Did Israeli officials help U.S. firms win security tenders?

By Yossi Melman

A secret seven-year investigation at the Defense Ministry has raised concerns that senior ministry officials used inside information to help certain American companies win more than $100 million in security-equipment tenders advertised in the United States.

However, the state prosecution closed the investigation in late 2007, citing insufficient evidence, after the ministry stalled the probe due to fears it would harm Israel-U.S. ties.

Police and Defense Ministry investigators focused on suspicions that employees at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv and at the defense procurement office in New York leaked sensitive information from the closed bids made by companies participating in the tenders to companies they favored, helping them win the contracts.

The corruption allegations regarded secret tenders for the procurement of security software and advanced computer technologies, including software, databases, storage and backup systems, from U.S. firms. The tenders were for American firms only because the payment for the equipment, the software and technology was to be made from U.S. military assistance funds, requiring that the money be spent in the United States.

The companies involved were among the leading firms of their type, including Cisco, Juniper, HP, EMC and others with offices in Israel. The equipment was procured for Military Intelligence units involved in signals intelligence and encryption, as well as for the air force and other units.

Yehiel Horev, the Defense Ministry's security chief in the early part of the decade, did not support the probe due to concerns it might cause a crisis in ties with the United States. Horev's replacement, Amir Kin, continued his predecessor's policy and later announced the closure of the investigation.

The first deal that raised concerns related to a tender issued at the start of the decade for digital storage for the Israel Defense Forces. Three U.S. firms made bids: EMC, HP and Hitachi Data Systems. EMC won the tender. Haim Adar was in charge of the defense procurement office in New York at the time of the tender. Since his retirement from the ministry several years ago, he has served as external adviser to EMC and other firms who do business with the Defense Ministry.

"As early as the next day [after EMC had won the tender], I knew that our competitors had known everything about our price bid," Yehuda Cohen, who at the time was in charge of procurement at HP, told Haaretz. EMC refused a request for comment.

Adar said he had never known about the investigation and had never been asked to testify.

Shortly after the deal with EMC, during Operation Defensive Shield in 2002, various problems were found with the system the company was providing. The technical problems made it difficult to analyze intelligence during the West Bank operation. It took 24 hours to correct the problems and restore the intelligence systems to working order.

Nonetheless, the IDF continued to work with EMC, and over the next few years the firm won several other contracts for data storage systems worth tens of millions of dollars.

There were more complaints from companies that expressed their concern that senior officials at the Defense Ministry were leaking details about their bids to competitors.

A senior source a the Defense Ministry familiar with the details of the investigation, and who has read the secret reports, confirmed that the investigation focused on the activities of several senior ministry officials.

The figures suspected of corruption include Adrian Schwartz, who served until several months ago as deputy head of the defense procurement office in New York and is now the ministry's deputy for land forces procurement, and Eliezer Hasson, the powerful chairman of the union of Defense Ministry employees, who was Adar's deputy in New York, where he was charged with procurement for the Israel Air Force and Military Intelligence.

"Our concern from the start was that the investigation would open a Pandora's box," a senior Defense Ministry source told Haaretz. "That if we deepen the investigation, the Americans may start getting curious and the relations between the two countries might suffer."

A small portion of this affair emerged in a lawsuit recently filed in the Tel Aviv district labor court by Doron Tamir, a corruption investigator and a senior assistant to the head of special investigations at the Defense Ministry's office of security. Tamir, 54, says he suffered heart failure after an attempt was made to shut him out of the investigation and close the case.

Tamir got the job of investigating the case after Horev ordered the unit to look into claims that senior officials enjoyed favors from firms wishing to do business with the Defense Ministry. Tamir details parts of the investigation in his affidavit.

Tamir's lawyer Ilan Elmkyes told Haaretz he is bound by secrecy laws and could not comment.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1060788.html

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Israeli Troops Shoot and Kill Animals in Gaza Zoo

Sabrina and Saher

Cowering in the toilets as the missiles fell, Sabrina and Saher (photo above) narrowly escaped becoming casualties of the 23-day Israeli assault on Gaza. Nearly all their fellow inhabitants had died. This week the couple were rescued, starving, afraid - and ready to become parents. The two are in a cage while their larger pen is repaired after a missile tore a hole through its main fence. The cats had slipped through and sought shelter in the administration building. Around every corner, inside almost every cage are dead animals, who have been lying in their cages since the Israeli incursion. The zoo opened in late 2005, with money from local and international NGOs. There were 40 types of animals, a children's library, a playground and cultural centre housed at the facility. Inside the main building, Israeli soldiers defaced the walls, ripped out one of the toilets and removed all of the hard drives from the office computers. (References for text: Times Online, Gulf News. Photo: via Google)

By Ashraf Helmi and Megan Hirons

The Gaza Zoo reeks of death. But zookeeper Emad Jameel Qasim doesn't appear to react to the stench as he walks around the animals' enclosures.

A month ago, it was attracting families - he says the zoo drew up to 1,000 visitors each day. He points at the foot-long hole in the camel in one of the enclosures.

"This camel was pregnant, a missile went into her back," he tells us. "Look, look at her face. She was in pain when she died."

Around every corner, inside almost every cage are dead animals, who have been lying in their cages since the Israeli incursion.

Qasim doesn't understand why they chose to destroy his zoo. And it's difficult to disagree with him. Most of them have been shot at point blank range.

"The first thing the Israelis did was shoot at the lions - the animals ran out of their cage and into the office building. Actually they hid there."

The two lions are back in their enclosure. The female is pregnant, and lies heavily on the ground, occasionally swishing her tail. Qasim stands unusually close to them, but they don't seem bothered by his presence.

As he takes us around, he is obviously appalled at the state of the animals. The few animals that have survived appear weak and disturbed.

"The foxes ate each other because we couldn't get to them in time. We had many here." There are carcasses everywhere and the last surviving fox is quivering in the corner.

The zoo opened in late 2005, with money from local and international NGOs. There were 40 types of animals, a children's library, a playground and cultural centre housed at the facility.

Inside the main building, soldiers defaced the walls, ripped out one of the toilets and removed all of the hard drives from the office computers. We asked him why they targeted the zoo. He laughs. "I don't know. You have to go and ask the Israelis. This is a place where people come to relax and enjoy themselves. It's not a place of politics."

Israel has accused Hamas of firing rockets from civilian areas. Qasim reacts angrily when we raise the subject.

"Let me answer that with a question. We are under attack. There was not a single person in this zoo. Just the animals. We all fled before they came. What purpose does it serve to walk around shooting animals and destroying the place?"

Inside one cage lie three dead monkeys and another two in the cage beside them. Two more escaped and have yet to return. He points to a clay pot. "They tried to hide", he says of a mother and baby half-tucked inside.

Qasim says that his main two priorities at the moment are rebuilding the zoo and taking the Israeli army to court. For the first, he says he will need close to $200,000 to return the zoo to its former state - and he wants the Israelis to cover the costs. "They have to pay me for all this damage."

We ask him why it's so important for Gaza to have a zoo. "During the past four years it was the most popular place for kids. They came from all over the Gaza Strip. There was nowhere else for people to go."

- Ashraf Helmi and Megan Hirons are both photographers. (Originally published in Gulf News)

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