-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=162902&contrassID=
2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
>>>Despite the article casting aspersions to contrafute the existence of "spies" as
"art students", it gives up little things like:
> 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.
This may become relevant when considering how the Israelis categorise their
citizens, as one-time military, now civilians -- or -- as all soldiers of varying
statuses
of reserve component. <<<
}}}>Begin
w w w . h a a r e t z d a i l y . c o m
Spies, or students?
Were the Israelis just trying to sell their paintings, or agents in a massive espionage
ring?
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. 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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
Beware students selling art
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). Thedraft 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.
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."
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.
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.
The report also documents how those arrested in the U.S. were connected to Israeli
companies that had provided telephony 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. 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.
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. 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.
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. 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.
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? And the main question - why did Israel
chose 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
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.
By Nathan Guttman
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