The IDF announced today, on the eve of the Sukkot holiday, that the investigation against Brigadier General (res.) Oren Solomon - former director of combat in the Gaza Division, head of the war investigations team and member of the Forum of Senior Civil Service Veterans - has been closed, due to the fact that no evidence was found linking the officer to connecting a foreign drive to classified IDF systems.
The MPICH investigation was opened following the findings of a security check conducted by the Information Security Department. The initial suspicion against the senior officer stemmed from the fact that on several occasions when his username was connected to a "top secret" military computer, two memory drives were connected and disconnected from this computer in an unusual manner.
On one of the occasions when the drives were connected, it was found that a very large number of classified documents were open on the computer, raising concerns that these documents had been removed from the computer.
Despite these findings, which formed the basis for opening the investigation, the MPC investigation found no evidence that the officer was the one operating the computer during the aforementioned connections.
The investigation also raised the possibility that the computer was used by others. Therefore, it was decided to close the investigation file against the officer.
This evening, Brigadier General (res.) Oren Solomon wrote about the closure of the investigation against him:
""'Repay those who owe you favors, and you will repay me with all your kindness.' Yesterday, on the eve of the holiday of Sukkot, as the holiday began, I received notice that the investigation file against me was closed.
At the beginning of my remarks, I would like to thank my dear family, my friends, my subordinates, and all the dear people of Israel, for their trust and support throughout the journey. I would also like to thank my lawyers, Nati Simhoni and Major Ariel, who accompanied me during this difficult time.
As I have claimed from the beginning of the affair, I have never committed any information security offenses of any kind. This investigation was opened to try to thwart me, to silence me and other officers, all due to the findings of an investigation that I led as head of the war investigation team, in which I found the magnitude of the failure and dysfunction of the high command echelon.
But not only that, I also found information being concealed from the political echelon, and worst of all: Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and a small team conducted a systematic system to cover up, obfuscate, and minimize their part in the omission, in a systematic and sophisticated manner.
There is solid evidence for everything. Therefore, yesterday's report is a direct continuation of the serious conduct against me. Its wording and timing were not accidental. The reader will think that a MPI investigation was opened due to a security check, and in general, this is a real success for the Information Security Department in exposing the connection of the external drive.
The same is true at the end of the message: "No evidence was found linking the officer to the suspicion," it seems to someone reading the text that maybe I committed the offense, but they simply were unable to find evidence linking me to it, which is not the case, since I never did it.
The sequence of facts, the reason for opening the investigation and the examination of the drive only point to a failure and omission of the Information Security Department, and as for me - exactly the opposite, as a commander I have always been extremely careful about information security. And I call on the investigating authorities to act and do everything, and at least as they acted against me, to expose the person who committed this offense. This did not happen, and not by chance.
Precisely these days, two years after the terrible disaster, and with my full name cleared, I would expect the IDF, and I mean the IDF, to tell the whole truth, and apologize, in order to restore some of the trust in it that was critically damaged.
This affair is extremely serious on a national level, and is a combination of the Dreyfus affair and the Line 300 affair. I will expand on this later.
"Happy Holidays to all the dear people of Israel, for the strength, trust, and support you have given me throughout the journey. I will continue to act on a mission for the people and the state to expose the truth and correct the shortcomings to prevent another disaster.".
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