Largest Electronic Spy Base

Israel has the Largest Electronic Spy Base in the Region..

New Zealand journalist Nicky Hager, who writes in Paris-based magazine Le Monde Diplomatique, published a shocking report, not only for the leaders of the Arabs countries in the Middle East, but also for those in Europe and also in United States..

According to the report, Israel has one of the largest signals intelligence (SIGINT) bases in the world in the western Negev. The data collected at the Negev site is relayed for processing to a 8200 base near Herzliya, the paper says. Other reports say 8200's base is near the Mossad headquarters, which receives the intelligence along with IDF units, the paper says.
It has 30 antennas and satellite dishes of different sizes and types, capable of eavesdropping on telephone calls and accessing the e-mail of "governments, international organizations, foreign companies, political groups and individuals."

One of the base's main purposes is to listen to transmissions from ships passing in the Mediterranean, the report says. The base is also the center of intelligence activity that "taps underwater communication cables, mostly in the Mediterranean, connecting Israel with Europe."

Hager compared the Israeli base's capabilities to those of the US National Security Agency, Britain's Government Communications Headquarters and a similar organisation in France. "However, there is one difference," Hager said at the end of the report. While those units were uncovered long ago, "the unit at Urim remained unknown until this report".