PARIS (Reuters, March 5, 2002) - 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
Why are U.S. news media silent? Antiwar.com provides details of the
spy ring
coverup in the following article (reproduced by permission):
-------------------------
9/11: THE TRUTH COMES OUT
Justin Raimondo
March 8, 2002
In late November, the Washington Post ran a story that stopped me dead
in my
tracks: "60 Israelis on Tourist Visas Detained Since Sept. 11," but
it was
the subhead that really got my attention: "Government Calls Several
Cases
'of Special Interest,' Meaning Related to Post-Attacks Investigation."
In
addition to the 1000-plus Middle Easterners of the Muslim persuasion
swept
up in Ashcroft's post-9/11 dragnet, it seems, some 60 Israelis were
in
custody. And these were no ordinary tourists: INS officials testified
in
immigration court hearings that this group was "of special interest
to the
government" - the same argument used to justify the detention of Arabs
in
connection with the investigation into 9/11. Shortly thereafter, in
a column
dated 11/28/01, I asked: "What, exactly, is the meaning of this?" Today,
I
am relieved to note, the rest of the media is finally catching up to
Antiwar.com and asking the same question.
THE ISRAELI ANGLE
While my own answer has developed over at least half a dozen subsequent
columns, the core of my thesis has remained essentially unchanged.
As I put
it:
"As long as 60 Israeli citizens are being held - under conditions of
great
secrecy - in connection with the 9/11 investigation, it is no longer
tenable
to dismiss the possibility of an Israeli angle in this story."
The Post story went on to describe the Israeli detainees as having served
in
special anti-terrorist and intelligence units. "Something tells me
these
guys are no ordinary tourists," I averred. While "we just don't know"
because of the secrecy surrounding the government's actions, I thought
that
the whole point of the Ashcroft round-up was not only to sweep up potential
suspects but to gather information that could lead them to Al Qaeda's
underground network in the US. Therefore, I theorized,
"It could be that the Israelis, or at least some of them, fall into
this
category: while not being directly involved, maybe they know something.
Nothing else could account for the government's 'special interest.'"
A TRAIL OF CLUES
The suggestion of an Israeli connection to the events surrounding 9/11
did
not spring, full blown, like Minerva from the head of Zeus. It had
been
hovering in the background, implied in odd accounts such as the one
about
the group of Israelis picked by the FBI after they were spotted in
Liberty
State Park, Jersey City, NJ, laughing and giving each other high-fives
as
the World Trade Center burned on the other side of the river. In an
astonishing story in the Bergen Record, we learn that 5 men described
as
"Israeli tourists," were picked up 8 hours after the WTC attack, "carrying
maps linking them to the blasts." "Sources close to the investigation
said
they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot. "There
are
maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted," the source
said. "It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they
knew
what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park."According
to
this account, the 5 "tourists" had been picked up by local police after
receiving the following alert from the FBI:
"Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack. White, 2000
Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration with 'Urban Moving Systems'
sign
on back seen at Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ, at the time of
first
impact of jetliner into World Trade Center. Three individuals with
van were
seen celebrating after initial impact and subsequent explosion. FBI
Newark
Field Office requests that, if the van is located, hold for prints
and
detain individuals."
INSTANT MESSAGE
Then there was the story about the two employees of the Odigo Company,
an
Israeli-based "instant-messaging" software company, with New York offices
in
the vicinity of the WTC, who received messages in the hours before
disaster
struck that the World Trade Center would be hit. I was so skeptical
of this
report, published in Ha'aretz, an Israeli daily newspaper, that I wrote
the
author: he confirmed the contents of these mysterious missives and
cited his
sources. In this context, the Washington Post story fit into an eerie
pattern: it was not the final but the definitive piece of the puzzle:
the
piece that, once found and put in place, evokes an exclamation of "so
that's
what it is!" I was alone, at the time, in raising the possibility of
an
Israeli angle to the story of 9/11 - but not for long.
