Free Republic

Post 38: "if he did", his defense lawyer said he did, that's quite convincing to me. (His Mom says he didn't :)

You were claiming "most [Israelis]... love and respect America", I gave an egregious counter-example relevant to the previous discussion on this thread. It doesn't take much of a "fine tooth comb" to "pick apart" Sivan Kurzberg's behavior.

Since we are backing the Israel side to the tune of $10 million a day, Palestinian enmity doesn't surprise me, Israeli does.

Who says they're spies? They like to make paintings of petroleum-storage facilities, that's it.

No comments on my harsh words for Sivan Kurzberg? It's interesting that he identified with the perpetrators of WTC.

I couldn't imagine going to Israel and flicking a lighter in front of a bombed-out pool hall.

Ha, ha! I set you up for that, I wondered what punch line/insult you'd come up with.

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."

ctnow.com

Video Shoot Brings Out Terror Response Team
3 Arrested At Reservoir; Family Wonders If Ethnicity Played Role

May 18, 2002
By DAVE ALTIMARI, Courant Staff Writer

EASTON -- All Redwander Chowdhury wanted to do, his family said Friday, was try out the new digital camcorder he had bought on eBay earlier in the week for $340.

Knowing he was heading home to Bangladesh to visit family on June 11, the 19-year-old Fairfield University student planned to shoot some pictures of beautiful Connecticut scenery to show them. On Thursday night he and two cousins, Juned Ahmed Choudhury and Hassan Choudhury, chose the Easton Reservoir Dam and filtration plant.

They climbed a 32-foot water tower and started filming, unknowingly setting off an intensive emergency response by state officials after someone reported to Easton police that three "Middle Eastern" men were acting suspiciously near the reservoir, which supplies water to four communities.

Easton police arrested the three and alerted the FBI. While agents were checking the cousins' car for bombs or chemical weapons, everyone from the National Guard to the Department of Public Health descended on this small town as the state put its new terrorism response plan into action.

"It was a bizarre incident, to say the least," Easton Police Chief John F. Solomon said Friday. "They were up there for a good half-hour. I want to make it absolutely clear that the water is safe and there's nothing to worry about."

The water tank the men climbed was immediately shut down. State health officials took several water samples and preliminary results showed nothing unusual, state Department of Public Health Commissioner Joxel Garcia said. The reservoir serves Bridgeport, Easton, Fairfield and Trumbull.

The three men were released about 3 a.m. after the FBI checked for any terrorist ties and made sure their immigration status was in order.

They were charged with third-degree criminal trespassing, a Class C misdemeanor, and must appear in Bridgeport Superior Court on June 5. Law enforcement authorities still have the car and the video camera.

"We ran everything to ground and we're confident there was no terrorist activity," said FBI Agent Michael Wolf, who is in charge of the case.

At a press conference Friday attended by Wolf; Garcia; Connecticut's director of homeland security, Vincent DeRosa; and Maj. Gen. William Cugno, adjutant general of the Connecticut National Guard, officials defended the all-out response in this post-9/11 atmosphere.

All denied that the response was triggered by the original description of the men as "Middle Eastern."

"You had a report of three men trespassing on watershed property. That's going to get investigated regardless of ethnicity," Wolf said.

But Redwander Chowdhury's family members said they wonder if that's true.

"We are law-abiding citizens and this is very shameful to us," said his father, Mohammed Chowdhury.

Mohammed said his son called about 1:30 a.m. to say that FBI agents were asking him about making bombs and whether he was connected to any terrorists.

The family has lived in Fairfield for three years. Hassan Choudhury, 19, and Juned Choudhury, 21, live in Bridgeport.

Mohammed Chowdhury said his son was excited to have purchased the digital recorder for such a low price. They normally cost about $700, his son told him.

Redwander had shot some videos of his father and his uncle, Abdul Zargirdar, on the beginning of the tape seized by the FBI.

"It's not fair that they arrested them," Zargirdar said. "They didn't know they were doing something wrong, and then they end up in jail for four hours and people are asking if they make bombs."

Meanwhile, even as authorities were lauding the state's new emergency response system, they acknowledged that security at reservoirs still needs to be reviewed.

"This certainly highlights the ease of access to the reservoirs," said Peter Galant, engineer for the water company. "We've been re-evaluating our security since 9/11 and will continue to do so."

Oops, I mixed up the two Kurzberg brothers.

NYT: "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"

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.

"Yes, this has been posted here already."

Not under this title.

Sorry, I posted this article multiple times because it didn't seem to be working (see above). So your comments (see below) on one of the duplicate threads got deleted. (I wonder what comment 1 of 2 was.)

"Posted by SubMareener to Tarakotchi
On News/Activism May 16 0:59 AM #2 of 2

No wonder Yassar seems to be walking around with a big sword poised over his head!"

Sorry I posted this umpteen times. It kept coming back with 'Edit session expired' and 'No such thread'. (It was a weird day at FR; I couldn't get in for ages, it kept timing out.) Thank you for deleting the extras!

I haven't seen it, don't want to see it, and my connection is way to slow to look at videos.

However, I always thought this video showed Pearl's gruesome murder right after he said he was Jewish. Now it appears it is spliced together like a Hollywood film. Different scenes could be days later.

I was led to believe he was beheaded alive; probably better for him if he was dead or unconscious already when his throat was cut, poor guy.

This conflicts with earlier reports such as UPI: "They said Pearl was still talking to his captors when one of them beheaded him from behind."

Article: "According to investigators who have seen it [not defense lawyer Bashir!], the tape shows Pearl...having his neck cut while he is unconscious or already dead."

big gray tabby: "If it didn't spray blood, then he was dead."

Sounds correct to me. How was he talking? I always thought this video showed him being beheaded alive.

"So you see, when somone slimes and ridicules the religious beliefs of some Jews, they insult some Christians too. All-purpose religious bigotry, eh?"

I am tolerant but when religious beliefs lead to a political agenda of bringing on 'Armageddon' I think they should be exposed, criticized, and opposed.

Here's the FR thread to go with that last article.

Here's more from the Urban Moving Five's lawyer, Gordon:

"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

Whatever happened to Elmakias and Katar? Don't they have mothers in Israel to complain to the media?

"FYI-This later article claims they (those five held after 9/11)were not celebrating on a roof but in a van on a bridge between NY and NJ with knifes in their truck."

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.

"So was it diesel fuel or cigarette lighter residue?"

Another discrepancy: Was it the military or FBI and BATF who did the (false positive) test?