French Reports: U.S. Busts Big Israeli Spy Ring Tue Mar 5,12:44 PM ET
PARIS (Reuters) - 'The United States has broken up a huge Israeli spy ring that may have trailed suspected al Qaeda members in the United States without informing federal authorities, the French daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.
A secret U.S. government report outlining spying activities by Israelis contained "elements (that) support the theory that Israel did not give the U.S. all the information it had about the planning for the Sept. 11 attacks," it wrote.
Le Monde said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had confirmed the existence of the secret study, which says 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.
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." U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said on Tuesday in response to the Le Monde report, "At this time, we have no information to support this."
U.S. officials said some Israeli students had been sent out of the country for immigration violations, not for spying. In Israel Monday, a spokesman told Reuters: "The prime minister's office declines to comment on this matter." Le Monde Tuesday reported Intelligence Online's findings and added elements it said its reporters had uncovered.
"A vast Israeli espionage network operating on American territory has been broken up," Le Monde wrote. The French newspaper described it as the biggest Israeli spy case in the United States to be made public since 1986, a reference to the life sentence given Jonathan Pollard, an American Jew who passed U.S. military secrets to Israel.
The Pollard affair strained relations between the United States and Israel, two traditionally close allies. Guillaume Dasquie, editor of Intelligence Online, told Reuters Monday the report did not specify exactly what information the alleged agents were seeking.'
It's the bogus Fox story, recycled. Follow the link for the rest...(-:
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