CAMERON'S BOMBSHELL
On December 11, Fox News ran the first of a four-part series by Carl
Cameron
that offered yet more evidence to support my contention that the Israelis
had some rather specific foreknowledge of the 9/11 atrocity. Citing
sources
in law enforcement, Cameron dropped a bombshell:
"A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, according
to investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed polygraph
questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against
and in
the United States. There is no indication that the Israelis were involved
in
the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that they Israelis may
have
gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared
it. A
highly placed investigator said there are -quote -'tie-ins.' But when
asked
for details, he flatly refused to describe them, saying, - quote -
'evidence
linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about
evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information.' Fox
News has
learned that one group of Israelis, spotted in North Carolina recently,
is
suspected of keeping an apartment in California to spy on a group of
Arabs
who the United States is also investigating for links to terrorism."
The detained Israelis, reported Cameron, had been part of a vast spy
operation that had very possibly been tracking the hijackers, and had
both
the means and the opportunity to discover the terrorist plot. Over
four
nights, he detailed extensive Israeli penetration of US defense and
government facilities revealed in the documents of a secret task force
within the government that has been collecting evidence on this case
since
the early 1990s.
ART FOR ART'S SAKE?
Posing as "art students" selling cheap handicrafts and paintings, as
many as
120 young Israelis - the majority of whom "stated they served in military
intelligence, electronic surveillance intercept and or explosive ordinance
units" in the Israeli army - made contact with US government officials
and
personnel in "hundreds of incidents and towns across the country."
Indeed,
there had been so many news reports in local media, concentrated especially
in Texas and Florida, detailing this activity that the National
Counterintellligence Center (a dot-gov site) issued the following alert:
"In the past six weeks, employees in federal office buildings located
throughout the United States have reported suspicious activities connected
with individuals representing themselves as foreign students selling
or
delivering artwork. Employees have observed both males and females
attempting to bypass facility security and enter federal buildings."
WANNA SEE MY ETCHINGS?
These "students," the NCC observed, who "have been described as aggressive,"
didn't seem too interested in selling anybody anything, and instead
seemed
intent on simply gaining access. Two were arrested (in Texas) and,
lo and
behold, it was discovered that their work visas and green cards were
counterfeit. One particularly eerie aspect of all this is these "students"
turning up at "the private residences of senior federal officials under
the
guise of selling art." On October 2, KHOU-TV of Houston, Texas, reported
that, earlier in the year, these guys were caught sneaking into "federal
buildings and defense sites," and, in Dallas,
"The so-called students hit early this year at the city's FBI building,
the
Drug Enforcement Administration and at the Earle Cabell Federal building,
where guards found one student wandering the halls with a floor plan
of the
building."
THE MARRIAGE OF ART AND HI-TECH
The Fox News expose also reported on the near-total penetration of US
communications facilities by Israel, through two "private" Israeli
telecommunications companies, Amdocs, Ltd., and Comverse Infosys, which,
together, handle virtually all the billing records and government wiretaps
in the US. Indeed, many of the "art students" not only had "intelligence
expertise," but also worked for Amdocs "or other companies in Israel
that
specialize in wiretapping."
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
Cameron's report, which was immediately denied by the Israelis, spread
pandemonium throughout the government, and official spokesmen stonewalled.
Ari Fleischer was unusually laconic, referring questions from reporters
to
an unresponsive Justice Department and other equally uncooperative
government agencies. As for the rest of the American media - a stunning
silence. You could hear a pin drop. As Cameron put it in an interview
with
CSPAN:
"The biggest story of our time, of Israel spying on all branches of
the
government, on all our intelligence agencies - in the CIA [Central
Intelligence Agency], the DEA and the White House itself, is not picked
up
by the leading newspapers like the New York Times and the Washington
Post."
BREAKTHROUGH
Ah, but the Post, at least, would eventually be forced to pick up the
story,
if only to serve as a conduit for official government denials. In the
meantime, for months, the only place you could read about this story
was on
Antiwar.com, and specifically right here in this space: that is, here,
and
here, and here, and here - and also here, and here. Not to mention
here.
(And don't forget here.) Until, finally, the story was picked up overseas,
by LeMonde, a major French newspaper, which based its story [go here
for the
French version] on a report published in the Online Intelligence newsletter.
