News 15: Ram Ben Barak and the Fifth Dimension

Peloni:  Caroline Glick, who is discussed in the below commentary, retweeted this report a couple of days ago.  The Qatargate scandal in Israel has not received much attention in the English press, but this extensive scandal has been discussed with some import in the Hebrew press, most recently following the irregular move by Gantz to unilaterally decide to travel to the US to converse with his American associates without authorization from his own govt.  As @arbelaue notes, his commentary here is far from a full expose on that scandal, but he does provide some important reflections and assertions as well as sourcing for further inquiry.

@arbelaue, X  March 28, 2024

Photo: Eli Zahar

News 15: Ram Ben Barak and the Fifth Dimension I will not go into the whole story of the Fifth Dimension here (it’s a lot) but only what is related to Ram Ben Barak but before that I need some background, which I will take from Avi Weiss’ website (and edit. Link in comments [0] ).

Background: For a long time now, retired general John Allen has been under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation – FBI on the suspicion that he concealed his activities as an agent of Qatar in 2017, without reporting it. [1]

Allen served in the past (2013-2014) as the security advisor to the then Secretary of State, John Kerry and drafted a security plan, which was designed to convince Israel to agree to give up sovereignty and, later on, a military presence in the Jordan Valley.

According to American law, Americans are allowed to act as agents of foreign governments, subject to reporting this to law enforcement authorities, and failure to report employment as an agent of a foreign government is a serious offense.

Allen, it turns out, is a friend of the Qataris through a regime figure in Washington named Imad Zubairi. The latter is currently serving a 12-year sentence in federal prison for other corruption offenses [2] .

General John Allen’s past as an advisor to John Kerry (the American Secretary of State at the time) helped him forge ties with senior IDF officials, and this is where the close relationship with the leaders of the “Fifth Dimension” comes in.

In 2016, the company (Fifth Dimension) signed a contract.  The deal with Allen [3] in the amount of 10,000 dollars per month and 1.5% of the value of any contract he will broker for the company. Gantz served as Chief of Staff while Allen formulated the security plan and it is possible to assume that some acquaintance was formed.

Alan’s goal was of course to obtain contracts [4] – a kind of middleman – a thing that is customary in the business world – you will get deals, cut a coupon for a fat commission.

According to materials seized from Allen, in November 2016 he sent an email to the people of the “Fifth Dimension” in which he clarified that “the Qataris asked me to recommend the product to the head of Qatari intelligence and the Minister of Defense”, whom he met in June 2017.

Allen wrote about his recommendation: “Apparently You will complete their decision-making and bring Qatari approval to purchase the product of the “Fifth Dimension”. Phase I of the project was estimated at $72 million.” John Allen was supposed to receive over a million dollars in commission, just for this deal.

According to this email and according to the suspicions that have accumulated against Allen, the “Fifth Dimension” tried to sell software to Qatar, the number one supporter of Hamas and Iran, with the clear knowledge of Gantz and the other company executives, because they hired Allen’s services as a sort of lobbyist for the “Fifth Dimension”.

From the information that came after the disclosure of the suspicions in the FBI document, it appears that the top of Qatar accepted the offer of General John Allen but the deal did not come to fruition because the whole “fifth dimension” issue exploded [5] , and John Allen received a commission from the top of the “fifth dimension” of $40,000 (of which he received $20,000 from Imad Zubeiri), just for this brokerage and marketing operation he carried out in Qatar in June 2017. This commission was separate from the monthly commission and even before receiving the commission he was promised (1.5% of the transaction, i.e. over a million dollars), if the transaction would have been carried out.

Continuation: The information here was revealed [6] for the first time by Carolyn Glick. On 6/17/22 a reporter for Israel Hayom. A day later she was fired.

Avi Weiss checked with the Ministry of Defense if the “Fifth Dimension” had an export permit and marketing and sales approval, as required by law. There were no such approvals [7]. Nothing from nothing

This means that the “Fifth Dimension” led by Gantz and Ben-Barak allegedly acted in violation of the law and these are offenses that carry prison sentences of years. For many years, as written in the Law on the Control of Defense Exports, 2007-2007 [8] (3 to 5 years of imprisonment, for each violation of a section of the law, and apparently several sections were violated here).

The conflict of interest of the former Minister of Defense, Benny Gantz:

On August 21, 2022, 2 proposals were made for legislative amendments [9][10] (regulations) in the field of security export control, which expands the exemptions in the field of security exports under the excuses of reducing the regulatory burden, which sound very nice, but behind them hides a huge conflict of interest of Gantz[.]

How can Speaker Gali Beharev Miara, and the legal advisors of the Ministry of Defense approve the passage of such significant legislation, during an election campaign , when there is no parliamentary oversight of the Knesset because it was dispersed, and especially by the Minister of Defense – who was allegedly involved in serious violations of the law in the case” the fifth dimension”? The regulations apparently whitewash the serious offenses that were committed in the case, after the company did not receive any approval from the inspection and export division of the Ministry of Defense. The issue of enforcement in the field of defense exports is very sensitive and enforced with an iron hand [11]

And now we have arrived: who sat as the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, the one who is supposed to lead the discussion in the committee to approve the new regulations?

That is correct, Ram Ben Barak. What does he have to do with all this? He is the former president of the company. They didn’t have time to pass the regulations. But most importantly they called it the government of change.

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Other topics in the fifth dimension case that I did not touch on and each one is a psychological story:

1. The connection to the police and its senior officers (Roni Ashlich, Ami Ashad, Mani Yitzhak, Eyal Aharoni, Boaz Gilad, etc.)
2. The misrepresentation to the police and the software itself of the dimension and what it is worth
3. 50 million without a tender
4. The super sensitive information about all of us and the police’s fighting method that was copied from the police for the pilot and what has happened to it since then
5. The connections to Russia and the sanctions About the Russians
6. The investigation passed to the Competition Authority and who closed the investigation and who appointed him (hint: Gantz)
7. What did the person who appointed the person who closed the investigation threaten to harm if they did not allow him to be appointed (hint: Bechem)
8. What has happened since the dissolution of the Knesset
9 And of course, the criminal connection is of interest to you? Read the first link [0] by Avi Weiss, there are some sections and lots of interesting updates on the subject.

Sources linked HERE