Israel Matzav

Hezbullah was able to crack IDF codes, monitor cell phones

Asia Times Online reported today that Hezbullah was able to crack the IDF's codes during the recent war in Lebanon, and that's why they were able to repel the IDF attack. The story is attributed to 'Israeli officials' and has been corroborated by the CIA:

"Israeli EW [electronic warfare] systems were unable to jam the systems at the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, they proved unable to jam Hezbollah's command and control links from Lebanon to Iranian facilities in Syria, they blocked the Barak ship anti-missile systems, and they hacked into Israeli operations communications in the field," Richard Sale, the longtime intelligence editor for United Press International, who was alerted to this intelligence failure by current and former CIA officials, told Asia Times Online.

The ability to hack into Israel's military communications gave Hezbollah a decisive battlefield advantage, aside from allowing it to dominate the media war by repeatedly intercepting reports of the casualties it had inflicted and announcing them through its television station, Al-Manar. Al-Manar's general director, Abdallah Kassir, would not comment on the information-gathering methods that had allowed it to preempt Israel's casualty announcements, but he admitted he was in constant contact with Hezbollah's military wing.

More importantly, it looks like in the next war, Israeli soldiers will have to leave their cell phones home:

Part of the reason for Hezbollah's decisive battlefield performance was that it was gleaning valuable information by monitoring telephone conversations in Hebrew between Israeli reservists and their families on their personal mobile phones.

Read the whole thing.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:18 AM