The editor of the newsletter, Guillaume Dasquie - co-author of Bin
Laden:
The Hidden Truth - was recently taken to task in this space for positing
the
9/11 conspiracy as being part of a plot by Saudi Arabia, which, after
all,
"since the 18th century ... has been focused on conquering the world."
I am
glad to see, however, that the direction of his investigation has now
taken
a radically different turn....
STUMBLING ON A RATTLESNAKE
This turn was helped along, it seems, by yet another "leak" from a US
government agency, this time the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Dasquie had somehow gotten his hands on a classified 61-page report
drafted
by an interagency task force charged with summarizing information gleaned
from the nearly 120 Israelis rounded up in the wake of 9/11. The DEA,
it
seems, took the lead in the investigation because its Office of Security
Programs - responsible for internal security - first stumbled on "unusual
behavior of young Israeli nationals who had gained access to DEA circles."
As it turned out, nearly all these "art students" belonged to a particular
school of art - that is, if espionage and spying in general can be
considered an art, albeit a black one.
NAMING NAMES
What I like best about Online Intelligence is that it names names,
"A few of the operatives are well known in the Israeli intelligence
community. The report cited the names of Peer Segalovitz (military
registration number 5087989) and Aran Ofek, son of a renowned two-star
general in the Israeli army. The network targeted some of the most
sensitive
sites in the U.S., such as Tanker Air Force Base near Oklahoma City.
Indeed,
the U.S. Air Force's Office of Special Investigation sent a letter
to the
Justice Department on May 16 of last year to ask for assistance in
a case
against four Israelis suspected of spying: Yaron Ohana, Ronen Kalfon,
Zeev
Cohen and Naor Topaz."
ISRAEL'S UNDERGROUND ARMY
According to the DEA, Israel's underground army in the US consisted
of
"around 20 units composed of between four and eight members each."
More
names are named: Michael Calmanovic headed up the team in Irving, Texas,
while Florida was the domain of Hanan Serfaty. Legum Yochai had charge
of
the Miami operation. Online Intelligence also notes the Amdocs connection:
it seems these "art students" "cultivated contacts with Israeli information
technology companies based in the US and serving as regular suppliers
to
various U.S. federal agencies, such as Amdocs" and others. The Fox
News
series is cited, by Online Intelligence and Le Monde, and the former
even
provides a convenient map of the Texas chapter of the "art students"
underground apparatus, complete with not only names, but arrival dates,
corporate connections, when and where they were arrested, and their
specific
functions in the Israeli military-intelligence apparatus. How much
more
evidence do we need before the editorialists and the pundits start
calling
government officials on their lies - and Congress begins an investigation?
TRUTH WILL OUT
As I said in my first column on this subject, written before Fox News
expanded on the story and introduced it to a wider public, "truth will
out"
in spite of government stonewalling and obsessive secrecy:
"In these days of the Internet, and the instant dissemination of
information, the gatekeepers have to resort to quasi-legal means to
keep the
truth from coming out. But it will come out, sooner rather than later
- in
which case, the question, 'Haven't we had enough of Israel?' may be
definitively answered."
This story was really too big to keep under wraps for long, which is
why I
kept flailing it week after week, certain that sooner or later it would
find
its way into the major media and have a decisive impact on the public
debate
over this war, and our relations with the rest of the world in general.
It
is a nice feeling to be vindicated, and, if you'll permit me to indulge
myself for a moment, let me just remind my regular readers: you read
it here
first!
AN 'URBAN MYTH' - MY EYE!
As the embargo on the Israeli spy story began to break down, with reports
from the British media filtering into the US and Canada, the Washington
Post - the original source of the news that 60 Israelis had been detained
-
ran what is fated to become the prototypical denial coming from the
US and
Israeli governments:
"'This seems to be an urban myth that has been circulating for months,'
said
Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden. 'The department has no
information at this time to substantiate these widespread reports about
Israeli art students involved in espionage.'"
An "urban myth" - oh, that's rich! Confronted with the evidence, the
denialists equate documented reports from reputable news sources with
stories of alligators in the New York City sewer system. Faced with
a leaked
government document that reveals names, places, and military identification
numbers, government spokesmen resort to characterizing the (so far
unknown)
leaker as a "disgruntled" DEA employee who single-handedly wrote the
memo.
