| Author | Message | | Alpha | |  | | Alpha | | Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 10:01 am Post subject: |
| Read the following article by Neil MacKay before reading what is included below:
http://ww1.sundayherald.com/37707
From: "Jeffrey Blankfort"
Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:12:45 -0800
Subject: [IntelligentMinds] Prior knowledge of 9/11 attacks overheard in Hebrew
I am aware that there are many people out there who do not want to hear or read any more about 9-11, that they believe, as does Noam Chomsky, that there "is no basis" for questioning the White House narrative of the events of 9-11, [everything else the Bushies say can be exposed, but the 9-11 story is sacrosanct] and there are others who are overwhelmed by competing theories of who did it, how it was done, and who also don't want to hear any more about it for that reason. In any case, there has been ample evidence, reported in the Jewish press, both in Israel and the US, that Israeli intelligence, at the very least, knew in advance that there would be an attack that day and hour and where it would take place. There are others whose curiosity for the truth remains undaunted. This article is for all three groups. Oh yeah, there is another group that will say, "there they go again, blaming the Jews for everything." This is for them, as well.
http://www.muckrakerreport.com/id324.html
muckrakerreport.com
Prior knowledge of 9/11 attacks overheard in Hebrew
Prior knowledge of 9/11 attacks overheard in Hebrew
December 1, 2006 -- In October 2000, approximately 11 months prior to September 11, 2001, a former Israeli Defense Force member and veteran of the Yom Kippur War (1973) was collecting English Ivy cuttings at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery located at McCellen and 245 Mount Olive Ave. in Newark, NJ. The Gomel Chesed Cemetery is a ‘Jewish’ cemetery.
While he was scouting the cemetery for ivy cuttings, he overheard what he believed to be a conversation spoken in Hebrew, which drew his attention. Curious, he walked toward the voices until he was close enough to accurately hear the conversation and confirm that it was indeed being spoken in Hebrew. He found himself along a heavily vegetated fence line that sat on top of an eight-foot high retaining wall, which concealed his presence from the men engaged in the conversation. The two men he saw and overheard were casually leaning against the retaining wall beneath him.
As he watched and listened, a third man arrived to the meeting in a Lincoln Town Car. He emerged from the rear seat of the car while the driver and another passenger remained in the car. The two men leaning against the wall, upon seeing the arrival of the third man, changed their relaxed posture into that of attentiveness, signifying respect and the importance or ranking of the person that had just arrived. It was clear that the two men were waiting and expecting the arrival of the third, indicating that the meeting was pre-arranged.
What the observer of these happenings heard beneath him after the normal niceties were exchanged between the three men alarmed him. The man who arrived in the Town Car said, “The Americans will learn what it is to live with terrorists after the planes hit the twins in September.” One of the men that had been leaning against the retaining wall expressed concerns regarding whether the upcoming presidential election (November 2000) between Bush / Cheney and Gore / Lieberman could impact the plans. The man that arrived in the Town Car pacified the doubts by saying, “Don’t worry, we have people in high places and no matter who gets elected, they will take care of everything.”
Is this Muckraker Report source that has requested that I not use his name in this article, credible? Initially, I had my doubts. However, after listening to his account of what he attempted to do with the information he had obtained in the Gomel Chesed Cemetery, coupled with the plethora of independent media accounts of a vivid Israeli connection to 9/11, I decided that I should avoid contempt prior to investigation, and check out this story.
The source informed me that he wrestled with what to do with the information he stumbled upon while searching for English Ivy. Truthfully, he fears for his life. Having served in the IDF and possessing a firm understanding of how the Israeli government and the Mossad really operates, his fears are justifiable and prudent rather than the result of skittish paranoia.
According to his account, on February 9, 2001, approximately 8 months prior to the airplanes being flown into the twins, he sent an e-mail to then Attorney General Ashcroft informing the Attorney General that he had important terrorism-related information. The U.S. Department of Justice did not directly respond to the source. It forwarded the e-mail to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Shortly thereafter, on March 28, 2001, the source received a letter from Arthur Radford Baker (FBI) informing him that if he had information to share, he should contact the FBI Newark Division. The source contacted the FBI Newark Division and was told that two agents would be in contact with him, but no FBI agents came at that time.
The source continued to call the FBI Newark Division in attempt to pass his information onto the agency. He wanted to do this in person to ensure that it wasn’t carelessly discarded or dismissed. He also sought a guarantee of protection by the FBI. As September 2001 drew closer, he grew more impatient. He began to act with a sense of urgency because in his words, “Time was running out!”
As he was getting nowhere with the FBI Newark Division, the source decided to write a letter to Arthur Radford Baker on May 21, 2001, the person that sent the letter advising him that he should contact the FBI Newark Division. In this letter, the source reiterated that he had important information to share with the government, but would need a guarantee of protection by the FBI before he could disclose all that he knew.
On the day that the source received a response letter from Arthur Radford Baker, June 26, 2001, now less than 3 months prior to the 9/11 attacks, two FBI agents finally paid a visit. They were Agent Robin Gritz and Agent Andrew Stengel. The agents were shown the second letter received that day from Arthur Radford Baker by the source. The letter informed the source that the FBI would not be able to do anything on his behalf.
Without the guarantee of protection, the source was unwilling to disclose the complete details of what he heard at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery in October 2000. However the two agents, Gritz and Stengel, spent 2-3 hours attempting to draw the information out of the source. What he did tell Gritz and Stengel is that there would be an attack in New York City and airplanes would be used. He emphasized once again that he could not provide greater detail without a guarantee of protection.
The source has spoken favorably to the Muckraker Report regarding Agent Gritz and Agent Stengel. They must have been in a difficult situation. It is assumed that they wanted the information the source had, yet were confronted by a letter from the upper echelon of the FBI command structure that indicated that the FBI was not willing to provide protection for the source, regardless of the information he provided. All they could offer was to “see what they could do”. However, given the seriousness and scope of the intelligence the source maintained, he could not risk revealing the information on the flimsy non-committal being offered to him by two FBI special agents, particularly in light of the fact that he had just received a letter from FBI Headquarters telling him that the FBI was unwilling to do anything on his behalf. Even though Gritz and Stengel told the source that they would see what they could do for him, the source has never heard from either of them again.
I contacted the FBI Newark Division on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 to confirm whether Agent Gritz and Agent Stengel met with the source on or about June 26, 2001. I was directed to the FBI Newark Division Legal Unit where I spoke with a woman who identified herself as Amy. She suggested that I put my request in writing and fax it to her, which I did that same day.
On Friday, November 24, 2006 I received a phone call from Amy confirming receipt of my written request. She informed me that she would be out of the office the following week, and that somebody else from the Newark Division Legal Unit would handle my request.
On Tuesday, November 28, 2006 I received a phone call from Kathy at the FBI National Press Office. She informed me that the Legal Unit decided that I needed to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
On Wednesday, November 29, 2006 I contacted Agent Robin (Gritz) Laird. Since her meeting with the source on June 26, 2001, Agent Gritz has been promoted to a supervisor position within a counter terrorism unit at FBI headquarters. Once I had Agent Gritz on the phone, I introduced myself and immediately explained that I was attempting to confirm a meeting that herself and Agent Stengel allegedly had with the source on June 26, 2001. Agent Gritz was already aware of my inquiries. She indicated that she understood that the Press Office was handling my request. I told her that I decided to call her directly and emphasized that I only wish to confirm the meeting. Gritz said, “I’m not allowed to discuss this with you. I would get in trouble.”
