by Lorie Kramer
- Were the Israelis just trying to sell their
paintings, or agents in a massive espionage ring? Some speculate the
alleged spy ring knew about the (911) attack in advance.
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- WASHINGTON - It could
be the biggest espionage scandal of the century, or the greatest
journalistic non-starter in many a decade, but it's clear that the story
of the Israeli art students in New York -- dozens of alleged spies
living in the United States -- refuses to die down.
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- Anyone who believes the story says that everything
is accurately documented and confirmed, and that only a conspiracy on
the part of the U.S. administration -- which is desperate to keep the
affair quiet, partly out of shame and partly because of its warm
relations with Israel -- is keeping the affair out of the spotlight of
public discussion. Those who repudiate the affair say it is baseless,
just another unfounded urban legend that has taken on a life of its own
on various marginal Internet sites.
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- Either way, the story of the Israeli spies is alive
and kicking. The most recent mention of the affair came last week in the
highly respected Internet magazine, Salon.com, which recapped the main
points of the scandal and even added some new details of its own.
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- The official Israeli response was the same as ever:
"Nonsense," they say. The outline of the scandal is the same wherever it
is published, with the more respectable journals taking more care over
the details and relying more on reports and documented evidence, while
the more marginal publications pile on spurious details and compare the
scandal to the great conspiracies of the past.
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- According to reports of the scandal, around 120
young Israeli citizens, posing as art students and selling paintings
door-to-door, have been arrested and deported from the United States.
The door-to-door sale of art works, it is claimed, was a front for a
sophisticated spy ring: the students would turn up at homes and offices
-- especially at buildings housing federal authorities and military
bases, and even went to the homes of those employed in these offices.
The students attempted to form friendships with federal employees,
photograph their offices, tap their phone lines and infiltrate their
databases.
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- It is also claimed that the spy ring kept tabs on
Arab targets inside the United States, including Arab Americans who were
in contact with the Al-Qaida network. According to some speculations,
the Israelis' intelligence work enabled the spy ring to know in advance
of the planned terror attack on September 11, without lifting a finger
to prevent it.
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- Beware of students selling art
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- There is one source for all these stories and it is
not an unreliable one. The source is the 60-page draft of an internal
report by the intelligence division of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA).
The draft was leaked to the media and its existence was confirmed by
spokesmen from the DEA and the Justice Department, which is responsible
for running the DEA. But confirming that the report exists is not the
same as verifying its contents.
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- According to the report's author, whose identity has
never been published, DEA officials identified an increase in the number
of incidents in which young Israelis, claiming to be art students, tried
to sell them works of art. "It is entirely possible," said the report,
"that this is an organized intelligence-gathering activity."
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- A warning was sent out by the federal anti-espionage
office to other federal agencies in March 2001, warning them to be wary
of students trying to sell them art works and gain entry to federal
facilities. The document records several encounters between DEA
officials and Israelis all over the United States. In one incident, the
report documents an attempt to gain entry to the Tinker Air Force Base
in Oklahoma City, where the AWACS spy plane and the B-1 bombers are
serviced.
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- What is really keeping this story alive is the claim
of a link between the Israeli "students" and Israeli intelligence. The
original report, as well as subsequent media reports, say that many of
the young Israelis arrested served in the IDF's Intelligence Corps and
were involved in operating electronic bugging equipment; one even said
he was the son of a senior Israel Defense Forces officer. It took just
one small leap to turn this into a conspiracy, whereby all the Israelis
arrested were in the pay of the Mossad.
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- The report also documents how those arrested in the
U.S. were connected to Israeli companies that had provided telephone
services for American companies and U.S. federal authorities, while also
claiming the Israeli companies should be investigated, in case they had
installed "back door" services, which would allow some future operative
to access the American companies' systems.
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- The DEA, it is claimed, purchased communications
equipment worth some $100 million from Israeli companies five years ago,
and that is said to be the reason for the widespread Israeli activity
around this agency.
