Israeli Story no "American" Media Organization will Follow
Awake
For almost two years, hundreds of young Israelis falsely claiming to be art
students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No one knows
why -- and no one seems to want to find out.
May 7, 2002 Tuesday
The Israeli "art student" mystery
By Christopher Ketcham
In January 2001, the security branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
began to receive a number of peculiar reports from DEA field offices across
the country. According to the reports, young Israelis claiming to be art
students and offering artwork for sale had been attempting to penetrate DEA
offices for over a year. The Israelis had also attempted to penetrate the
offices of other law enforcement and Department of Defense agencies.
Strangest of all, the "students" had visited the homes of numerous DEA
officers and other senior federal officials.
As a pattern slowly emerged, the DEA appeared to have been targeted in what
it called an "organized intelligence gathering activity." But to what end,
and for whom, no one knew.
Reports of the mysterious Israelis with an inexplicable interest in
peddling art to G-men came in from more than 40 U.S. cities and continued
throughout the first six months of 2001. Agents of the DEA, ATF, Air Force,
Secret Service, FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service documented some 130 separate
incidents of "art student" encounters. Some of the Israelis were observed
diagramming the inside of federal buildings. Some were found carrying
photographs they had taken of federal agents. One was discovered with a
computer printout in his luggage that referred to "DEA groups."
In some cases, the Israelis visited locations not known to the public --
areas without street addresses, for example, or DEA offices not identified
as such -- leading authorities to suspect that information had been
gathered from prior surveillance or perhaps electronically, from credit
cards and other sources. One Israeli was discovered holding banking
receipts for substantial sums of money, close to $180,000 in withdrawals
and deposits over a two-month period. A number of the Israelis resided for
a period of time in Hollywood, Fla. -- the small city where Mohammed Atta
and three terrorist comrades lived for a time before Sept. 11.
In March 2001, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive
(NCIX), a branch of the CIA, issued a heads-up to federal employees about
"suspicious visitors to federal facilities." The warning noted that
"employees have observed both males and females attempting to bypass
facility security and enter federal buildings." Federal agents, the warning
stated, had "arrested two of these individuals for trespassing and
discovered that the suspects possessed counterfeit work visas and green
cards."
In the wake of the NCIX bulletin, federal officials raised several other
red flags, including an Air Force alert, a Federal Protective Services
alert, an Office of National Drug Control Policy security alert and a
request that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) investigate a
specific case. Officials began dealing more aggressively with the "art
students." According to one account, some 140 Israeli nationals were
detained or arrested between March 2001 and Sept. 11, 2001. Many of them
were deported. According to the INS, the deportations resulted from
violations of student visas that forbade the Israelis from working in the
United States. (In fact, Salon has established that none of the Israelis
were enrolled in the art school most of them claimed to be attending; the
other college they claimed to be enrolled in does not exist.) After the
Sept. 11 attacks, many more young Israelis -- 60, according to one AP
dispatch and other reports -- were detained and deported.
The "art students" followed a predictable modus operandi. They generally
worked in teams, typically consisting of a driver, who was the team leader,
and three or four subordinates. The driver would drop the "salespeople" off
at a given location and return to pick them up some hours later. The
"salespeople" entered offices or approached agents in their offices or
homes. Sometimes they pitched their artwork -- landscapes, abstract works,
homemade pins and other items they carried about in portfolios. At other
times, they simply attempted to engage agents in conversation. If asked
about their studies, they generally said they were from the Bezalel Academy
of Arts and Design in Jerusalem or the University of Jerusalem (which does
not exist). They were described as "aggressive" in their sales pitch and
"evasive" when questioned by wary agents. The females among them were
invariably described as "very attractive" -- "blondes in tight shorts or
jeans, real lookers," as one DEA agent put it to Salon. "They were flirty,
flipping the hair, looking at you, smiling. 'Hey, how are you? Let me show
you this.' Everything a woman would do if she wanted to get something out
of you." Some agents noted that the "students" made repeated attempts to
avoid facility security personnel by trying to enter federal buildings
through back doors and side entrances. On several occasions, suspicious
agents who had been visited at home observed the Israelis after the
"students" departed and noted that they did not approach any of the
neighbors.
The document detailing most of this information was an internal DEA memo: a
60-page report drawn up in June 2001 by the DEA's Office of Security
Programs. The document was meant only for the eyes of senior officials at
the Justice Department (of which the DEA is adjunct), but it was leaked to
the press as early as December 2001 and by mid-March had been made widely
available to the public.
On the face of it, this was a blockbuster tale, albeit a bizarre and
cryptic one, full of indeterminate leads and fascinating implications and
ambiguous answers: "Like a good Clancy novel," as one observer put it. Was
it espionage? Drug dealing? An intelligence game? The world's wackiest
door-to-door hustle? Yet the mainstream media has almost entirely ignored
the allegations or accepted official "explanations" that explain nothing.
Even before the DEA memo was leaked, however, some reporters had begun
sniffing around the remarkable story.On Oct. 1 of last year, Texas
newswoman Anna Werner, of KHOU-TV in Houston, told viewers about a "curious
pattern of behavior" by people with "Middle Eastern looks" claiming to be
Israeli art students. "Government guards have found those so-called
students," reported Werner, "trying to get into secure federal facilities
in Houston in ways they're not supposed to -- through back doors and
parking garages." Federal agents, she said, were extremely "concerned." The
"students" had showed up at the DEA's Houston headquarters, at the Leland
Federal Building in Houston, and even the federal prosecutor's office; they
had also appeared to be monitoring the buildings. Guards at the Earle
Cabell Federal Building in Dallas found one "student" wandering the halls
with a floor plan of the site. Sources told Werner that similar incidents
had occurred at sites in New York, Florida, and six other states, "and even
more worrisome, at 36 sensitive Department of Defense sites."
"One defense site you can explain," a former Defense Department analyst
told Werner. "Thirty-six? That's a pattern." Ominously, the analyst
concluded that such activity suggested a terrorist organization "scouting
out potential targets and ... looking for targets that would be
vulnerable."
Post-9/11, this should have been the opening thrust in an orgy of coverage,
and the scoop of a lifetime for Werner: Here she'd gotten a glimpse into a
possible espionage ring of massive proportions, possibly of terrorists
scouting new targets for jihad -- and those terrorists were possibly posing
as Israelis. KHOU's conclusions were wrong -- these weren't Arab
terrorists -- but at the time no one knew better. And yet the story died on
the vine. No one followed up.
Just about the same time that KHOU was stabbing in the dark, reporter Carl
Cameron of the Fox News Channel was beginning an investigation into the
mystery of the art students that would ultimately light the way into
altogether different terrain. In a four-part series on Fox's "Special
Report With Brit Hume" that aired in mid-December, Cameron reported that
federal agents were investigating the "art student" phenomenon as a
possible arm of Israeli espionage operations tracking al-Qaida operatives
in the United States. Yes, you read that right: a spy ring that may have
been trailing al-Qaida members in the weeks and months before Sept. 11 -- a
spy ring that according to Cameron's sources may have known about the
preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks but failed to share this knowledge
with U.S. intelligence. One investigator told Cameron that "evidence
linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about
evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information."
According to Cameron, some 60 Israeli nationals had been detained in the
anti-terrorism/immigrant sweeps in the weeks after Sept. 11, and at least
140 Israelis identified as "art students" had been detained or arrested in
the prior months. Most of the 60 detained after Sept. 11 had been deported,
Cameron said. "Some of the detainees," reported Cameron, "failed polygraph
questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in
the United States." Some of them were on active military duty. (Military
service is compulsory for all young Israelis.) Cameron was careful to note
that there was "no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9/11
attacks" and that while his reporting had dug up "explosive information,"
none of it was necessarily conclusive. Cameron was simply airing the
wide-ranging speculations in an ongoing investigation.
Incendiary as it was, that story died on the vine, too, and the scuttlebutt
in major newsrooms was that Cameron's sources -- all anonymous -- were
promulgating a fantasy. Reporters at the New York Times and the Washington
Post hit up their go-to people inside Justice and FBI and CIA, but no one
could seem to confirm the story, and indeed numerous officials laughed it
off. Fox got it wrong, the newspapers of record concluded. And nothing more
was heard on the topic in mainstream quarters.
But inside the DEA, the Fox piece reverberated. An internal DEA communique
obtained by Salon indicates that the DEA made careful note of Cameron's
reports; the communique even mentions Fox News by name. Dated Dec. 18, four
days after the final installment in the Fox series, the document warns of
security breaches in DEA telecommunications by unauthorized "foreign
nationals" -- and cites an Israeli-owned firm with which the DEA contracted
for wiretap equipment -- breaches that could have accounted for the access
that the "art students" apparently had to the home addresses of agents.
It wasn't until nearly three months after the Fox reports that the "art
student" enigma resurfaced in newsrooms, this time in Europe. On Feb. 28,
the respected Paris-based espionage newsletter Intelligence Online reported
in detail on what turned out to have been one of Cameron's key source
documents: the 60-page DEA memo. The memo itself, which Salon obtained in
mid-March, went no further than to speculate in the most general terms that
the "nature of the individuals' conduct" suggested some sort of "organized
intelligence gathering activity." The memo also pointed out that there was
some evidence connecting the art students to a drug ring. "DEA Orlando has
developed the first drug nexus to this group," the memo read. "Telephone
numbers obtained from an Israeli Art Student encountered at the Orlando
D.O. District Office have been linked to several ongoing DEA MDMA (Ecstasy)
investigations in Florida, California, Texas and New York."
However, Intelligence Online and then France's newspaper of record, Le
Monde, came to a much more definite -- and explosive -- conclusion. This
was the jackpot, they concluded, a proven spy ring run by the Mossad or the
Israeli government. Thus you had Intelligence Online leading its Feb. 28
piece with the statement that "a huge Israeli spy ring operating in the
United States was rolled up," and you had Le Monde trumpeting on March 5
that a "vast Israeli spy network" had been dismantled in the "largest case
of Israeli spying" since 1985, when mole Jonathan Pollard was busted
selling Pentagon secrets to the Mossad. Reuters that same day went with the
headline "U.S. Busts Big Israeli Spy Ring," sourcing Le Monde's story.
The two French journals came to conclusions that the memo itself clearly
did not. And yet they had unearthed some intriguing material. Six of the
"students" were apparently carrying cell phones purchased by a former
Israeli vice consul to the United States. According to Le Monde, two of the
"students" had traveled from Hamburg to Miami to visit an FBI agent in his
home, then boarded a flight to Chicago and visited the home of a Justice
Dept. agent, then hopped a direct flight to Toronto -- all in one day.
According to Intelligence Online, more than one-third of the students, who
were spread out in 42 cities, lived in Florida, several in Hollywood and
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- one-time home to at least 10 of the 19 Sept. 11
hijackers. In at least one case, the students lived just a stone's throw
from homes and apartments where the Sept. 11 terrorists resided: In
Hollywood, several students lived at 4220 Sheridan St., just down the block
from the 3389 Sheridan St. apartment where terrorist mastermind Mohammed
Atta holed up with three other Sept. 11 plotters. Many of the students, the
DEA report noted, had backgrounds in Israeli military intelligence and/or
electronics surveillance; one was the son of a two-star Israeli general,
and another had served as a bodyguard to the head of the Israeli army.
The DEA report on which the French journals based their investigations
contained a wealth of remarkable tales. To take just a few samples:
On March 1, 2001, a DEA special agent in the Tampa division offices
"responded to a knock at one of the fifth floor offices. At the door was a
young female who immediately identified herself as an Israeli art student
who had beautiful art to sell. She was carrying a crudely made portfolio of
unframed pictures." Aware of the "art student" alert, the agent invited the
girl to an interview room, where he was joined by a colleague to listen to
the girl's presentation. "She had approximately 15 paintings of different
styles, some copies of famous works, and others similar in style to famous
artists. When asked her name, she identified herself as Bella Pollcson, and
pointed out one of the paintings was signed by that name." Then things got
interesting: In the middle of her presentation, she changed her story and
claimed that the paintings were not for sale, but "that she was there to
promote an art show in Sarasota, Fla., and asked for the agents' business
cards so that information regarding the show could be mailed to them."
Well, where's the show? asked the agents. When's it going up? Pollcson
couldn't say: didn't know when or where -- or even who was running it.
Later it was determined that she had lied about her name as well.
On Oct. 20, 2000, in the Houston offices of the DEA, a "male Israeli art
student was observed by the Security Officers entering an elevator from a
secure area. The officers were able to apprehend the art student before he
could enter a secure area on the second floor." Three months later, in
January 2001, a "male Israeli" was apprehended attempting to enter the same
building from a back door in a "secured parking lot area." He claimed "he
wanted to gain access to the building to sell artwork."
On April 30, 2001, an Air Force alert was issued from Tinker Air Force Base
in Oklahoma City concerning "possible intelligence collection being
conducted by Israeli Art Students." Tinker AFB houses AWACS surveillance
craft and Stealth bombers. The report does not elaborate on what kind of
intelligence was being sought.
On May 19, 2001, two Israeli nationals "requested permission to visit a
museum" at Volk Field Air National Guard Base in Camp Douglas, Wis.
"Approximately ten minutes after being allowed on the base, the two were
seen on an active runway, taking photographs." The men, charged with
misdemeanor trespass, were identified as 26-year-old Gal Kantor and
22-year-old Tsvi Watermann, and were released after paying a $210 fine.
According to the Air Force security officer on duty, "Both were asked if
they were involved in the selling of art while in the U.S. Kantor became
very upset over this, and questioned why they were being asked about that
.. Kantor's whole demeanor changed, and he then became uncooperative."
So it went week after week, month after month, for more than a year and a
half. In addition to the locations mentioned above, there were "art
student" encounters in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Los
Angeles, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Phoenix, San Diego, Little Rock,
Seattle, Washington, D.C., Arlington, Texas, Albuquerque, and dozens of
other small cities and towns."Their stories," the DEA report states, "were
remarkable only in their consistency. At first, they will state that they
are art students, either from the University of Jerusalem or the Bezalel
Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. Other times they will purport to be promoting
a new art studio in the area. When pressed for details as to the location
of the art studio or why they are selling the paintings, they become
evasive."
Indeed, they had reason to be nervous, because they were lying. Salon
contacted Bezalel Academy's Varda Harel, head of the Academic Students'
Administration, with a list of every "student" named in the DEA report,
including their dates of birth, passport numbers, and in some cases
military registration numbers. Not a single name was identified in the
Bezalel database, either as a current student or as a graduate of the past
10 years (nor had any of the "students" tried to apply to Bezalel in the
last ten years). As for the University of Jerusalem, there is no such
entity. There is the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but Heidi Gleit, the
school's foreign press liaison, told me that Israelis commonly refer to the
school as Hebrew University, not the University of Jerusalem. (Hebrew
University, she said, does not release student records to the public.)
Still, the U.S. press was uninterested. Just one day after the Le Monde
report, the Washington Post ran a story on March 6 that seemed to put the
whole thing to rest. Headlined "Reports of Israeli Spy Ring Dismissed," the
piece, by John Mintz and Dan Eggen, opened with official denials from a
"wide array of U.S. officials" and quoted Justice Department spokeswoman
Susan Dryden as saying, "This seems to be an urban myth that has been
circulating for months. The department has no information at this time to
substantiate these widespread reports about Israeli art students involved
in espionage."
The Post quoted anonymous officials who said they thought the allegations
had been "circulated by a single employee of the Drug Enforcement
Administration who is angry that his theories have not gained currency ...
T wo law enforcement officials said the disgruntled DEA agent, who
disagreed with the conclusion of FBI and CIA intelligence experts that no
spying was taking place, appears to be leaking a memo that he himself
wrote."
An INS spokesman acknowledged to the Post that several dozen Israelis had
been deported, but said it was the result of "routine visa violations." At
the same time, DEA spokesman Thomas Hinojosa told the Post that "multiple
reports of suspicious activity on the part of young Israelis had come into
the agency's Washington headquarters from agents in the field. The reports
were summarized in a draft memo last year, but Hinojosa said he did not
have a copy and could not vouch for the accuracy of media reports
describing its contents."
The Post's apparent debunking was far from convincing, even to the casual
reader. Of course there was no proof that the art students were part of a
spy ring: Intelligence Online and Le Monde had jumped the gun. However, the
real possibility that they were part of a spy ring could not be
dismissed -- any more than could any other theory one might advance to
explain their unusual behavior. With that in mind, Justice spokeswoman
Dryden's assertion that reports of an Israeli spy ring were an "urban myth"
was an oddly overplayed denial. A response that fit the facts would have
been something like "There have been numerous reports of suspicious
behavior by Israelis claiming to be art students. We are looking into the
allegations." Instead, Dryden appeared to be trying to forestall any
discussion of just what the facts of the case were. Given the political
sensitivities and the potentially embarrassing nature of the case, that was
not surprising,
If the whole thing was an "urban myth," like the sewer reptiles of
Manhattan, and if it all led back to one deskbound nut job in the DEA, then
what were those "reports of suspicious activity" that had come in from
agents in the field? Hinojosa's statement about the DEA memo was
suspiciously evasive: If the "media reports describing its content" (that
is, the articles in Le Monde and Intelligence Online) were in fact based on
the DEA memo whose existence Hinojosa acknowledged, then the "lone nut"
explanation offered by anonymous U.S. officials was at best irrelevant and
at worst a rather obvious piece of disinformation, an attempt to shove the
story under the rug. (In fact, the French articles were based on the actual
DEA memo -- a fact any news organization could have quickly verified, since
the leaked DEA document had been floating around on various Web venues,
such as Cryptome.org, as early as March 21).