The Muckraker Report has received copies of the contact cards that Agent Gritz and Stengel left with the source on June 26, 2001. Both cards have old phone numbers crossed out and new phone numbers handwritten on them. Clearly, the handwriting would be that of the agents.
I also have copies of the letters received by the source from Arthur Radford Baker.
The copies of the letters, the business cards, the way my initial request quickly reached FBI Headquarters, and the fact that Agent Gritz was obviously informed of my inquires and told that she was not to discuss anything with me, is sufficient evidence that there is yet another effort to cover up any information that strays from the “official” 9/11 story, especially any information that further exposes an Israeli connection to September 11th.
In addition to overhearing in Hebrew, the statements, “The Americans will learn what it is to live with terrorists after the planes hit the twins in September”, and “Don’t worry, we have people in high places and no matter who gets elected, they will take care of everything”, the source also reports that he overheard one of the three men in the Gomel Chesed Cemetery say, “The Arabs are so stupid. They don’t even imagine that we are using them.” This comment should not be overlooked.
For the reader that is unfamiliar with the under reported stories of an Israeli connection to September 11, 2001, it is important to do your own research. There is plenty to read and learn. However, as with any other news story that has been purposely censored, you will have to collect the pieces of the puzzle in individual news reports and piece them together to finally see the big picture. Be forewarned, the picture is not pretty.
Here are some search topics to consider.
Israel: Complete 9/11 Timeline
9/11 Investigative Journalist Harassed and Beaten at his Home by Undercover Cops
Odigo says workers were warned of attacks
The Israeli Spy Ring
The Israeli Spy Ring Scandal
Israeli 9/11 Crook Flees with $57 Million to Israel
Pre-9/11 Put Options on Companies Hurt by Attack Indicates Foreknowledge
Dov Zakheim and the 9/11 Conspiracy
Urban Moving Systems and Detained Israelis
These suggested research links are a great place to start. If you study them, and follow the links imbedded in the content, in addition to further research, you will begin to have a better understanding of the absolute death grip Israeli influence has on the United States. You’ll also discover that this influence is not sentimental but rather criminal and treasonous to the fullest extent. I recommend that you print the content within these links as soon as possible so that you have a hard copy for future reference.
Of all the stories about an Israeli connection to 9/11, the Muckraker Report believes that the story of the Urban Moving Systems and the five Israelis detained on 9/11 is related to what was overheard at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery in October 2000.
As reported by Scott Da Vault for What Really Happened, ‘an employee of Urban Moving Systems, who would not give his name, said the majority of his co-workers were Israelis and were joking on the day of the attacks. (September 11, 2001) The employee said, ‘I was in tears, and these guys (Israelis) were joking, and that bothered me.’ These guys (Israelis) were like, “Now America knows what we go through.”
In October 2000, at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery, a former IDF member and veteran of the Yom Kippur War overheard, in Hebrew:
“The Americans will learn what it is to live with terrorists after the planes hit the twins in September.”
In closing, here are some additional quotes to consider carefully.
I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing – although that was part of it – by a sovereign government…It will become public at some point when it’s turned over to the archives, but that’s 20 or 30 years from now.”
--Senator Graham (FL) as quoted in Senator: At Least One Foreign Country Assisted the 9/11 Terrorists
"While I agree with you, if I say anything about US geopolitical interests with Israel, I might as well clean off my desk."
-- Unnamed reporter as quoted in American Media Censorship and Israel
"Investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying ... is considered career suicide."
-- Carl Cameron, as quoted in The Spies Who Came In From The Art Sale
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information."
-- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:54 am Post subject: |
| From: "Jeffrey Blankfort"
Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2006 23:21:12 -0800
Subject: A former intelliegence officer responds to report on 9-11 link heard in Jewish cemetery
In response to my report on the Israeli connection to 9-11, the following was received by someone on my email list who forwarded it to a former member of the US intelligence community who did not wish his name revealed. His comments are in CAPS
OKAY, I’LL TAKE A SHOT. GO OUT ON A LIMB. MY REACTION AS A FORMER
PROFESSIONAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICER WHO READ BROADLY AND PUBLISHED AND
LECTURED AFTER LEAVING THE GOVERNMENT. BUT, ALWAYS GOVERNED BY WHAT
I PERCEIVED AS THE TRUTH.
SEE BELOW, IN CAPS.
-----Original Message-----
From: Jeffrey Blankfort
Sent: Monday, December 04, 2006 10:13 PM
Subject: Prior knowledge of 9/11 attacks overheard in Hebrew
I am aware that there are many people out there who do not want to hear or read any more about 9-11, that they believe, as does Noam Chomsky, that there "is no basis" for questioning the White House narrative of the events of 9-11, [everything else the Bushies say can be exposed, but the 9-11 story is sacrosanct]
“SACROSANCT” IS A PREJUDICIAL, CONSPIRATORIAL, CHARGED WORD. THEY MAY HAVE JUST CONCLUDED THAT THAT ESSENTIAL NARRATIVE MADE THE MOST SENSE. (AS I HAVE.)
and there are others who are overwhelmed by competing theories of who did it, how it was done, and who also don't want to hear any more about it for that reason. In any case, there has been ample evidence, reported in the Jewish press, both in Israel and the US, that Israeli intelligence, at the very least, knew in advance that there would be an attack that day and hour and where it would take place. There are others whose curiosity for the truth remains undaunted. This article is for all three groups. Oh yeah, there is another group that will say, "there they go again, blaming the Jews for everything." This is for them, as well.
http://www.muckrakerreport.com/id324.html
muckrakerreport.com
Prior knowledge of 9/11 attacks overheard in Hebrew
Prior knowledge of 9/11 attacks overheard in Hebrew
December 1, 2006 -- In October 2000, approximately 11 months prior to September 11, 2001, a former Israeli Defense Force member and veteran of the Yom Kippur War (1973) was collecting English Ivy cuttings at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery located at McCellen and 245 Mount Olive Ave. in Newark, NJ. The Gomel Chesed Cemetery is a ‘Jewish’ cemetery.
While he was scouting the cemetery for ivy cuttings, he overheard what he believed to be a conversation spoken in Hebrew, which drew his attention. Curious, he walked toward the voices until he was close enough to accurately hear the conversation and confirm that it was indeed being spoken in Hebrew. He found himself along a heavily vegetated fence line that sat on top of an eight-foot high retaining wall, which concealed his presence from the men engaged in the conversation. The two men he saw and overheard were casually leaning against the retaining wall beneath him.
THIS WOULDN’T INSPIRE MUCH CONFIDENCE IN A PROFESSIONAL CASE OFFICE OR REPORTER. AN UNIDENTIFIED GUY ALLEGEDLY EAVESDROPPING ON CONVERSATIONS OF UNIDENTIFIED INDIVIDUALS IN A CEMETERY ABOUT A HUMONGOUS PLOT. PROFESSIONAL AGENTS IN INTELLIGENCE ARE APPROACHED BY A HOST OF CRACKPOTS AND FANTASISTS WITH HOKEY STORIES. YOU MIGHT MAKE A NOTE TO PROBE, BUT YOU WOULDN’T LIKELY PUT YOUR NAME ON IT AND SEND IT TO HEADQUARTERS. REMEMBER,
YOU GET DOZENS OF HOKEY STORIES, RUMORS, MYTHS, B.S.
