Posted on 03/05/2002 2:27:35 PM PST by jmp702
U.S. Deports Israelis Amid Warnings of Espionage Activities
By Ted Bridis Associated Press Writer
Published: Mar 5, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) - Authorities have arrested and deported dozens of young Israelis since early last year who represented themselves as art students in efforts to gain access to sensitive federal office buildings and the homes of government employees, U.S. officials said.
A draft report from the Drug Enforcement Administration - which first characterized the activities as suspicious - said the youths' actions "may well be an organized intelligence-gathering activity."
Immigration officials deported them for visa violations; no criminal espionage charges were filed.
The arrests, made in an unspecified number of major U.S. cities from California to Florida, came amid public warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies about suspicious behavior by people posing as Israeli art students and "attempting to bypass facility security and enter federal buildings."
The Israelis were arrested and deported on charges of working in the United States without authorization or overstaying visits on tourist visas, said Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington. He described dozens of arrests since early 2001 but gave no exact figures.
The DEA report said a majority of the students questioned by U.S. investigators acknowledged having served in military intelligence, electronic signals interception or explosive ordnance units in the Israeli military. The DEA said one person questioned was the son of a two-star Israeli general, one had served as the bodyguard to the head of the Israeli Army and another served in a Patriot missile unit.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari said it was "nonsense" that the students were spying on the United States.
Another Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Irit Stopper, confirmed that a few Israelis posing as art students were expelled from the United States for working without permits. However they were not accused of espionage, she said. She did not say how many Israelis were expelled and did not give any additional details.
The DEA report was first obtained by a French Web site that specializes in intelligence news, Intelligenceonline.com, and confirmed Tuesday as authentic by DEA spokeswoman Rogene Waite in Washington. The Web site said 120 Israelis had been arrested.
"That these people are now traveling in the U.S. selling art seems not to fit their background," the report said.
An FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted there were no espionage charges filed against any of the individuals and that they had been deported. Asked whether any spying activity occurred, the official repeated that no charges had been filed.
A Justice Department official, also asking not to be publicly identified, said investigators have been aware of some "alleged linkage" between the students and alleged espionage activities in the United States since early 2001, and said authorities have made arrests in Dallas, Chicago, San Diego and in south Florida. INS spokesman Rodney Germain in Miami said five or six people were arrested in that area at least six months ago on immigration counts.
Although security experts at the DEA first characterized the youths' behavior as suspicious, and INS authorities later arrested them, the FBI typically investigates espionage cases in the United States.
The DEA report said that among U.S. sites apparently targeted was Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City, home to the military's AWACS surveillance planes and the place where many of the nation's B-1 bombers are repaired. Investigators also said that one female art student went to the home of a worker for the Environmental Protection Agency in Denver to sell paintings and returned later to photograph the house, according to the report.
No one within the Justice Department has expressed concerns about the Israeli students possibly committing espionage, Justice spokesman Bryan Sierra said. The deputy U.S. attorney general, Larry Thompson, declined to discuss the arrests when asked about them during a news conference Tuesday.
The U.S. Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a federal agency, circulated a public warning in March 2001 urging employees to report contact with people describing themselves as Israeli art students.
"These individuals have been described as aggressive," the warning said. "They attempt to engage employees in conversation rather than giving a sales pitch."
Cooperation with Israel, a longtime key ally, is increasingly important in the U.S. war on terrorism.
AP-ES-03-05-02 1658EST
Because according to the Fox News report on this, about 2 months ago, The DEA was finding its investigations into massive Israeli ecstacy and other drug rings being continually foiled. They found out that these drug gang/spy rings had all communications numbers and were listening into all DEA and intel agency communications. This was assisted by an Israeli communications agency which somehow has gotten the contracts to log all phone, cell phone, pager, etc communication records in U.S. (sorry dont have name but it was in FOX's report)
That was how they tied these groups activities to the supposed Arab groups in the U.S. involved in 9/11 attacks. They found a pattern of the Israeli groups seeming to mirror or monitor the Arabs groups that their 9/11 investigations exposed.
This also helps to explain why there was a group of Israelis celebrating on a rooftop in New Jersey, watching the Towers burn. They were reported and turned in on neighbors suspicions. They were held for awhile, I'm not sure but I think they were all deported.
You didn't have to go to all that trouble. Here is the quote given to the writer from the above AP story:
"An FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted there were no espionage charges filed against any of the individuals and that they had been deported. Asked whether any spying activity occurred, the official repeated that no charges had been filed."
They had been deported. No charges had been filed. Nothing to worry about. Nothing to see.
I was waiting in a doctor's office in Jupiter and one came in pitching seascapes.
Hmmm...what a great schtick around here. Wonder what the legalities of posing as a disabled IDF...
Hang in there brother. You might nail someone yet...someday. (-:
These kids were NOT spies imo... apparently the DEA is quoted as saying some of the (likely clintong holdovers) thinks they were... part of the "blame israel" lobby. Of course the dea is never wrong... (you know the folks who raid the wrong houses and kill unarmed NON drug users) and the cia and fbi must have made a mistake in not trying these "evil israelis" as spies...
I don't buy the "they are evil spies" stuff... no matter who reports it initially. But then again, I am not part of the "Israel does bad things too" club...
more desperate moral equivalency tactics from the folks who love arafathead.
Justice4JP Note
In an historically unprecedented show of solidarity, a virtually unanimous Knesset (Israeli parliament) signed a petition to President Bush calling upon him to release Jonathan Pollard.The petition which was signed by 110 Members of Knesset - every single member of every Jewish political faction (including Arab members ) - is representative of the entire population of the Jewish State. The petition, which was the initiative of MK Michael Eitan (Likud), was signed by all cabinet ministers and deputy ministers as well.
Never before in the history of the State of Israel has any issue received the support and signatures of 110 Knesset members. (Even the overwhelmingly popular Peace Treaty with Jordan did not garner the signature of 110 MKs.)
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon hand-delivered the Knesset petition to President Bush when they met on February 7, 2002. The text of the petition and a list of the 110 MK signees follows below. To date, there has been no response to the petition from the White House.
Fox was wrong: Le Monde is wrong; Intelligence Online is wrong; everybody is wrong but our dumb-ass Federal Bureau of Incompetence and Veronica & the Amen Corner.
Deny, deny, deny -- deny the evidence, deny the reality, deny the criminality of a regime that will do anything -- ANYTHING! -- to pursue its interests at American expense.
I've written about this story for weeks -- MONTHS! -- and finally the truth is beginning to come out. Now, just wait until the truth about the ANTHRAX attacks comes out. Then you are going to see some real reaction....
Yeah well, I hate to crash a party but there you have it. Fairminded people are then able to make their own decision. When the FBI uses a word like 'bogus' I tend to listen. That is not a weasel-word.
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