To someone not familiar with the 60-page DEA memo, or to reporters who
didn't bother to obtain it, the fact that a disgruntled employee leaked a
memo he wrote himself might seem like decisive proof that the whole "art
student" tale was a canard. In reality, the nature of the memo makes its
authorship irrelevant. The memo is a compilation of field reports by dozens
of named agents and officials from DEA offices across America. It contains
the names, passport numbers, addresses, and in some cases the military ID
numbers of the Israelis who were questioned by federal authorities.
Pointing a finger at the author is like blaming a bank robbery on the desk
sergeant who took down the names of the robbers.
Of course, the agent (or agents) who wrote the memo could also have
fabricated or embellished the field reports. That does not seem to have
been the case. Salon contacted more than a half-dozen agents identified in
the memo. One agent said she had been visited six times at her home by "art
students." None of the agents wished to be named, and very few were willing
to speak at length, but all confirmed the veracity of the information.
Despite such obvious holes in the official story, neither the Post nor any
other mainstream media organization ran follow-up articles. The New York
Times has not yet deemed it worth covering -- in fact, the paper of record
has not written about the art student mystery even once, not even to
pooh-pooh it. One or two minor media players did some braying -- Israel had
been caught spying, etc. ' and the bonko conspiracy fringe had a field day,
but the rest of the media, taking a cue from the big boys, decided it was a
nonstarter: the Post's "debunking" and the Times' silence had effectively
killed the story.
So complete was the silence that by mid-March, Jane's Information Group,
the respected British intelligence and military analysis service, noted:
"It is rather strange that the U.S. media seems to be ignoring what may
well be the most explosive story since the 11 September attacks -- the
alleged break-up of a major Israeli espionage operation in the USA."
The only major American media outlet aside from Fox to seriously present
the "art student" allegations was Insight on the News, the investigative
magazine published weekly by the conservative Washington Times. In a March
11 article, Insight quoted a senior Justice Department official as saying,
"We think there is something quite sinister here but are unable at this
time to put our finger on it" -- essentially echoing what the DEA report
concluded.
Managing editor Paul M. Rodriguez, who wrote the Insight story and had
quietly tracked the art student phenomenon for weeks before Intelligence
Online scooped him, took an agnostic stance toward the mystery. "There is
zero information at this time to suggest that these students were being run
by the Mossad," he told me. "Nothing we've come across would suggest this.
We have seen nothing that says this is a spy ring run by the Israeli
government directly or with a wink and a nod or some other form of sub rosa
control. Based on what we've been told, seen and obtained I just don't see
the so-called spy ring as a certain fact. Does that make it not so? I don't
know."
Rodriguez added, "I think the investigators' take is this: What were these
'students' doing going around accessing buildings without authorization,
tracking undercover cops to their homes -- if not for some sort of intel
mission? It's sort of a mind-fuck scenario, if one were to believe this was
a conspiracy by a foreign intel source and/or a bunch of nutty 'kids'
fucking around just to see how far they could push the envelope -- which
they seem to have pushed pretty damn far, given the page after page after
page of intrusions and snooping alleged."
The Israeli embassy denies the charges of a spy ring. "We are saying what
we've been saying for months," spokesman Mark Reguev told Salon, referring
to the Fox series in December. "No American official or intelligence agency
has complained to us about this. The story is nonsense. Israel does not spy
on the United States."
Whether or not the "art students" are Israeli spies, Reguev's blanket
disavowal is untrue: Israel does spy on the United States. This should come
as no surprise: Allies frequently spy on each other, and Israeli
intelligence is renowned as among the best and most aggressive in the
world. Israel has been at war off and on since its birth as a nation in
1948 and is hungry for information it deems essential to its survival. And
America's relationship to Israel and support for it is essential to the
survival of the Jewish state. Add these things up, and espionage against
the United States becomes understandable, if not justifiable. The U.S.
government officially denies this, of course, but it knows that such spying
goes on. In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report
indicating that "Country A," later identified as Israel, "conducts the most
aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any U.S. ally."
A year earlier, the Defense Investigative Service circulated a memo warning
U.S. military contractors that "Israel aggressively collects U.S. military
and industrial technology" and "possesses the resources and technical
capability to successfully achieve its collection objectives." The memo
explained that "the Israelis are motivated by strong survival instincts
which dictate every facet of their political and economic policies."
In the history of Israeli espionage in and against the United States, the
case of Jonathan Pollard was certainly the most heinous. Pollard, a
civilian U.S. naval intelligence analyst, provided Israeli intelligence
with an estimated 800,000 pages of classified U.S. intelligence
information. The information eventually ended up in Soviet hands,
compromising American agents in the field -- several of whom were allegedly
captured and killed as a result. Israel at first denied, and then admitted,
Pollard's connections to the Mossad after he was arrested in 1985 and
imprisoned for life. The case severely strained American-Israeli relations,
and continues to rankle many American Jews, who believe that since Pollard
was spying for Israel, his sentence was unduly harsh. (Other American Jews
feel equally strongly that Pollard and the Israelis betrayed them.)
Any attempt to understand the official U.S. response to the Israeli art
student mystery -- and to some degree, the media response -- must take into
account both the smoke screen that states blow over incidents that could
jeopardize their strategic alliances, and America's unique and complex
relationship with Israel. The Jewish state is a close if problematic ally
with whom the United States enjoys a "special relationship" unlike that
maintained with any other nation in the world. But U.S. and Israeli
interests do not always coincide, and spying has always been deemed to
cross a line, to represent a fundamental violation of trust. According to
intelligence sources, the United States might perhaps secretly tolerate
some Israeli spying on U.S. soil if the government decided that it was in
our interest (although it could never be acknowledged), but certain types
of spying will simply not be accepted by the United States, whether the
spying is carried out by Israel or anyone else.
If England or France spied on the United States, American officials would
likely conceal it. In the case of Israel, there are far stronger reasons to
hide any unseemly cracks in the special relationship. The powerful
pro-Israel political constituencies in Congress; pro-Israel lobbies; the
Bush administration's strong support for Israel, and its strategic and
political interest in maintaining close ties with the Jewish state as a
partner in the "war against terror"; the devastating consequences for
U.S.-Israeli relations if it was suspected that Israeli agents might have
known about the Sept. 11 attack -- all these factors explain why the U.S.
government might publicly downplay the art student story and conceal any
investigation that produces unpalatable results.
The pro-Israel lobby is a vast and powerful force in American politics; the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is the No. 1
foreign-policy lobby and the fourth most powerful lobby in Washington,
according to Fortune Magazine. Michael Lind, a senior fellow of the New
America Foundation and a former executive editor of the National Interest,
calls the Israel lobby "an ethnic donor machine" that "distorts U.S.
foreign policy" in the Middle East. Among foreign service officers, law
enforcement and the military, there is an impression, says Lind, that you
can't mess with Israel without suffering direct and indirect smears, such
as being labeled an Arabist. Lind, who himself has been virulently attacked
as an anti-Semite for his forthrightness on the subject, acknowledges that
the Israel lobby is no different from any other -- just more effective.
"This is what all lobbies do," Lind observes. "If you criticize the AARP,
you hate old people and you want them to starve to death. The Israel lobby
is just one part of the lobby problem."
Considering the volatility of the issue, it is not surprising that almost
no one in officialdom wants to go on the record for a story like the art
students. "In government circles," as Insight's Rodriguez put it, "anything
that has to do with Israel is always a hot topic, a third rail -- deadly.
No one wants to touch it." Fox News' Cameron quoted intelligence officers
saying that to publicly air suspicions of Israeli wrongdoing was tantamount
to "career suicide." And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in one of its
bloodiest and most polarizing phases, has only exacerbated sensitivities.
Some of the same pressures that keep government officials from criticizing
Israel may also explain why the media has failed to pursue the art student
enigma. Media outlets that run stories even mildly critical of Israel often
find themselves targeted by organized campaigns, including form-letter
e-mails, the cancellation of subscriptions, and denunciations of the
organization and its reporters and editors as anti-Semites. Cameron, for
example, was excoriated by various pro-Israel lobbying groups for his
expose. Representatives of the Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs (JINSA), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Committee for
Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) argued that the Fox
report cited only unnamed sources, provided no direct evidence, and
moreover had been publicly denied by spokesmen for the FBI and others (the
last, of course, is not really an argument).
In a December interview with Salon, CAMERA's associate director, Alex
Safian, said that several "Jewish/Israeli groups" were having
"conversations" with representatives of Fox News regarding Cameron's piece.
Safian said he questioned Cameron's motives in running the story. "I think
Fox has always been fair to Israel in its reporting," said Safian. "I think
it's just Cameron who has something, personally, about Israel. He was
brought up in the Middle East. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Maybe he's very sympathetic to the Arab side. One could ask." The implicit
suggestion was that Cameron is a bigot; in conversation, Safian would later
make the same allegation about the entire editorial helm at Le Monde, which
he called an anti-Semitic newspaper.
Told of Safian's comments, Cameron said, "I'm speechless. I spent several
years in Iran growing up because my father was an archaeologist there. That
makes me anti-Israel?" The chief Washington correspondent for Fox News,
Cameron had never before been attacked for biased coverage of Israel or
Israeli-related affairs -- or for biased coverage of Arabs, for that
matter. Cameron defends his December reporting, saying he had never
received any heat whatsoever from his superiors, nor had he ever been
contacted by any dissenting voices in government.
Oddly, four days after the Cameron investigation ran, all traces of his
report -- transcripts, Web links, headlines -- disappeared from the
Foxnews.com archives. (Normally, Fox leaves a story up for two to three
weeks before consigning it to the pay archive.) When Le Monde contacted Fox
in March for a copy of the original tapes, Fox News spokesmen said the
request posed a problem but would not elaborate. (Fox News now says Le
Monde never called.) Asked why the Cameron piece disappeared, spokesman
Robert Zimmerman said it was "up there on our Web site for about two or
three weeks and then it was taken down because we had to replace it with
more breaking news. As you know, in a Web site you've got x amount of
bandwidth -- you know, x amount of stuff you can put stuff up on sic . So
it was replaced. Normal course of business, my friend." (In fact, a
text-based story on a Web site takes up a negligible amount of bandwidth.)
When informed that Cameron's story was gone from the archives, not simply
from the headline pages (when you entered the old URL, a Fox screen
appeared with the message "This story no longer exists"), Zimmerman
replied, "I don't know where it is."
The extreme sensitivity of the Israeli art student story in government
circles was made clear to this reporter when, in the midst of my inquiries
at DEA and elsewhere, I was told by a source that some unknown party had
checked my records and background. He proved it by mentioning a job I had
briefly held many years ago that virtually no one outside my family knew
about. Shortly after this, I received a call from an individual who
identified himself only by the code name Stability. Stability said he was
referred to me from "someone in Washington." That someone turned out to be
a veteran D.C. correspondent who has close sources in the CIA and the FBI
and who verified that Stability was a high-level intelligence agent who had
been following the art student matter from the inside.Stability was guarded
in his initial conversation with me. He said that people in the
intelligence committee were suspicious about my bona fides and raised the
possibility that someone was "using" me. "Your name is known and has been
known for quite a while," Stability said. "The problem is that you're going
into a hornet's nest with this. It's a very difficult time in this
particular area. This is a scenario where a lot of people are living a
bunker mentality." He added, "There are a lot of people under a lot of
pressure right now because there's a great effort to discredit the story,
discredit the connections, prevent people from going any further in
investigating the matter . There are some very, very smart people who have
taken a lot of heat on this -- have gone to what I would consider
extraordinary risks to reach out. Quite frankly, there are a lot of
patriots out there who'd like to remain alive. Typically, patriots are
dead."
In a subsequent conversation, Stability said that the DEA's Office of
Professional Responsibility is currently undertaking an aggressive
investigation targeting agents suspected of leaking the June 2001 memo. The
OPR inquiry was initiated as a result of Intelligence Online's expose of
the DEA document in late February. According to Stability, at least 14
agents -- including some in agencies other than DEA -- are now under
intense scrutiny and interrogation. Half a dozen agents have been
polygraphed several times over, computers have been seized, desks have been
searched.
A DEA spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the allegation. "Anything
that has to do with internal security, which would include OPR, is not
anything we're able to discuss," the spokesman said.
As for the DEA document itself, Stability said that all information
gathering for it ceased around June 2001. He also noted that "there are
multiple variations of that document" floating around DEA and elsewhere.
"It was a living, breathing document," Stability said, "that grew on a
week-by-week basis, that was being added to as people forwarded
information. To say this was a coordinated effort would be a stretch; it
was ad hoc. But that document the DEA memo didn't just happen. That
document was the result of literally dozens of people providing input,
working together. These events were going on, people were looking at them,
but could not understand them.
"It wasn't until the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001 that field
agents ran across a series of visits that occurred within a very close
period of time," Stability said. Agents from across the country began
talking to each other, comparing notes. "There was an embryonic
understanding that there was something here, something was happening.
People kept running across it. And agents being who they are, gut feelings
being what they are, they would catch a thread. They'd start to pull a
thread, and next thing, they'd end up with the arm of the jacket and the
back was coming off, and then you'd end up with reports like you saw. The
information, in its scattered form, is one thing. The information compiled,
documented, timelined, indexed, is a horrific event for some of these
people. Because it is indisputable."
"Agents started to realize that people were coming to their homes," he
continued. "If you are part of an organization like this, you tend to be
careful about your security. When something disturbs that sense of
security, it's unnerving. One thing that was understood fairly early on was
that the students would go to some areas that didn't have street signs, and
in fact they would already have directions to these areas. That indicated
that someone had been there prior to them or had electronically figured
where the agents were located -- using credit card records, things of that
nature. This sat in the back of people's minds as to the resources
necessary to do that."
"I will tell you that there is still great debate over what the art
students' specific purposes were and are," Stability went on. "When you
take an individual who picks up a group of individuals from an airport,
individuals who supposedly have no idea what they're doing in-country, who
fly on over from a foreign land, whose airline tickets could in some
instances total a value greater than $15,000 -- and who get picked up at
the airport and drive specifically to one individual's home, which they
know the exact directions to: Yeah, you could say there's a problem here.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that. The overarching
item is that a lot of work went into going to people's houses to sell them
junk from China in plastic frames."
But to what end? What was the value? What was to be gained? "Unknown,
unknown," Stability said. "You could be anywhere from D.C. to daylight on
that one. Even on our side, you have to take all the stuff and draw it all
out and clean out all the chaff. I will tell you that from those who are
working ground zero of this case , it is a difficult puzzle to put
together, and it is not complete by any means." Even the spooks are
baffled; they have no answers.
So let's draw out the chaff ourselves and see if we can at least speculate.
In intel circles, there are a number of working theories, according to
Stability. "Profiling of federal agents is one," said Stability. "Keeping
tabs on other people, other foreign nationals, is another. A third is that
they were working for organized crime -- that's an easy one, and it almost
sounds more like a cover than a reality. The predominant thought is that it
was a profiling endeavour, and from a profiling aspect, also one of
intimidation."
You mean this whole vast scheme was a mind fuck, to use Paul Rodriguez's
elegant phrasing? A psy-ops endeavor to spook the spooks? Perhaps. As
Stability put it, "Almost nothing is wrong in this particular instance, Mr.
Ketcham. In this particular situation, right is wrong, left is right, up is
down, day is night."
Yet for the most part the targeted agents weren't spooks in the strictest
sense: They were DEA -- cops who bust drug dealers. And that leads us into
Theory No. 1, also known as the Art Student/Drug Dealer Conspiracy. This
theory has a piece of evidence to support it: the link, mentioned in the
leaked DEA memo, between an Ecstasy investigation and the telephone numbers
provided by an Israeli detained in Orlando. There are "problems" with
Israeli nationals involved in the Ecstasy business, according to Israeli
Embassy spokesman Reguev. "Israeli authorities and the DEA are working
together on that issue," he said. In a statement before Congress in 2000,
officials with the U.S. Customs Service, which intercepted some 7 million
Ecstasy tablets last year, noted that "Israeli organized-crime elements
appear to be in control" of the multibillion-dollar U.S. Ecstasy trade,
"from production through the international smuggling phase. Couriers
associated with Israeli organized crime have been arrested around the
world, including ... locations in the U.S. such as Florida, New Jersey, New
York and California."
Miami was cited as one of the main entry points of Ecstasy into the United
States and was specified as one of the central "headquarters for the
criminal organizations that smuggle Ecstasy"; Houston was also cited for
large Ecstasy seizures -- an interesting nexus, given the large number of
"art students" who congregated both in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale area
and in Houston. "Israeli nationals in the Ecstasy trade have been very
sophisticated in their operations," says a U.S. Customs officer who has
investigated the groups. "Some of these individuals have been skilled at
counterintelligence and in concealing their communications and movements
from law enforcement."
It would thus seem that Israeli organized crime has at least the capacity
to pull off a widespread surveillance and intelligence operation. The drug
connection would also explain the sizable reserves of cash one Tampa
student was handling.
One DEA agent named in the "art student" report told Salon that the best
possible explanation for the affair '- and he admitted to being utterly
baffled by it -- was that drug dealers were involved.
"Why us if not because of the DEA's mission?" the agent asked. "I mean,
what would Israeli intel want with us? Here's another avenue of inquiry to
take: Israeli organized crime is the now the biggest dealer of Ecstasy in
the United States. These students? It was Israeli organized crime judging
our strength, getting a survey of our operations. What if I wanted to
burglarize your building and go through your files? I'd do a reconnoiter.
Get a sense of the floor plan and security, where the guards are stationed,
how many doors, what kind of locks, alarm systems, backup alarm systems."
