Posted on 05/14/2002 12:54:24 PM PDT by RCW2001
Israelis arrested in Washington cleared by FBI
Two Israelis who were arrested in Washington State last week, after the moving van they were driving was found to contain traces of explosives, were cleared by the FBI which said previous tests yielded a false positive.
"They did not have explosives on them," said a spokesman at Seattle's FBI office, Ray Lauer.
The Israelis, who were pulled over last week by local police in Oak Harbor, Washington on a speeding violation, were taken into INS custody after it was determined that they were working in the US illegally as movers.
Stopped near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, the duo attracted suspicion after one was found to be carrying an altered Israeli passport and the second had no passport at all.
Stopped close to a military base, Whidbey Island immediately supplied bomb-sniffing dogs and an ionizer to the local police. The dogs and ionizer originally determined that the vehicle was laden with trace amounts of explosives, though further tests conducted a few hours later found that nothing more malignant than diesel fuel was to be found in the vehicle, said Lauer. "The tests that they conducted appear to be false positives," he said.
The Israelis are currently being held on immigration violations, including entering the country illegally and working without proper documentation, said a spokesman at Seattle's INS office.
"The two gentlemen that were stopped were held on immigration violations. They are in the custody of the INS. We are only charging them with immigration violations," said the spokesman.
Hmm, both your article and RCW2001's post 7 are from the Israeli press using the mothers of the suspects as their best source of information.
This thread Mystery Solved... The Five Jewish Kids In the White Van has some U.S. press articles quoting police spokesmen. See my posts 7 and 12 in particular.
I believe Israeli tourist/movers from Urban Moving Systems were seen celebrating the WTC disaster from three locations in NJ during the course of that day: Liberty State Park, Union City, and their Weehawken warehouse.
"In New York, immigration officials began deporting five young Israeli moving men who have been in federal custody since Sept. 11. Two of the deportees, Oded Ellner and Omer Gavriel Marmari, landed in Tel Aviv yesterday. The others, Paul Kurzberg and his brother Sivan, and Yaron Shmuel, were expected to fly to Israel today.
The five aroused attention in New Jersey after people noticed them going to unusual lengths to photograph the World Trade Center ruins and making light of the situation. One photograph developed by the F.B.I. showed Sivan Kurzberg holding a lighted lighter in the foreground, with the smoldering wreckage in the background, said Steven Noah Gordon, a lawyer for the five.
As objectionable as their behavior may be, Mr. Gordon said of their long incarceration, 'It's not a crime and they were being treated as if it was.'
The five were asked to take polygraph tests before being allowed to leave. But Paul Kurzberg refused on principle to divulge much about his role in the Israeli army or subsequently working for people who may have had ties to Israeli intelligence, Mr. Gordon said. His client had trouble with one seven-hour polygraph test administered last week, but did better on a second try.
Mr. Kurzberg's lawyer said it was his understanding that Attorney General John Ashcroft had to sign off on his release."
from "Dozens of Israeli Jews Are Being Kept in Federal Detention", NYT, 11/21/01
Cause for concern? I think so.
But I don't how the need to put the hurt on some whacky Arabs makes us any more the friend of Israel than pragmatism warrants.
The average Israeli simply does not walk around all day heaping praise on America. Indeed, many of them resent bitterly the help they get from this generous country.
It seems that half of them yearn for murder, the other half for suicide. I just can't wrap my mind around it.
You don't go to picnics with company like that. You get your business done, and promptly go home.
Do I have your permission to be an American patriot?
Really? Have you been to Israel? I have. Most of them love and respect America. Have you any proof of your claims?
Mr. Kurzberg's lawyer said it was his understanding that Attorney General John Ashcroft had to sign off on his release"
It sounds like Kurzberg, that American-loving-and-respecting Israeli guy, the f**ker who was photographed flicking his lighter in front of the burning WTC (like 'I did this', no?), wasn't cleared of anything.
What's this other thread you're alerting us to? Are you saying these other "Middle-Easterners" taking pictures of reservoirs in CT are Israelis? Wouldn't surprise me.
Regarding the reservoir photographers, it turns out they're not even Middle Eastern but Indian.
I said I wouldn't have been surprised if they were Israeli ("art students") because "Unauthorized photographing of military sites and civilian industrial complexes, such as petroleum-storage facilities, also was reported to the DEA, the documents show and interviews confirm."
I couldn't imagine going to Israel and flicking a lighter in front of a bombed-out pool hall.
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