Day: October 3, 2023

Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu sought to film and record a closed-door meeting with visiting US senators and diplomats this week, but was told by the American officials to shut off the equipment if he wanted the meeting to proceed, according to a report Wednesday.

Two unnamed individuals familiar with Monday’s incident told Walla news that the group of Democratic and Republican senators, as well as US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides, entered the room for a meeting that was expected to touch on the potential nuclear deal with Iran.

When they came in, they saw a member of Netanyahu’s staff activate a videocamera.

Nides also noticed a small microphone attached to Netanyahu’s jacket, and asked the former prime minister why he was wearing the device.

Netanyahu attempted to brush off Nides’s question, answering “it’s nothing,” the report said.

According to the sources, Senator Lindsey Graham demanded that all recording devices be removed from the room before the meeting could begin.

US Senators including Lindsey Graham and Bob Menendez (center) at a press conference in Jerusalem on September 5, 2022. (Jeremy Sharon)

It is not clear why Netanyahu sought to record the meeting, but he has in recent weeks increased his public protest against a potential nuclear deal, and Walla speculated he may have been seeking video content for his campaign.

מסיים פגישה חשובה עם חבריי הטובים, הסנאטורים לינדזי גראהם ובוב מננדז, שהגיעו לישראל בראש משלחת דו-מפלגתית של סנאטורים וחברי קונגרס. ???????????????? pic.twitter.com/pNIVbWzRd1

— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) September 5, 2022

Netanyahu’s office played down the incident, telling Walla that as a matter of protocol all meetings with the former prime minister are documented, and insisting “there was no drama” at the meeting. “The request was honored and the camera was removed.”

US Ambassador to Israel Tom Nides (L) and opposition chairman Benjamin Netanyahu meet in the Knesset on December 9, 2021. (US Embassy in Israel)

The American group was part of a bipartisan senate delegation to Israel, which is being led by Senator Graham of South Carolina (Republican), and includes Republican senators Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming, Representative Ronny Jackson of Texas, as well as Senate Foreign Relations Committee Robert Menendez, a Democrat.

The visit came amid fears amongst Israeli officials over the looming Iran nuclear deal.

On Wednesday, The Times of Israel’s Hebrew sister site Zman Yisrael reported that the deal is likely off the table after Iran made new demands Washington refuses to accept.

The nuclear agreement that has been negotiated on since Biden entered the White House in January 2021 focused on removing sanctions on Iran in exchange for limiting Tehran’s ability to reach the capability to build a nuclear weapon.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

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The indictment unveiled on Friday against Sen. Robert Menendez marks another chapter in a series of troubling allegations that have dogged the New Jersey Democrat for years, marking the second time in a decade that he has faced corruption charges. The question the indictment leaves unanswered is, did the Egyptian government target an influential United States senator to do its bidding on Capitol Hill?

Menendez and his wife, Nadine, are charged along with three businessmen in a complicated plot to accept hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes including cash, gold bars, a Mercedes convertible, even mortgage payments. According to the indictment, Menendez accepted these payoffs in return for using his position as a United States senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee because he agreed to use “his influence and power and breach his official duty in ways that benefited the Government of Egypt.”

It is alleged that Menendez used his political position to attempt to break a State Department “hold” on US aid to Egypt, push for the delivery of ammunition and weapons systems to the Egyptian military, and passed sensitive information about American and Egyptian personnel assigned to the US Embassy in Cairo. It should be noted that some of these actions are things that the senator could have done legally if they were not allegedly in return for cash and gold.

“The excesses of these prosecutors is apparent,” Menendez said in a statement on Friday. “They have misrepresented the normal work of a Congressional office. On top of that, not content with making false claims against me, they have attacked my wife for the longstanding friendships she had before she and I even met.”

The Egyptian government has not commented on the indictment and Menendez and his wife, as well as the others charged, have strongly denied the charges.

Following a mistrial on previous corruption charges in 2017, Menendez was acquitted on several charges in 2018 with the Department of Justice dropping those that remained.