The trouble with this theory is the obvious one: In the annals of crime
chutzpah, for drug dealers to brazenly approach drug agents in their homes
and offices may represent the all-time world record. And what conceivable
useful intelligence could they gather that would be worth the risk? Were
the tee-heeing tight-sweatered Israeli babes pulling some kind of Mata Hari
stunt, seducing paunchy middle-aged DEA boys and beguiling them into
loose-lipped info sharing? Theory No. 2 is that they were all engaged in
espionage. This scenario has the virtue of simplicity -- if it smells like
a spy, walks like a spy, and talks like a spy, it probably is a spy -- but
doesn't make much sense, either. Why would the Mossad -- or any spy outfit
with a lick of good sense -- use kids without papers as spies? And, just as
our incredulous DEA agent noted, what intelligence useful to Israel could
be gathered from DEA offices, anyway?
I suggested to Stability that the operation, if it was that, was purposely
conspicuous -- almost oafish. "Yes, it was," he replied. "It was a noisy
operation. Did you ever see 'Victor/Victoria'? It was about a woman playing
a man playing a woman. Perhaps you should think about this from that aspect
and ask yourself if you wanted to have something that was in your face,
that didn't make sense, that couldn't possibly be them." He added, "Think
of it this way: How could the experts think this could actually be
something of any value? Wouldn't they dismiss what they were seeing?"
That's where you enter truly dark territory: Theory No. 3, the Art Student
as Agent as Art Student Smoke Screen. It has major problems, but let's roll
with it for a moment. This theory contends that the art student ring was a
smoke screen intended to create confusion and allow actual spies -- who
were also posing as art students -- to be lumped together with the rest and
escape detection. In other words, the operation is an elaborate double
fake-out, a hiding-in-plain-sight scam. Whoever dreamed it up thought ahead
to the endgame and knew that the DEA-stakeout aspect was so bizarre that it
would throw off American intelligence. According to this theory --
Stability's "Victor/Victoria" scenario -- Israeli agents wanted, let's say,
to monitor al-Qaida members in Florida and other states. But they feared
detection. So to provide cover, and also to create a dizzyingly Byzantine
story that would confuse the situation, Israeli intel flooded areas of real
operations with these bumbling "art students" -- who were told to
deliberately stake out DEA agents.
Perhaps. Why not? Up is down, left is right. I nudged Stability on the
obvious implication of the "Victor/Victoria" scenario: If this was a ruse,
a decoy to conceal another operation, what was that other operation?
"Unknown," Stability said.
Then of course there's Theory No. 4: that they really were art students.
Either they were recruited in Israel as part of an art-selling racket or
they simply hit upon the idea themselves. This theory is basically the de
facto position held by the U.S. and Israeli governments, which insist that
the only wrong committed by the "students" was to sell art without the
proper papers. There are almost too many problems with this to list, but
it's worth mentioning a few: Why in the world would people try to sell
cheap art market to DEA officials? Why would they almost all use the same
bogus Bezalel Academy of Arts cover story? Why would anyone running such a
racket to make money use foreign nationals without green cards, knowing
that they would quickly be snagged for visa violations? And why did so many
of these itinerant peddlers, wandering the United States on their strange
mission of hawking cheap Chinese knockoff paintings, have "black
information" about federal facilities?
There are other theories. One is that these were spies in training, newly
minted Mossad graduates on test runs to see how they would operate in field
conditions. I asked Stability how hotly the matter was now being pursued in
intel and law enforcement. "Depends on who you speak to," he told me. "Some
people say that it's a dead issue, a fantasy. Most of the investigations
are happening at an ad hoc level. There are people out there that you
couldn't sway off some of the cases, because that's how dedicated they
are."
Apparently, at least some agents in FBI remain quite concerned about the
art student problem. According to several intelligence sources, including
Stability, on Dec. 3, 2001, six separate FBI field offices simultaneously
forwarded communiques to FBI headquarters inquiring into the status of the
investigation. The FBI agents wanted to have a "clarification" as to what
was going on.
The subject may not be officially dead yet. The art student matter may be
taken up by the congressional committees investigating intelligence
failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to another source.
What about the crucial Washington Post article, in which anonymous federal
agents alleged the DEA memo was the work of a disgruntled employee?
"The Washington Post article was a plant -- that's obvious. The story was
killed," Stability told me. Who planted the story? Stability claimed the
FBI was behind it. "Every organization is running scared," Stability added,
"because they're afraid of the next shoe to drop. There are many smoking
guns out there, many. So consequently every one is at a level of heightened
anxiety, and when they're anxious they make mistakes."
Yes, but what are they afraid of? What will the smoking guns prove?
Questions, questions, labyrinthine questions, and the more you ask in this
matter, the fewer get answered. When I called the CIA to inquire about the
agency's March 2001 alert -- an alert that evinced deep disquiet over the
affair -- an official who was aware of the inquiry told me, "I'll make a
recommendation to you: Don't write a story. This whole thing has been blown
way out of proportion. As far as we're concerned, we reported it, yes, but
subsequently it's nothing of interest to us. And we've just closed the book
on it. And I really recommend you do the same. Let it go. There's nothing
here."
Not everyone else in law enforcement is so sure. "There's a lot of concern
among the agents," said the DEA source. "We're investigators. We're not
satisfied when we don't have answers. This is a mystery that has an answer
and it has to be resolved."
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected since its original
publication.
LOAD-DATE: May 8, 2002
What is missing from this story is how organized crime and the Israeli government
are one and the same.
The theory missing here is that this could have been a mission with several
purposes. While wrapped up near the end with the DEA, the theories leave out
the attempted penetration of other U.S. agencies which have nothing to do
with dope dealing of any kind.
Ecstasy brings in a lot of shekels. Despite all the billions drained from America
in tax dollars every year Israel wants a lot more and dope dealing is very profitable.
Hence they targeted the DEA, helped guide and assist those who attacked the
U.S on 9-11, sent the anthrax with the threatening Muslim letters, and sent a threat
of "we know who you are and where you live".
The Jews also did something else as noted by the source called "Stability".
"Quite frankly, there are a lot of patriots out there who'd like to remain alive.
Typically, patriots are dead."
This is a figurative speech, dead as in "out of the loop" -sent to Alaska- or
dismissed.
It could well be that the Jew Cabal is consolidating its power from the top,
flushing out the patriots still hidden within, those who still feel some responsibility
to defend America from being used to cleanse the Palestinians and relocate
the looted wealth of America to Israel and its new empire within a pacified
Arab and Muslim world.
The Jews appear to have control of the Pentagon, and the Pentagon and its
corporate suppliers and research institutes compose the power structure
that runs the world. It does not have to stay here in America anymore than
General Motors has to manufacture cars here. It and Wall Street can be
relocated to Israel.
Indeed the patriots seem to be dead. The power struggle seems to be
between the British and the Israelis as to who will rule America.
The USA reduced to being ruled by its old enemy or its newer enemy.
Bill Ditmire
>students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No one knows
>why --
Can you spell "Urban Legend?" How about "Anti-Semitic Urban Legend?"
Bill Ditmire
Ditmire Motorworks,Inc.
425 White Horse Pike
Absecon,NJ 08201
http://www.ditmire.com
609-641-3392
marlinspike
news:20030830195913.28479.00000207@mb-> Can you spell "Urban Legend?" How
about "Anti-Semitic Urban Legend?"
How about we say Anti-Israeli Urban Legend? I didn't bother to read the
whole thing, but considering the subject matter, I doubt he was being
Anti-Arab (yes, Arabs are semetic too).
Richard
Harvey Louzon
Pretty soon they are going to have you forcibly circumcised so watch out.
h
P
Do you have any link or anything showing this is not true? Fox did report
it I remember but never heard of it again. I would be interested.
Thanks
"Bill Ditmire" <wren...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20030830195913...@mb-m03.aol.com...
Awake
For almost two years, hundreds of young Israelis falsely claiming to be art
students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No one knows
NEMO ME IMPUNE
Foutez nous la paix
"
Harvey Louzon
have been poisoning gentiles by force feeding them gefilte fish and borsch.
h
Harvey Louzon
"NEMO ME IMPUNE" <birdie...@club-internet.fr> wrote in message
news:3f51a1dc$0$20943$7a62...@news.club-internet.fr...
> Eh, on s'en tape d'Issraęl et ses conneries. Ici on parle de BMW.
> Foutez nous la paix
>
Allez ā l'enfer
h
Carl.
news:mmh4b.236927$Oz4.63675@rwcrnsc54...
> I don't know about selling art but I've been told that some Israeli agents
> have been poisoning gentiles by force feeding them gefilte fish and
borsch.
This one time some sicko in a deli put fish in the cream cheese. Is that
the kind of thing we are talking about? :)
---
Update your PC at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.514 / Virus Database: 312 - Release Date: 8/29/2003
Mark F
<ZVh4b.5273$sl.2...@twister.austin.rr.com>:
> "Harvey Louzon" <rabb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> news:mmh4b.236927$Oz4.63675@rwcrnsc54...
> > I don't know about selling art but I've been told that some Israeli agents
> > have been poisoning gentiles by force feeding them gefilte fish and
> borsch.
>
> This one time some sicko in a deli put fish in the cream cheese. Is that
> the kind of thing we are talking about? :)
That's smoked salmon....and boy it's yummy that way!
>
>
> ---
> Update your PC at http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.514 / Virus Database: 312 - Release Date: 8/29/2003
>
>
[posted via phonescoop.com - free web access to the alt.cellular groups]
taylor
your some poor jerk who heard a tale and believe it and just fwd it so
another poor jerks would believe it 2.
Hal
http://www.ncix.gov/news/2001/mar01.html#a1
"taylor" <taylor...@hotmail.co.il> wrote in message
news:728d619a.03083...@posting.google.com...
00
watch the film shooting fish and put ten and sixteen together.
then divide it by money, and you have a choice global scam.. the real
question is who dun the paintings. mr china art?
people want "art student" painting coz, if they make it big then the
painting is worth a lot.
the real question is would art student be motivated enough to market their
and their classmate's work direct to anyone.
the dea link is probly realizing americans are dum fuks, and having had a
bit of mossad traingin. realizing dea is where the money is at war on drugs?
what. you cant fight an inanimate substance!
it will allways win.
the more you hit it the more it hurts.
oo
"Mark F" <as...@askme.com> wrote in message
news:vl3mlic...@corp.supernews.com...
MusicMax
> Hi Bill
>
> Do you have any link or anything showing this is not true? Fox did
> report it I remember but never heard of it again. I would be
> interested.
MusicMax
news:20030830195913...@mb-m03.aol.com:
>>For almost two years, hundreds of young Israelis falsely claiming to
>>be art students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No
>>one knows why --
>
> Can you spell "Urban Legend?"
http://www.ncix.gov/news/2001/mar01.html#a1
Do you like your crow with barbeque sauce or alfredo?
> How about "Anti-Semitic Urban Legend?"
Typical ad hominem from those unable to deal with facts.
Bill Ditmire
Yeah, spying on the DEA has to be a great way to learn how to get rid of your
excess tax dollars without effect. Thousands of employees, salaries, benefits
and pensions the civilians can only dream about, funded by money our
great-grandchildren will have to earn... and drugs have NEVER been so available
or affordable.
I wish they would put the DEA in charge of a "war on German luxury cars."
Within a few years we will all be high on S55 AMG supercars that can be bought
on any streetcorner for say, $5,00.
cp
> >students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No one knows
> >why --
>
> Can you spell "Urban Legend?" How about "Anti-Semitic Urban Legend?"
It may be an 'Urban Legend' for the politically ignorant, who consider themselves
informed just from watching CNN. How do you know it is not true? Did you look
into this? It's not like the article says that pigs fly.
Media coverage of Israel's underground in the US -
and the 9/11 connection.
In chronological order
http://antiwar.com/israelfiles2.html
cp
> it I remember but never heard of it again. I would be interested.
You should ask for resources from someone who has researched this:
You'll find more information and analysis here than you can read:
http://antiwar.com/israelfiles2.html
http://antiwar.com/israelfiles2.html
http://antiwar.com/israelfiles2.html
http://antiwar.com/israelfiles2.html
P
Usually when someone says urban legend they have a source that debunks the
story like snopes.com etc... If he has a source that debunks it I would
honestly like to see it.
Thanks,
"cp" <cpla...@telus.net> wrote in message
news:59y4b.41982$_5.7...@news1.telusplanet.net...
cp
> Usually when someone says urban legend they have a source that debunks the
> story like snopes.com etc...
Actually, it's the opposite, they don't have enough evidence that proves it, mostly
because they haven't put in the effort to research.
>If he has a source that debunks it I would honestly like to see it.
I'm quite sure he does not. But there is quite A LOT of evidence FOR the Israeli
student spy ring. What is so hard to believe here? Are you being told to believe that
pigs fly? That Hell has frozen over?
The whole premise of the issue is that the Israelis were spying on the people that were
to implement 9/11, and didn't share the news. Or maybe it was that the US government
did not listen. Usually, certain issues are written off as 'conspiracy theory' by ignorant
people.
Some more excellent information from a person (a Jew if makes the source more credible) that
has won awards for his research on US government inaction before and during the acts of 9/11
http://www.tenc.net/ (look for the section 9-11 on the left sidebar)
And again
The 'Israeli Art Student' Files
http://antiwar.com/israelfiles2.html
BTW www.antiwar.com is owned and run by Jews, so please no 'anti-semitic' comments.
Harvey Louzon
"MusicMax" <mRuEsMiOcVmEa!x...@carolina.rr.com> wrote in message
news:Xns93E8AAFA5...@24.25.9.41...
Yeah dickhead. The 'facts' from that website state "One group has an
apparently legitimate money- making goal while the second, perhaps a
non-Israeli group, may have ties to a Middle Eastern Islamic fundamentalist
group."
Looks like the Islamofascists are spying on us.
h
John Mauel
Ahhh... just as I always suspected. My heartburn is a zionist plot.
John M.
Pass the Zantac
Geez, I'd better put in the :-) lest anyone accuse me of all sorts of stuff.
Bill Ditmire
As with all conspiracy theories it has SOME basis in fact. Like there are
Israeli art students, there IS a DEA.
If you take an hour like I did and google the story, you will find that someone
ionside the DEA wrote something about Israelu art students as possible Mossad
agents... and the conspiracy theorists took it from there.
Most major news organizations reviewed the facts and decided there ws no story;
as to the "conspiracy of the media" to hide the truth, cut me a break. The
juicier it is, the more the media will dive on it!
Bill Ditmire
The link connects to news of the conspiracy as reported by the "National
Counterintelligence Executive" on a pseudo-offical looking website. There is no
real NCE of course.
It is best not to get one's news from psycho websites.
greek_philosophizer
>>http://www.ncix.gov/news/2001/mar01.html#a1
>
>
> The link connects to news of the conspiracy as reported by the "National
> Counterintelligence Executive" on a pseudo-offical looking website. There is no
> real NCE of course.
>
> It is best not to get one's news from psycho websites.
>
That last sentence made me laugh.
I never realized that any weasel can get
a .gov address.
.
MusicMax
>>http://www.ncix.gov/news/2001/mar01.html#a1
>
> The link connects to news of the conspiracy as reported by the
> "National Counterintelligence Executive" on a pseudo-offical looking
> website. There is no real NCE of course.
Wrong.
===
PDD-75 created a new national counterintelligence (CI) system to play a
critical role in protecting and preserving our nation's national and
economic security and established the National Counterintelligence
Executive (NCIX) to serve as the substantive leader of national-level
CI. The PDD mandates that NCIX provide the US Government with strong,
policy-driven leadership by creating new and enhanced CI capabilities,
ensuring coherent programs, strategies, cooperative approaches, and
conducting effective oversight.
NCIX draws its staffing from counterintelligence (CI) and security
professionals from the FBI, CIA, DIA, NSA, the Office of the Secretary
of Defense, the military services, and the Departments of State and
Energy. Consequently, NCIX does not exercise independent hiring
authority and relies on personnel temporarily detailed from the
above-named agencies. If you are interested in pursuing a government
career in counterintelligence, you are encouraged to contact the
contributing agencies directly.
===
Of course I'll bet you don't even know what a PDD is.
> It is best not to get one's news from psycho websites.
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_whitevan_020621.html
I didn't know Peter Jennings was a psycho.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=162902&contras
sID=2&subContrassID=5&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
I didn't know the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz was run by psychos.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2002/03/07/wspy07.xm
l&sSheet=/news/2002/03/07/ixworld.html
I didn't know the London Telegraph was run by psychos either.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId
=A3879-2001Nov22¬Found=true
I didn't know Ben Bradlee was a psycho.
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2001/12/18/224826.shtml
Or the folks at NewsMax.
http://100777.com/nwo/104a.htm
Or Rupert Murdoch.
Wow. All those psychos in the mainstream press...
MusicMax
MusicMax
>
> "MusicMax" <mRuEsMiOcVmEa!x...@carolina.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns93E8AAFA5...@24.25.9.41...
>> wren...@aol.com (Bill Ditmire) wrote in
>> news:20030830195913...@mb-m03.aol.com:
>>
>> >>For almost two years, hundreds of young Israelis falsely claiming to
>> >>be art students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No
>> >>one knows why --
>> >
>> > Can you spell "Urban Legend?"
>>
>> http://www.ncix.gov/news/2001/mar01.html#a1
>>
>> Do you like your crow with barbeque sauce or alfredo?
>>
>> > How about "Anti-Semitic Urban Legend?"
>>
>> Typical ad hominem from those unable to deal with facts.
>
> Yeah dickhead.
PLONK
> Looks like the Islamofascists are spying on us.
Two words:
Jonathan Pollard.
