Company Tied to U.S. DNI Head Avril Haines Major Backer of Israel's War Effort in Gaza

Palantir has benefited from a slew of government contracts, The Intercept reported

Avril Haines took the oath of office to serve as Director of National Intelligence on 22 January 2021

Palantir, the U.S.-based data-mining company that paid current U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines $180,000 in consulting fees, has been an enthusiastic in its support of Israel’s war effort in Gaza and hinted that it is playing a supporting role in the effort, The Middle East Eye reported.

Haines ties to the company is another example of the revolving door in the Biden administration.

GET THE ISSUE

The report noted a Fox Business interview with Joe Lonsdale, a Palantir’s co-founder.

Lonsdale said Israel is doing what it has to do in Gaza.

READ: BLINKEN AND AUSTIN GOT RICH SELLING WAR IN DC

“We are trying to keep the good guys armed and ahead,” he said earlier this month.

“When we were building Palantir we actually learned a lot from the Israelis,” he said earlier this month. “They’re quite good at what they do and one of my proudest moments was when Israel started working with Palantir. So Palantir helps Israel do a lot of things too.”

“We know that Avril Haines, at the NSC, was in charge of determining whether it was legal or illegal to place people on [Former CIA Director] John Brennan’s kill list. We know that in almost all cases that she said it was legal to put these names on the kill list, and people were subsequently killed by drone, including American citizens, like Anwar al-Awlaki and his son. They were American citizens who had never been charged with a crime. They had never faced their accusers in a court of law. There was no due process for them. She’s never had to answer for that.” -whistleblower

The report said Palantir did not respond to an inquiry about the kind of support it is providing. The Trends Journal also reached out and did not get an immediate response.

The Middle East Eye noted: The company describes its military technologies as offering customers “mission-tested capabilities, forged in the field” to deliver “a tactical edge - by land, air, sea and space.”

The New York Times reported on the cozy relationship that the Biden administration had when they were outside of government and Haines, the former deputy director of the CIA during the Obama administration, is no different.

The Intercept noted that Haines’s biography on her Brookings Institute page deleted her ties to the company while she was in consideration for President Joe Biden’s Cabinet.

Haines’s biography on the Brookings site was captured by the Wayback Machine, which archives websites, on May 9. At that time, the page showed the Palantir affiliation. A printout of the Google cache of the page as recorded on June 20 — the same day that Biden’s campaign announced Haines as an adviser — shows the affiliation. By June 25, the Google cache shows the Palantir affiliation has disappeared; it is not clear when between those dates the listing was removed.

The Intercept noted: Palantir Co-founded by a far-right, Trump-supporting tech billionaire, Palantir, whose business has benefited from a slew of government contracts. The tech billionaire was Peter Thiel.

Haines was Deputy National Security Advisor in the Obama administration, which, according to Democracy Now!, authorized drone strikes to “carry out targeted extrajudicial assassinations.”

John Kiriakou, the CIA whistleblower, told the show, “We know that Avril Haines, at the NSC, was in charge of determining whether it was legal or illegal to place people on [Former CIA Director] John Brennan’s kill list. We know that in almost all cases that she said it was legal to put these names on the kill list, and people were subsequently killed by drone, including American citizens, like Anwar al-Awlaki and his son. They were American citizens who had never been charged with a crime. They had never faced their accusers in a court of law. There was no due process for them. She’s never had to answer for that.”

The DNI did not immediately respond to a email from The Trends Journal seeking comment.