NOVANEWS
The following is an approximate transcript of the interview.
Press TV: First of all let’s get your thoughts on these recent comments made by President Obama that the surveillance programs will in fact not stop.
Dankof: Well, I think the real headline here is that Israel is involved with all of these NSA surveillance programs.
All of the companies for the most part being used for the National Security Agency in implementing this kind of worldwide surveillance are Israeli in origin as James Manfred has pointed out.
So I think what you have is a three-fold situation: Israel has a back door into American intelligence operations in many ways including this NSA surveillance and ultimately this means that Israel is the one targeting these world leaders.
Israel is the one targeting anti-Islamist dissidence both in the United States and Europe; and Israel is also targeting American politicians and national security figures who are not doing Israel’s bidding.
One classic example of this is as Dr. Kevin McDonald has pointed out that after the Anti Defamation League took issue with statements being made by General Petraeus about the American Israeli relationship, it wasn’t too long after that, that these revelations occurred about these problems in the general’s personal life.
Dr. McDonald believes and so do I that this was not an accident and likely Israeli intelligence was involved in that operation from the beginning.
Press TV: How do you think that foreign governments feel about this espionage program that the US has stated will continue regardless of assurances that Washington’s relationships with those countries, for example Berlin, will not change?
Dankof: I think its absolute double-speak – Orwellian double-speak on the part of the president.
The fact of the matter is that surveillance of these foreign governments is going to continue and so is Mr. Obama’s surveillance and Israeli surveillance is going to continue when it comes to American citizens and American politicians.
The fact of the matter is there are absolutely no guarantees or safeguards in this whatsoever including the fact that for people living in the United States the so-called Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) report that the president made reference to, routinely approves virtually anything that the American intelligence community wants to do no matter how outrageous it is, illegal or unconstitutional.
So whether you’re an American or whether you’re a foreign leader the problem is the same.