Harvey Louzon
So, in other words, this web site claims that an islamic group is behind
this 'art scam' and you use it to prove that the Israelis really are. Learn
to read better, dickhead, before you make a fool of yourself posting
something that directly contradicts your assertions.
h
cp
> Israeli art students, there IS a DEA.
conspiracy theories. Like I said, controversial issues are written off as conspiracy
theories by the ignorant.
> If you take an hour like I did and google the story, you will find that someone
> ionside the DEA wrote something about Israelu art students as possible Mossad
> agents... and the conspiracy theorists took it from there.
You spent an hour???? A whole hour of research!?!? You'd be ashamed to admit something
like that!! I've done around 4,000 hour of research on the Yugoslav secession wars topic of the
90's, and you spent A WHOLE HOUR!?!? Please! That's embarrasing!
Again, links for you, run by Jews in case you come up with some anti-semitic nonsense:
http://www.tenc.net/ (look for the section 9-11 on the left sidebar)
http://antiwar.com/israelfiles2.html The 'Israeli Art Student' Files
When you have read the above 4 times over than please notify me and we'll have a discussion
about the topic.
> Most major news organizations reviewed the facts and decided there ws no story;
> as to the "conspiracy of the media" to hide the truth, cut me a break. The
> juicier it is, the more the media will dive on it!
Yes, when the topic is that Michael Jackson wears little boy underwear or that the Pinto
was a good car. But would the media dare spend any time on something that does not
paint Israel in a good light? GOOD LUCK!! If you don't understand what I mean, spend
some years doing intense research and you will know what I mean.
You got any '87 300SDL with low miles?
cp
LT
any of this modern Jewish blood libel).
This has been debunked. You can start catching a clue here:
http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=38&x_article=147
"00" <0...@00.00> wrote in message
news:W_r4b.636$il1....@stones.force9.net...
MusicMax
news:GnT4b.76902$Sq.14...@twister.nyc.rr.com:
> To the original poster (and all others who are fool hardy enough to
> believe any of this modern Jewish blood libel).
>
> This has been debunked. You can start catching a clue here:
>
> http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=38&x_article=147
Pffffttt...
The entire CAMERA site is 100% pro-Israel propaganda.
Israel spying/student/deportation stories were reported by:
ABC News
FOX News
Creative Loafing
The Washington Post
Ha'aretz Daily
The London Telegraph
etc. etc. etc.
P
can actually find them at there sites. This site also seems almost as
skewed as the tirade that the original poster put at the end. I did see
this on Fox when it aired and have seen nothing even address any of it other
than the Barbra Walters story about the 3 Israeli movers who we celebrating
in NJ and the woman who called the police on them. I remember the APB for
them and their van on September 11th and that, per ABC, it turned out the
company they worked for was an Israeli intelligence front that was following
Islamic militants who were raising money in the US, not that they had prior
knowledge of the attack.
I have no doubt that Israel spies on the US and that is documented, Pollard.
I make no judgment on that as Israel is an independent country that is as
obligated to the look after their own best interests as the US is. I do not
believe that Israel had advance knowledge of September 11th as they could
have this knowledge much more effectively by telling the US.
I wish that people would stop equating criticism of Israel with
anti-Semitism. That is getting realy tiered. I don't like some of the
things Israel does but I often see their point on other things. US and
Israeli best interests are not somehow magically intertwined. As an
American I am interested in America's best interests. I wish my tax dollars
would stop supporting Israel and many other countries that are quite capable
of feeding and defending themselves. Honestly I would see our dear Saudi
allies as the ones who stabbed us in the back.
Israel has nukes and Jordan, Syria and Egypt are not going to over run
them. If the U.S backs off I think they Arabs and Israelis will either have
to finally deal with it or blow the crap out of each other. That's their
choice.
"LT" <g...@lala.lo> wrote in message
news:GnT4b.76902$Sq.14...@twister.nyc.rr.com...
Awake
>To the original poster (and all others who are fool hardy enough to believe
>any of this modern Jewish blood libel).
>
>This has been debunked. You can start catching a clue here:
>
If you want to read some real Jews who are really planning to destroy America
in the service of Israel read this:
http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm
Richard Perle and the many members of the Jew Cabal make appearances
describing their plans to help Israel.
Written in 1996 this plan describes today's events in the Middle East.
I suppose Salon.com is supposed to be "anti-Semitic" as well?
Copyright 2002 Salon.com, Inc.
For almost two years, hundreds of young Israelis falsely claiming to be art
students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No one knows
why -- and no one seems to want to find out.
May 7, 2002 Tuesday
The Israeli "art student" mystery
By Christopher Ketcham
In January 2001, the security branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency
began to receive a number of peculiar reports from DEA field offices across
the country. According to the reports, young Israelis claiming to be art
students and offering artwork for sale had been attempting to penetrate DEA
offices for over a year. The Israelis had also attempted to penetrate the
offices of other law enforcement and Department of Defense agencies.
Strangest of all, the "students" had visited the homes of numerous DEA
officers and other senior federal officials.
As a pattern slowly emerged, the DEA appeared to have been targeted in what
it called an "organized intelligence gathering activity." But to what end,
and for whom, no one knew.
Reports of the mysterious Israelis with an inexplicable interest in
peddling art to G-men came in from more than 40 U.S. cities and continued
throughout the first six months of 2001. Agents of the DEA, ATF, Air Force,
Secret Service, FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service documented some 130 separate
incidents of "art student" encounters. Some of the Israelis were observed
diagramming the inside of federal buildings. Some were found carrying
photographs they had taken of federal agents. One was discovered with a
computer printout in his luggage that referred to "DEA groups."
In some cases, the Israelis visited locations not known to the public --
areas without street addresses, for example, or DEA offices not identified
as such -- leading authorities to suspect that information had been
gathered from prior surveillance or perhaps electronically, from credit
cards and other sources. One Israeli was discovered holding banking
receipts for substantial sums of money, close to $180,000 in withdrawals
and deposits over a two-month period. A number of the Israelis resided for
a period of time in Hollywood, Fla. -- the small city where Mohammed Atta
and three terrorist comrades lived for a time before Sept. 11.
In March 2001, the Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive
(NCIX), a branch of the CIA, issued a heads-up to federal employees about
"suspicious visitors to federal facilities." The warning noted that
"employees have observed both males and females attempting to bypass
facility security and enter federal buildings." Federal agents, the warning
stated, had "arrested two of these individuals for trespassing and
discovered that the suspects possessed counterfeit work visas and green
cards."
In the wake of the NCIX bulletin, federal officials raised several other
red flags, including an Air Force alert, a Federal Protective Services
alert, an Office of National Drug Control Policy security alert and a
request that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) investigate a
specific case. Officials began dealing more aggressively with the "art
students." According to one account, some 140 Israeli nationals were
detained or arrested between March 2001 and Sept. 11, 2001. Many of them
were deported. According to the INS, the deportations resulted from
violations of student visas that forbade the Israelis from working in the
United States. (In fact, Salon has established that none of the Israelis
were enrolled in the art school most of them claimed to be attending; the
other college they claimed to be enrolled in does not exist.) After the
Sept. 11 attacks, many more young Israelis -- 60, according to one AP
dispatch and other reports -- were detained and deported.
The "art students" followed a predictable modus operandi. They generally
worked in teams, typically consisting of a driver, who was the team leader,
and three or four subordinates. The driver would drop the "salespeople" off
at a given location and return to pick them up some hours later. The
"salespeople" entered offices or approached agents in their offices or
homes. Sometimes they pitched their artwork -- landscapes, abstract works,
homemade pins and other items they carried about in portfolios. At other
times, they simply attempted to engage agents in conversation. If asked
about their studies, they generally said they were from the Bezalel Academy
of Arts and Design in Jerusalem or the University of Jerusalem (which does
not exist). They were described as "aggressive" in their sales pitch and
"evasive" when questioned by wary agents. The females among them were
invariably described as "very attractive" -- "blondes in tight shorts or
jeans, real lookers," as one DEA agent put it to Salon. "They were flirty,
flipping the hair, looking at you, smiling. 'Hey, how are you? Let me show
you this.' Everything a woman would do if she wanted to get something out
of you." Some agents noted that the "students" made repeated attempts to
avoid facility security personnel by trying to enter federal buildings
through back doors and side entrances. On several occasions, suspicious
agents who had been visited at home observed the Israelis after the
"students" departed and noted that they did not approach any of the
neighbors.
The document detailing most of this information was an internal DEA memo: a
60-page report drawn up in June 2001 by the DEA's Office of Security
Programs. The document was meant only for the eyes of senior officials at
the Justice Department (of which the DEA is adjunct), but it was leaked to
the press as early as December 2001 and by mid-March had been made widely
available to the public.
On the face of it, this was a blockbuster tale, albeit a bizarre and
cryptic one, full of indeterminate leads and fascinating implications and
ambiguous answers: "Like a good Clancy novel," as one observer put it. Was
it espionage? Drug dealing? An intelligence game? The world's wackiest
door-to-door hustle? Yet the mainstream media has almost entirely ignored
the allegations or accepted official "explanations" that explain nothing.
Even before the DEA memo was leaked, however, some reporters had begun
sniffing around the remarkable story.On Oct. 1 of last year, Texas
newswoman Anna Werner, of KHOU-TV in Houston, told viewers about a "curious
pattern of behavior" by people with "Middle Eastern looks" claiming to be
Israeli art students. "Government guards have found those so-called
students," reported Werner, "trying to get into secure federal facilities
in Houston in ways they're not supposed to -- through back doors and
parking garages." Federal agents, she said, were extremely "concerned." The
"students" had showed up at the DEA's Houston headquarters, at the Leland
Federal Building in Houston, and even the federal prosecutor's office; they
had also appeared to be monitoring the buildings. Guards at the Earle
Cabell Federal Building in Dallas found one "student" wandering the halls
with a floor plan of the site. Sources told Werner that similar incidents
had occurred at sites in New York, Florida, and six other states, "and even
more worrisome, at 36 sensitive Department of Defense sites."
"One defense site you can explain," a former Defense Department analyst
told Werner. "Thirty-six? That's a pattern." Ominously, the analyst
concluded that such activity suggested a terrorist organization "scouting
out potential targets and ... looking for targets that would be
vulnerable."
Post-9/11, this should have been the opening thrust in an orgy of coverage,
and the scoop of a lifetime for Werner: Here she'd gotten a glimpse into a
possible espionage ring of massive proportions, possibly of terrorists
scouting new targets for jihad -- and those terrorists were possibly posing
as Israelis. KHOU's conclusions were wrong -- these weren't Arab
terrorists -- but at the time no one knew better. And yet the story died on
the vine. No one followed up.
Just about the same time that KHOU was stabbing in the dark, reporter Carl
Cameron of the Fox News Channel was beginning an investigation into the
mystery of the art students that would ultimately light the way into
altogether different terrain. In a four-part series on Fox's "Special
Report With Brit Hume" that aired in mid-December, Cameron reported that
federal agents were investigating the "art student" phenomenon as a
possible arm of Israeli espionage operations tracking al-Qaida operatives
in the United States. Yes, you read that right: a spy ring that may have
been trailing al-Qaida members in the weeks and months before Sept. 11 -- a
spy ring that according to Cameron's sources may have known about the
preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks but failed to share this knowledge
with U.S. intelligence. One investigator told Cameron that "evidence
linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about
evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information."
According to Cameron, some 60 Israeli nationals had been detained in the
anti-terrorism/immigrant sweeps in the weeks after Sept. 11, and at least
140 Israelis identified as "art students" had been detained or arrested in
the prior months. Most of the 60 detained after Sept. 11 had been deported,
Cameron said. "Some of the detainees," reported Cameron, "failed polygraph
questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in
the United States." Some of them were on active military duty. (Military
service is compulsory for all young Israelis.) Cameron was careful to note
that there was "no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9/11
attacks" and that while his reporting had dug up "explosive information,"
none of it was necessarily conclusive. Cameron was simply airing the
wide-ranging speculations in an ongoing investigation.
Incendiary as it was, that story died on the vine, too, and the scuttlebutt
in major newsrooms was that Cameron's sources -- all anonymous -- were
promulgating a fantasy. Reporters at the New York Times and the Washington
Post hit up their go-to people inside Justice and FBI and CIA, but no one
could seem to confirm the story, and indeed numerous officials laughed it
off. Fox got it wrong, the newspapers of record concluded. And nothing more
was heard on the topic in mainstream quarters.
But inside the DEA, the Fox piece reverberated. An internal DEA communique
obtained by Salon indicates that the DEA made careful note of Cameron's
reports; the communique even mentions Fox News by name. Dated Dec. 18, four
days after the final installment in the Fox series, the document warns of
security breaches in DEA telecommunications by unauthorized "foreign
nationals" -- and cites an Israeli-owned firm with which the DEA contracted
for wiretap equipment -- breaches that could have accounted for the access
that the "art students" apparently had to the home addresses of agents.
It wasn't until nearly three months after the Fox reports that the "art
student" enigma resurfaced in newsrooms, this time in Europe. On Feb. 28,
the respected Paris-based espionage newsletter Intelligence Online reported
in detail on what turned out to have been one of Cameron's key source
documents: the 60-page DEA memo. The memo itself, which Salon obtained in
mid-March, went no further than to speculate in the most general terms that
the "nature of the individuals' conduct" suggested some sort of "organized
intelligence gathering activity." The memo also pointed out that there was
some evidence connecting the art students to a drug ring. "DEA Orlando has
developed the first drug nexus to this group," the memo read. "Telephone
numbers obtained from an Israeli Art Student encountered at the Orlando
D.O. District Office have been linked to several ongoing DEA MDMA (Ecstasy)
investigations in Florida, California, Texas and New York."
However, Intelligence Online and then France's newspaper of record, Le
Monde, came to a much more definite -- and explosive -- conclusion. This
was the jackpot, they concluded, a proven spy ring run by the Mossad or the
Israeli government. Thus you had Intelligence Online leading its Feb. 28
piece with the statement that "a huge Israeli spy ring operating in the
United States was rolled up," and you had Le Monde trumpeting on March 5
that a "vast Israeli spy network" had been dismantled in the "largest case
of Israeli spying" since 1985, when mole Jonathan Pollard was busted
selling Pentagon secrets to the Mossad. Reuters that same day went with the
headline "U.S. Busts Big Israeli Spy Ring," sourcing Le Monde's story.
The two French journals came to conclusions that the memo itself clearly
did not. And yet they had unearthed some intriguing material. Six of the
"students" were apparently carrying cell phones purchased by a former
Israeli vice consul to the United States. According to Le Monde, two of the
"students" had traveled from Hamburg to Miami to visit an FBI agent in his
home, then boarded a flight to Chicago and visited the home of a Justice
Dept. agent, then hopped a direct flight to Toronto -- all in one day.
According to Intelligence Online, more than one-third of the students, who
were spread out in 42 cities, lived in Florida, several in Hollywood and
Fort Lauderdale, Fla. -- one-time home to at least 10 of the 19 Sept. 11
hijackers. In at least one case, the students lived just a stone's throw
from homes and apartments where the Sept. 11 terrorists resided: In
Hollywood, several students lived at 4220 Sheridan St., just down the block
from the 3389 Sheridan St. apartment where terrorist mastermind Mohammed
Atta holed up with three other Sept. 11 plotters. Many of the students, the
DEA report noted, had backgrounds in Israeli military intelligence and/or
electronics surveillance; one was the son of a two-star Israeli general,
and another had served as a bodyguard to the head of the Israeli army.
The DEA report on which the French journals based their investigations
contained a wealth of remarkable tales. To take just a few samples:
On March 1, 2001, a DEA special agent in the Tampa division offices
"responded to a knock at one of the fifth floor offices. At the door was a
young female who immediately identified herself as an Israeli art student
who had beautiful art to sell. She was carrying a crudely made portfolio of
unframed pictures." Aware of the "art student" alert, the agent invited the
girl to an interview room, where he was joined by a colleague to listen to
the girl's presentation. "She had approximately 15 paintings of different
styles, some copies of famous works, and others similar in style to famous
artists. When asked her name, she identified herself as Bella Pollcson, and
pointed out one of the paintings was signed by that name." Then things got
interesting: In the middle of her presentation, she changed her story and
claimed that the paintings were not for sale, but "that she was there to
promote an art show in Sarasota, Fla., and asked for the agents' business
cards so that information regarding the show could be mailed to them."
Well, where's the show? asked the agents. When's it going up? Pollcson
couldn't say: didn't know when or where -- or even who was running it.
Later it was determined that she had lied about her name as well.
On Oct. 20, 2000, in the Houston offices of the DEA, a "male Israeli art
student was observed by the Security Officers entering an elevator from a
secure area. The officers were able to apprehend the art student before he
could enter a secure area on the second floor." Three months later, in
January 2001, a "male Israeli" was apprehended attempting to enter the same
building from a back door in a "secured parking lot area." He claimed "he
wanted to gain access to the building to sell artwork."
On April 30, 2001, an Air Force alert was issued from Tinker Air Force Base
in Oklahoma City concerning "possible intelligence collection being
conducted by Israeli Art Students." Tinker AFB houses AWACS surveillance
craft and Stealth bombers. The report does not elaborate on what kind of
intelligence was being sought.
On May 19, 2001, two Israeli nationals "requested permission to visit a
museum" at Volk Field Air National Guard Base in Camp Douglas, Wis.
"Approximately ten minutes after being allowed on the base, the two were
seen on an active runway, taking photographs." The men, charged with
misdemeanor trespass, were identified as 26-year-old Gal Kantor and
22-year-old Tsvi Watermann, and were released after paying a $210 fine.
According to the Air Force security officer on duty, "Both were asked if
they were involved in the selling of art while in the U.S. Kantor became
very upset over this, and questioned why they were being asked about that
Kantor's whole demeanor changed, and he then became uncooperative."
