- mistermann 7y ago
  It's kind of interesting the lack of interest the media has in such a story. Would be interesting if there was a way to somehow float the same story except with a different country (say, Russia) alleged to have been behind the placement of the device.
  - wahern 7y ago
    Media attention was similarly short-lived regarding the closing of the Russian consulate in San Francisco and the Russian compound in Maryland. Yes, Israel usually gets a pass on espionage, and Russian election interference is a years-long story. But in any particular incident it's hard to tell whether the public is disinterested in the incident or disinterested in the adversary. Plus, to be fair, reports of actual Russian incidents are fairly common. I mean, they've literally built a niche industry for social media hacking. Reporting on it is easy; you don't need to wait for intelligence leaks. And they publicly gloat about their strategy and tactics. By contrast, Israel is usually far more discrete[1] and publicly identified incidents are few and far between. [1] Operationally and politically. They certainly don't gloat. They stick to a very strict recitation: "Israel does not spy against the United States."
disk0 7y ago
I believe this is the first reporting? https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house-spying-devices-1491351 https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house... (and the government response) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-spying-israel-pm-benjamin-netanyahu-stingray-surveillance-devices-report-blatant-lie-2019-09-12/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-spying-israel-pm-be...
redis_mlc 7y ago
A summary from news stories last year is that half of the "cell towers" in Washington, DC can't be mapped back to an actual US phone company. So one can assume that major governments are operating their own stingers in DC.

wahern 7y ago

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

shauhdej 7y ago

At a glance I see a few articles, it looks like the topic came up in 2018 and 2019, potentially in different but related circumstances. One of those stories is from the Associated Press but the article I skimmed from them didn't make the Israel assertion and was more general. If I had to guess, the topic didn't gain much reaction because the most 'in-depth' articles are from infotainment rags like Gizmodo, Common Dreams, and Politico. Politico seem to have been there ones to break the 2019 story but I'm still reading so can't confirm that.

mistermann 7y ago
It's kind of interesting the lack of interest the media has in such a story. Would be interesting if there was a way to somehow float the same story except with a different country (say, Russia) alleged to have been behind the placement of the device.
- wahern 7y ago
  Media attention was similarly short-lived regarding the closing of the Russian consulate in San Francisco and the Russian compound in Maryland. Yes, Israel usually gets a pass on espionage, and Russian election interference is a years-long story. But in any particular incident it's hard to tell whether the public is disinterested in the incident or disinterested in the adversary. Plus, to be fair, reports of actual Russian incidents are fairly common. I mean, they've literally built a niche industry for social media hacking. Reporting on it is easy; you don't need to wait for intelligence leaks. And they publicly gloat about their strategy and tactics. By contrast, Israel is usually far more discrete[1] and publicly identified incidents are few and far between. [1] Operationally and politically. They certainly don't gloat. They stick to a very strict recitation: "Israel does not spy against the United States."

disk0 7y ago

I believe this is the first reporting? https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house-spying-devices-1491351 https://www.politico.com/story/2019/09/12/israel-white-house... (and the government response) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-spying-israel-pm-benjamin-netanyahu-stingray-surveillance-devices-report-blatant-lie-2019-09-12/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/white-house-spying-israel-pm-be...

redis_mlc 7y ago

A summary from news stories last year is that half of the "cell towers" in Washington, DC can't be mapped back to an actual US phone company. So one can assume that major governments are operating their own stingers in DC.