Biden Secretly Giving Targeting Support to Israel Amid Genocide Case

Why do we have to rely on FOIA to piece together our government's foreign policy??

The Biden administration is quietly providing intelligence to Israel for targeting purposes, deploying U.S. Air Force “intelligence engagement officers on the ground,” according to a deployment order obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and published at The Intercept.

Officially, the Biden administration has only admitted to providing intelligence to Israel for hostage rescue operations, which are obviously less controversial politically than offensive targeting. The revelation comes at a time when the International Court of Justice is opening extraordinary hearings on a genocide case against Israel brought by the country of South Africa.

The deployment order, dated November 21, 2023, was issued by Pentagon’s air component command for the Middle East, Air Forces Central (for Central Command). The document provides deployment instructions to airmen sent to the country, including “airmen assigned as the Intelligence Engagement Officer (IEO)” — personnel who specialize in sharing sensitive intelligence with partner militaries. 

That we’re forced to rely on random FOIA documents to piece together the truth of our country’s foreign policy — including such basic facts as where U.S. servicemembers are being sent — is a stain on the Biden administration, whose policies regarding Israel have been shrouded in secrecy. And while transparency is certainly never the national security state’s forte, its secrecy on the subject of Israeli is just off the spectrum.

Consider, for example, the itemized list of weapons the Biden administration has provided Ukraine and made publicly available here and screenshotted below, versus the sentence or so of details it has disclosed about weapons aid to Israel, which I had to type up because the administration has not released a list for Israel. (Apologies, I can’t actually fit all the details of Ukraine assistance in one screenshot.)

U.S. arms assistance to Ukraine publicly disclosed by the Biden administration

U.S. weapons assistance to Ukraine. Source: Defense Department

We know that the Biden administration has provided more weapons to Israel than it has publicly disclosed because details of such weapons systems have leaked to the press.

Washington loves to claim that secrecy is necessary for security reasons, but as the two lists above show you, that argument is applied selectively. And it’s not like Ukraine, occupied by a hostile nuclear superpower, faces a greater threat than Israel.

You can find my article, written with the greatMatthew Petti, here.