So it went week after week, month after month, for more than a year and a
half. In addition to the locations mentioned above, there were "art
student" encounters in Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, El Paso, Los
Angeles, Miami, Orlando, New Orleans, Phoenix, San Diego, Little Rock,
Seattle, Washington, D.C., Arlington, Texas, Albuquerque, and dozens of
other small cities and towns."Their stories," the DEA report states, "were
remarkable only in their consistency. At first, they will state that they
are art students, either from the University of Jerusalem or the Bezalel
Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. Other times they will purport to be promoting
a new art studio in the area. When pressed for details as to the location
of the art studio or why they are selling the paintings, they become
evasive."
Indeed, they had reason to be nervous, because they were lying. Salon
contacted Bezalel Academy's Varda Harel, head of the Academic Students'
Administration, with a list of every "student" named in the DEA report,
including their dates of birth, passport numbers, and in some cases
military registration numbers. Not a single name was identified in the
Bezalel database, either as a current student or as a graduate of the past
10 years (nor had any of the "students" tried to apply to Bezalel in the
last ten years). As for the University of Jerusalem, there is no such
entity. There is the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, but Heidi Gleit, the
school's foreign press liaison, told me that Israelis commonly refer to the
school as Hebrew University, not the University of Jerusalem. (Hebrew
University, she said, does not release student records to the public.)
Still, the U.S. press was uninterested. Just one day after the Le Monde
report, the Washington Post ran a story on March 6 that seemed to put the
whole thing to rest. Headlined "Reports of Israeli Spy Ring Dismissed," the
piece, by John Mintz and Dan Eggen, opened with official denials from a
"wide array of U.S. officials" and quoted Justice Department spokeswoman
Susan Dryden as saying, "This seems to be an urban myth that has been
circulating for months. The department has no information at this time to
substantiate these widespread reports about Israeli art students involved
in espionage."
The Post quoted anonymous officials who said they thought the allegations
had been "circulated by a single employee of the Drug Enforcement
Administration who is angry that his theories have not gained currency ...
T wo law enforcement officials said the disgruntled DEA agent, who
disagreed with the conclusion of FBI and CIA intelligence experts that no
spying was taking place, appears to be leaking a memo that he himself
wrote."
An INS spokesman acknowledged to the Post that several dozen Israelis had
been deported, but said it was the result of "routine visa violations." At
the same time, DEA spokesman Thomas Hinojosa told the Post that "multiple
reports of suspicious activity on the part of young Israelis had come into
the agency's Washington headquarters from agents in the field. The reports
were summarized in a draft memo last year, but Hinojosa said he did not
have a copy and could not vouch for the accuracy of media reports
describing its contents."
The Post's apparent debunking was far from convincing, even to the casual
reader. Of course there was no proof that the art students were part of a
spy ring: Intelligence Online and Le Monde had jumped the gun. However, the
real possibility that they were part of a spy ring could not be
dismissed -- any more than could any other theory one might advance to
explain their unusual behavior. With that in mind, Justice spokeswoman
Dryden's assertion that reports of an Israeli spy ring were an "urban myth"
was an oddly overplayed denial. A response that fit the facts would have
been something like "There have been numerous reports of suspicious
behavior by Israelis claiming to be art students. We are looking into the
allegations." Instead, Dryden appeared to be trying to forestall any
discussion of just what the facts of the case were. Given the political
sensitivities and the potentially embarrassing nature of the case, that was
not surprising,
If the whole thing was an "urban myth," like the sewer reptiles of
Manhattan, and if it all led back to one deskbound nut job in the DEA, then
what were those "reports of suspicious activity" that had come in from
agents in the field? Hinojosa's statement about the DEA memo was
suspiciously evasive: If the "media reports describing its content" (that
is, the articles in Le Monde and Intelligence Online) were in fact based on
the DEA memo whose existence Hinojosa acknowledged, then the "lone nut"
explanation offered by anonymous U.S. officials was at best irrelevant and
at worst a rather obvious piece of disinformation, an attempt to shove the
story under the rug. (In fact, the French articles were based on the actual
DEA memo -- a fact any news organization could have quickly verified, since
the leaked DEA document had been floating around on various Web venues,
such as Cryptome.org, as early as March 21).
To someone not familiar with the 60-page DEA memo, or to reporters who
didn't bother to obtain it, the fact that a disgruntled employee leaked a
memo he wrote himself might seem like decisive proof that the whole "art
student" tale was a canard. In reality, the nature of the memo makes its
authorship irrelevant. The memo is a compilation of field reports by dozens
of named agents and officials from DEA offices across America. It contains
the names, passport numbers, addresses, and in some cases the military ID
numbers of the Israelis who were questioned by federal authorities.
Pointing a finger at the author is like blaming a bank robbery on the desk
sergeant who took down the names of the robbers.
Of course, the agent (or agents) who wrote the memo could also have
fabricated or embellished the field reports. That does not seem to have
been the case. Salon contacted more than a half-dozen agents identified in
the memo. One agent said she had been visited six times at her home by "art
students." None of the agents wished to be named, and very few were willing
to speak at length, but all confirmed the veracity of the information.
Despite such obvious holes in the official story, neither the Post nor any
other mainstream media organization ran follow-up articles. The New York
Times has not yet deemed it worth covering -- in fact, the paper of record
has not written about the art student mystery even once, not even to
pooh-pooh it. One or two minor media players did some braying -- Israel had
been caught spying, etc. ' and the bonko conspiracy fringe had a field day,
but the rest of the media, taking a cue from the big boys, decided it was a
nonstarter: the Post's "debunking" and the Times' silence had effectively
killed the story.
So complete was the silence that by mid-March, Jane's Information Group,
the respected British intelligence and military analysis service, noted:
"It is rather strange that the U.S. media seems to be ignoring what may
well be the most explosive story since the 11 September attacks -- the
alleged break-up of a major Israeli espionage operation in the USA."
The only major American media outlet aside from Fox to seriously present
the "art student" allegations was Insight on the News, the investigative
magazine published weekly by the conservative Washington Times. In a March
11 article, Insight quoted a senior Justice Department official as saying,
"We think there is something quite sinister here but are unable at this
time to put our finger on it" -- essentially echoing what the DEA report
concluded.
Managing editor Paul M. Rodriguez, who wrote the Insight story and had
quietly tracked the art student phenomenon for weeks before Intelligence
Online scooped him, took an agnostic stance toward the mystery. "There is
zero information at this time to suggest that these students were being run
by the Mossad," he told me. "Nothing we've come across would suggest this.
We have seen nothing that says this is a spy ring run by the Israeli
government directly or with a wink and a nod or some other form of sub rosa
control. Based on what we've been told, seen and obtained I just don't see
the so-called spy ring as a certain fact. Does that make it not so? I don't
know."
Rodriguez added, "I think the investigators' take is this: What were these
'students' doing going around accessing buildings without authorization,
tracking undercover cops to their homes -- if not for some sort of intel
mission? It's sort of a mind-fuck scenario, if one were to believe this was
a conspiracy by a foreign intel source and/or a bunch of nutty 'kids'
fucking around just to see how far they could push the envelope -- which
they seem to have pushed pretty damn far, given the page after page after
page of intrusions and snooping alleged."
The Israeli embassy denies the charges of a spy ring. "We are saying what
we've been saying for months," spokesman Mark Reguev told Salon, referring
to the Fox series in December. "No American official or intelligence agency
has complained to us about this. The story is nonsense. Israel does not spy
on the United States."
Whether or not the "art students" are Israeli spies, Reguev's blanket
disavowal is untrue: Israel does spy on the United States. This should come
as no surprise: Allies frequently spy on each other, and Israeli
intelligence is renowned as among the best and most aggressive in the
world. Israel has been at war off and on since its birth as a nation in
1948 and is hungry for information it deems essential to its survival. And
America's relationship to Israel and support for it is essential to the
survival of the Jewish state. Add these things up, and espionage against
the United States becomes understandable, if not justifiable. The U.S.
government officially denies this, of course, but it knows that such spying
goes on. In 1996, the U.S. General Accounting Office issued a report
indicating that "Country A," later identified as Israel, "conducts the most
aggressive espionage operation against the United States of any U.S. ally."
A year earlier, the Defense Investigative Service circulated a memo warning
U.S. military contractors that "Israel aggressively collects U.S. military
and industrial technology" and "possesses the resources and technical
capability to successfully achieve its collection objectives." The memo
explained that "the Israelis are motivated by strong survival instincts
which dictate every facet of their political and economic policies."
In the history of Israeli espionage in and against the United States, the
case of Jonathan Pollard was certainly the most heinous. Pollard, a
civilian U.S. naval intelligence analyst, provided Israeli intelligence
with an estimated 800,000 pages of classified U.S. intelligence
information. The information eventually ended up in Soviet hands,
compromising American agents in the field -- several of whom were allegedly
captured and killed as a result. Israel at first denied, and then admitted,
Pollard's connections to the Mossad after he was arrested in 1985 and
imprisoned for life. The case severely strained American-Israeli relations,
and continues to rankle many American Jews, who believe that since Pollard
was spying for Israel, his sentence was unduly harsh. (Other American Jews
feel equally strongly that Pollard and the Israelis betrayed them.)
Any attempt to understand the official U.S. response to the Israeli art
student mystery -- and to some degree, the media response -- must take into
account both the smoke screen that states blow over incidents that could
jeopardize their strategic alliances, and America's unique and complex
relationship with Israel. The Jewish state is a close if problematic ally
with whom the United States enjoys a "special relationship" unlike that
maintained with any other nation in the world. But U.S. and Israeli
interests do not always coincide, and spying has always been deemed to
cross a line, to represent a fundamental violation of trust. According to
intelligence sources, the United States might perhaps secretly tolerate
some Israeli spying on U.S. soil if the government decided that it was in
our interest (although it could never be acknowledged), but certain types
of spying will simply not be accepted by the United States, whether the
spying is carried out by Israel or anyone else.
If England or France spied on the United States, American officials would
likely conceal it. In the case of Israel, there are far stronger reasons to
hide any unseemly cracks in the special relationship. The powerful
pro-Israel political constituencies in Congress; pro-Israel lobbies; the
Bush administration's strong support for Israel, and its strategic and
political interest in maintaining close ties with the Jewish state as a
partner in the "war against terror"; the devastating consequences for
U.S.-Israeli relations if it was suspected that Israeli agents might have
known about the Sept. 11 attack -- all these factors explain why the U.S.
government might publicly downplay the art student story and conceal any
investigation that produces unpalatable results.
The pro-Israel lobby is a vast and powerful force in American politics; the
American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, is the No. 1
foreign-policy lobby and the fourth most powerful lobby in Washington,
according to Fortune Magazine. Michael Lind, a senior fellow of the New
America Foundation and a former executive editor of the National Interest,
calls the Israel lobby "an ethnic donor machine" that "distorts U.S.
foreign policy" in the Middle East. Among foreign service officers, law
enforcement and the military, there is an impression, says Lind, that you
can't mess with Israel without suffering direct and indirect smears, such
as being labeled an Arabist. Lind, who himself has been virulently attacked
as an anti-Semite for his forthrightness on the subject, acknowledges that
the Israel lobby is no different from any other -- just more effective.
"This is what all lobbies do," Lind observes. "If you criticize the AARP,
you hate old people and you want them to starve to death. The Israel lobby
is just one part of the lobby problem."
Considering the volatility of the issue, it is not surprising that almost
no one in officialdom wants to go on the record for a story like the art
students. "In government circles," as Insight's Rodriguez put it, "anything
that has to do with Israel is always a hot topic, a third rail -- deadly.
No one wants to touch it." Fox News' Cameron quoted intelligence officers
saying that to publicly air suspicions of Israeli wrongdoing was tantamount
to "career suicide." And the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in one of its
bloodiest and most polarizing phases, has only exacerbated sensitivities.
Some of the same pressures that keep government officials from criticizing
Israel may also explain why the media has failed to pursue the art student
enigma. Media outlets that run stories even mildly critical of Israel often
find themselves targeted by organized campaigns, including form-letter
e-mails, the cancellation of subscriptions, and denunciations of the
organization and its reporters and editors as anti-Semites. Cameron, for
example, was excoriated by various pro-Israel lobbying groups for his
expose. Representatives of the Jewish Institute for National Security
Affairs (JINSA), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), and the Committee for
Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) argued that the Fox
report cited only unnamed sources, provided no direct evidence, and
moreover had been publicly denied by spokesmen for the FBI and others (the
last, of course, is not really an argument).
In a December interview with Salon, CAMERA's associate director, Alex
Safian, said that several "Jewish/Israeli groups" were having
"conversations" with representatives of Fox News regarding Cameron's piece.
Safian said he questioned Cameron's motives in running the story. "I think
Fox has always been fair to Israel in its reporting," said Safian. "I think
it's just Cameron who has something, personally, about Israel. He was
brought up in the Middle East. Maybe that has something to do with it.
Maybe he's very sympathetic to the Arab side. One could ask." The implicit
suggestion was that Cameron is a bigot; in conversation, Safian would later
make the same allegation about the entire editorial helm at Le Monde, which
he called an anti-Semitic newspaper.
Told of Safian's comments, Cameron said, "I'm speechless. I spent several
years in Iran growing up because my father was an archaeologist there. That
makes me anti-Israel?" The chief Washington correspondent for Fox News,
Cameron had never before been attacked for biased coverage of Israel or
Israeli-related affairs -- or for biased coverage of Arabs, for that
matter. Cameron defends his December reporting, saying he had never
received any heat whatsoever from his superiors, nor had he ever been
contacted by any dissenting voices in government.
Oddly, four days after the Cameron investigation ran, all traces of his
report -- transcripts, Web links, headlines -- disappeared from the
Foxnews.com archives. (Normally, Fox leaves a story up for two to three
weeks before consigning it to the pay archive.) When Le Monde contacted Fox
in March for a copy of the original tapes, Fox News spokesmen said the
request posed a problem but would not elaborate. (Fox News now says Le
Monde never called.) Asked why the Cameron piece disappeared, spokesman
Robert Zimmerman said it was "up there on our Web site for about two or
three weeks and then it was taken down because we had to replace it with
more breaking news. As you know, in a Web site you've got x amount of
bandwidth -- you know, x amount of stuff you can put stuff up on sic . So
it was replaced. Normal course of business, my friend." (In fact, a
text-based story on a Web site takes up a negligible amount of bandwidth.)
When informed that Cameron's story was gone from the archives, not simply
from the headline pages (when you entered the old URL, a Fox screen
appeared with the message "This story no longer exists"), Zimmerman
replied, "I don't know where it is."
The extreme sensitivity of the Israeli art student story in government
circles was made clear to this reporter when, in the midst of my inquiries
at DEA and elsewhere, I was told by a source that some unknown party had
checked my records and background. He proved it by mentioning a job I had
briefly held many years ago that virtually no one outside my family knew
about. Shortly after this, I received a call from an individual who
identified himself only by the code name Stability. Stability said he was
referred to me from "someone in Washington." That someone turned out to be
a veteran D.C. correspondent who has close sources in the CIA and the FBI
and who verified that Stability was a high-level intelligence agent who had
been following the art student matter from the inside.Stability was guarded
in his initial conversation with me. He said that people in the
intelligence committee were suspicious about my bona fides and raised the
possibility that someone was "using" me. "Your name is known and has been
known for quite a while," Stability said. "The problem is that you're going
into a hornet's nest with this. It's a very difficult time in this
particular area. This is a scenario where a lot of people are living a
bunker mentality." He added, "There are a lot of people under a lot of
pressure right now because there's a great effort to discredit the story,
discredit the connections, prevent people from going any further in
investigating the matter . There are some very, very smart people who have
taken a lot of heat on this -- have gone to what I would consider
extraordinary risks to reach out. Quite frankly, there are a lot of
patriots out there who'd like to remain alive. Typically, patriots are
dead."
In a subsequent conversation, Stability said that the DEA's Office of
Professional Responsibility is currently undertaking an aggressive
investigation targeting agents suspected of leaking the June 2001 memo. The
OPR inquiry was initiated as a result of Intelligence Online's expose of
the DEA document in late February. According to Stability, at least 14
agents -- including some in agencies other than DEA -- are now under
intense scrutiny and interrogation. Half a dozen agents have been
polygraphed several times over, computers have been seized, desks have been
searched.
A DEA spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the allegation. "Anything
that has to do with internal security, which would include OPR, is not
anything we're able to discuss," the spokesman said.
As for the DEA document itself, Stability said that all information
gathering for it ceased around June 2001. He also noted that "there are
multiple variations of that document" floating around DEA and elsewhere.
"It was a living, breathing document," Stability said, "that grew on a
week-by-week basis, that was being added to as people forwarded
information. To say this was a coordinated effort would be a stretch; it
was ad hoc. But that document the DEA memo didn't just happen. That
document was the result of literally dozens of people providing input,
working together. These events were going on, people were looking at them,
but could not understand them.
"It wasn't until the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001 that field
agents ran across a series of visits that occurred within a very close
period of time," Stability said. Agents from across the country began
talking to each other, comparing notes. "There was an embryonic
understanding that there was something here, something was happening.
People kept running across it. And agents being who they are, gut feelings
being what they are, they would catch a thread. They'd start to pull a
thread, and next thing, they'd end up with the arm of the jacket and the
back was coming off, and then you'd end up with reports like you saw. The
information, in its scattered form, is one thing. The information compiled,
documented, timelined, indexed, is a horrific event for some of these
people. Because it is indisputable."
