Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been accused of attempting to have two of Israel’s top security officials wiretapped according to a statement by former Shin Bet Security Director Yoram Cohen. The request was made when Netanyahu was planning an attack on Iran.
“The prime minister asked me for things ... and a lot of things I told him, ‘I’m not allowed to do that,’” Cohen said in a Israel radio interview on Kan Reshet Bet on Dec. 5. “It was an important event, an important security move Israel had made preparations for. The prime minister was afraid, justly as far as I’m concerned, that this issue, because it takes months to organize, will leak and get to places it shouldn’t and cause damage. The prime minister asked me to use my tools, that anyone privy to this operation would be surveilled by the Shin Bet, and if someone leaked it to someone or other, then we’d know and take care of him,” Cohen said.
Cohen said he asked Netanyahu, “What does it mean, surveilled—that their phone would be tapped?” He replied, “Among other things, yes,” reports Haaretz.