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- One paranoid official
-
- Even though the claims made by the DEA and the
various journals that have delved into the affair sound convincing and
well-based, so do the Israeli counter-claims. Firstly, say anonymous
Israeli representatives in the United States, it is true that more than
100 young Israelis were arrested in the U.S. following the events of
September 11-- all of them for immigration and visa infringements.
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- Most of those arrested were deported after being
charged by the U.S. immigration service. The sources also admit that
many Israelis are currently working illegally in the U.S., occasionally
as door-to-door art salespersons.
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- As far as Israel is concerned, this is the only
explanation for the affair, and anything more is just a fabrication
based on the original reports, which in itself is based on the paranoia
of one government official.
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- There is also an explanation for the military
background of the arrested Israelis: every Israeli has a military
background, often in the various intelligence units. But this is not
easy to explain to the Americans, who see the Israelis as "former
intelligence officers" or "retired officers." As for the supposed
connection between the young Israelis and various high-tech companies,
all the companies mentioned strongly deny any involvement.
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- Those who deny that there is a spy ring in action
also ask why none of the Israelis arrested was ever charged with
espionage- related crimes. Why were their cases handled by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), rather than the FBI, which
is responsible for investigating spies?
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- And the main question -- why did Israel choose the
DEA as its espionage target? Those who back the spy theory say that
because the DEA is not usually involved in security matters it is easier
to infiltrate, and that the DEA's war on the international drug trade
has provided it a wealth of information that could be useful to Israel
in a wide range of areas.
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- But while each side of the argument is sticking to
its guns, without either party presenting clear evidence that could
clear up the affair once and for all, the media is carrying out its own
merry dance around a fascinating spy story--whether it's true or not.
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- The first mention of a mass arrest of Israeli art
students on suspicion of involvement in spying was on Fox News on
December 12, 2001. The dramatic report stated that around 60 Israelis
had been arrested for immigration offenses, but were suspected of spying
against the United States, and added that some of those arrested were
members of the Israeli military. The report also stated that some of
those arrested had failed lie-detector tests.
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- Instead of raising a storm, however, Fox's story
slowly died away and was only briefly reported in the international
press. Three months later, however, the affair came back to life, this
time on a French Internet site, Intelligence Online. The story was
immediately picked up by Le Monde. This time, the reporters claimed to
have the entire DEA report, and the number of people arrested climbed to
120.
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- At this stage, the American media also woke up to
the story. News agencies based their reports of the story on a French
Internet site and on the official U.S. reaction.
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- The Justice Department confirmed that it had
investigated the alleged connection between Israeli students and
anti-American espionage; the DEA confirmed that it had prepared a draft
report, but did not say what had become of it; the FBI said that it had
not received any complaint relating to spying by Israeli students.
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- The New York Times, according to sources in
Washington, looked into the affair but, having concluded that it lacked
a suitable factual base, decided not to write about it. The Washington
Post, on the other hand, did publish an article, but cast doubt on the
veracity of the affair. Post reporters found that the report was written
by a "disgruntled [DEA] employee," who was upset that his claims of
Israeli espionage were not being treated seriously.
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- Even this report was not enough to finally kill off
the affair. Two weeks later, the New York Jewish weekly, Forward,
published a report connecting the spy affair with the arrest in New
Jersey, on September 11, of five Israelis whose behavior was defined as
suspicious.
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- The five were employed by a moving company and did
not have valid work permits. According to Forward, the FBI concluded
that the five were on a spy mission on behalf of the Mossad, and that
the moving company was nothing more than a front. This story also died
out quietly.
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- The final round of publications started last week
with the publication of the art student affair in Salon.com, which
repeated all the known details of the affair. It even added a claim that
the spy ring was active in more than 40 cities across the U.S., and
included offices belonging to the Secret Service, the FBI and the U.S.
military.
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- Now the story is coming to life once more, with news
agencies and at least one national television station regurgitating all
the details. The American public will continue to be divided over the
truth behind the so-called spy ring, with some believing that the
original DEA report was the work of a problematic employee and others
convinced that shadowy government officials are involved in covering up
the exposure of one of the largest spy rings ever to operate on American
soil.
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