"Agents started to realize that people were coming to their homes," he
continued. "If you are part of an organization like this, you tend to be
careful about your security. When something disturbs that sense of
security, it's unnerving. One thing that was understood fairly early on was
that the students would go to some areas that didn't have street signs, and
in fact they would already have directions to these areas. That indicated
that someone had been there prior to them or had electronically figured
where the agents were located -- using credit card records, things of that
nature. This sat in the back of people's minds as to the resources
necessary to do that."
"I will tell you that there is still great debate over what the art
students' specific purposes were and are," Stability went on. "When you
take an individual who picks up a group of individuals from an airport,
individuals who supposedly have no idea what they're doing in-country, who
fly on over from a foreign land, whose airline tickets could in some
instances total a value greater than $15,000 -- and who get picked up at
the airport and drive specifically to one individual's home, which they
know the exact directions to: Yeah, you could say there's a problem here.
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to understand that. The overarching
item is that a lot of work went into going to people's houses to sell them
junk from China in plastic frames."
But to what end? What was the value? What was to be gained? "Unknown,
unknown," Stability said. "You could be anywhere from D.C. to daylight on
that one. Even on our side, you have to take all the stuff and draw it all
out and clean out all the chaff. I will tell you that from those who are
working ground zero of this case , it is a difficult puzzle to put
together, and it is not complete by any means." Even the spooks are
baffled; they have no answers.
So let's draw out the chaff ourselves and see if we can at least speculate.
In intel circles, there are a number of working theories, according to
Stability. "Profiling of federal agents is one," said Stability. "Keeping
tabs on other people, other foreign nationals, is another. A third is that
they were working for organized crime -- that's an easy one, and it almost
sounds more like a cover than a reality. The predominant thought is that it
was a profiling endeavour, and from a profiling aspect, also one of
intimidation."
You mean this whole vast scheme was a mind fuck, to use Paul Rodriguez's
elegant phrasing? A psy-ops endeavor to spook the spooks? Perhaps. As
Stability put it, "Almost nothing is wrong in this particular instance, Mr.
Ketcham. In this particular situation, right is wrong, left is right, up is
down, day is night."
Yet for the most part the targeted agents weren't spooks in the strictest
sense: They were DEA -- cops who bust drug dealers. And that leads us into
Theory No. 1, also known as the Art Student/Drug Dealer Conspiracy. This
theory has a piece of evidence to support it: the link, mentioned in the
leaked DEA memo, between an Ecstasy investigation and the telephone numbers
provided by an Israeli detained in Orlando. There are "problems" with
Israeli nationals involved in the Ecstasy business, according to Israeli
Embassy spokesman Reguev. "Israeli authorities and the DEA are working
together on that issue," he said. In a statement before Congress in 2000,
officials with the U.S. Customs Service, which intercepted some 7 million
Ecstasy tablets last year, noted that "Israeli organized-crime elements
appear to be in control" of the multibillion-dollar U.S. Ecstasy trade,
"from production through the international smuggling phase. Couriers
associated with Israeli organized crime have been arrested around the
world, including ... locations in the U.S. such as Florida, New Jersey, New
York and California."
Miami was cited as one of the main entry points of Ecstasy into the United
States and was specified as one of the central "headquarters for the
criminal organizations that smuggle Ecstasy"; Houston was also cited for
large Ecstasy seizures -- an interesting nexus, given the large number of
"art students" who congregated both in the Miami and Ft. Lauderdale area
and in Houston. "Israeli nationals in the Ecstasy trade have been very
sophisticated in their operations," says a U.S. Customs officer who has
investigated the groups. "Some of these individuals have been skilled at
counterintelligence and in concealing their communications and movements
from law enforcement."
It would thus seem that Israeli organized crime has at least the capacity
to pull off a widespread surveillance and intelligence operation. The drug
connection would also explain the sizable reserves of cash one Tampa
student was handling.
One DEA agent named in the "art student" report told Salon that the best
possible explanation for the affair '- and he admitted to being utterly
baffled by it -- was that drug dealers were involved.
"Why us if not because of the DEA's mission?" the agent asked. "I mean,
what would Israeli intel want with us? Here's another avenue of inquiry to
take: Israeli organized crime is the now the biggest dealer of Ecstasy in
the United States. These students? It was Israeli organized crime judging
our strength, getting a survey of our operations. What if I wanted to
burglarize your building and go through your files? I'd do a reconnoiter.
Get a sense of the floor plan and security, where the guards are stationed,
how many doors, what kind of locks, alarm systems, backup alarm systems."
The trouble with this theory is the obvious one: In the annals of crime
chutzpah, for drug dealers to brazenly approach drug agents in their homes
and offices may represent the all-time world record. And what conceivable
useful intelligence could they gather that would be worth the risk? Were
the tee-heeing tight-sweatered Israeli babes pulling some kind of Mata Hari
stunt, seducing paunchy middle-aged DEA boys and beguiling them into
loose-lipped info sharing? Theory No. 2 is that they were all engaged in
espionage. This scenario has the virtue of simplicity -- if it smells like
a spy, walks like a spy, and talks like a spy, it probably is a spy -- but
doesn't make much sense, either. Why would the Mossad -- or any spy outfit
with a lick of good sense -- use kids without papers as spies? And, just as
our incredulous DEA agent noted, what intelligence useful to Israel could
be gathered from DEA offices, anyway?
I suggested to Stability that the operation, if it was that, was purposely
conspicuous -- almost oafish. "Yes, it was," he replied. "It was a noisy
operation. Did you ever see 'Victor/Victoria'? It was about a woman playing
a man playing a woman. Perhaps you should think about this from that aspect
and ask yourself if you wanted to have something that was in your face,
that didn't make sense, that couldn't possibly be them." He added, "Think
of it this way: How could the experts think this could actually be
something of any value? Wouldn't they dismiss what they were seeing?"
That's where you enter truly dark territory: Theory No. 3, the Art Student
as Agent as Art Student Smoke Screen. It has major problems, but let's roll
with it for a moment. This theory contends that the art student ring was a
smoke screen intended to create confusion and allow actual spies -- who
were also posing as art students -- to be lumped together with the rest and
escape detection. In other words, the operation is an elaborate double
fake-out, a hiding-in-plain-sight scam. Whoever dreamed it up thought ahead
to the endgame and knew that the DEA-stakeout aspect was so bizarre that it
would throw off American intelligence. According to this theory --
Stability's "Victor/Victoria" scenario -- Israeli agents wanted, let's say,
to monitor al-Qaida members in Florida and other states. But they feared
detection. So to provide cover, and also to create a dizzyingly Byzantine
story that would confuse the situation, Israeli intel flooded areas of real
operations with these bumbling "art students" -- who were told to
deliberately stake out DEA agents.
Perhaps. Why not? Up is down, left is right. I nudged Stability on the
obvious implication of the "Victor/Victoria" scenario: If this was a ruse,
a decoy to conceal another operation, what was that other operation?
"Unknown," Stability said.
Then of course there's Theory No. 4: that they really were art students.
Either they were recruited in Israel as part of an art-selling racket or
they simply hit upon the idea themselves. This theory is basically the de
facto position held by the U.S. and Israeli governments, which insist that
the only wrong committed by the "students" was to sell art without the
proper papers. There are almost too many problems with this to list, but
it's worth mentioning a few: Why in the world would people try to sell
cheap art market to DEA officials? Why would they almost all use the same
bogus Bezalel Academy of Arts cover story? Why would anyone running such a
racket to make money use foreign nationals without green cards, knowing
that they would quickly be snagged for visa violations? And why did so many
of these itinerant peddlers, wandering the United States on their strange
mission of hawking cheap Chinese knockoff paintings, have "black
information" about federal facilities?
There are other theories. One is that these were spies in training, newly
minted Mossad graduates on test runs to see how they would operate in field
conditions. I asked Stability how hotly the matter was now being pursued in
intel and law enforcement. "Depends on who you speak to," he told me. "Some
people say that it's a dead issue, a fantasy. Most of the investigations
are happening at an ad hoc level. There are people out there that you
couldn't sway off some of the cases, because that's how dedicated they
are."
Apparently, at least some agents in FBI remain quite concerned about the
art student problem. According to several intelligence sources, including
Stability, on Dec. 3, 2001, six separate FBI field offices simultaneously
forwarded communiques to FBI headquarters inquiring into the status of the
investigation. The FBI agents wanted to have a "clarification" as to what
was going on.
The subject may not be officially dead yet. The art student matter may be
taken up by the congressional committees investigating intelligence
failures leading up to the Sept. 11 attacks, according to another source.
What about the crucial Washington Post article, in which anonymous federal
agents alleged the DEA memo was the work of a disgruntled employee?
"The Washington Post article was a plant -- that's obvious. The story was
killed," Stability told me. Who planted the story? Stability claimed the
FBI was behind it. "Every organization is running scared," Stability added,
"because they're afraid of the next shoe to drop. There are many smoking
guns out there, many. So consequently every one is at a level of heightened
anxiety, and when they're anxious they make mistakes."
Yes, but what are they afraid of? What will the smoking guns prove?
Questions, questions, labyrinthine questions, and the more you ask in this
matter, the fewer get answered. When I called the CIA to inquire about the
agency's March 2001 alert -- an alert that evinced deep disquiet over the
affair -- an official who was aware of the inquiry told me, "I'll make a
recommendation to you: Don't write a story. This whole thing has been blown
way out of proportion. As far as we're concerned, we reported it, yes, but
subsequently it's nothing of interest to us. And we've just closed the book
on it. And I really recommend you do the same. Let it go. There's nothing
here."
Not everyone else in law enforcement is so sure. "There's a lot of concern
among the agents," said the DEA source. "We're investigators. We're not
satisfied when we don't have answers. This is a mystery that has an answer
and it has to be resolved."
Editor's Note: This story has been corrected since its original
publication.
LOAD-DATE: May 8, 2002
What is missing from this story is how organized crime and the Israeli government
are one and the same.
The theory missing here is that this could have been a mission with several
purposes. While wrapped up near the end with the DEA, the theories leave out
the attempted penetration of other U.S. agencies which have nothing to do
with dope dealing of any kind.
Ecstasy brings in a lot of shekels. Despite all the billions drained from America
in tax dollars every year Israel wants a lot more and dope dealing is very profitable.
Hence they targeted the DEA, helped guide and assist those who attacked the
U.S on 9-11, sent the anthrax with the threatening Muslim letters, and sent a threat
of "we know who you are and where you live".
The Jews also did something else as noted by the source called "Stability".
"Quite frankly, there are a lot of patriots out there who'd like to remain alive.
Typically, patriots are dead."
This is a figurative speech, dead as in "out of the loop" -sent to Alaska- or
dismissed.
It could well be that the Jew Cabal is consolidating its power from the top,
flushing out the patriots still hidden within, those who still feel some responsibility
to defend America from being used to cleanse the Palestinians and relocate
the looted wealth of America to Israel and its new empire within a pacified
Arab and Muslim world.
The Jews appear to have control of the Pentagon, and the Pentagon and its
corporate suppliers and research institutes compose the power structure
that runs the world. It does not have to stay here in America anymore than
General Motors has to manufacture cars here. It and Wall Street can be
relocated to Israel.
Indeed the patriots seem to be dead. The power struggle seems to be
between the British and the Israelis as to who will rule America.
The USA reduced to being ruled by its old enemy or its newer enemy.
greek_philosophizer
> So, in other words, this web site claims that an islamic group is behind
> this 'art scam' and you use it to prove that the Israelis really are. Learn
> to read better, dickhead, before you make a fool of yourself posting
> something that directly contradicts your assertions.
and if you call the phone number
of the "Government Agency" in the
original link you get a recording
that sounds like "Betty from the
Old Folks Fascist Home".
Some people just look for
excuses to hate.
Since this thread was started
by an anonymous poster who was
spamming every newsgroup he could
with this balony perhaps further
posts on this topic could be made
to alt.fascist.
.
.
Terry
Plong - gone!
"Awake" <Anonymous...@See.Comment.Header> wrote in message
news:RDQCQMUP3786...@Gilgamesh-frog.org...
<extraneous tripe snipped>
Bill Ditmire
>describing their plans to help Israel.
>
Perle is a career opportunist who serves only himself. He goes directly from
top-secret meetings of the national defense council, to a Wall Street luncheon
where he is paid up to $500,000 to paraphrase the important stuff to industry
groups to help them guess where to place their financial bets according to
future administration moves.
greek_philosophizer
>
> Perle is a career opportunist who serves only himself. He goes directly from
> top-secret meetings of the national defense council, to a Wall Street luncheon
> where he is paid up to $500,000 to paraphrase the important stuff to industry
> groups to help them guess where to place their financial bets according to
> future administration moves.
Your assertion may be lacking in supporting data.
How do you know that Perle is a career opportunist
who serves only himself? That would imply that you
have an intimate knowledge of the inner workings
of his mind. Would not such knowledge require
extensive and significant conversations with the
subject? How do you know that he is not motivated
by the desire to do what he thinks is best for the
country? The fact that he gives speeches for money
may only be evidence that he is willing to take
money for giving speeches. I think most people
would be happy to have such a financial
arrangement. Would he not be stupid to turn down
half a million just for giving a speech?
I am not an expert on conservatives but was it
not Perle who annoyed Nancy by not dressing up
to the standards of the Reagan administration?
His response when challenged on that was that
he made Reagan look even better when he stood next
to him. Am I thinking of the right guy?
I wonder if he drives a Merc?
.
d-kopf
--
// d-kopf
"Awake" <Anonymous...@See.Comment.Header> wrote in message
news:LS8LDLL63786...@Gilgamesh-frog.org...
> .. Kantor's whole demeanor changed, and he then became uncooperative."
Frank Kemper
@newsc.telia.net dies gedichtet:
> Umm... Isn't this a "bit" OT?
>
No, this is absolutely, definitely and infinitely OT
Frank
--
please replace spam-muelleimer with fk-newsgroups for e-mail contact
Time Flies Like An Arrow - Fruit Flies Like A Banana
L
I hope someone will help you to learn how to live a useful life.
Awake wrote:(...)> The USA reduced to being ruled by its old enemy or
its newer enemy.
greek_philosophizer
# L wrote:
(Spam from the anonymous coward, who is a fucking
idiot) 1>/dev/null 2>&1 < 'I hope someone will
help you to learn how to live a useful life.'
dizzy
>Umm... Isn't this a "bit" OT?
>
>--
>// d-kopf
Stupid top poster. Was it really necessary to quote the entire
original post?
Harvey Louzon
>
> Two words:
>
> Jonathan Pollard.
You worried about Jonathan Pollard? Well chew on this awhile:
http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
h
MusicMax
It doesn't surprise me that you take your foreign policy cues from a
barely literate whiskey-swilling redneck.
Harvey Louzon
Two points: Give me a cogent reason why should I not take my cues from him
rather than some annonymous jerk who is afraid to identify himself and take
responsibility for his words and 2) what, specifically, do you disagree with
in his commentary? That radial Islam has fomented terror in the four
corners of the earth? That radical islam has attacked the U.S. here, in
Saudi Arabia, kidnapped Americans in the Phillipines, blown up our ships in
Yemen, bombed our Embassies in Africa, killed scores of Marines in Lebanon,
murdered 3000 of our citizens in NYC (remember 9/11?).
I'm supposed to ignore all of this and worry about Jonathan Pollard selling
PLO floorplans to the Israelis? Really?
h
h
MusicMax
>
> "MusicMax" <mRuEsMiOcVmEa!x...@carolina.rr.com> wrote in message
> news:Xns93EBB6625...@24.25.9.41...
>> "Harvey Louzon" <rabb...@comcast.net> wrote in
>> news:WAf5b.341275$uu5.68764@sccrnsc04:
>>
>> >
>> > "MusicMax" <mRuEsMiOcVmEa!x...@carolina.rr.com> wrote in message
>> > news:Xns93E9A7B9C...@24.25.9.41...
>> >> "Harvey Louzon" <rabb...@comcast.net> wrote in
>> >>
>> >> > Looks like the Islamofascists are spying on us.
>> >>
>> >> Two words:
>> >>
>> >> Jonathan Pollard.
>> >
>> > You worried about Jonathan Pollard? Well chew on this awhile:
>> >
>> > http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
>>
>> It doesn't surprise me that you take your foreign policy cues from a
>> barely literate whiskey-swilling redneck.
>
> Two points: Give me a cogent reason why should I not take my cues
> from him rather than some annonymous jerk who is afraid to identify
> himself and take responsibility for his words
Two responses:
1) Why do you find it easier to attack me and my methods rather than the
facts I (and the original poster) presented? I choose to use a nick
*precisely* because it is the points I make, rather than the person I
am, that are important in these dialogs. It seems obvious you cannot
deal with the former, so you choose to attack the latter. Which is
predictable.
2) I am not asking you to take any cues from me. I think each
individual should gather as many facts (FACTS, not the OPINIONS of
OTHERS) and make up their own minds. The post you referred me to by Mr.
"Legend Of Wooley Swamp" (hint: MusicMax is a reference to my side gig
as a DJ, so I've forgotten more about Charlie Daniels than most people
know) was an ill-informed opinion piece containing numerous factual
errors and riddled with simpleminded jingoism. This contrasts with the
original post (as well as the other articles I have referred to) which
was the result of investigative journalism and the gathering of official
documents.
> 2) what, specifically, do you disagree with
> in his commentary? That radial Islam has fomented terror in the four
> corners of the earth? That radical islam has attacked the U.S. here,
> in Saudi Arabia, kidnapped Americans in the Phillipines, blown up our
> ships in Yemen, bombed our Embassies in Africa, killed scores of
> Marines in Lebanon, murdered 3000 of our citizens in NYC (remember
> 9/11?).
