Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and penetrating mobile phone networks to monitor the movements of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his security detail ahead of his assassination, the Financial Times reported, citing multiple current and former Israeli intelligence officials and other people familiar with the operation.
Nearly all traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked for years, with footage encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel, according to two people familiar with the matter cited by the newspaper.
One camera angle proved particularly useful in determining where bodyguards parked their personal cars and provided insight into the routines inside the compound near Pasteur Street, one of the people said.
Complex algorithms were used to add details to dossiers on members of Khamenei’s security guards, including their addresses, duty hours, routes to work and which officials they were assigned to protect, building what intelligence officers call a “pattern of life,” according to the report.
The Financial Times said Israel also disrupted components of roughly a dozen mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street, making phones appear busy when called and preventing members of Khamenei’s protection detail from receiving possible warnings.
A current unnamed Israeli intelligence official told the newspaper that long before the strike, “we knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem,” describing a dense “intelligence picture” built through data collection involving Israel’s signals intelligence Unit 8200, human sources recruited by the Mossad and analysis by military intelligence.
Israel also used a mathematical method known as social network analysis to sift through billions of data points and identify decision-making centers and new targets, a person familiar with its use told the Financial Times.
According to two people familiar with the matter, Israeli intelligence relied on signals intelligence, including hacked traffic cameras and penetrated mobile phone networks, to confirm that Khamenei and senior officials were present at the compound on the morning of the strike.
The Americans had an additional human source providing confirmation, the sources said, according to the report.