As he watched and listened, a third man arrived to the meeting in a Lincoln Town Car. He emerged from the rear seat of the car while the driver and another passenger remained in the car. The two men leaning against the wall, upon seeing the arrival of the third man, changed their relaxed posture into that of attentiveness, signifying respect and the importance or ranking of the person that had just arrived. It was clear that the two men were waiting and expecting the arrival of the third, indicating that the meeting was pre-arranged.
What the observer of these happenings heard beneath him after the normal niceties were exchanged between the three men alarmed him. The man who arrived in the Town Car said, “The Americans will learn what it is to live with terrorists after the planes hit the twins in September.” One of the men that had been leaning against the retaining wall expressed concerns regarding whether the upcoming presidential election (November 2000) between Bush / Cheney and Gore / Lieberman could impact the plans. The man that arrived in the Town Car pacified the doubts by saying, “Don’t worry, we have people in high places and no matter who gets elected, they will take care of everything.”
VERY HOKEY—SEE THE ABOVE. NOT SOMETHING I WOULD “PUBLISH” TO MY BOSSES.
Is this Muckraker Report source that has requested that I not use his name in this article, credible? Initially, I had my doubts. However, after listening to his account of what he attempted to do with the information he had obtained in the Gomel Chesed Cemetery, coupled with the plethora of independent media accounts of a vivid Israeli connection to 9/11, I decided that I should avoid contempt prior to investigation, and check out this story.
AN ANONYMOUS SOURCE OF A HOKEY STORY….
The source informed me that he wrestled with what to do with the information he stumbled upon while searching for English Ivy. Truthfully, he fears for his life. Having served in the IDF and possessing a firm understanding of how the Israeli government and the Mossad really operates, his fears are justifiable and prudent rather than the result of skittish paranoia.
According to his account, on February 9, 2001, approximately 8 months prior to the airplanes being flown into the twins, he sent an e-mail to then Attorney General Ashcroft informing the Attorney General that he had important terrorism-related information. The U.S. Department of Justice did not directly respond to the source. It forwarded the e-mail to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Shortly thereafter, on March 28, 2001, the source received a letter from Arthur Radford Baker (FBI) informing him that if he had information to share, he should contact the FBI Newark Division. The source contacted the FBI Newark Division and was told that two agents would be in contact with him, but no FBI agents came at that time.
The source continued to call the FBI Newark Division in attempt to pass his information onto the agency. He wanted to do this in person to ensure that it wasn’t carelessly discarded or dismissed. He also sought a guarantee of protection by the FBI. As September 2001 drew closer, he grew more impatient. He began to act with a sense of urgency because in his words, “Time was running out!”
As he was getting nowhere with the FBI Newark Division, the source decided to write a letter to Arthur Radford Baker on May 21, 2001, the person that sent the letter advising him that he should contact the FBI Newark Division. In this letter, the source reiterated that he had important information to share with the government, but would need a guarantee of protection by the FBI before he could disclose all that he knew.
A SOURCE WHO CLAIMS HE HAS DRAMATIC INFORMATION BUT HE WANTS SOMETHING BEFORE HE CAN TELL YOU WHAT IT IS…..
On the day that the source received a response letter from Arthur Radford Baker, June 26, 2001, now less than 3 months prior to the 9/11 attacks, two FBI agents finally paid a visit. They were Agent Robin Gritz and Agent Andrew Stengel. The agents were shown the second letter received that day from Arthur Radford Baker by the source. The letter informed the source that the FBI would not be able to do anything on his behalf.
Without the guarantee of protection, the source was unwilling to disclose the complete details of what he heard at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery in October 2000. However the two agents, Gritz and Stengel, spent 2-3 hours attempting to draw the information out of the source. What he did tell Gritz and Stengel is that there would be an attack in New York City and airplanes would be used. He emphasized once again that he could not provide greater detail without a guarantee of protection.
STILL HASN’T TOLD ANYONE WHAT DRAMATIC INFORMATION HE HAS. AND, IF HE EAVESDROPPED ON THIS INFORMATION, WHY WOULD HE BE IN SO MUCH DANGER. LOTS OF BUMS OUT THERE TRYING TO SCAM INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS.
The source has spoken favorably to the Muckraker Report regarding Agent Gritz and Agent Stengel. They must have been in a difficult situation. It is assumed that they wanted the information the source had, yet were confronted by a letter from the upper echelon of the FBI command structure that indicated that the FBI was not willing to provide protection for the source, regardless of the information he provided. All they could offer was to “see what they could do”. However, given the seriousness and scope of the intelligence the source maintained, he could not risk revealing the information on the flimsy non-committal being offered to him by two FBI special agents, particularly in light of the fact that he had just received a letter from FBI Headquarters telling him that the FBI was unwilling to do anything on his behalf. Even though Gritz and Stengel told the source that they would see what they could do for him, the source has never heard from either of them again.
I contacted the FBI Newark Division on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 to confirm whether Agent Gritz and Agent Stengel met with the source on or about June 26, 2001. I was directed to the FBI Newark Division Legal Unit where I spoke with a woman who identified herself as Amy. She suggested that I put my request in writing and fax it to her, which I did that same day.
On Friday, November 24, 2006 I received a phone call from Amy confirming receipt of my written request. She informed me that she would be out of the office the following week, and that somebody else from the Newark Division Legal Unit would handle my request.
On Tuesday, November 28, 2006 I received a phone call from Kathy at the FBI National Press Office. She informed me that the Legal Unit decided that I needed to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
THIS IS CORRECT. A JOURNALIST WANTING INFORMATION ON AN ONGOING INVESTIGATION, HOWEVER INCREDIBLE. OBVIOUSLY, YOU CANNOT SEND THEM THE FILE AND BLOW WHATEVER YOU ARE INVESTIGATING TO THE MEDIA.
On Wednesday, November 29, 2006 I contacted Agent Robin (Gritz) Laird. Since her meeting with the source on June 26, 2001, Agent Gritz has been promoted to a supervisor position within a counter terrorism unit at FBI headquarters. Once I had Agent Gritz on the phone, I introduced myself and immediately explained that I was attempting to confirm a meeting that herself and Agent Stengel allegedly had with the source on June 26, 2001. Agent Gritz was already aware of my inquiries. She indicated that she understood that the Press Office was handling my request. I told her that I decided to call her directly and emphasized that I only wish to confirm the meeting. Gritz said, “I’m not allowed to discuss this with you. I would get in trouble.”
The Muckraker Report has received copies of the contact cards that Agent Gritz and Stengel left with the source on June 26, 2001. Both cards have old phone numbers crossed out and new phone numbers handwritten on them. Clearly, the handwriting would be that of the agents.
I also have copies of the letters received by the source from Arthur Radford Baker.
The copies of the letters, the business cards, the way my initial request quickly reached FBI Headquarters, and the fact that Agent Gritz was obviously informed of my inquires and told that she was not to discuss anything with me, is sufficient evidence that there is yet another effort to cover up any information that strays from the “official” 9/11 story, especially any information that further exposes an Israeli connection to September 11th.
