If you read all three Articles, RUSSIA IS ALL OVER THE MIDDLE EAST
Hizballah names two Israeli Internet "spies" amid horse-trading over Lebanese cabinet
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
September 2, 2009, 7:34 AM (GMT+02:00)
Ronen Neuhaus - alleged by Hizballah to be Israeli Internet spy
Hizballah high-up Ibrahim al Amin claimed Tuesday night, Sept. 1, that he knew the names of two Israelis who he said had been covertly diverting Lebanese Internet network traffic through the Haifa exchange center in Israel. The names he mentioned were Jerry Orenstein and Ronen Neuhaus, both of whom he said are back in Israel.
According to DEBKAfile's sources, Orenstein is an ultra-religious is business man whose firms in Israel, the UK and Cyprus deal with a variety of trades - from Internet and telecommunications to organizing European tours for ultra-religious travelers.
Ronen Neuhaus is the Middle East director of Tinet, formerly known as Tiscali International Network, which operates in Scandinavia, the Eastern Mediterranean and Africa. As such, he has vast experience in the telecommunications industry, specifically Internet Service Providers.
Hizballah sources claim that the pair, using their Cyprus firms as their base of operations and a Jordanian middle man called Nasser Farhan, persuaded a number of Lebanese Internet companies that running their services through the Haifa Exchange offered them a considerable saving of expense.
DEBKAfile first broke the story of the Lebanese data center on Mt. Barukh found to be routed to an exchange center in Haifa on Aug. 14. To read the story click HERE.
Hizballah now claims that among the users of the clandestine network were the presidential palace, the defense department and select security and financial institutions in Beirut. Senior Hizballah officials and the UN peacekeepers HQ were also offered the cut-rate service. If this information is correct, Israeli intelligence was able to tap into the most sensitive Internet correspondence from the highest Lebanese official quarters.
According to our sources, since the affair broke, it has been used as a political football among the various parties negotiating the formation of a unity government in Beirut. The incumbent communications minister is Jubran Basil, brother-in law of former president Michel Aoun, who is currently Hizballah's senior ally.
This gave designated prime minister Saad Hariri good reason to veto Basil as a cabinet member.
Hizballah is paying him back with leaked reports about the alleged Israeli Internet spy ring and innuendo suggesting the pro-Western Hariri is an Israeli intelligence collaborator.
Lebanese Army's shock: National Internet routed through… Haifa
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
August 14, 2009, 12:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
A large Lebanese army force which raided the Lebanese Internet network center on Mt. Barukh east of the Lebanese town of Jezzine Saturday, Aug. 8 was dismayed to discover the exchange center which carries all of Lebanon's Internet links using equipment made in Israel. An intelligence sweep found the servers were routed to an exchange center in Haifa.
The soldiers impounded piles of equipment and rounded up several detainees at the mountain center and several Lebanese Internet companies.
Upon learning of the discovery, Hizballah demanded an immediate and thorough investigation of how all of Israeli intelligence acquired free access to all Lebanese internet communications like an open book.
In recent months, Lebanon has seen one suspected Israeli spy network after another exposed across the country. Wednesday, Aug. 5, DEBKAfile first disclosed that the spy rings were not busted by Lebanese intelligence but by agents of the Russian Federal Security Service - FSB working undercover in Lebanon since early this year at the invitation of the Lebanese Shiite Hizballlah.
To read this article click HERE
Russian agents may also have led the Lebanese army to their discovery of the Israeli data center on Mt. Barukh.
Russian secret service helped Hizballah bust Israel's Lebanese spy rings
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
August 13, 2009, 9:30 PM (GMT+02:00)
Russian FSB agent in action
Western intelligence sources in the Middle East have disclosed to DEBKAfile that a special unit of the Russian Federal Security Service - FSB, commissioned by Hizballah's special security apparatus earlier this year, was responsible for the massive discovery of alleged Israel spy rings in Lebanon in recent months with the help of super-efficient detection systems.
Those sources report that the FSB and Hizballah have amassed quantities of undisclosed data on Israel's clandestine operations in Lebanon and are holding it in reserve in order to leak spectacular discoveries as and when it suits their purpose.
This disclosure, if borne out, would indicate that the Russian agency, which specializes in counterespionage, is engaged for the first time in anti-Israel activity in the service of an Arab terrorist organization. An Israeli security source describes this turn of events extremely grave. It also cast an ominous slant on Moscow's deepening strategic involvement in Syria.
It was generally assumed until now that new electronic devices supplied by France to the Lebanese army were instrumental in uncovering the suspected Israeli spy rings. It now transpires that the Lebanese army was not directly involved; it only detained the suspects handed over by the Shiite Hizballah.
Those same sources disclosed that FSB agents, by blanketing every corner of Lebanon with their sophisticated surveillance systems, were able to detect the spy rings one by one and additionally hack into Israeli intelligence data bases.
The Russians dated Israel's massive clandestine infiltration of Lebanon to shortly after its 2006 Lebanese conflict. The Lebanese Shiites sustained heavy casualties and, fearing an Israeli surprise attack at that point, began conscripting thousands of young Shiites as fighters pell mell, without checking their backgrounds. In their haste, they also rounded up Syrian and Egyptian migrant laborers in Lebanon.
Israel used the opportunity to recruit large numbers of agents in both these groups, especially among the conscripts sent to Revolutionary Guards camps in Iran and Syrian military facilities for training.
