STATE SURVEILLANCE
Uncle Sam’s spying spree
FEW men have served the current US president as ably as David Friedman. As a partner in a New York law firm specialising in bankruptcies, Friedman helped extricate the massively over-leveraged Trump from a series of disastrous ventures – including the massive eponymous turn-of-the-century casino-hotels in Atlantic City.
As a reward, shortly after his first election as president in 2016, Trump appointed Friedman (pictured) as US ambassador to Israel. During his tenure, America moved its embassy to Jerusalem, recognised Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights (captured from Syria in 1967) and brokered diplomatic relations between Israel and three Arab states (UAE, Bahrain and Morocco), bypassing the Palestinian issue.