| Notes |
The previously unreported emails between David Ellison and former Israeli military chief Benjamin Gantz are part of an archive originally released by the hacktivist group ‘Handala’, which is widely believed to be associated with Iranian intelligence, with the U.S.-based nonprofit Distributed Denial of Secrets serving as the primary intermediary for journalists. A related repository of leaked emails from former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak, also published by Handala, led to recent reporting on Barak and the convicted child trafficker Jeffrey Epstein discussing potential investments in the now-defunct data analytics firm Fifth Dimension, which Gantz chaired from 2015 to 2018.
All-Source Intelligence has successfully authenticated the veracity of some of the more obscure information in the newly leaked emails, which contain attachments such as slide decks and previously nonpublic confidential investment memoranda. That a large repository of Gantz’s emails were hacked is easily confirmed; the uncertainy lies in the possibility of Handala having selectively edited isolated files for political purposes. All attempts at authenticating the contents of the leak have so far succeeded, as was the case with last year’s ‘Anonymous for Justice’ leaks of Israeli Ministry of Justice Emails, which were similarly speculated to have been obtained by Iran.
As part of a sequence of exchanges during Hanukkah on December 11, 2015 between Gantz and the television executive Adam Berkowitz regarding a potential collaboration with Ellison on opposing Israel’s critics, Berkowitz also brought up the question of whether Gantz had ended up visiting the private intelligence firm Black Cube. “Did u ever visit the black cube?” Berkowitz purportedly asked Gantz by email, in regards to the controversial firm which previously listed former Mossad director Meir Dagan as its honorary president. |