In addition to overhearing in Hebrew, the statements, “The Americans will learn what it is to live with terrorists after the planes hit the twins in September”, and “Don’t worry, we have people in high places and no matter who gets elected, they will take care of everything”, the source also reports that he overheard one of the three men in the Gomel Chesed Cemetery say, “The Arabs are so stupid. They don’t even imagine that we are using them.” This comment should not be overlooked.
GRANDIOSE CLAIMS BY ALLEGED UNIDENTIFIED INDIVIDUALS IN AN EAVESDROPPING OF A CONVERSATION IN A CEMETERY….
For the reader that is unfamiliar with the under reported stories of an Israeli connection to September 11, 2001, it is important to do your own research. There is plenty to read and learn. However, as with any other news story that has been purposely censored, you will have to collect the pieces of the puzzle in individual news reports and piece them together to finally see the big picture. Be forewarned, the picture is not pretty.
HOWEVER, HAVING NOTED ALL OF MY SKEPTICISM TO THE ABOVE, BUT ALSO HAVING READ SOME VERY CONVINCING BOOKS ON THE SUBJECT, I'’LL GO OUT ON A LIMB. AMERICAN AGENTS IN THE FBI IN THE FIELD WERE ONTO THE FACT THAT OBL WAS ONTO SOMETHING BIG IN THE US. JOHN O'NEIL, THE FBI AGENT WHO HAD PURSUED SUCCESSFUL CONVICTIONS OF THE PERPS OF BOMBINGS OF THE WTC IN 1993, THE EMBASSIES IN E. AFRICA, THE USS COLE, —THE MAN WHO WAS PLAYING OUR SIDE OF THE CHESS BOARD OPPOSITE OBL--THE NIGHT BEFORE 9/11 WAS TELLING COLLEAGUES THAT SOMETHING BIG WAS GOING DOWN IN THE US VERY SOON. GREAT IRONY, HE HAD JUST RETIRED FROM THE BUREAU AND TAKEN THE JOB OF SECURITY CHIEF OF THE WTC, AND HE DIED THE NEXT DAY IN 9/11. OTHER US AGENTS WERE ONTO SOME OF THE TERRORISTS WHO WERE TRAINING IN HOW TO FLY JETLINERS IN THE US. SCHEUER IN THE CIA FLAMED OUT AND WAS RETIRED TO THE LANGLEY BASEMENT BECAUSE HE WAS SO SURE SOMETHING BIG WAS GOING TO HAPPEN BUT COULDN’T GET THE DIRECTORS TO TAKE ACTION (HE URGENTLY WANTED OBL KILLED).
SO, FOR ME, IT IS NOT HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THE ISRAELIS HAD CRACKED THE PLOT—VERY LIKELY THEY HAD. NO ONE WAS SHARING MUCH INFORMATION BETWEEN AGENCIES IN THE US. NO REASON TO ASSUME THAT THE ISRAELIS WOULD TRY VERY HARD TO WARN THE US. EASY TO CONCLUDE THAT IT WAS IN THEIR INTERESTS NOT TO WARN THE US.
I DON’T NOT BELIEVE THAT ANY US OFFICIALS WERE INVOLVED IN ANY WAY IN THE 9/11 PLOT—A FRIEND SENDS ME VOLUMES OF CONSPIRACY THEORIES ABOUT THIS BUT IT ALL READS LIKE STUFF FROM THE GROCERY STORE GLOBE NEWSPAPER (HITLER IS STILL ALIVE IN ARGENTINA! MARTIANS ARE RAPING WOMEN IN THE SUBWAYS IN NEW YORK! JFK, JR WAS ASSASSINATED BY US GOVT AGENTS TO COVER UP 9/11 LONG BEFORE 9/11!)
BUT, THERE IS ANOTHER PRINCIPLE OF POLITICS, TO WIT: POLITICIANS WILL NOT INFREQUENTLY BE LESS DILIGENT WHERE THEY HAVE A LOT TO GAIN BY BEING LESS DILIGENT. HOW TO ILLUSTRATE? POLICE CHIEF LETTING GANG STUFF GROW A BIT, THEN GETTING THEIR BUDGETS INCREASED. FRANKLIN DELANO R. SENDING A WARNING TO ADMIRAL KING IN HAWAII BY PRIORITY MAIL, NOT IMMEDIATE OR URGENT THAT THE JAPANESE MIGHT BE THINKING ABOUT ATTACKING PEARL HARBOR—THE ATTACK GALVANIZED THE NATION INTO WAR.
ALTHO BUSH IS APPALLINGLY SHALLOW, SOME OF THE NEOCONS AND PEOPLE AROUND HIM, LIKE CHENEY, LIKE WOLFOWITZ, ARE SOPHISTICATED ENOUGH TO KNOW THAT A TERRORIST HIT WOULD GIVE THEM GAS TO MOBILIZE INTEREST IN PROFITABLE WARS. THIS ISN’T HOKEY THEORY STUFF—IT’S THE WAY THINGS WORK IN POLITICS. SO, IT IS CREDIBLE TO ME THAT BUSH WAS NOT BEING ENCOURAGED TO MAKE COUNTERTERRORISM A MAJOR ISSUE IN HIS ADMINISTRATION, AND IN FACT HE DOWNGRADED CLARKE’S “INTELLIGENCE CZAR POSITION” WHEN HE CLEARLY SHOULD HAVE MADE HIM A CABINET MEMBER; WAS ON A LONG VACATION IN CRAWFORD BEFORE 9/11. IT IS A MATTER OF RECORD THAT ON 9/12 CHENEY WAS TALKING WAR WITH IRAQ.
TAKING THIS TO ANOTHER LEVEL: AS FAR BACK AS 93 OBL WAS TRYING TO BUY ENRICHED URANIUM AND SHOPPING FOR DISPLACED USSR NUKES AND AT LEAST ONE AL Q AGENT HAS BEEN ARRESTED IN THE US FOR ALLEGEDLY INTENDING TO TRIGGER A DIRTY NUCLEAR DEVICE. BUT, OUR PORTS STILL HAVE NOT BEEN SECURED. I.E., THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION IS DOING EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS BEFORE 9/11, AND IF/WHEN THERE IS ANOTHER BIG HIT IN THE US, HE WILL OBVIOUSLY USE IT TO VINDICATE HIS PRESIDENCY AND HIS PLACE IN HISTORY.
FINALLY, IN MY GENERATION’S ERA THE RULE WAS THAT IN ANY SHIPWRECK THE CAPTAIN IS AUTOMATICALLY COURT-MARTIALED, ESPECIALLY IF THERE IS ANY QUESTION OF DERELICTION OR DUTY OR INSUFFICIENT DILIGENCE. IN THE FALL OF 1945 A DOZEN BITTER ADMIRALS CALLED FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF PEARL HARBOR (FDR WAS ALREADY DEAD).
ERGO, BY MY OLD SCHOOL VALUES, BUSH AND CHENEY SHOULD BE IMPEACHED FOR NEGLIGENCE IN 9/11 AND KATRINA AND CONTINUED NEGLIGENCE. A DOUBLE IMPEACHMENT! AND, THEY SHOULD BE IMPEACHED FOR LYING AND BREAKING THE LAW AND MANIPULATING US INTO THE IRAQ WAR DEBACLE AND THE MASSIVE NO-COMPETITIVE-BIDDING COMMERCIAL EXPLOITATION OF THAT WAR AND ENABLING THE OIL COMPANIES TO EXPLOIT THE DRAMA OF KATRINA TO GARNER ALL-TIME WINDFALL PROFITS WHEN THERE WAS IN FACT NO SHORTAGE OF OIL IN THE WORLD.