We don't know what person or persons authored the DEA task force report
on
Israeli spook activity in the US prior to 9/11, but, in any case, what
loyal
American wouldn't be disgruntled at this administration's increasingly
unsuccessful effort to bury this deeper than the lowest rung of Hell?
SOPHISTRY, WASHINGTON-STYLE
As the new revelations were met with a barrage of denials in Washington
and
Israeli consulates around the country, Dasquie stuck by his story.
The FBI
was engaging in sophistry, he said, when it denied that the "art students"
had been arrested for carrying out espionage on behalf of a foreign
power in
the US: all were expelled, the FBI piously averred, for routine visa
violations. But that is precisely how a cover-up of spying by a "friendly"
government would be accomplished, Dasquie points out: especially by
the
Israel-friendly Bush administration, which is doing everything it can
to
tamp down the growing scandal. Haul them into immigration court, get
them
out of the country quick - and no one's the wiser. Except, for once,
they
are....
IF I LISTEN LONG ENOUGH TO YOU
Ms. Dryden's smug arrogance in dismissing serious charges as "urban
myth"
may have backfired. Denigrating your opponent when he has the goods
on you
is not a smart strategy. As long as US and Israeli officials continue
to lie
straight-faced, while gullible journalists look to find a reason to
believe
government lies, Intelligence Online is threatening to publish the
leaked
DEA report in its entirety:
"'It seems irresponsible for us to publish it, but if the denials go
on, we
could put the report on our Internet site and in so doing possibly
blacken
the names of the people most exposed,' the editor of the Intelligence
Online
site, Guillaume Dasquie, said. ... 'The document we have in our possession
details not only the identities of the members of this network, but
also
their activities in the Israeli army, and even their serial numbers
in the
intelligence services, their passport numbers and their validity, and
their
visas and their validity."
Au contraire, messieurs Dasquie, et al, it would be irresponsible to
refrain
from publishing it. Don't we have a right to know the full context
of the
biggest terrorist attack in American history - an attack that signaled
the
start of a rapidly expanding war? As for "blackening the names of the
people
most exposed" - isn't that what we mean by justice?
FUN, FUN, FUN!
But of course the responsibility for all this goes much higher than
the son
of an Israeli general and a few high-ranking intelligence officers
-
including responsibility for the ongoing cover-up. That is why we are
seeing
both the US and Israeli governments going into full "spin" mode, the
signal
that a real panic is going on behind the scenes. This should provide
us with
plenty of entertainment for the next few weeks, and I see by this item
in
the South Florida Sun-Sentinel that the fun has already started....
KNOCK, KNOCK - WHO'S THERE?
Reiterating the basic facts of the story - Israeli spies penetrating
government facilities posing as "art students" - the Sun-Sentinel reports
that, in South Florida, these suspicious characters were employed by
an
outfit known as "Universal Art," with addresses in South Miami and
Southrise:
"On Wednesday, there was no sign of a company called Universal Art Inc.,
at
10873 NW 52nd St. in Sunrise. The address in Florida incorporation
documents
came back to a light industrial complex next to the Sawgrass Expressway
and
south of Commercial Boulevard. No one answered the door, and several
occupants had not heard of the company. The company's officers, Yitzchak
Shish and Chava Sagi, are not listed. They were not among those who
were
deported...."
Nobody answered the door, eh? Well, then we ought to be knocking a little
harder. And if no one answers, then why not break down the door and
see who
or what is inside? After all, the authorities haven't hesitated to
do this
in the case of Arab-Americans and other non-Israeli Middle Eastern
visitors
and immigrants. Why the reluctance in this case?
DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH
As the hijackers were training for their deadly mission in South Florida,
the resident Israeli cell, all of whom lived nearby, could have easily
kept
a close watch on their activities. If anyone ever catches up with Yitzchak
Shish and Chava Sagi, perhaps we will learn more about what the Israelis
knew about the events surrounding 9/11, and when they knew it. But
if we're
depending on the FBI and our own intelligence services to find these
two,
and make their story public, then I'm afraid we are in for a long wait
indeed.
Visit THE WISDOM FUND at www.twf.org
_