On the latest allegations, as someone who worked at the FBI, in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Bureau, I am struck by the elephant that seems to be missing from the room: Nothing in the indictment describes what investigators know, if anything, about the role of Egyptian officials and whether they had direction or knowledge over the bribery scheme. Why is this important? Because the possible subtext of this story is that Cairo may have used agents in the US to try and recruit the top elected legislative official with influence over foreign policy to be its puppet. Yes, when you say it out loud it is shocking.

The use of foreign nationals, expats, dual citizens, or even Americans, who have a loyalty to a foreign country is a proven tactic in the spy game. Does Egypt, a country that has received billions in US aid, conduct sophisticated intelligence operations on US soil?

Another recent case suggests they might. In January of 2022, Pierre Girgis, an Egyptian-American banker, based in New York was charged by federal prosecutors who say he “acted in the United States as an agent of the Arab Republic of Egypt.” The indictment charged that Girgis “operated at the direction and control of multiple employees of the Egyptian government in an effort to further in the United States the interests of the Egyptian Government.” It alleged that Girgis cultivated close relationships with members of US law enforcement including members of the NYPD in an effort to gather information on opponents of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in the United States.

After the indictment was unsealed, Girgis pleaded not guilty and was released on his own recognizance. The case is awaiting trial.

The Egyptian government has been known to arrest, imprison, even torture those it considers enemies of the regime. Indeed, the very reason the US State Department had put holds on some aid to Egypt, the same holds Menendez was asked to break, was to press Egypt on human rights reforms relating to crackdowns on dissent. While Girgis has been charged with being an unregistered agent of Egypt, Wael Hana, the businessman charged with bribing Menendez to advance Egyptian interests, has not. Hana and two other businessmen are charged with bribery.

Wael Hana, who has pleaded not guilty, is described in the indictment as being “originally from Egypt” and having “maintained close connections with Egyptian officials.” It was Hana, investigators say, who was friends with Nadine Arslanian “for many years before she began dating Robert Menendez,” whom she eventually married. The indictment charges that after Nadine began a romantic relationship with Menendez, she and Hana spent years working “to introduce Egyptian intelligence and military officials to Menendez.” The indictment details how Nadine Menendez acted as the go-between who passed messages and picked up bribes.

This is where we come to another uncomfortable question, but one a trained intelligence officer would have to at least consider: Did Wael Hana have anything to do with his old friend Nadine Arslanian entering into a romantic relationship with the senator and marrying him?

Among the things an intelligence officer considers in planning the targeting of an asset is finding someone who has the access they need but also vulnerabilities they can compromise. It was widely publicized that Menendez had been the target of corruption charges and a senate ethics probe involving allegations of accepting free gifts, trips, and rides on private planes in return for using his influence to aid Dr. Salomon Melgen who was convicted on separate health care fraud charges in 2017. The criminal case against Menendez resulted in a hung jury and prosecutors did not pursue a second trial but the Senate Ethics Committee found that Menendez violated Senate rules and multiple laws. Menendez maintained his innocence.

Another thing an intelligence officer would grapple with is the sheer boldness of such a move. Targeting a staff member working on the Foreign Relations Committee team would be a logical plan but turning the chairman into an asset would be shooting for the moon. For a long-term, United States ally, like Egypt, a country that has played critical roles over the last 50 years in US Middle East policy, targeting and recruiting the United States senator who chairs the foreign relations committee would be an extraordinarily provocative move.

How will the Menendez case and the fallout from it affect US-Egyptian relations? As prosecutors prepare for a trial, will any connections between the businessman and others tied to the Egyptian government be revealed?

These are very sensitive issues that crossover from the Justice Department into the interests of the State Department and the White House. The lines may have to be drawn very carefully between the prosecution, US diplomatic interests and whether any larger story to come has larger implications for a vital diplomatic relationship.

Cardin spoke to reporters under the chandelier and vaulted ceiling of the historic 19th-century committee room on his first full day on the job.

Menendez was indicted on Sept. 22 on charges he and his wife, Nadine, accepted bribes including cash and gold bars in transactions that included using his position as committee chairman to influence some U.S. policy decisions in favor of Egypt’s autocratic government.

The indictment alleges that included helping Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government overcome human-rights restrictions limiting a small portion of what is more than $1 billion in annual U.S. military aid to Egypt.

Menendez and his wife have pleaded not guilty.