SET HISTORY WITH A DOUBLE DOUBLE IMPEACHMENT!
MY $.02 WORTH.
WHO KNOWS FOR SURE?
Here are some search topics to consider.
Israel: Complete 9/11 Timeline
9/11 Investigative Journalist Harassed and Beaten at his Home by Undercover Cops
Odigo says workers were warned of attacks
The Israeli Spy Ring
The Israeli Spy Ring Scandal
Israeli 9/11 Crook Flees with $57 Million to Israel
Pre-9/11 Put Options on Companies Hurt by Attack Indicates Foreknowledge
Dov Zakheim and the 9/11 Conspiracy
Urban Moving Systems and Detained Israelis
These suggested research links are a great place to start. If you study them, and follow the links imbedded in the content, in addition to further research, you will begin to have a better understanding of the absolute death grip Israeli influence has on the United States. You’ll also discover that this influence is not sentimental but rather criminal and treasonous to the fullest extent. I recommend that you print the content within these links as soon as possible so that you have a hard copy for future reference.
Of all the stories about an Israeli connection to 9/11, the Muckraker Report believes that the story of the Urban Moving Systems and the five Israelis detained on 9/11 is related to what was overheard at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery in October 2000.
As reported by Scott Da Vault for What Really Happened, ‘an employee of Urban Moving Systems, who would not give his name, said the majority of his co-workers were Israelis and were joking on the day of the attacks. (September 11, 2001) The employee said, ‘I was in tears, and these guys (Israelis) were joking, and that bothered me.’ These guys (Israelis) were like, “Now America knows what we go through.”
In October 2000, at the Gomel Chesed Cemetery, a former IDF member and veteran of the Yom Kippur War overheard, in Hebrew:
“The Americans will learn what it is to live with terrorists after the planes hit the twins in September.”
In closing, here are some additional quotes to consider carefully.
I think there is very compelling evidence that at least some of the terrorists were assisted not just in financing – although that was part of it – by a sovereign government…It will become public at some point when it’s turned over to the archives, but that’s 20 or 30 years from now.”
--Senator Graham (FL) as quoted in Senator: At Least One Foreign Country Assisted the 9/11 Terrorists
"While I agree with you, if I say anything about US geopolitical interests with Israel, I might as well clean off my desk."
-- Unnamed reporter as quoted in American Media Censorship and Israel
"Investigators within the DEA, INS and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying ... is considered career suicide."
-- Carl Cameron, as quoted in The Spies Who Came In From The Art Sale
"Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information."
-- US official quoted in Carl Cameron's Fox News report on the Israeli spy ring and its connections to 9-11. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2007 1:05 pm Post subject: Disturbing Review of 9/11 Linked Israeli 'Art Student' Spies |
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A Disturbing Review of the 911 Linked Israeli ‘Art Student’ Spy Ring Scandal
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2002/05/07/students/index_np.html?pn=1
The Israeli "art student" mystery
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.
By Christopher Ketcham
Pages 1 2 3 4 5 6May 7, 2002 | 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 worlds 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.
Next page: "Art students" living right down the street from Mohammed Atta's house
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 shed 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. KHOUs conclusions were wrong -- these werent 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 Foxs "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 Camerons 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 Camerons 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 communiqué obtained by Salon indicates that the DEA made careful note of Camerons reports; the communiqué 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 wasnt 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 Mondes 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.
Next page: The Post's unconvincing debunking
"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.
Next page: A political hot potato and a powerful lobby equal silence
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 exposé 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 lets 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 Rodriguezs 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 werent 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?
Next page: The really dark theory: A massive smoke screen operation
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?"
Thats where you enter truly dark territory: Theory No.3, the Art Student as Agent as Art Student Smoke Screen. It has major problems, but lets 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 theres 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 communiqués 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. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:40 am Post subject: |
| Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies: Was Israel Tracking the Hijackers Before the 9/11 Attacks?
Thursday, February 8th, 2007
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/08/1610254
A new article in the newsletter Counterpunch examines unresolved questions over whether Israeli agents were tracking the 9/11 hijackers before September 11th. ABC’s 20/20, The Forward, and Salon.com have all covered the story. But where’s the follow up? We speak to the author of the article, Christopher Ketcham; Counterpunch editor Alexander Cockburn, and Marc Perelman, the Forward reporter who did one of the first reports on the story in 2002. [includes rush transcript]
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Were Israeli agents tracking the 9/11 hijackers before September 11th? In 2002, ABC’s 20/20, Salon.com, and the Jewish newspaper The Forward all did this story. But where’s the follow up?
Freelance journalist Christopher Ketcham has just published a comprehensive piece on this story in the newsletter Counterpunch. The article highlights various interconnected stories: The five Israeli “movers” who witnesses say were cheering after the first plane struck the World Trade Center; the so-called Israeli art students who were living in concentrated areas where hijackers were living around the United States and how two of the hijackers ended up on the Watch List weeks before 9/11.
Christopher Ketcham, the author of the article, joins us on the line from Upstate New York. Alexander Cockburn also joins us on the line. He is the editor of Counterpunch where the piece is published. And with us here in the firehouse studio is Marc Perelman he is the reporter who did one of the first reports on the story for The Forward in 2002.
Marc Perelman. Diplomatic Correspondent for The Forward. He broke the story about Israeli spies in 2002.
Alexander Cockburn. Editor of Counterpunch.
Christopher Ketcham. Freelance journalist. Author of “What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?” in the latest edition of CounterPunch’s print newsletter.
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RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: Christopher Ketcham, the author of the article, joins us on the line from Upstate New York. Alexander Cockburn also joins us on the phone. He is the editor of Counterpunch, where the piece is published. And with us here in the firehouse studio is Marc Perelman. He is the reporter who did one of the first reports on the story for the newspaper, The Forward, in 2002.
Why don't we begin with Christopher Ketcham? Christopher, start off with the story you begin with in this latest piece, and that’s the story of the five so-called “movers,” this story that has been documented, talked about, rumored about. Explain what happened that morning of 9/11.
CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM: Sure. Let me just preface this whole conversation just to say that the Counterpunch article does not pretend to provide readers with a definitive smoking gun for these allegations. Rather, what I’ve done is gathered all the available information on the matter. That is, the disparate media reports that you mentioned; leaked documents from FBI, CIA and the Justice Department; conversations with former intelligence officials and current FBI officers.
Now, the upshot of all this available evidence is this: the Israeli government likely was conducting some kind of spy operation on US soil in the run-up to the September 11th attacks. The purpose of the operation was to identify and track Muslim extremists, possibly including members of al-Qaeda.
Now, the best evidence that we have for this is, in fact, the story of these five moving men. Now, three of these guys were seen on the morning of September 11, just after the first plane hit the North Tower, quote-unquote, “celebrating” on the New Jersey waterfront. Now, that's -- I put the quotes around that, because it comes from a FBI BOLO, or “be on lookout,” an alert that was put out regarding these men that day. The celebration apparently consisted of high-fiving, according to one FBI official, of holding up cigarette lighters, as if they’re at a rock concert. So, remember, the plane has just hit the tower, exploded in the tower, and these three men are behaving rather oddly.
