Private Israeli Spies Posed as Journalists
This isn’t the first time Israelis are part of such a scandal.
Bluehawk CI, a company which offers private intelligence services, has been accused of having its operatives pretend to be journalists in order to dig up dirt on subject of their investigations. The company was founded by former Israeli spy by Guy Klisman and employs veterans of Israel’s intelligence agencies.
The Daily Beast has revealed that Bluehawk CI operatives posed as a Fox News journalist and an Italian reporter as part of an investigation into lawsuits against the emirate of Ras Al Khaimah in the UAE. The agents claimed to be from Italy’s La Stampa newspaper and tried to get two men to reveal information about their claims against the Emirate. The Daily Beast says that it gave Facebook the information about the two false identities used by the spies and that Facebook then traced the two back to Bluehawk.
One operative called herself Samantha, the one who claimed to be from Fox News. She reportedly had poor English skills and contacted Oussama El Omari, an American citizen who had worked as the CEO of the Ras Al Khaimah Free Trade Zone He had sued the emirate in 2016 for what he claims was a lump-sum payment owed to him at the end of his service as part of his contract. The suit was subsequently dismissed in 2017.
There is nothing new about this sort of thing. Israeli operatives have been linked to a number of private firms which work against people who have brought suits against the rich and powerful. Some Israelis were cited as having investigated women who made sexual assault complaints against President Trump.
And there is no reason to think that Israelis are any different than any other nationality in this regard. Former police detectives the world over go to work as private investigators for big companies and so forth. So of course former spies and government intelligence agents would do the same thing.
BLUEHAWK CI group was founded in 2017 and says that it provides its customers with services in the field of business intelligence and cyber all over the world, using intelligence capabilities and innovative technologies. It boasts a team which includes alumni from special units in the Israeli intelligence community, experts with extensive experience in information gathering and research, along with financial and legal advisors.
Bluehawk says that its founders are all former senior commanders in the intelligence community with many years of intelligence operational service and wide experience.
Read more about: Bluehawk CI