Cardin, before becoming chairman, had condemned the Biden administration’s decision this year to override a human-rights prohibition on $235 million of this year’s military aid to Egypt.

The administration cited national security interests for waiving the human rights restrictions, even though the State Department acknowledged Egypt had made no progress on detaining journalists, writers and rights advocates, as well as other human rights abuses.

Asked Thursday if he intended to stop the distribution of that money if it could still be stopped, Cardin said he was “looking at his options.” He said he wanted to give the administration and some lawmakers a hearing on the issue before reaching a final decision.

As chairman, Cardin can place holds on some funding and sales.

Cardin signaled another break, regarding Turkey, a NATO partner that for years has sought to buy advanced warplanes from the U.S. but has been repeatedly blocked, including by Menendez. Menendez had placed a hold barring the sale of F-16s to Turkey, arguing — in part — that he was concerned about Turkey having more air power than Greece, its neighbor and rival.

Cardin made clear he was open to considering moving forward on the sales, if he is satisfied with points, including any additional threat to Greece and on Turkey’s human rights.

Turkey has used the veto power held by each NATO member to block Sweden’s entry into the Western military alliance, even though the U.S. and European allies want Sweden in the bloc to strengthen NATO’s northern flank against Russia.

Turkey has linked its getting the F-16s to its decision on Sweden joining NATO.

Cardin, who attended a gathering of NATO ambassadors this week, said Turkey has indicated it would clear the way for Sweden’s membership in the first part of October.

The power of Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairs to give a thumbs up or thumbs down on some key U.S. decisions makes the committee’s chairs at least as well-known in some foreign countries as they are in the United States.

In Turkey, some news media are celebrating Menendez’s legal difficulties. A CNN Turk political panel gleefully showed the indicted senator as a sobbing SpongeBob SquarePants.

Ahmet Hakan, a journalist with close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration, used his column in Sunday’s Hurriyet newspaper to comment on the case against Menendez, who he said opposed Turkey “to the death.”

“Together we can celebrate it with…laughter: Hahaha!” he wrote.

In Latin America, Menendez, whose parents immigrated from Cuba, was widely seen as using his influence to block any further thaw in U.S. relations with Cuba, even as he helped some Latino causes and politicians in the U.S.

Former Cuban diplomat Carlos Alzugaray told the AP the fall of Menendez would be significant for his island. “In any case, the pressure goes down,” Alzugaray said.

Tellingly, Cuba did not even come up as Cardin ran down a list of his foreign policy priorities with reporters Thursday.

Cardin described working to maintain the U.S. flow of money and arms to Ukraine against invading Russian forces as “by far the highest priority” for him.

It’s one he sees as crucial to the United States’ own security and its ability to influence global affairs, he made clear. Ukraine’s supporters in Congress should do a better job of making that case to Americans, he said.

“China’s watching” whether Americans stand by Ukraine’s defense, to guide China’s decision on how far it pushes to assert its claim to Taiwan, Cardin said.

“North Korea’s watching. Iran’s watching,” he said.

Cardin also addressed the Biden administration’s push to broker an agreement for the first broad diplomatic relations between U.S. ally Israel and Gulf heavyweight Saudi Arabia as a “game-changer in the region,” and one he was excited about. Biden officials and other supporters say the deal would help stabilize the Middle East and boost the economies of the Middle East.

“There’s recognition that this is going to happen. There’s going to meaningful changes,” Cardin said, saying that he was seeing conversations involving Israel and the Palestinians “that I didn’t think we could have” as part of those broader negotiations. He gave no details.

Saudi Arabia, as a condition for agreeing to the deal, is asking the U.S. for security commitments and for assistance in developing its civilian nuclear program.

Cardin said he would be active in setting the terms for any such U.S.-Saudi agreement. “It must meet the highest standards, and there’s got to be guardrails.” And as far as “any security agreement that the United States commits to help defend another country to make sure it’s always in our national security interest to get engaged,” he said.

Issues on Saudi Arabia’s poor human rights record would need to be addressed, he said, and handed reporters a printout on a Saudi man rights groups say has been tortured and imprisoned over tweets critical of the Saudi government.

—-

Andrew Wilks contributed from Istanbul and Andrea Rodriguez from Havana.