Later in the day, they were picked up. Two other men apparently joined them in a van. They were -- the case was immediately handed over to FBI counterintelligence. The men were held for 71 days. They were repeatedly interrogated. They repeatedly failed lie detector tests. And then, after those 71 days was up, they were sent home, apparently under pressure or because of pressure brought by the Israeli government and by certain players in the US government. And the story sort of disappeared from there. I mean, 20/20 covered this --
AMY GOODMAN: Just one thing, Chris Ketcham, you say -- you quote the officer who arrested them, named DeCarlo. You say, according to DeCarlo's report, this officer was told without question by the driver of the moving van, Sivan Kurzberg, “We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.”
CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM: Right. Well, what's interesting there is that, you recall after the first plane hit, no one really thought that this was a terrorist attack. I mean, most people thought -- and I was there, you know, on the Brooklyn waterfront watching this whole thing. Everyone thought it was an accident. These guys, when they were interrogated by FBI, told them that -- essentially said that they immediately knew it was a terrorist attack. And they actually told the FBI that the reason they were celebrating was because the attacks would be beneficial to Israel, that it was, quote, “a good thing for Israel” -- that's according to the FBI spokesman who spoke on the record about this -- and that it would bring sympathy for Israel's political agenda in the Middle East.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And if I could interrupt, I’d like to bring in Marc Perelman to the conversation. Marc, it was your newspaper, The Forward, that first broke the story that the FBI thought that at least a couple of these people were Mossad agents. Could you talk about that and how you uncovered that information?
MARC PERELMAN: Yes, we ended up writing a story in March of 2002, after several months of reporting, because when this incident happened, obviously, a lot of people were intrigued, including journalists. And so, everybody was trying to find more information about this. And I’ve been talking to sources and trying to find out a little bit more, and after a while, I was able to confirm that, according to the FBI, two of those movers were identified as Mossad agents. And they were interrogated about it.
Obviously, the circumstances around the interrogation, there was a lot of panic after 9/11. People were looking for suspects everywhere. So the reports about exactly how they were behaving and what they said -- I mean, we should be a little bit careful about this, because -- and so, what I tried to do is go beyond the reports about them smiling and high-fiving, and so on, because I had my doubts about this. I still have them, by the way. And so, what I did was try to back up the information I had, that they were indeed recognized as Mossad agents who were essentially tracking a Muslim activist in the New York/New Jersey area, which was known to be active since the mid-‘90s, and so we eventually were able to piece the story together and go with it.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And what eventually happened to the five men?
MARC PERELMAN: They were sent home to Israel in, I think, November, if I remember, allegedly for immigration violations, and they’re home.
AMY GOODMAN: We don’t have much time, and I wanted to get to another story, which was a story of the so-called “art students,” Christopher Ketcham. Very briefly outline this parallel story.
CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM: Well, basically, the phenomenon of the art students, for want of a better phrase, because it is truly a mystery, even to me -- I’m a complete agnostic about this part of the story -- these so-called art students were young Israeli men and women who were traveling the country. They were identified by the Drug Enforcement Agency as repeatedly attempting to penetrate government offices, including DEA offices, and to sell, to try to sell art, these cheap knockoff oil paintings, to government officials.
Now, after September 11th, when, in the wake of these sudden attacks, investigators began to go back and look at the nexus of art student activity with the nexuses of the activities of the future hijackers, of the 9/11 hijackers, and what they found was that the art students, in many cases, were living in very close proximity to the September 11 hijackers. Many of these art students were moving large amounts of cash, some of them were reportedly, according to Le Monde, carrying cell phones provided them by an Israeli vice consul in the US. Many of them were highly trained in electronic intercept and intelligence work that was far beyond the compulsory military training required by Israeli law. So these were part of the -- suspicions were aroused, and they remain.
AMY GOODMAN: Suspicions that they were tracking the hijackers?
MARC PERELMAN: That’s correct.
AMY GOODMAN: Let's go to Alexander Cockburn. You have published this piece. It is titled "Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?" Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta? What was in the van on the New Jersey shore? How did two hijackers land on watch lists weeks before 9/11? Who shut down FOX News’s Carl Cameron? We just have two minutes, but talk about the way the media has covered this, why you chose to cover it, and that last story of FOX.
ALEXANDER COCKBURN: The main thing, Amy, is that basically the story, which Perelman and others did do good work on, has been systematically suppressed by the media for a very long time, starting with FOX News, which killed off Cameron, the ABC News, which dropped it. And, obviously, there are thousands of questions, which Ketcham goes into in great detail, which should be the subject of congressional hearings and investigations, such as, was the Mossad essentially being subcontracted by the CIA to work in the United States on spying, which would be illegal? How much did the Israelis really know? If it was a good thing for Israel, maybe they withheld the final news that the thing was going to land. That’s a speculation, of course, but it should be investigated and probed.
It’s absolutely extraordinary that Ketcham’s story, which has been worked on, which is a very long and complex story, could not find any market until Counterpunch, which is what we’re here for, could published it. Obviously, the main reason is the word “Israel.” People drop it like a hot potato. As soon as you hear people say it’s a good thing for Israel, the whole lobby came in and had those people whipped out of their jail and sent back to Israel. And since then, all questions regarding it had been systematically checked off. I think that’s the sort of, you know, journalistic patty-cake --
ALEXANDER COCKBURN: Alexander, this story that you've published first was going to go to salon.com, then The Nation?
ALEXANDER COCKBURN: That's what I understand from Christopher, yes. That's true.
AMY GOODMAN: Christopher Ketcham?
CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM: Yeah. The editors didn't feel that there was any news here.
JUAN GONZALEZ: And I’d like to ask Marc Perelman, were you surprised when the 9/11 Commission Report came out that there was no mention of -- at all in the reports of possible knowledge by Israeli agents in this country of the attacks or tracking of some of these suspects?
MARC PERELMAN: Yes and no. I mean, I was surprised, because, since there have been questions that are still being asked now, that at least the commission would address the issue, even to debunk it. That being said, my reporting was narrow, was about those movers and what were they doing. And the conclusion was that they were essentially spying on radical activists in the region, and that they had been let go, because the American authorities had determined that they did not have foreknowledge of the attacks, which is different than what the article says, because it implies that they were essentially shipped to Israel because of the Israel lobby, and because they knew, whereas what I have been able to find out is that they were sent home because they did something they were not supposed to do and without the knowledge of the American government, which is an issue, obviously, that should be discussed publicly.
AMY GOODMAN: That the Israelis were spying on US soil.
MARC PERELMAN: Right, without the approval of the US authorities. Sometimes friendly governments have agreements, where they can kind of like spy together. Apparently, this was a case where it was not happening.
AMY GOODMAN: Marc, we’re going to have to leave it there. Marc Perelman of The Forward, which is based in New York; Christopher Ketcham, freelance journalist, author of this latest piece that appears in Counterpunch; Alexander Cockburn, thanks also for joining us, editor of Counterpunch newletter.
www.democracynow.org
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Published on Sunday, November 2, 2003 by The Sunday Herald (Scotland)
Five Israelis Were Seen Filming as Jet Liners Plowed Into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001
Were they part of a massive spy ring which shadowed the 9/11 hijackers and knew that al-Qaeda planned a devastating terrorist attack on the USA?
by Neil Mackay
THERE was ruin and terror in Manhattan, but, over the Hudson River in New Jersey, a handful of men were dancing. As the World Trade Center burned and crumpled, the five men celebrated and filmed the worst atrocity ever committed on American soil as it played out before their eyes.
