clayton swisher reports. >> reporter: >> it's not just an airline, it's israel. >> reporter: it's not airline, it's israel's front for its intelligence agencies and the spy cables confirm it. in 2009 south african tv show broadcast the claims of a former airline guard at johannesberg airport. he said he was working for israel's internal spy agency. >> we pull the wool over everyone's eyes. the local authorities do not know what we are doing. >> reporter: months later, south africa deported an israeli airline official little more detail was released. but a secret intelligence document confirms the story: another classified report says they have the privilege of not being searched at the restricted areas: the broadcast triggered a meeting at south african's foreign minister. despite arguments they took away the diplomatic immunity. a separate document relates counter intelligence information the south africans gathered. it says: they refused numerous attempts by al jazeera to seek comment. the carte blanche broadcast also got other intelligence agencies nervous. clayton swisher al jazee

clayton swisher al jazerra johannesburg. >>> there is more to come here on the program.eria's president proms at the to create 2 million jobs if he's reelected but how credible is the claim? and we'll be live in ma layer that there are high hopes for a climate change conference late they are year. stay with us. >> sunday, the parents of captured american reporter austin tice. >> austin went missing in syria. >> campaigning for his release and maintaining hope. >> austin tice is alive. >> find him and get him home. >> a special "talk to al jazeera". sunday, 5:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. ♪ ♪ >>> welcome back. the top stories here on al jazerra. the u.n. special envoy to yemen has arrived in the city of aden to meet the countries president hadi. it comes just hours after the security council said it was backing hadi as yep end's leader. there have been rallies supporting hadi. >>> south african agents are spying on russia for details on their own joint satellite problem. according to a top secret cable obtained by the al jazerra investigative unit. the spy cable

as clayton swisher report, the plan is so secretive even the surprise aren't sure what's going on. >>orter: high above south african government buildings a satellite watches. it's a joints south african and russian project code named condor, while it monitors all of africa, its creators are struggling to monitor it. few in government even know what project condor is or what they are paying for. opposition politician and shadow defense minister david has spent five years trying to find out. >> government are trying to hide a massive procurement irregularity. it's been very difficult. given the fact that this is a top secret or secret defense intelligence project to really get any information. >> reporter: the spy cable shows south african military tunnel jenks has also kent state intelligence in the dark. in fact, so little is known al jazerra can reveal the state security agency is spying on its military counterpart. relying on a spy in russia. agent africanist is said to have direct access to the russian government. this top secret cable records information he provideed in 2012. acco

for more, we are joined by clayton swisher, director of investigative journalism at al jazeera, whichroke the iran story and several others in a series of articles called "the spy cables." he cowrote the piece "leaked cables show netanyahu's." welcome to democracy now! explain what has happened, what did south africa get a hold of? is there a south african edward snowden? >> well, i think after the edward snowden experience, someone would have to have their head checked to publicly fess up to being the source of such a leak, given the travails that followed edward snowden after he essentially outed himself. this was a digital leak made to al jazeera. one of the reasons people bring information to al jazeera in the past, the palestine papers and other projects, they know we will take every step we can to protect or shield their identity. the way we got these files is not a for discussion. but i will gladly describe for you in unprecedented window into how espionage is conducted, not just in south africa, but the broader continent. what we have obtained is perhaps best thought of -- if

secret document by israeli intelligence reveals mossad ds did not agree with their intelligence clayton swisher reports. >> this is a bomb. this is a fuse. >> it's now notorious. the moment israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu twarnd united nationswarned the united nations of an iranian bomb. >> at current enrichment rates they will have finished the medium enrichment and move on to the final stage. >> the spy cables reveal behind the scenes just one month behind the speech, descrailg intelligence sent -- israeli intelligent is sending a very different message. >> working to close gaps in areas that appear legitimate which will reduce the time required to produce weapons from the time instruction is actually given. >> the mossad chief hinted a disagreement with netanyahu earlier that year. he is clear, an attack on vaughn not the right way. in the spy cables, mossad estimates further enrichment to make nuclear weapons. but instead iran got rid of it as part of nuclear negotiation is. spy cable shed new light on netanyahu's address and begs the question, where did he get the information? >>

clayton swisher, al jazeera. >> you can read the original spy cables related articles and analysis on our exclusive website at aljazeera.com slush spycables. tell us what you think on twitter as well with the hashtag spy cables. there's much more to come in the program. bangladesh vows to crack down after the latest ferry accident leaves 70 dead. plus will it priet people out ofprice people outof the market? take on the day's news. >> then at 8:00, john seigenthaler digs deeper into the stories of the day. >> this is a complicated situation. how significant is it? >> and at 9:00, get a global perspective on the news. >> they're sending their government a message. >> organizing themselves. >> people say they're finally fed up. >> weeknights, on al jazeera >> tomorrow on "the stream". >> selling cocaine was my purpose. >> they had been trafficking on behalf of the united states government. >> renowned filmmaker marc levin discusses his new movie "freeway: crack in the system". "the stream". tomorrow, 12:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> hello again. you're watching al jazeera.

