U.S. Deports Dozens of Israelis Amid Warnings of Espionage Activities

The Drudge Report [Headline Only...] ^ | March 5, 2002 | Matt Drudge...?

[DreamWeaver]

U.S. Deports Israelis Amid Warnings of Espionage Activities.

WHY ?????

[luvzhottea]

Fox News Wednesday, December 12, 2001 Carl Cameron:

Numerous classified documents obtained by Fox News indicate that even prior to Sept. 11, as many as 140 other Israelis had been detained or arrested in a secretive and sprawling investigation into suspected espionage by Israelis in the United States.

Investigators from numerous government agencies are part of a working group that has been compiling evidence in the case since the mid-1990s. These documents detail hundreds of incidents in cities and towns across the country that investigators say quote "may well be an organized intelligence-gathering activity."

Investigators are focusing part of their efforts on Israelis who said they are art students from the University of Jerusalem or Bezalel Academy and repeatedly made contact with U.S. government personnel by saying they wanted to sell cheap art or handiwork.

Documents say they "targeted" and penetrated military bases, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, dozens of government facilities and even secret offices and unlisted private homes of law enforcement and intelligence personnel.

Another part of the investigation has resulted in the detention and arrest of dozens of Israelis working at kiosks in American malls, where they had been selling toys called "Puzzlecar" and "Zoomcopter."

Investigators suspected a front. Shortly after the New York Times and Washington Post reported the detentions of Israelis on immigration charges last month, the carts began vanishing.

[Rebelbase]

Bump for later .

[scratchgolfer]

But according to this article none of the students were charged with espionage, only immigration violations. So it appears the espionage charges were unfounded after all. The warnings appear to have been, according to this article, not based in fact or proven. Our system is based on fact.

[luvzhottea]

Fox News PART 1 Wednesday, December 12, 2001 Carl Cameron:

Why would Israelis spy in and on the United States?

A General Accounting Office investigation referred to Israel as Country A and said, "According to a U.S. intelligence agency, the government of country A conducts the most aggressive espionage operation against the U.S. of any U.S. ally."

Fox News PART 2 Carl Cameron:

CAMERON: Here's how the system works. Most directory assistance calls, and virtually all call records and billing in the U.S. are done for the phone companies by Amdocs Ltd., an Israeli-based private elecommunications company.

Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies in America, and more worldwide. The White House and other secure government phone lines are protected, but it is virtually impossible to make a call on normal phones without generating an Amdocs record of it.

In recent years, the FBI and other government agencies have investigated Amdocs more than once. The firm has repeatedly and adamantly denied any security breaches or wrongdoing. But sources tell Fox News that in 1999, the super secret national security agency, headquartered in northern Maryland, issued what's called a Top Secret sensitive compartmentalized information report, TS/SCI, warning that records of calls in the United States were getting into foreign hands – in Israel, in particular.

PART 3
CARL CAMERON, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The company is Comverse Infosys, a subsidiary of an Israeli-run private telecommunications firm, with offices throughout the U.S. It provides wiretapping equipment for law enforcement. Here's how wiretapping works in the U.S.

Every time you make a call, it passes through the nation's elaborate network of switchers and routers run by the phone companies. Custom computers and software, made by companies like Comverse, are tied into that network to intercept, record and store the wiretapped calls, and at the same time transmit them to investigators.

The manufacturers have continuing access to the computers so they can service them and keep them free of glitches. This process was authorized by the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA. Senior government officials have now told Fox News that while CALEA made wiretapping easier, it has led to a system that is seriously vulnerable to compromise, and may have undermined the whole wiretapping system.

Indeed, Fox News has learned that Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were both warned Oct. 18 in a hand-delivered letter from 15 local, state and federal law enforcement officials, who complained that "law enforcement's current electronic surveillance capabilities are less effective today than they were at the time CALEA was enacted."

Congress insists the equipment it installs is secure. But the complaint about this system is that the wiretap computer programs made by Comverse have, in effect, a back door through which wiretaps themselves can be intercepted by unauthorized parties.

Adding to the suspicions is the fact that in Israel, Comverse works closely with the Israeli government, and under special programs, gets reimbursed for up to 50 percent of its research and development costs by the Israeli Ministry of Industry and Trade. But investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying through Comverse is considered career suicide.

And sources say that while various F.B.I. inquiries into Comverse have been conducted over the years, they've been halted before the actual equipment has ever been thoroughly tested for leaks. A 1999 F.C.C. document indicates several government agencies expressed deep concerns that too many unauthorized non-law enforcement personnel can access the wiretap system. And the FBI's own nondescript office in Chantilly, Virginia that actually oversees the CALEA wiretapping program, is among the most agitated about the threat.

[veronica]

It was said on a thread that Fox News does not want that piece posted here...just so you know.

[luvzhottea]

Notice how some posters do not want this information to come out--real "Americans" LOL
Here we are Americans worried about OUR country and some favor a FOREIGN nation over our own America!

[veronica]

Here we are Americans worried about OUR country...

I know what you mean. I am very worried. What with the Gallup poll - and what Muslims all over the world thiink of us, and have done to us. Worried does not cover it.

[Alouette]

Notice how some posters do not want this information to come out

This is not information, it's a silly urban legend. If you think it's anything more than that, you're smoking tea not drinking it.

[iav2]

The Fox story had the same stench as this one to me. Nobody on the record. Where's the beef? I am not worried about a bunch of art students myself. Much more worried about bombers and airplanes and Islamic jihadists. Hundreds of Islamist Middle Easteners were deported after Sept. 11, are they guilty of something because they were deported? Maybe they were suicide bombers waiting to blow up some building. Who knows?

[piasa]

Old FR thread on the subject

[Phil V.]

Paging Veronica.....

I LOVE Veronica! Page her for me twice!

Lay off Roni! My specialty is dysfunctional women. If there are any around I WANT 'EM! I know, I know . . . that makes ME a little kookoo, but what th' hey! Dysfunctional women are just . . . uh . . . more fun(?)

[NoControllingLegalAuthority]

Israeli spies aren't KILLING us. Maybe we should FIRST deport those who are intent on killing us.

[wheezer]

Drudge already took this down ... hmmm ....
I still see it posted as headline at Drudge.