By Nathaniel Tan,
I think we may be on to something big here. I suggest you start with Tian’s 2 articles, here and here.
As what will hopefully be part of a multi-part series (sorry in advance if you get sick of it), let me start with the Shin Bet connection.
Shin Bet = Shabak = Israel Security Agency (ISA, ironically) = the Israeli internal spying agency = Israel’s Special Branch (but if you can imagine, even worse).
I think I too must add the obligatory “this is not anti-Semitic” preamble. Like many of us who studied in the US, we have tons of great Jewish friends, and have long learnt to differentiate between Jew and Zionist.
Especially after researching the Shin Bet however, I think there is even less doubt as to some of the repressive tendencies of the Israeli government.
First, let us establish the Shin Bet connection to APCO (APCO’s involvement w/the government, we must note, has been established beyond doubt).
It starts here, with a member of APCO’s Advisory Board, a man named Doron Bergerbest-Eilon:
Doron Bergerbest-Eilon is the former head of the protection and security division and the senior ranking security official of the Israeli Security Agency (ISA), a position equivalent to the rank of major general. Mr. Bergerbest-Eilon is the founder, president and CEO of ASERO Worldwide, where he advises clients on strategic and tactical security challenges and provides assistance to both governments and corporations to prepare, mitigate and recover from threats of terrorism and other hazards; and to protect lives and critical assets and ensure continuity of operations.
Someone with the connections of an ex-Major General of the Israeli Defense Forces? And CEO of which company again? ASERO? Back to Tian:
Apco’s involvement in various intelligence and security-related projects is done through its strategic partner and sister company Asero Worldwide. While Apco’s expertise is in the field of communications, Asero specialises in homeland security and risk management consultancy.
Apco and Asero have many overlapping consultants and management members. For example, Doron Bergerbest-Eilon who sits on Apco’s International Advisory Council was also founder and president of Asero Worldwide.
Mara Hedgecoth, the daughter of Apco CEO and President Margery Kraus also sits in Asero as Vice President. At the same time, Mara Hedgecoth also serves as Vice President and Director in Apco Worldwide.
The connection between APCO and ASERO is fully public. The only other company mentioned on ASERO’s About Us page:
ASERO is a partner company with APCO Worldwide, an independent, majority employee-owned global communication consultancy.
Let’s leave most of the details about ASERO for another post – suffice to say that they are clearly being run by the same people; practically part of the same holding company / mafia. Let’s just start very simply with ASERO’s Management Team.
David Harel
Managing Director and Vice President, Israel
Former head of international relations for the protection and security division of the Israeli Security AgencyOded Raz
Vice President
Former senior ranking security official of the Israeli Security AgencyGadi Kalai
Director
Former regional security manager (RSO) of the Israeli Security Agency (ISA)’s north region
That’s a company run by four top ranking Shin Bet officials. I think it’s time we hear a bit about Shin Bet, aka Shabak. To Wikipedia:
Shabak also extracts information by interrogating suspects. In 1987, after complaints about excessive use of violence in interrogations of Palestinian prisoners, the Landau Committee (headed by a former Supreme Court Justice Moshe Landau) prepared a two-part report on Shabak’s interrogation methods. Only one part was made public. It revealed that the Shabak regularly used violent methods of interrogation and that Shabak agents were tutored to lie in court about how evidence was uncovered. The committee report also gave guidelines for future interrogations, but most of the details were in the secret part of the report. The open part revealed that the guidelines allowed Shabak to apply “moderate physical pressure” in the case of “necessity”. In 1994, State Comptroller Miriam Ben-Porat, in a report not made public until February 2000, found that during 1988–1992, “Violation of the Landau Commission and the GSS regulations continued to be widespread in the interrogation facility in Gaza and, to some extent, in other facilities.… Veteran and senior investigators in the Gaza facility carried out severe and systematic violations. Senior GSS commanders did not prevent these violations.”[2]
In 1999, the Israeli Supreme Court heard several petitions against Shabak methods. It found that these included: (1) “forceful and repeated shaking of the suspect’s upper torso, in a manner which causes the neck and head to swing rapidly,” (2) manacling of the suspect in a painful “Shabach position” for a long period of time, (3) the “frog crouch” consisting of “consecutive, periodical crouches on the tips of one’s toes,” and other methods. The Court ruled that Shabak did not have the authority, even under the defense of “necessity,” to employ such methods.[3]
In the Justice Ministry, the Department For Special Roles, there is a senior investigator who checks complaints about Shabak interrogations.[citation needed] Shabak claims that it is now basing its interrogations only on psychological means[citation needed]. However, organizations such as B’Tselem and Amnesty International still accuse Shabak of employing physical methods that amount to torture under international conventions.[4][5]
Harassment and detentions
Salah Haj Yihyeh, an Israeli who runs mobile clinics for Physicians for Human Rights, was detained for questioning by the Shin Bet. In the questioning, Yihyeh answered questions about the activities of the organization, its budget, the identity of its donors, and details about others employed by PHR. The board of Physicians for Human Rights, in a letter to Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin, rejected the “crossing of a red line in a democracy.” The letter argued that since the only cause for calling an employee of the group was to scare him, the tactics were unacceptable and illegal.[13]
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Omer was detained in July 2008 by Shin Bet. Having arrived on a flight from London, Omer says that he was taken aside by a Shin Bet official. According to Democracy Now! Omer was later questioned, strip-searched, and then beaten by eight armed Shin Bet officers. Injuries from the ordeal allegedly left Mohammed Omer in the hospital for a week.[14]
Whoa. What kind of monsters are we dealing with here? (and this is just people linked to APCO. we haven’t started talking about APCO’s list of clients yet).
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For a government that loves nothing more to slam Zionists and Israelis, we sure are getting cosy with a lot of them.
Next on APCO – the dubious clientele they serve.
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