clayton swisher, al jazeera. >> well, the hundreds of secret documents obtained by al jazeera shed new light on the workings of the world's intelligence agencies. among them an israeli spy cable that reveals a coverup over the thettheft of south african being blueprints. >> from the south african arms maker danel. police launched a sting operation pose ed as russian buyers and made their arrests outside johannesburg, only a handful of journalists wrote about the case. >> it would have been a very sexy story if one was privy to the whole setting of the trap and people being arrested and so on. but the media wasn't involved in the actual drama of the story. >> the spy story somehow israel's mossad had gotten hold of the blueprints. this sparked a battle between the two nations. search wantedsouth african wanted the blueprints back. >> we can at least return the missile plans to you. >> but on one condition. >> israeli citizen mr. yitsak taltalia. >> got its blueprints bam back, presumably only after mossad had made a copy. two years later a trial took place, without any mention of israel

as part of our series the spy cables, clayton swisher has our exclusive report. ♪ >> reporter: the spyles show us just how the u.s. israel and the palestinian authority play political games with each other. >> the general conference has voted to admit palestine as member of unesco. >> reporter: unesco gave the state of palestine full membership in 2011 and its president has sought wider u.n. recognition ever since. but the cable demonstrates how the americans and the israelis fight that to the highest level. there was a secret phone call from the white house to the palestinian leader. and just as the u.s. was pressuring the palestinian authority, it now emerges they were seeking to establish contact with hamas, a group it considers a terrorist organization. a secret cable reveals a cia operative asked his south african counterpart to put them in touch. the south african writes that the cia seems desperate to make inroads into hamas in gaza. he recommends they help. by doing so south africa will stand the chance of benefiting from the interaction in that we would establish requirements

as part of our series the spy cables clayton swisher has our exclusive report. ♪ >>> the spy cables showst how the u.s. israel and the palestinian authority play political games with each other. >> the general conference has voted to admit palestine as member of unesco. >> reporter: unesco gave the state of palestine full membership in 2011 and its president has sought wider u.n. recognition ever since. but the cables ill state how the americans and israelis fight that policy to the highest levels. one cable reveal asik ret phone call from the white house to the palestinian leader. president obama threatened president abbas if he went ahead with the bid. and it now emerges they were also seeking to establish contact with hamas a group it considers a terrorist organization. a secret cable reveals a cia operative in east jerusalem asked his south african counterpart to put them in touch. the south african writes: so in other words they would know what the cia is up to. meanwhile in 2009, south africa's spy chief gets a direct call from a boss. he is shocked at the breach of protocol and or

clayton swisher, al jazerra johannesburg. >>> the islamic state of iraq and the levant has kidnappedan 100 men and nine boys in iraq. the hostages belong to the sunni tribe one of the largest in the country. the defense minister is a member of that tribe. they all come from a village east of tikrit. government troops are fighting with isil for control of the area. about 200-kilometers from the capital baghdad. jayna half has more from baghdad. >> reporter: there is no word on the fate of these men and boys who were taken away. the sheik of the tribe tells us 127 tribes men remember originally cat nipped. this is three days ago. the news just filtering out now because of difficult communications there. it's a village east of tikrit where fighting has been going on. when they took the men they also took nine boys. they are between nine and 10 years of age and they continue to be held. the sheik tells us that he believes it's in retaliation for relatives of the men and boys fighting either with iraqi forces or tribal forces against isil. the tribe was also involved in another attack by

clayton swisher, al jazeera. >> and the director of al jazeera's investigative unit is with us in the studio. that cable came a month after netanyahu made that announcement at the united nations. nonetheless, he must have had some inkling about what massad were thinking. >> it's a contentious visit he's going to have in washington d.c. before the u.s. congress. and one would have to think after reading massad's top secret assessment on iran's nuclear capabilities if prime minister netanyahu was ready to fudge the truth in front of the entire world united nations general assembly, is he going to characterize it differently in front of the u.s. congress? >> will we be able to see what massad was saying? >> in general the cables came to us through a communications leak. we don't disclose those methods but this is the first time i'd ever seen to my knowledge other journalists had seen actual massad documents let alone top secret. that level of classification is extremely limited in its distribution. there are a variety of other intelligence services in thistrophy, more than a few dozen, t