Posted on 03/05/2002 4:56:35 PM PST by veronica
U.S. officials on Tuesday denied a French newspaper report that the United States had broken up a huge Israeli spy ring and said no espionage charges were ever brought.
The officials said there had been suspicions within the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration that Israeli art students may have been spying, and the agency even did a draft report about it, but the Justice Department and FBI found the suspicions were groundless. "No one's been charged with espionage with regard to this matter. That's the bottom line," an FBI official said. "I'm unaware of any great interest in this here."
The students were sent back to Israel for immigration violations because they were conducting a business, setting up booths in malls and making phone solicitations to sell art when they had entered the United States on student or visitor visas, the officials said.
The French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that the spy ring may have trailed suspected al Qaeda members in the United States without informing federal authorities. The newspaper cited a secret U.S. government report outlining spying activities by Israelis that it said contained "elements (that) support the theory that Israel did not give the U.S. all the information it had about the planning for the September 11 attacks."
Le Monde quoted the study as saying the Israelis posed as graphic arts students and tried to enter buildings belonging to the DEA and other U.S. agencies. Intelligence Online, a Paris-based newsletter that reported on the study Monday, said some 120 Israeli spies had been arrested or expelled and inquiries were continuing.
FBI CALLS IT A "BOGUS STORY"
Asked by Reuters Monday about the Intelligence Online report, an FBI spokesman called it a "bogus story." The spokesman said: "There wasn't a spy ring." In Washington on Tuesday, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said of the Le Monde report, "At this time, we have no information to support this." U.S. officials said some Israeli students had been expelled for immigration violations, not for spying.
A U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman cited several instances when his agency had arrested Israeli nationals, on student or visitor visas, who were selling art. They were deported before the Sept. 11 attacks, he said. "To my knowledge, these individuals were arrested for immigration violations. I have no knowledge of any linking of the art students to any espionage activity."
The FBI official said the students were very aggressive in their solicitation tactics, contacting government employees and others at home and setting up booths in malls. "They were acting very overtly. That's not the way an espionage operation works."
In Israel on Monday, a spokesman said the prime minister had no comment on the matter.
As opposed to a named source by the french?
Just yesterday FBI agents shot a twenty year old man in the face for no reason.
Check your Freepmail.
I know. This one must have hurt.....LOL.
Way back when we were warned about TWO foreign intelligence agencies,
the Israeilis and one other ....
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