Who do you think they were? Palestinians? Saudis? Iraqis, even? Al-Qaeda, surely? Wrong on all counts. They were Israelis - and at least two of them were Israeli intelligence agents, working for Mossad, the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA.
Their discovery and arrest that morning is a matter of indisputable fact. To those who have investigated just what the Israelis were up to that day, the case raises one dreadful possibility: that Israeli intelligence had been shadowing the al-Qaeda hijackers as they moved from the Middle East through Europe and into America where they trained as pilots and prepared to suicide-bomb the symbolic heart of the United States. And the motive? To bind America in blood and mutual suffering to the Israeli cause.
After the attacks on New York and Washington, the former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was asked what the terrorist strikes would mean for US-Israeli relations. He said: "It's very good." Then he corrected himself, adding: "Well, it's not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy [for Israel from Americans]."
If Israel's closest ally felt the collective pain of mass civilian deaths at the hands of terrorists, then Israel would have an unbreakable bond with the world's only hyperpower and an effective free hand in dealing with the Palestinian terrorists who had been murdering its innocent civilians as the second intifada dragged on throughout 2001.
It's not surprising that the New Jersey housewife who first spotted the five Israelis and their white van wants to preserve her anonymity. She's insisted that she only be identified as Maria. A neighbor in her apartment building had called her just after the first strike on the Twin Towers. Maria grabbed a pair of binoculars and, like millions across the world, she watched the horror of the day unfold.
As she gazed at the burning towers, she noticed a group of men kneeling on the roof of a white van in her parking lot. Here's her recollection: "They seemed to be taking a movie. They were like happy, you know ... they didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was strange."
Maria jotted down the van's registration and called the police. The FBI was alerted and soon there was a statewide all points bulletin put out for the apprehension of the van and its occupants. The cops traced the number, establishing that it belonged to a company called Urban Moving.
Police Chief John Schmidig said: "We got an alert to be on the lookout for a white Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration and writing on the side. Three individuals were seen celebrating in Liberty State Park after the impact. They said three people were jumping up and down."
By 4pm on the afternoon of September 11, the van was spotted near New Jersey's Giants stadium. A squad car pulled it over and inside were five men in their 20s. They were hustled out of the car with guns leveled at their heads and handcuffed.
In the car was $4700 in cash, a couple of foreign passports and a pair of box cutters - the concealed Stanley Knife-type blades used by the 19 hijackers who'd flown jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon just hours before. There were also fresh pictures of the men standing with the smoldering wreckage of the Twin Towers in the background. One image showed a hand flicking a lighter in front of the devastated buildings, like a fan at a pop concert. The driver of the van then told the arresting officers: "We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem."
His name was Sivan Kurzberg. The other four passengers were Kurzberg's brother Paul, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari. The men were dragged off to prison and transferred out of the custody of the FBI's Criminal Division and into the hands of their Foreign Counterintelligence Section - the bureau's anti-espionage squad.
A warrant was issued for a search of the Urban Moving premises in Weehawken in New Jersey. Boxes of papers and computers were removed. The FBI questioned the firm's Israeli owner, Dominik Otto Suter, but when agents returned to re-interview him a few days later, he was gone. An employee of Urban Moving said his co-workers had laughed about the Manhattan attacks the day they happened. "I was in tears," the man said. "These guys were joking and that bothered me. These guys were like, 'Now America knows what we go through.'"
Vince Cannistraro, former chief of operations for counter-terrorism with the CIA, says the red flag went up among investigators when it was discovered that some of the Israelis' names were found in a search of the national intelligence database. Cannistraro says many in the US intelligence community believed that some of the Israelis were working for Mossad and there was speculation over whether Urban Moving had been "set up or exploited for the purpose of launching an intelligence operation against radical Islamists".
This makes it clear that there was no suggestion whatsoever from within American intelligence that the Israelis were colluding with the 9/11 hijackers - simply that the possibility remains that they knew the attacks were going to happen, but effectively did nothing to help stop them.
After the owner vanished, the offices of Urban Moving looked as if they'd been closed down in a big hurry. Mobile phones were littered about, the office phones were still connected and the property of at least a dozen clients were stacked up in the warehouse. The owner had cleared out his family home in New Jersey and returned to Israel.
Two weeks after their arrest, the Israelis were still in detention, held on immigration charges. Then a judge ruled that they should be deported. But the CIA scuppered the deal and the five remained in custody for another two months. Some went into solitary confinement, all underwent two polygraph tests and at least one underwent up to seven lie detector sessions before they were eventually deported at the end of November 2001. Paul Kurzberg refused to take a lie detector test for 10 weeks, but then failed it. His lawyer said he was reluctant to take the test as he had once worked for Israeli intelligence in another country.
Nevertheless, their lawyer, Ram Horvitz, dismissed the allegations as "stupid and ridiculous". Yet US government sources still maintained that the Israelis were collecting information on the fundraising activities of groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Mark Regev, of the Israeli embassy in Washington, would have none of that and he said the allegations were "simply false". The men themselves claimed they'd read about the World Trade Center attacks on the internet, couldn't see it from their office and went to the parking lot for a better view. Their lawyers and the embassy say their ghoulish and sinister celebrations as the Twin Towers blazed and thousands died were due to youthful foolishness.
The respected New York Jewish newspaper, The Forward, reported in March 2002, however, that it had received a briefing on the case of the five Israelis from a US official who was regularly updated by law enforcement agencies. This is what he told The Forward: "The assessment was that Urban Moving Systems was a front for the Mossad and operatives employed by it." He added that "the conclusion of the FBI was that they were spying on local Arabs", but the men were released because they "did not know anything about 9/11".
Back in Israel, several of the men discussed what happened on an Israeli talk show. One of them made this remarkable comment: "The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event." But how can you document an event unless you know it is going to happen?
We are now deep in conspiracy theory territory. But there is more than a little circumstantial evidence to show that Mossad - whose motto is "By way of deception, thou shalt do war" - was spying on Arab extremists in the USA and may have known that September 11 was in the offing, yet decided to withhold vital information from their American counterparts which could have prevented the terror attacks.
Following September 11, 2001, more than 60 Israelis were taken into custody under the Patriot Act and immigration laws. One highly placed investigator told Carl Cameron of Fox News that there were "tie-ins" between the Israelis and September 11; the hint was clearly that they'd gathered intelligence on the planned attacks but kept it to themselves.
The Fox News source refused to give details, saying: "Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It's classified information." Fox News is not noted for its condemnation of Israel; it's a ruggedly patriotic news channel owned by Rupert Murdoch and was President Bush's main cheerleader in the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq.
Another group of around 140 Israelis were detained prior to September 11, 2001, in the USA as part of a widespread investigation into a suspected espionage ring run by Israel inside the USA. Government documents refer to the spy ring as an "organized intelligence-gathering operation" designed to "penetrate government facilities". Most of those arrested had served in the Israeli armed forces - but military service is compulsory in Israel. Nevertheless, a number had an intelligence background.
