Burner phones, spy fears: Pentagon flags Israel's counterintelligence as 'critical' threat

Key points

• Image credit: AP Israel denies the claim Rising tensions between allies The Pentagon has raised its counterintelligence threat assessment for Israel to the highest level – "critical" – amid escalating tensions between Washington and Israel over the way forward in the war with Iran, according to two current US officials and one former official who spoke to NBC News.The Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency posted an internal message in recent weeks detailing the change, which was viewed by one of the current officials.
• The designation stems from growing concerns within the Pentagon that Israel is making a targeted effort to surveil top US officials to gather intelligence on the Trump administration's internal deliberations and decision-making regarding Middle East conflicts.The DIA assessment includes a seven-page document and features a specific chart, one of the current US officials said.
• The document notes that Israel's capabilities to conduct both human espionage and technical information...