Black Cube and the Iran nuclear deal
| Black Cube and the Iran nuclear deal
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Undercover opposition-research operation against former US officials |
| Date | May – mid-2017 (reported 5–7 May 2018) |
| Location | United States and United Kingdom |
| Participants | Black Cube |
| Organisers | Disputed: The Observer reported aides of Donald Trump; The New Yorker reported a private-sector client with commercial interests related to Iran sanctions |
| Victims | Former Obama administration officials Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl, their spouses, and journalists and others seen as supporters of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action |
| Outcome | Black Cube denied any link to the Trump administration. Senior House Democrats requested documents in May 2018 |
Black Cube and the Iran nuclear deal refers to a 2017 operation in which operatives of the Israeli private intelligence firm Black Cube compiled dossiers on Ben Rhodes and Colin Kahl, two Obama administration advisers who championed the 2015 Iran nuclear agreement. Using fake companies, they approached people around them in search of damaging material. The operation was revealed in May 2018, days before President Trump's deadline for deciding whether to stay in the deal. Who commissioned it remains disputed.
Revelation
On 5 May 2018 The Observer reported that aides to Donald Trump had hired an Israeli private intelligence agency for a "dirty ops" campaign. According to the paper, people in the Trump camp had contacted private investigators in May 2017 to "get dirt" on Rhodes, a former deputy national security adviser, and Kahl, national security adviser to Vice-President Joe Biden, "as part of an elaborate attempt to discredit the deal".[1] According to documents seen by the paper, 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. They were also to contact prominent Iranian Americans and pro-deal journalists. The paper said it was not clear how much work had been done or what became of the material.[1] The Observer did not name the firm.[2]
The next day, The New Yorker named the firm as Black Cube, on the word of two sources familiar with the effort and documents it had obtained.[3]
The operation
According to the New Yorker documents, Black Cube compiled detailed profiles of several people, including Rhodes and Kahl. Agents were told to look for damaging material, including:[3]
- unsubstantiated claims that the two had worked closely with Iran lobbyists and profited personally from their Iran policy work, which both denied;
- rumours that Rhodes had been involved in "unmasking" Trump transition officials named in intelligence documents, which he denied;
- an allegation that one of the targets had had an affair.
| # | Method | Details | Ref |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Approach to Kahl's spouse | In May 2017 a woman calling herself "Adriana Gavrilo", head of corporate social responsibility at "Reuben Capital Partners", a supposed London wealth-management firm, emailed proposing an education initiative | [3][4] |
| 2 | Approach to Rhodes's spouse | In June 2017 a woman calling herself "Eva Novak" of "Shell Productions", a supposed London film company, asked for help with a film about officials handling "nuclear negotiations with a hostile nation" | [3] |
| 3 | Cover infrastructure | Both companies had bare-bones Wix websites, since taken down, and addresses at shared office spaces where neither had operated | [3] |
| 4 | Journalists | A list of more than thirty reporters believed to be in touch with Obama officials, annotated with instructions on seeking negative information. Some agents posed as journalists | [3] |
| 5 | Recorded interview | A Black Cube agent posing as a reporter secretly recorded the Swedish-Iranian author Trita Parsi. The conversation moved from Iran policy to Rhodes, Kahl and whether they had profited | [3] |
The New Yorker noted that "Reuben Capital Partners" was the same fictitious firm used in Black Cube's operation for Harvey Weinstein, and that the emails used similar or identical language.[3] In 2019 Farrow reported that "Anna, Adriana, Eva, Diana, Maja" were all aliases of the same Black Cube agent.[5] NBC News, which obtained the research file, also reported on the approaches.[4]
Who commissioned it
Accounts of the client differ.
- Trump aides.' This is The Observers account. Its sources said Trump's team contacted the firm days after his May 2017 visit to Israel.[1][6]
- A commercial client. A source told The New Yorker that the work was part of Black Cube's work "for a private-sector client pursuing commercial interests related to sanctions on Iran".[3] A source close to Black Cube told The Guardian that the investigation "was not political but linked to one of its private sector clients, in relation to an alleged breach of Iran sanctions by a competitor".[2]
A Trump administration spokesperson declined to comment to The Observer.[3]
Black Cube's response
Black Cube said that it never discusses its clients and "never confirm[s] or den[ies] any speculation". It added: "Black Cube has no relation whatsoever to the Trump administration, to Trump aides, to anyone close to the administration, or to the Iran nuclear deal."[3][2]
On 24 May 2018 Representatives Elijah Cummings and Eliot Engel, the senior Democrats on the House Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, wrote to Black Cube asking for documents. They noted that the firm had denied the reports "only in the broadest terms", saying: "You have not denied the operation itself, you have not explained who was aware of it, and you have not identified the clients who funded it." As members of the minority party, they had no subpoena power.[7]
The Observer story appeared days before Trump's 12 May 2018 deadline to scrap the deal or continue to abide by it.[1]
See also
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 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 Oliver Holmes, Israel intel firm denies it was hired by Trump aides to discredit Obama officials, The Guardian, 7 May 2018.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 Ronan Farrow, Israeli Operatives Who Aided Harvey Weinstein Collected Information on Former Obama Administration Officials, The New Yorker, 6 May 2018.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Richard Engel, Aggelos Petropoulos and Kennett Werner, Black Cube: Inside the shadowy Israeli firm accused of trying to undermine the Iran deal, NBC News, 25 May 2018.
- ↑ Ronan Farrow, The Black Cube Chronicles: The Undercover Operative, The New Yorker, 8 October 2019.
- ↑ Laurel Wamsley, Reports: Intel Firm Was Hired To Discredit Former Obama Iran Deal Negotiators, NPR, 7 May 2018.
- ↑ JTA, Top Democrats want to know why Israeli firm was hired to spy on Obama officials, Times of Israel, 25 May 2018.