Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the Shin Bet security service to tap the phones of the heads of the Mossad and Israel Defense Forces in 2011 out of unsubstantiated concerns they might be leaking sensitive information to outsiders, according to a bombshell report by an Israeli investigative program Thursday night.
The Prime Minister’s Office denied the report by the Uvda television program, saying it was a “total distortion” of the efforts made to protect state secrets.
According to the report, Netanyahu asked the former head of the Shin Bet, Yoram Cohen, to use his security service’s “special capabilities” to monitor the communications of senior defense officials, including former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz and former head of the Mossad spy agency Tamir Pardo. The eavesdropping was meant as a “preventative measure,” according to the sources of the news program.
Read more at Times of Israel.
{Matzav.com}
According to Arutz Sheva:
The Prime Minister’s Office denied the claim, calling the Channel 12 report “utterly baseless”.
On Friday, Netanyahu took to Facebook to add his own response, calling the report “A total lie”.
“This is a total lie. There is no end to the lies!
“I never asked to wiretap the [IDF] Chief of Staff or the head of the Mossad.”
Later on Friday, Channel 10 reported that Cohen himself had denied the claim by Channel 12.
“Prime Minister Netanyahu did not ask me to wiretap then-Mossad chief Tamir Pardo and then-IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz. I was shocked to see the [Channel 12] report. It was just total nonsense.”