Ben Rhodes
Former Obama adviser; target of Black Cube's 2017 Iran nuclear deal operation
| Ben Rhodes
| |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Former US national security official; writer |
| Known for | Obama administration deputy national security adviser; reported target of Black Cube over the Iran nuclear deal |
Ben Rhodes is a former United States national security official who served as a deputy national security adviser in the Obama administration and was a prominent public defender of the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action). In 2017 operatives of the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube compiled a dossier on him and approached people around him, including his spouse, in an operation revealed in May 2018.
Black Cube operation (2017)
On 5 May 2018 The Observer reported that aides to Donald Trump had hired an Israeli private intelligence agency for a "dirty ops" campaign against Rhodes and Colin Kahl, another former Obama official, "as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal". Investigators were told to look into the two men's personal relationships, any involvement with Iran-friendly lobbyists, and whether they had benefited from the deal.[1]
The next day The New Yorker named the firm as Black Cube. According to documents it obtained, the firm compiled detailed profiles of Rhodes and Kahl and sought damaging material, including unsubstantiated claims that they had worked closely with Iran lobbyists and profited personally from their Iran policy work, which both denied, and rumours that Rhodes had been involved in "unmasking" Trump transition officials, which he denied.[2]
In June 2017 a woman calling herself "Eva Novak" of "Shell Productions", a supposed London film company, emailed Rhodes's spouse asking for help with a film about officials handling "nuclear negotiations with a hostile nation". The cover company had a bare-bones website and a shared-office address where it had not operated.[2] In 2019 Ronan Farrow reported that "Eva" was among the aliases of Stella Penn Pechanac, the same operative used on the Weinstein job.[3]
Who commissioned the work remains disputed: The Observer attributed it to Trump aides; a source told The New Yorker it was for "a private-sector client pursuing commercial interests related to sanctions on Iran". Black Cube denied any relation to the Trump administration or to the Iran nuclear deal.[2][4] The fuller account is on Black Cube and the Iran nuclear deal.
See also
- Black Cube and the Iran nuclear deal
- Colin Kahl
- Stella Penn Pechanac
- Ronan Farrow
- Black Cube
- Barack Obama
Notes
- ↑ Mark Townsend and Julian Borger, Revealed: Trump team hired spy firm for 'dirty ops' on Iran arms deal, The Observer/The Guardian, 5 May 2018.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Ronan Farrow, Israeli Operatives Who Aided Harvey Weinstein Collected Information on Former Obama Administration Officials, The New Yorker, 6 May 2018.
- ↑ Ronan Farrow, The Black Cube Chronicles: The Undercover Operative, The New Yorker, 8 October 2019.
- ↑ Oliver Holmes, Israel intel firm denies it was hired by Trump aides to discredit Obama officials, The Guardian, 7 May 2018.