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In
August, two men were arrested plotting to blow up an Etihad Airways flight out
of Sydney; Israel's Military Intelligence says it's the reason why.
From The
Times Of Israel, by JUDAH ARI GROSS, 21-2- 2018
https://tinyurl.com/y7j6wm3u (full
article and VIDEO)
The
Israeli army on Wednesday revealed that the Military Intelligence Unit 8200
foiled an Islamic State attempt to bomb a flight from Australia last August.
“The unit
provided exclusive intelligence that led to the prevention of an air attack by
the Islamic State in 2017 in Australia,” a senior IDF officer said.
“The
foiling of the attack saved dozens of innocent lives and proved Unit 8200’s
position as a major player in the intelligence fight against the Islamic
State,” the officer said, on condition of anonymity.
Wednesday’s
revelation was an unusual move for the Israeli army, which generally keeps mum
on the operations of the secretive Unit 8200, which is similar to the American
National Security Agency, collecting information from electronic communication,
also referred to as signals intelligence.
Soldiers
from the 8200 Unit in training (photo credit: Moshe Shai/Flash90)
Later in
the day Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu thanked the unit for foiling the
attack.
“Thank
you to the Israeli intelligence services. We revealed today that the security
agencies prevented the shooting down of an Australian airliner. This is just
one of the dozens of terrorist attacks that we have stopped around the world.
[The intelligence services] deserve all the support we can give, not only for
protecting the citizens of Israel, but for protecting people all over the
world,” he said in a speech to American Jewish leaders.
Indeed,
this prowess in intelligence gathering and counter-terrorism is a central
selling point for Israel in its efforts to create and maintain relationships
with foreign countries.
The
foiled attack
In
August, Australian security forces arrested two men suspected of trying to
place an improvised explosive device on an Etihad Airways flight out of Sydney
in a plot directed by Islamic State.
One of
the men, a 49-year-old from Sydney, brought the device to Sydney airport on
July 15 in a piece of luggage that he had asked his brother to take with him on
the flight — without telling the brother that the bag contained explosives,
Australian Federal Police Deputy Commissioner Michael Phelan said at the time.
But the bag never got past the check-in counter. Instead, Phelan said, the
49-year-old man left the airport with the bag, and his brother continued onto
the flight without it.
“This is
one of the most sophisticated plots that has ever been attempted on Australian
soil,” Phelan told reporters at the time. “If it hadn’t been for the great work
of our intelligence agencies and law enforcement over a very quick period of
time, then we could well have a catastrophic event in this country.”
People
crowd a terminal at Sydney’s domestic airport as passengers are subjected to
increased security, in Sydney, Australia, Monday, July 31, 2017 (Dean
Lewins/AAP Image via AP)
The
components of the device they planned to use, including what Phelan described
as a “military-grade explosive,” were sent by a senior Islamic State member to
the men in Sydney via air cargo from Turkey. An Islamic State commander then
instructed the two men how to assemble the device, which police later
recovered, Phelan said.
According
to Australian authorities, when that attack failed, the suspects then planned
to release highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas in order to poison people. But
they were arrested before their plot could advance significantly.
No
specific targets had been chosen for the planned hydrogen sulfide attack,
though an Islamic State member overseas had given the men suggestions about
where such devices could be placed, such as crowded areas or on public
transportation, Phelan said.
Police
had no idea either of the plans were in the works until they received the tip
from Israel on July 26. They arrested the men on July 29.
The big
Unit 8200
On
Wednesday, the IDF also revealed it thwarted a recent Iranian cyber attack
against Israeli public and private systems, though it did not provide
additional details on what was targeted and when.
“This
foiling was possible thanks to the close tracking of the Iranian network’s
activities,” the officer said.
Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses a lunch meeting at the 54th Munich
Security Conference on February 16, 2018. (AFP Photo/ DPA/Sven Hoppe)
The
intelligence unit also credited itself with helping reduce the number of terror
attacks in the West Bank by so-called lone wolves — people who act
independently, without direction from a terrorist group — through special
algorithms that identify potential assailants.
“We work
closely with all the divisions and regional commands. The unit’s products are
critically and operationally relevant, directly assisting the activities of
forces in the field,” the officer said.
Unit 8200
is one of the largest units in the IDF.
According
to the prime minister, the unit is the “second largest” national security
agency in the world, after only that of the United States.
“The
United States is 42 times larger than the State of Israel. Its NSA is not 42
times the size of Israel’s NSA, it’s not even 10 times the size,” Netanyahu
boasted to business leaders in Munich on Friday.
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