Israel announced yesterday that it had dismantled an "Iranian spy network" that recruited Israelis through social networking sites and assigned them various missions, such as gaining access to military documents.
In a statement, Sin Bet, Israel's intelligence service, said many unidentified Israelis had been recruited via Facebook by an Iranian agent, Rabot Namdar.
The latter appeared as a Jew living in Iran. "Although the women suspected that the man was a member of the Iranian services, some continued to contact him, accepting remittances in exchange for money," Sin Bet added. After being recruited on Facebook, communication usually continued with encrypted messages via WhatsApp.
One of the suspects, a 40-year-old woman from Holon, had been in contact with "Rabbond" for years and had completed many missions for him. Among other things, he had taken photos of the US embassy in Tel Aviv. "Rabbond" had also asked her to persuade her son, before he began his military service, to join the military intelligence service so that through it they could access sensitive documents.
Another woman, a 57-year-old woman from Beit Semes, near Jerusalem, had also asked to force her son to join the military intelligence service. To carry out her various missions she had given the sum of $ 5.000 over a period of four years. Among these missions was the establishment, in her city, of an organization of Jews of Iran, about which she then provided information.
He also instructed her to take pictures of public buildings and approach a bulletin board. "The state of Israel is in a permanent campaign against Iran. "It is clear: we are witnessing relentless efforts and attempts by the Revolutionary Guards to recruit Israeli citizens," said Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, calling on Israelis to be "vigilant" on social networking sites.