A classified document leaked by U.S. National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals information about the cooperative intelligence gathering efforts of U.S., British and Israeli Intel against Iranian targets, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.
The document from April 2013, marked top secret, was published earlier this month on website The Intercept, the platform created by journalist Glenn Greenwald to report on documents provided by Snowden.
The NSA document details "multiple high priority surges” with GCHQ (Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters), including intelligence gathering surrounding the closure of the British Embassy in Tehran, the Iranian discovery of FLAME, a computer virus meant to slow Iranian nuclear efforts, and "support to policymakers” during nuclear negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 group of world powers.
"NSA has seen Iran further extending its influence across the Middle East over the last year,” the document adds.
The document discusses trilateral cooperation between the NSA, GCHQ and the ISNU, the IDF’s 8200 Signals Intelligence Unit. The document reports on a first-ever video conference taking place between elements of the three agencies.
"The trilateral relationship is limited to the topic of [redacted] and will serve as proof of concept of this kind of engagement,” the document reads.
Marked under the heading "Potential Landmine,” the final section of the document states that Britain’s GCHQ has long advocated that it work with the NSA and Unit 8200 in a trilateral arrangement "to prosecute the Iranian target.” However, the document adds, that the NSA signals intelligence chief "has been opposed to such a blanket arrangement.”
It concludes that the NSA and GCHQ agreed to share information gleaned from the respective bilateral relationships with Israel’s Unit 8200.
MD/PA