You refer to "radical Islam" as if there is a single entity encompassing
and controlling all Muslims. If every Muslim is Mohammed Atta, then
every Christian is Eric Rudolph. If every Muslim is Zacharias Moussaui,
then every Christian is Paul Hill. If every Muslim is engaged in jihad,
then every Christian was a participant in the Crusades.
It should surprise nobody that revolutionary elements of the Middle East
have chosen methods of terror in an attempt to further their goals -
after all, Ariel Sharon, Menachem Begin and David Ben-Gurion were
leaders of the Israeli terror groups Irgun and Hagallah.
Charlie might want to update his "soapbox" in light of the new Israeli
report condemning that country's government for "decades of systematic
discrimination" against Arabs.
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030901.warab0901/BNStor
y/International/
Oh, and did you know it was illegal in Israel for a Jew to marry a
Gentile? Nice "open society" they run, ain't it?
> I'm supposed to ignore all of this and worry about Jonathan Pollard
> selling PLO floorplans to the Israelis? Really?
I don't believe it was "PLO floorplans" that caused Reagan's Defense
Secretary Casper Weinberger to declare at Pollard's sentencing, "It is
difficult for me to conceive of a greater harm to national security than
that caused by the defendant." Once again, you appear to be a bit short
on the facts.
What you shouldn't ignore is 36 years of oppressive military occupation,
and the $100,000,000,000.00 in US tax money that has facilitated it.
And I would suggest you not ignore the fact that more Americans have
died AFTER the Iraq war was declared "over" than died in the Oklahoma
City bombing.
nick
"Harvey Louzon" <rabb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> > >> > Looks like the Islamofascists are spying on us.
> > >>
> > >> Two words:
> > >>
> > >> Jonathan Pollard.
> > >
> > > You worried about Jonathan Pollard? Well chew on this awhile:
> > >
> > > http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
> >
> > It doesn't surprise me that you take your foreign policy cues from a
> > barely literate whiskey-swilling redneck.
>
> Two points: Give me a cogent reason why should I not take my cues from
him
Because he's a racist fool.
Adam Selene
"nick" <pizzalovin...@allstar.ps> wrote in message
news:Pe26b.7504$Ci1.1...@newsfep2-win.server.ntli.net...
Please tell us how you came to the conclusion that he is a racist. As to
him being a fool, I only wish I were that sort of fool. While I do not
particularly care for all of his music, he is a very successful musician
who's career spans over 30 years. Am I to assume you think you can do
better since you think he is a fool?
Harvey Louzon
"Adam Selene" <AdamS...@Lunacity.net> wrote in message
news:dVb6b.1311$dF3.60...@twister1.starband.net...
Actually I was just going to let him have the last word on this. The issues
are just too obvious to anybody who cares to analyze the situation and see
what is happening in the world today.
As far as Charlie Daniels is concerned I began reading his editorials after
seeing him on TV (I'm not a country music fan). I was amazed at the clarity
and logic of his arguments. Simply dismissing him as a 'hillbilly' is a
facile argument for those who don't want to confront the facts. Whether you
agree with him or not (and I do) one has to conclude that his positions are
well thought out. At least he has the courage to sign his names to his
opinions and not hide behind an annonymous remailer.
So MusicMax et. al. just flail away.
h
nick
"Adam Selene" <AdamS...@Lunacity.net> wrote in message
> > > > >> > Looks like the Islamofascists are spying on us.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Two words:
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Jonathan Pollard.
> > > > >
> > > > > You worried about Jonathan Pollard? Well chew on this awhile:
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
> > > >
> > > > It doesn't surprise me that you take your foreign policy cues from a
> > > > barely literate whiskey-swilling redneck.
> > >
> > > Two points: Give me a cogent reason why should I not take my cues
from
> > him
> >
> > Because he's a racist fool.
> >
> >
>
> Please tell us how you came to the conclusion that he is a racist.
How about blatent lies like these:
"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children regularly
blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
Just substitute ol' Charlie for Hitler, and change all his references to
Muslims to Jews...
> As to him being a fool, I only wish I were that sort of fool.
Your wish has come true.
> While I do not particularly care for all of his music, he is a very
successful musician
> who's career spans over 30 years. Am I to assume you think you can do
> better since you think he is a fool?
I'll take banjo lessons, do you have to be inbred to succeed in country
music?
nick
"Harvey Louzon" <rabb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> As far as Charlie Daniels is concerned I began reading his editorials
after
> seeing him on TV (I'm not a country music fan). I was amazed at the
clarity
> and logic of his arguments. Simply dismissing him as a 'hillbilly' is a
> facile argument for those who don't want to confront the facts.
How about this to show his loony credentials, not only does he think Muslims
are the root of all evil, but:
(http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/03/289.html)
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, man and woman,
the animals, birds, fish and all that has ever or will ever exist."
"That's the beginning and the end of it. It is the total, complete
truth about where we came from and no amount of scientific theory, and
that's all it is, theory, can ever change that fact."
"Evolution is a lie, plain and simple and has never been and never will
be proven simply because it is one humongous hoax."
"And God did not just create our origins. He is still creating.
Every tree and flower is a creation of God. We can water the garden
but only God can make it grow."
"Every thunderstorm is God's handiwork, the wind, the waves and the
rain. He also causes the sun to rise and the moon to shine."
"God's word tell us that He knew us in our mother's womb and knit the
pieces together. In other words, He created us in our mother's wombs."
"I have heard it said that the odds of human beings being evolved and
not created would be like a junk pile coming together of its own accord
and building a 747 airplane."
"In other words, it's just plain impossible."
"Look around you at God's creation. Every natural thing you see is made
by Him. Even those human beings running around out there."
"Pray for our troops."
Pray for Charlie's sanity to return.
"The children of Israel hold the title to the land they live on, the
oldest deed in existence granted to them by none other than the creator
of the universe, Almighty God. The area is well defined and has been
promised to them forever, and no power on earth can take it from them."
"There will be no peace in the Middle East until Jesus Christ comes back
to earth. Oh there will be a three and a half year period of peace
under the rule of the satanic antichrist, but only the return of Jesus
will bring lasting peace in Israel."
Gunner
<pizzalovin...@allstar.ps> wrote:
>
>"Adam Selene" <AdamS...@Lunacity.net> wrote in message
>
>> > > > >> > Looks like the Islamofascists are spying on us.
>> > > > >>
>> > > > >> Two words:
>> > > > >>
>> > > > >> Jonathan Pollard.
>> > > > >
>> > > > > You worried about Jonathan Pollard? Well chew on this awhile:
>> > > > >
>> > > > > http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
>> > > >
>> > > > It doesn't surprise me that you take your foreign policy cues from a
>> > > > barely literate whiskey-swilling redneck.
>> > >
>> > > Two points: Give me a cogent reason why should I not take my cues
>from
>> > him
>> >
>> > Because he's a racist fool.
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Please tell us how you came to the conclusion that he is a racist.
>
>How about blatent lies like these:
>
>"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
>freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
>subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
>could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
>
>"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children regularly
>blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
>
Ok...now where are the lies? Seems pretty much right on the money to
me.
>http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
>
>Just substitute ol' Charlie for Hitler, and change all his references to
>Muslims to Jews...
But why? If he had meant jews he would have said jews, and of course
the above doesnt apply to jews as we all known, including Charlie.
>
>> As to him being a fool, I only wish I were that sort of fool.
>
>Your wish has come true.
>
>> While I do not particularly care for all of his music, he is a very
>successful musician
>> who's career spans over 30 years. Am I to assume you think you can do
>> better since you think he is a fool?
>
>I'll take banjo lessons, do you have to be inbred to succeed in country
>music?
>
No, actually its an impediment, so keep your day job.
So how is your sister-mom doing anyways?
Gunner
"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child -
miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied,
demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless.
Liberalism is a philosphy of sniveling brats." -- P.J. O'Rourke
Unknown
<pizzalovin...@allstar.ps> wrote:
>
>"Adam Selene" <AdamS...@Lunacity.net> wrote in message
>
>> > > > >> > Looks like the Islamofascists are spying on us.
>> > > > >>
>> > > > >> Two words:
>> > > > >>
>> > > > >> Jonathan Pollard.
>> > > > >
>> > > > > You worried about Jonathan Pollard? Well chew on this awhile:
>> > > > >
>> > > > > http://www.charliedaniels.com/soapbox/02/225.html
>> > > >
>> > > > It doesn't surprise me that you take your foreign policy cues from a
>> > > > barely literate whiskey-swilling redneck.
>> > >
>> > > Two points: Give me a cogent reason why should I not take my cues
>from
>> > him
>> >
>> > Because he's a racist fool.
>> >
>> >
>>
>> Please tell us how you came to the conclusion that he is a racist.
>
>How about blatent lies like these:
>
>"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
>freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
>subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
>could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
where?
>
>"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children regularly
>blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
what?
nick
<le...@skunkers.org (leon skunkers)> wrote in message
> >> Please tell us how you came to the conclusion that he is a racist.
> >
> >How about blatent lies like these:
> >
> >"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
> >freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
> >subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
> >could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
>
> where?
I know, the man's a lunatic, the above is clearly rubbish.
> >"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children regularly
> >blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
>
> what?
Indeed, how anyone can criticise the actions of the brave Palestinian
freedom fighters is amazing, he even tries to justify the Israeli war crimes
and land theft by quoting the Old Testament.
Brian Bernardini
Gunner <gun...@lightspeed.net> wrote:
> >"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
> >freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
> >subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
> >could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
> >
> >"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children regularly
> >blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
> >
>
> Ok...now where are the lies? Seems pretty much right on the money to
> me.
So if I said all Christians shoot abortion providers, that would be
accurate?
Seems to me that one could substitute "Christianity" in the first quote,
and it would be pretty accurate, at least in the America Bush is leading
us to.
----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---
Harvey Louzon
>
> Indeed, how anyone can criticise the actions of the brave Palestinian
> freedom fighters is amazing, he even tries to justify the Israeli war
crimes
> and land theft by quoting the Old Testament.
>
>
Israel knows how to deal with these "brave palestinian freedom fighters."
Not with words but with missiles. Just the other day a Hamas criminal was
trying to travel incognito by dressing as a farmer and riding a donkey cart.
An Israeli missile fired from a helicopter put an end to all this
enthusiasm.
Regrettably the donkey was killed as well.
h
Gunner
<bbern...@comLOOKATTHATcast.net> wrote:
>In article <rabjlv4mho8t211pl...@4ax.com>,
> Gunner <gun...@lightspeed.net> wrote:
>
>
>> >"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
>> >freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
>> >subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
>> >could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
>> >
>> >"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children regularly
>> >blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
>> >
>>
>> Ok...now where are the lies? Seems pretty much right on the money to
>> me.
>
>So if I said all Christians shoot abortion providers, that would be
>accurate?
>
Lets stick to the statements already made. Where are the lies?
>Seems to me that one could substitute "Christianity" in the first quote,
>and it would be pretty accurate, at least in the America Bush is leading
>us to.
Seems to me you could substitute a broom handle for a chair and you
would still never touch the ground when you squatted. Your point
again, is?
Gunner
>
>
>----== Posted via Newsfeed.Com - Unlimited-Uncensored-Secure Usenet News==----
>http://www.newsfeed.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World! >100,000 Newsgroups
>---= 19 East/West-Coast Specialized Servers - Total Privacy via Encryption =---
"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child -
nick
"Harvey Louzon" <rabb...@comcast.net> wrote in message
> > Indeed, how anyone can criticise the actions of the brave Palestinian
> > freedom fighters is amazing, he even tries to justify the Israeli war
> crimes
> > and land theft by quoting the Old Testament.
> >
> >
>
> Israel knows how to deal with these "brave palestinian freedom fighters."
Just like Germany dealt with the Jews.
> Not with words but with missiles.
That's the problem with warcriminals.
> Just the other day a Hamas criminal was trying to travel incognito by
dressing as a farmer and riding a donkey cart.
> An Israeli missile fired from a helicopter put an end to all this
> enthusiasm.
You cheer on execution without trial?
> Regrettably the donkey was killed as well.
And regrettably you gain amusement from this crime.
photographer
"Gunner" <gun...@lightspeed.net> wrote in message
news:a3rjlv8tfu4rfnq44...@4ax.com...
> On Sat, 06 Sep 2003 07:57:04 -0400, Brian Bernardini
> <bbern...@comLOOKATTHATcast.net> wrote:
>
> >In article <rabjlv4mho8t211pl...@4ax.com>,
> > Gunner <gun...@lightspeed.net> wrote:
> >
> >
> >> >"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
> >> >freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
> >> >subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
> >> >could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
> >> >
> >> >"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children regularly
> >> >blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
> >> >
> >>
> >> Ok...now where are the lies? Seems pretty much right on the money to
> >> me.
> >
> >So if I said all Christians shoot abortion providers, that would be
> >accurate?
> >
>
> Lets stick to the statements already made. Where are the lies?
>
The thing is what was sais was ''Muslims who have absolutely no regard for
innocent children regularly blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
It did NOT say ALL Muslims so to use as a counter the statement ''So if I
said all Christians shoot abortion providers, that would be accurate?'' is
negated due to erroneous usage if one takes into account the actual wording.
> >Seems to me that one could substitute "Christianity" in the first quote,
> >and it would be pretty accurate, at least in the America Bush is leading
> >us to.
>
> Seems to me you could substitute a broom handle for a chair and you
> would still never touch the ground when you squatted. Your point
> again, is?
>
He doesn't have one.
tro...@hotmail.com
<pizzalovin...@allstar.ps> wrote:
PLEASE don't feed the trolls !
Mysterion
Another kisser of zionist ass is heard from.
booksite2000
> > Israel knows how to deal with these "brave palestinian freedom fighters."
> > Not with words but with missiles. Just the other day a Hamas criminal was
> > trying to travel incognito by dressing as a farmer and riding a donkey
> cart.
> > An Israeli missile fired from a helicopter put an end to all this
> > enthusiasm.
> >
> > Regrettably the donkey was killed as well.
>
> Another kisser of zionist ass is heard from.
Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
terrorist organizations. The savages who claim to be "freedom
fighters" ONLY attack civilians (it's safer, don't you know).
Answer that, Jethro. Tell us why the so-call Palestinian freedom
fighters (by the way, Jethro, did you no that there has NEVER, not for
ONE SECOND in the history of this planet, been a country called
"Palestine".....this is a myth created by the terrorist Arabs to fool
idiots like you. 'Think I'm wrong? Show me when and where "Palestine"
ever existed).
Israel is an open, free democracy, kinda like the U.S. People can own
guns, speak their minds in public (even if they disagree with the
government) and behave like civilized people. The so-called
"Palestinians", like ALL of the Arab savages, live in complete
totatitarian dictarorships. No freedom. None. Controlled press. No
contrary opinions tolerated.
And you side with these motherfuckers?
Fuck you.
nick
"booksite2000" <booksi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > Another kisser of zionist ass is heard from.
>
> Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
> realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
> terrorist organizations.
So how do you account for all the Palestinian children killed?
> Answer that, Jethro. Tell us why the so-call Palestinian freedom
> fighters (by the way, Jethro, did you no that there has NEVER, not for
> ONE SECOND in the history of this planet, been a country called
> "Palestine".....this is a myth created by the terrorist Arabs to fool
> idiots like you. 'Think I'm wrong? Show me when and where "Palestine"
> ever existed).
Here you go:
http://www.pcbs.org/english/pal_map.htm
> Israel is an open, free democracy, kinda like the U.S. People can own
> guns, speak their minds in public (even if they disagree with the
> government) and behave like civilized people.
This sort of thing?
"A Jewish settler convicted of beating a Palestinian child to death in the
West Bank four years ago has been sentenced to six months' community service
by an Israeli court."
"At the time of the killing, the Israeli authorities said he had kicked
Hilmi to the ground, placed his foot on his neck and beat him on the head
with a pistol butt."
"The boy died in hospital a day later after suffering a head injury and
fractured spinal cord."
(http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1129829.stm)
> The so-called "Palestinians", like ALL of the Arab savages, live in
complete
> totatitarian dictarorships. No freedom. None. Controlled press. No
> contrary opinions tolerated.
Why do you hate Arabs so much?
> And you side with these motherfuckers?
>
> Fuck you.
You're happy to let the world see what a moronic racist you are?
Mysterion
> Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
> realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
> terrorist organizations.
Yes.
Many terrorist organizations are lead by 8 year old girls.
FOAD, you scum-sucking shitstain.
Gregory Procter
nick wrote:
> "booksite2000" <booksi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>
> > > Another kisser of zionist ass is heard from.
> >
> > Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
> > realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
> > terrorist organizations.
>
> So how do you account for all the Palestinian children killed?
I think they define anyone they hit to be "a leader of a terrorist
organisation".
Morton Davis
-*MORT*-
nick
"Morton Davis" <oglet...@oglethorpe.com> wrote in message
> > > Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
> > > realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
> > > terrorist organizations.
> >
> > Yes.
> > Many terrorist organizations are lead by 8 year old girls.
> >
> > FOAD, you scum-sucking shitstain.
> >
> >
> How many Israeli soldiers are billetted in markets or on public buses?
How many Israeli war crimes will it take for you to realise what is actually
happening?
MusicMax
news:6ff7145.03090...@posting.google.com:
> "Mysterion" <zo...@supernet.com> wrote in message news:<E8r6b.6468$> >
>> > Israel knows how to deal with these "brave palestinian freedom
>> > fighters." Not with words but with missiles. Just the other day a
>> > Hamas criminal was trying to travel incognito by dressing as a
>> > farmer and riding a donkey
>> cart.
>> > An Israeli missile fired from a helicopter put an end to all this
>> > enthusiasm.
