Mike Casey, head of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, says overwhelming foreign espionage threats are coming from everywhere.
Cash Down: The bullet-riddled body of Hamas’ money man was found in his villa outside Beirut earlier this week. U.S. officials said Mohammed Sarur, 57, was the “middleman” in charge of transferring tens of millions of dollars per year from Iran’s Quds Force to Hamas’ operational arm, the Izz-Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigades. The U.S. Treasury sanctioned Sarur in 2019. Israel has employed assassinations as a key tool in thwarting its enemies since its founding in 1948, according to Ronen Bergman’s 2018 classic, Rise Up and Kill: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations.
Spy Threats: The head of American counterintelligence, Mike Casey says the scale of foreign spying operations, cyberattacks, and economic espionage against the United States “is impressive and terrifying.” The former staff director for the Senate Intelligence Committee told NPR on Friday that, “It’s not just the Russians stealing secrets from the State Department anymore. It’s everybody trying to steal all sorts of intellectual property, going after critical infrastructure. Just the list goes on and on.” But China, he said, has taken lessons from America’s rise from an agrarian nation to international economic and military colossus, especially since World War Two. “And they have a view of national greatness that essentially says, ‘If we can supplant the United States in key technology, both military and non-military, and help establish sort of the international regulatory scheme for all that, then we will become the preeminent player in the international area,'” he told NPR’s Ryan Lucas.
Tinder Box: Everyone’s holding their breath over an expected Iranian retaliatory attack against Israel, but if the past is any guide Tehran’s response won’t match its fiery rhetoric.