Did the CIA know Hamas would attack Israel on Oct. 7?

Bruce Brill, a former translator for the National Security Agency, discovered the U.S. intelligence agencies had secret divisions called “Jew Rooms” working against Israel and knew in advance that the Arab nations would attack Israel on Yom Kippur 1973.

Brill later discovered not only did the intel community know about the impending attack, but a secret division inside the CIA misled Israel, assuring their Israeli counterparts there would be no attack.

Brill has done some digging, and while he doesn’t have proof, he has reason to suspect the Jew room is still operating and may have assured Israeli intelligence, despite warnings from IDF spotters, there would be no Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.

Brill began his career during the Vietnam War working for U.S. Army intelligence. He was trained as an Arabic translator. After the war, the National Security Agency (NSA) hired him for the same function, working in G6, the branch of the NSA focusing on the Middle East. His responsibilities were minimal, requiring little attention or time. Brill, a secular Jew at the time with no connection to Judaism, used his spare time learning Hebrew.

Brill was planning to visit with his family during the first weekend of October 1973, which was October 6, and fell on Yom Kippur – Judaism’s holiest day. A few days before the fateful date, Brill’s direct superior warned him he had to remain at his post, stating the situation in the Middle East was “A-Val,” the term used to describe that war was a near certainty.

Several years later, Brill’s inebriated roommate revealed to him that there were indeed rooms in the CIA and NSA which Brill could not enter because he was a Jew. These rooms were part of a division of U.S. intelligence, which operated against Israel.

Brill believes he got a glimpse of one of the Jew Rooms when passing through a secure room to use the teletype in an adjoining office. Despite his high level of clearance, he had to press a code and wait to be allowed to enter. Once, as he was waiting to be admitted, a person left the room, giving him a glimpse of a large map of the Middle East slowly covered by a curtain.

Brill’s remarkable account is related in his book, “Deceit of an Ally: A Memoir of Military Anti-Semitism, NSA’s Secret Jew Room and Yom Kippur War Treachery.”

The existence of the Jew Rooms was corroborated by John Loftus, an American author, former high-level government prosecutor, and former Army intelligence officer, in his book, “The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed The Jewish People.”

In 2017, Brill met with Israeli General Eli Zeira, the head of Israeli military intelligence (AMAN) in 1973. Zeira confided to Brill that U.S. intelligence sources had assured him the Arabs would not attack, in spite of the evidence he was being given. Zeira acted on this information from Israel’s ally and convinced Israel’s leaders, Prime Minister Golda Meir, Defense Minister and former chief of staff Moshe Dayan, and Lt.-Gen. David Elazar, the then-IDF chief of staff that the Arabs would not attack despite ample Israeli intelligence showing an attack was imminent. Zeira told Brill the intel information had been manipulated before it ever reached U.S. generals or politicians.

This directly contradicts testimony given under oath to the Congressional Investigation Committee, the Pike Commission, by Ray Cline, who testified the Syrian and Egyptian deception on Yom Kippur 1973 fooled all U.S. intelligence agencies into believing they were not going to invade Israel.

Brill’s account of the deceit carried out by the Jew Room in 1973 was confirmed on June 6, 2021, when a protocol of Moshe Dayan was declassified. The official document said exactly what Brill claimed Zeira confided in him: “12 hours before the attack Dayan received an American assessment saying the Arabs are not going to attack,” completely confirming Brill’s hard-to-believe claim. That report was again confirmed by a 2014 disclosure the NSA had indeed given the wrong assessment of the situation.

“In spite of the Israeli Government Agranot Commission of Inquiry’s conclusions and public perception putting the blame on Zeira’s shoulders, the blame belongs to NSA’s Jew Room,” Brill emphasized.

The similarities between the Oct. 6, 1973, Yom Kippur attack by Egypt and the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas are undeniable. Coincidentally, they both took place on a Jewish holiday, which fell on Shabbat. The Hamas attack came almost exactly 50 years to the day after the Egyptian attempt to wipe Israel out. More significantly, both attacks were initially devastating and deadly due to a complete failure of Israeli intelligence.

In the aftermath of October 7, reports have surfaced that the tatzpaniot (IDF spotters) had reported to their officers about unusual activity by Hamas on the southern border. These reports were ignored. A recent report in Hebrew news Yediot Aharonot claimed Israel’s National Security Council received alerts on suspicious Hamas activities the night before the attack. The suspicious activities included Hamas terrorists inserting Israeli SIM cards into their cell phones in preparation for the invasion. The report also claimed the IDF noted Hamas’ military leadership had entered protected spaces in preparation for the Israeli response. The IDF denied the allegation.

Evidence suggests about a year before the attack, Israeli analysts obtained a copy of the Hamas plans titled the Jericho Wall document. This detailed how Hamas fighters would breach the border using paragliders, drones and rockets, and they would seek to attack.

Less than one month before the attack, an intelligence unit observed a live-fire exercise in Gaza City, which conformed to the Jericho Wall plans.

There has yet to be a disclosure of a full investigation into the Oct. 7 attack. Despite the lack of an investigation, Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva, chief of the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate on Oct. 7, resigned in April.

There are hints U.S. intelligence was aware of a possibly imminent threat. Indeed, a few weeks after the Hamas attack, it was reported the U.S. intelligence community presented at least two assessments warning the Biden administration of an increased risk for Hamas attacks. It was also reported that several Arab sources warned the Biden administration and U.S. intelligence officials of a buildup of Hamas weapons and anger among Palestinians was set to explode. It was unclear if any of these U.S. assessments were shared with Israel.

In a panel discussion held at the Michael B. Hayden Center at George Mason University a couple of weeks after the October 7 horror, John Brennan – former director of the CIA and chief counterintelligence adviser to President Barack Obama – said, “U.S. intelligence had ‘some things’ also that were raising concerns there.”

While the U.S. and Israel are allies and, in theory, share intelligence, this is not always the case. It was reported this month that Asif William Rahman, a CIA officer who had been working outside the United States, was arrested in Cambodia on charges he leaked classified Pentagon documents detailing Israel’s preparations for its attack on Iran. Rahman had a security clearance granting him access to top-secret information.

In August, it was reported the Biden administration leaked the names of 10 Mossad agents operating in Iran who allegedly were involved in the July 31 assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh to Tehran as part of a “good faith” initiative in response to Israel’s strikes.

In 2012, Israeli analysts accused the Obama administration of leaking plans of a possible Israeli military strike targeting the Iranian nuclear program.

The list of intelligence leaks by the U.S. that endangered Israel, limiting its ability to operate against threats, is disturbingly long and was documented in a JNS article by Caroline Glick in August.

Intelligence is essential to national security and despite Israel often being described as “the greatest ally to the U.S. in the region,” the two countries’ interests do not always intersect. While Israel and the U.S. have a history of cooperation, maintaining this relationship requires trust. Constant diligence is required to maintain it. In 1973, Israel was betrayed by a rogue division within the U.S. intelligence community. It can only be hoped history did not repeat itself on Oct. 7.