>> >
>> > Regrettably the donkey was killed as well.
>>
>> Another kisser of zionist ass is heard from.
>
> Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
> realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
> terrorist organizations.
Israel has targeted EVERY aspect of Arab life in both Israel proper and
the territories they've oppressed under military occupation since 1967 -
this was most recently documented in a report by a commission FORMED BY
THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT. Israel has done everything from slaughtering
livestock to burning down orchards of olive trees to shutting down trade
routes, in addition to the MURDER OF FOUR HUNDRED SIXTY THREE CHILDREN:
http://www.whowillsavethechildren.org/remember2000.html
> The savages who claim to be "freedom
> fighters" ONLY attack civilians (it's safer, don't you know).
When Ariel Sharon, David Ben-Guirion and Menachem Begin were in the
Irgun and Hagallah terrorist groups, they did not attack the mighty
British military either, they bombed civilians in the King David Hotel.
> Answer that, Jethro. Tell us why the so-call Palestinian freedom
> fighters (by the way, Jethro, did you no that there has NEVER, not for
> ONE SECOND in the history of this planet, been a country called
> "Palestine".....this is a myth created by the terrorist Arabs to fool
> idiots like you. 'Think I'm wrong? Show me when and where "Palestine"
> ever existed).
The word "Palestine" is an evolution of the word "Philistine" of
Biblical origin.
> Israel is an open, free democracy,
...where it is illegal for a Jew and Gentile to marry.
> People can own guns,
Especially if they're 13-year-olds serving in the army. Nice "free
democracy".
> The so-called
> "Palestinians", like ALL of the Arab savages, live in complete
> totatitarian dictarorships. No freedom. None. Controlled press. No
> contrary opinions tolerated.
Which territories have Arabs oppressed under military occupation for the
past thirty-six years? Name those territories right here: ___________
> And you side with these motherfuckers?
>
> Fuck you.
Profanity and ad hominem - the final refuges of the morally and
intellectually bankrupt.
Morton Davis
> booksi...@hotmail.com (booksite2000) wrote in
> news:6ff7145.03090...@posting.google.com:
>
> > "Mysterion" <zo...@supernet.com> wrote in message news:<E8r6b.6468$> >
> >> > Israel knows how to deal with these "brave palestinian freedom
> >> > fighters." Not with words but with missiles. Just the other day a
> >> > Hamas criminal was trying to travel incognito by dressing as a
> >> > farmer and riding a donkey
> >> cart.
> >> > An Israeli missile fired from a helicopter put an end to all this
> >> > enthusiasm.
> >> >
> >> > Regrettably the donkey was killed as well.
> >>
> >> Another kisser of zionist ass is heard from.
> >
> > Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
> > realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
> > terrorist organizations.
>
> Israel has targeted EVERY aspect of Arab life in both Israel proper and
> the territories they've oppressed under military occupation since 1967 -
> this was most recently documented in a report by a commission FORMED BY
> THE ISRAELI GOVERNMENT. Israel has done everything from slaughtering
> livestock to burning down orchards of olive trees to shutting down trade
Meanwhile, your beloved arabs have been happily blowing up more arabs with
their fucktard suicide bombs than they do Israelis.
-*MORT*-
booksite2000
So let's see, Jethro. You find one apocryphal story about an "8 year
old girl" and somehow manage to convince yourself that somehow equals
Israeli policy.
What kind of inbred jackass would argue in favor of the arab, who,
unless your pea brain has already managed to forget, DO have a policy
of blowing up planes, buildings, buses, etc...that are FULL of
innocent people. I won't have to go scuming around the internet
looking for one or two isolated examples of individual misdeeds by the
odd Israeli soldier to make a case that arab terrorists are a plague
upon humanity. You, on the other hand, seem eager to bend logic beyond
its breaking point...and for WHAT?
To make a point that the Israelis, a *functioning democracy* with free
speech, free press and the rights of private property........are the
bad guys in a conflict with people whose POLICY it is to attack NOT
Israeli soldiers, but rather innocent civilians.
What kind of fucking savage would want to make such a point. And why?
booksite2000
Hey, Nicky boy, I'm still waiting for you to tell everyone WHEN the
Palestinians were driven from their country, Palestine??
Come on. Inquiring minds want to know!!
Huh? There never WAS a country called Palestine? Well, gee.....so
much for the "land theft".
MusicMax
Meanwhile, since you can't defend Israel on the facts of the situation,
you try to change the subject to Iraq. Sorry - didn't work.
MusicMax
> "Mysterion" <zo...@supernet.com> wrote in message
news:<CoN6b.5005$BG6...@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>...
>> "booksite2000" <booksi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>> news:6ff7145.03090...@posting.google.com...
>> > Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
>> > realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
>> > terrorist organizations.
>>
>> Yes.
>> Many terrorist organizations are lead by 8 year old girls.
>>
>> FOAD, you scum-sucking shitstain.
>
>
> So let's see, Jethro. You find one apocryphal story about an "8 year
> old girl" and somehow manage to convince yourself that somehow equals
> Israeli policy.
http://www.whowillsavethechildren.org/remember2000.html
I wouldn't call 463 child deaths "apocryphal".
> What kind of inbred jackass would argue in favor of the arab
The arab has not been engaged in thirty-six years (a generation and a
half) of oppressive military occupation.
> To make a point that the Israelis, a *functioning democracy*
Unless you're an Arab, as documented by an ISRAELI GOVERNMENT REPORT
released last week:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030901.warab0901/BNStory
/International/
> with free
> speech, free press and the rights of private property
See above.
> What kind of fucking savage would want to make such a point. And why?
More profanity and ad hominem - the final refuges of the morally and
intellectually bankrupt.
Chris O'Malley
> Which territories have Arabs oppressed under military occupation for the
> past thirty-six years? Name those territories right here: ___________
Is this a serious questions? Simple answer is : the territories they rule
ie: Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, et al.......
MusicMax
news:LLR6b.94646$Sq.18...@twister.nyc.rr.com:
Your ignorance of world politics is monumentally appalling. But thanks
for playing anyway.
p
l
o
n
k
Morton Davis
Moreover, why do they blow up more of their own people than they do their
"enemy".
-*MORT*-
Nola Daniell
have the courtesy to trim the headers and get if OFF rec.music.country.music.
It is nothing to do with this NG
Lawrence Glickman wrote:
>
> On 7 Sep 2003 18:47:32 -0700, booksi...@hotmail.com (booksite2000)
> I figure he is a raghead himself, and is trying to excuse the poor
> behavior of his brethren ( or rationalize it anyhow ).
>
> Yah know, many centuries ago, GOD hiz self told the Israelites to pick
> up their swords and SMITE the philistines. Seems they didn't finish
> the job they were ordered to do, and now look at the shit.
>
> Somewhere down the road, the REST of the Pallies are going to have to
> go up a smokestack somewhere or this shit will never end.
>
> Lg
> Zionist Conspirator
>
> =======================================================
>
> Now Meat will say his traditional:
>
> FUCK YOU Glickie, you long nosed jew bastard.
> =======================================================
>
> Of course, Meat and I agreed not too long ago, that there is zero
> either of us can do to influence the situation. nothing. Even ABBAS
> just quit his job. Even HE can't handle Hamas and Arafart. So, what
> chance does anybody else have?
>
> Meat and me, we just shake our heads and go on with Life. There is
> nothing we can do. Insulting eachother gets old after a while.
>
> Lg
MusicMax
news:upqnlv0km367uo135...@4ax.com:
> On 7 Sep 2003 18:47:32 -0700, booksi...@hotmail.com (booksite2000)
> wrote:
>
> I figure he is a raghead himself, and is trying to excuse the poor
> behavior of his brethren ( or rationalize it anyhow ).
>
> Yah know, many centuries ago, GOD hiz self told the Israelites to pick
> up their swords and SMITE the philistines. Seems they didn't finish
> the job they were ordered to do, and now look at the shit.
More ad hominem and profanity - the final refuges of the morally and
intellectually bankrupt.
> Somewhere down the road, the REST of the Pallies are going to have to
> go up a smokestack somewhere or this shit will never end.
As I've said all along: the only thing Ariel Sharon et al learned from the
Holocaust was how to conduct another.
Gregory Procter
Chris O'Malley wrote:
They live there - they come from there. That doesn't qualify as military
occupation.
Chris O'Malley
head.... The point of the post was twofold, and relatively simple.
Implied was the idea that you criticize Israel for doing to arabs the same
thing arabs do to arabs. I guess you're OK with arab persecution as long as
it's done by arabs, and not Israel......Would you not call saddams rule a
"military occupation"? See, it's kind of tough to follow the reasoning, but
you'll get it eventually...
Also implied in the post were the fundamental differnces in human rights
found in free societies as opposed to most arab societies... Would you try
to argue that the muslim societies of the middle east have contributed
anything to the world in the past few hundred years other than terrorism?
There is a reason they have not kept up with the rest of the world, and
guess what- it's not because of the big bad evil USA or Israel....
But as the saying goes, "YOU CAN"T IMPLY ANYTHING TO MORONS"
"MusicMax" <mRuEsMiOcVmEa!x...@carolina.rr.com> wrote in message
news:Xns93EFE6857...@24.25.9.41...
Gunner
<mRuEsMiOcVmEa!x...@carolina.rr.com> wrote:
>booksi...@hotmail.com (booksite2000) wrote in
>news:6ff7145.03090...@posting.google.com:
>
>> "Mysterion" <zo...@supernet.com> wrote in message
>news:<CoN6b.5005$BG6...@newsread1.news.atl.earthlink.net>...
>>> "booksite2000" <booksi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>>> news:6ff7145.03090...@posting.google.com...
>>> > Another inbred hillbilly idiot who can't think clearly enough to
>>> > realize that Israel targets *military* targets, i.e. *leaders* of
>>> > terrorist organizations.
>>>
>>> Yes.
>>> Many terrorist organizations are lead by 8 year old girls.
>>>
>>> FOAD, you scum-sucking shitstain.
>>
>>
>> So let's see, Jethro. You find one apocryphal story about an "8 year
>> old girl" and somehow manage to convince yourself that somehow equals
>> Israeli policy.
>
>http://www.whowillsavethechildren.org/remember2000.html
>
>I wouldn't call 463 child deaths "apocryphal".
Would you care to post the numbers of Israeli children killed by
Tangos? It wasn't until the teachers started carrying automatic
weapons that the Pals stopped machine gunning and grenading classrooms
in elementary schools...
>
>> What kind of inbred jackass would argue in favor of the arab
>
>The arab has not been engaged in thirty-six years (a generation and a
>half) of oppressive military occupation.
>
Occupation of what? Land given to them by the British? Or are you
claiming that there was some mythical Palistinian State before 1946?
>> To make a point that the Israelis, a *functioning democracy*
>
>Unless you're an Arab, as documented by an ISRAELI GOVERNMENT REPORT
>released last week:
>
>http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20030901.warab0901/BNStory
>/International/
>
>> with free
>> speech, free press and the rights of private property
>
>See above.
>
>
>> What kind of fucking savage would want to make such a point. And why?
>
>More profanity and ad hominem - the final refuges of the morally and
>intellectually bankrupt.
This is like a spelling flame..right? When you have no defense for
your position that any one will believe..you attack the posters
posting style... Lawyers and other forms of bacteria do that quite a
lot. Your comment is a perfect example.
Gunner
Mysterion
to debate with you?
You are a disease.
Even more loathsome than the syphilis that your whore mother passed on to
you.
You are the fourth act of the day of the rope.
"MIDIcian" (tm)
> Are you so stupid, you sucker of jew cocks, that you think I actually want
> to debate with you?
Of course you don't, you only want to kill us (and install your so-called
religious government around the world.)
Stan Rosenthal
Mysterion
""MIDIcian" (tm)" <St...@NeverFalls.com> wrote in message
news:bjh8sj$s4k$0...@pita.alt.net...
Kinda like Israel?
You're half right.
You make poor suds, sapon.
"MIDIcian" (tm)
Straw man.
> You're half right.
You're underexaggerating (except that I'm (politically speaking) a lefty.)
> You make poor suds, sapon.
I prefer to smoke pot, than to brew beer.
Stan Rosenthal, agnostic
Mysterion
""MIDIcian" (tm)" <St...@NeverFalls.com> wrote in message
Oy vey!
Stanley, you're an idiot!
You can't even speak ivrit!
"MIDIcian" (tm)
> Oy vey!
> Stanley, you're an idiot!
Straw man.
> You can't even speak ivrit!
Red-herring. I can speak "English".
Stan
booksite2000
> > >
> > So let's see, Jethro. You find one apocryphal story about an "8 year
> > old girl" and somehow manage to convince yourself that somehow equals
> > Israeli policy.
>
> http://www.whowillsavethechildren.org/remember2000.html
>
> I wouldn't call 463 child deaths "apocryphal".
>
You MUST be joking. Your entire arguement is based on information
gleened from a propoganda site set up with the specific purpose of
posting anti-Western and pro "Palestinian" (keeping in mind of course
that no such county ever existed, and the myth of there having been a
"Palestine" from which these so-called "Palestinians" were thrown is
the biggest con of the last century) garbage? I might as well site
the Jewish Defense league as an objective source of news. But the
thing is, I don't *have* to pull contrived propaganda from sites set
up by those who would be perfectly happy to see the U.S. nuked by the
next wave of terrorists to make my point. Simple facts support my
case.
The question remains.........who would go to such great lengths to
support people who hate the U.S., the freedoms enjoyed by the West,
and our very way of life.......people who cheered in the streets when
the twin towers collapsed, killing thousands of our countrymen? Who
would stretch logic to the limit to make a flawed agrument in *favor*
of these people and *against* the ONLY democracry in the area, and one
which is broadly on "our" side?
A real sicko.
nick
"Chris O'Malley" <coma...@nyc.rr.com@nyc.rr.com> wrote in message
> Implied was the idea that you criticize Israel for doing to arabs the same
> thing arabs do to arabs. I guess you're OK with arab persecution as long
as
> it's done by arabs, and not Israel......Would you not call saddams rule a
> "military occupation"? See, it's kind of tough to follow the reasoning,
but
> you'll get it eventually...
>
> Also implied in the post were the fundamental differnces in human rights
> found in free societies as opposed to most arab societies... Would you try
> to argue that the muslim societies of the middle east have contributed
> anything to the world in the past few hundred years other than terrorism?
> There is a reason they have not kept up with the rest of the world, and
> guess what- it's not because of the big bad evil USA or Israel....
Why no capitalisation of "arab", "muslim" "middle east" and "saddam".
Are you a fool or a racist, or both?
nick
"booksite2000" <booksi...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> > > >> Please tell us how you came to the conclusion that he is a racist.
> > > >
> > > >How about blatent lies like these:
> > > >
> > > >"Islam does not allow freedom of religion, freedom of speech nor
> > > >freedom of the press. Anybody promoting any other faith is
> > > >subjected to harsh punishment. And anybody criticizing Islam
> > > >could be convicted of blasphemy and put to death."
> > >
> > > where?
> >
> > I know, the man's a lunatic, the above is clearly rubbish.
> >
> > > >"Muslims who have absolutely no regard for innocent children
regularly
> > > >blow up buses full of Israeli citizens"
> > >
> > > what?
> >
> > Indeed, how anyone can criticise the actions of the brave Palestinian
> > freedom fighters is amazing, he even tries to justify the Israeli war
crimes
> > and land theft by quoting the Old Testament.
>
> Hey, Nicky boy, I'm still waiting for you to tell everyone WHEN the
> Palestinians were driven from their country, Palestine??
1948.
> Come on. Inquiring minds want to know!!
>
> Huh? There never WAS a country called Palestine? Well, gee.....so
> much for the "land theft".
So how do you account for all the Palestinians?
Are you one of those people who likes to pretend the holocaust never
happened too?
nick
"Morton Davis" <oglet...@oglethorpe.com> wrote in message
> Moreover, why do they blow up more of their own people than they do their
> "enemy".
CITE!
Nola Daniell
Please trim you headers before you post, this has NOTHING to do with
rec.music.country.western.
Ivor P. Standing
> > Please tell us how you came to the conclusion that he is a racist. As to
> > him being a fool, I only wish I were that sort of fool.
Your wish has been granted without you noticing Bud.
Alan
>
> Please trim you headers before you post, this has NOTHING to do with
> rec.music.country.western.
> booksite2000 wrote:
> >
Well then, you shouldn't be reading it, should you?
Morton Davis
Guenter Scholz
rightf wrt one of these countries... Saudi Arabia. the 'Arabs' however are
a single family who are supported in their oppression by gues who.....
:-) regards
Mysterion
"Angkor" <vo...@what.nup> wrote in message
news:b355a323b8c95554...@news.teranews.com...
> On Mon, 08 Sep 2003 12:35:20 GMT, "Morton Davis"
> <oglet...@oglethorpe.com> wrote:
>
> ><plonk>
>
> Mort's bowels are acting up again...
Snortin' Dufus is stupid enough to think anyone cares.
Gunner
<pizzalovin...@allstar.ps> wrote:
>>
>> Hey, Nicky boy, I'm still waiting for you to tell everyone WHEN the
>> Palestinians were driven from their country, Palestine??
>
>1948.
Cites?
>
>> Come on. Inquiring minds want to know!!
>>
>> Huh? There never WAS a country called Palestine? Well, gee.....so
>> much for the "land theft".
>
>So how do you account for all the Palestinians?
>
They started calling themselves that, rather then "Loosers from other
Countries whom are willing to kill their own kids"
What nationality is Arafat, btw? Snicker....
>Are you one of those people who likes to pretend the holocaust never
>happened too?
You missed some arcane reference to crop circles as well. Do try
harder.