After that, I want to lighten up a bit with some Unintentional Humor, an occasional feature about something that isn't supposed to be funny - but somehow, just is.On March 23, the Wall Street Journal reported that based on information from present and former officials of the Obama administration confirmed by Israeli sources, Israel had been spying on the US-lead negotiations with Iran over nuclear issues and then leaking cherry-picked details intended to undermine the talks.
Israeli officials vociferously denied spying on the US, saying they don't do that and haven't since, well, since their spy Robert Pollard got caught doing exactly that in the 1980s. Besides, they said, there are lots of people we could have spied on to get this information. (Note that the accusation of cherry-picking was conspicuously not denied.)
But here's the really good part: US officials said they learned Israel was spying on the talks when US intelligence agencies intercepted communications in which Israeli officials referred to information which the US believes could only have come from the parties in the negotiations.
In other words, the US learned the offensive fact that Israel was spying on the negotiations - because US agencies were spying on Israel.
And so it goes.*
*Yes, I stole that from Linda Ellerbee. And I still miss NBC News Overnight.
Sources cited in links:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2015/03/24/spying-reveals-us-israel-tensions-over-iran/70378578/
http://www.wsj.com/articles/israel-denies-spying-on-u-s-1427204013
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