The first glimmerings of an Israeli spying exercise in the USA came to light in spring 2001, when the FBI sent a warning to other federal agencies alerting them to be wary of visitors calling themselves "Israeli art students" and attempting to bypass security at federal buildings in order to sell paintings. A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report suggested the Israeli calls "may well be an organized intelligence-gathering activity". Law enforcement documents say that the Israelis "targeted and penetrated military bases" as well as the DEA, FBI and dozens of government facilities, including secret offices and the unlisted private homes of law enforcement and intelligence personnel.
A number of Israelis questioned by the authorities said they were students from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, but Pnina Calpen, a spokeswoman for the Israeli school, did not recognize the names of any Israelis mentioned as studying there in the past 10 years. A federal report into the so-called art students said many had served in intelligence and electronic signal intercept units during their military service.
According to a 61-page report, drafted after an investigation by the DEA and the US immigration service, the Israelis were organized into cells of four to six people. The significance of what the Israelis were doing didn't emerge until after September 11, 2001, when a report by a French intelligence agency noted "according to the FBI, Arab terrorists and suspected terror cells lived in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as in Miami and Hollywood, Florida, from December 2000 to April 2001 in direct proximity to the Israeli spy cells".
The report contended that Mossad agents were spying on Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehi, two of leaders of the 9/11 hijack teams. The pair had settled in Hollywood, Florida, along with three other hijackers, after leaving Hamburg - where another Mossad team was operating close by.
Hollywood in Florida is a town of just 25,000 souls. The French intelligence report says the leader of the Mossad cell in Florida rented apartments "right near the apartment of Atta and al-Shehi". More than a third of the Israeli "art students" claimed residence in Florida. Two other Israelis connected to the art ring showed up in Fort Lauderdale. At one time, eight of the hijackers lived just north of the town.
Put together, the facts do appear to indicate that Israel knew that 9/11, or at least a large-scale terror attack, was about to take place on American soil, but did nothing to warn the USA. But that's not quite true. In August 2001, the Israelis handed over a list of terrorist suspects - on it were the names of four of the September 11 hijackers. Significantly, however, the warning said the terrorists were planning an attack "outside the United States".
The Israeli embassy in Washington has dismissed claims about the spying ring as "simply untrue". The same denials have been issued repeatedly by the five Israelis seen high-fiving each other as the World Trade Center burned in front of them.
Their lawyer, Ram Horwitz, insisted his clients were not intelligence officers. Irit Stoffer, the Israeli foreign minister, said the allegations were "completely untrue". She said the men were arrested because of "visa violations", adding: "The FBI investigated those cases because of 9/11."
Jim Margolin, an FBI spokesman in New York, implied that the public would never know the truth, saying: "If we found evidence of unauthorized intelligence operations that would be classified material." Yet, Israel has long been known, according to US administration sources, for "conducting the most aggressive espionage operations against the US of any US ally". Seventeen years ago, Jonathan Pollard, a civilian working for the American Navy, was jailed for life for passing secrets to Israel. At first, Israel claimed Pollard was part of a rogue operation, but the government later took responsibility for his work.
It has always been a long-accepted agreement among allies - such as Britain and America or America and Israel - that neither country will jail a "friendly spy" nor shame the allied country for espionage. Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Boston's Political Research Associates and an expert in intelligence, says: "It's a backdoor agreement between allies that says that if one of your spies gets caught and didn't do too much harm, he goes home. It goes on all the time. The official reason is always visa violation."
What we are left with, then, is fact sullied by innuendo. Certainly, it seems, Israel was spying within the borders of the United States and it is equally certain that the targets were Islamic extremists probably linked to September 11. But did Israel know in advance that the Twin Towers would be hit and the world plunged into a war without end; a war which would give Israel the power to strike its enemies almost without limit? That's a conspiracy theory too far, perhaps. But the unpleasant feeling that, in this age of spin and secrets, we do not know the full and unadulterated truth won't go away. Maybe we can guess, but it's for the history books to discover and decide.
©2003 Newsquest (Sunday Herald) Limited | | | | Jefferson Davis | | Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007 6:51 am Post subject: |
| | What's the latest news on the AIPAC trial Alpha? Heard anything? | | | | davidjones | | Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 6:33 am Post subject: |
| Gatekeepers Bury Dancing Israeli Movers And Bogus Art Students On DN!
[Video update below]
We got a slithering slice of potentially explosive 9/11 truth from Democracy Now! on Thursday, when Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzales spoke with Christopher Ketcham, Marc Perelman and Alexander Cockburn about the "dancing Israelis of 9/11" and the mysterious Israeli "art students", as well as about Christopher's article "Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?" which was published in Counterpunch after failing to find a home at either Saloon dot com or The Nation. They also talked about how and why these stories have been suppressed for so long.
If that sounds like a lot of ground to cover, you're with me so far. Fifteen minutes. Ready set go.
Welcome to a very double-edged view of the broadcast. On the one hand it's great to see this story getting some publicity, but on the other hand look what they've done to it!
In airing a couple of stories that have been suppressed for years, they've managed somehow, in my opinion, to suppress the big story even further.
In other words, the core material was excellent but the presentation was awful. Good stuff in a bad package.
"Remove Packaging"
I always laugh when I pick up a bag of frozen veggies and I see the words "Remove Packaging". Right! As if I was gonna cook the plastic bag!
In this case the packaging is a combination of tactics (or bad decisions) (or perhaps "good [i.e. safe] tactical decisions") including: trying to fit too many guests and too many topics into a short segment, discounting the most crucial evidence available, failing to ask the most obvious questions, and applying the most transparent spin.
Examples of each are easy to find, and we may encounter some of each as we go along. But on the whole I am most interested in finding the nuggets of truth amid the spin. In this case (as in other similar cases) the most sensible way to proceed in my view is to pay strict attention to what these reporters say they have observed, and no attention at all to what they think these things mean. In some cases, their interpretation makes no sense at all, and the thought has crossed my mind that perhaps it's deliberate.
So there's a lot of parsing going on. And the best I can tell, the following quotes are as spin-free as possible:
Who Were "The Movers" And What Were They Doing?
Christopher Ketcham:
Three of these guys were seen on the morning of September 11, just after the first plane hit the North Tower, quote-unquote, “celebrating” on the New Jersey waterfront. Now, that's -- I put the quotes around that, because it comes from a FBI BOLO, or “be on lookout,” an alert that was put out regarding these men that day. The celebration apparently consisted of high-fiving, according to one FBI official, of holding up cigarette lighters, as if they’re at a rock concert. So, remember, the plane has just hit the tower, exploded in the tower, and these three men are behaving rather oddly.
Later in the day, they were picked up. Two other men apparently joined them in a van. They were -- the case was immediately handed over to FBI counterintelligence. The men were held for 71 days. They were repeatedly interrogated. They repeatedly failed lie detector tests. And then, after those 71 days was up, they were sent home, apparently under pressure or because of pressure brought by the Israeli government and by certain players in the US government.
Amy Goodman:
You quote the officer who arrested them, named DeCarlo. You say, according to DeCarlo's report, this officer was told without question by the driver of the moving van, Sivan Kurzberg, “We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.”
Christopher Ketcham:
Right. Well, what's interesting there is that, you recall after the first plane hit, no one really thought that this was a terrorist attack. I mean, most people thought -- and I was there, you know, on the Brooklyn waterfront watching this whole thing. Everyone thought it was an accident. These guys, when they were interrogated by FBI, told them that -- essentially said that they immediately knew it was a terrorist attack. And they actually told the FBI that the reason they were celebrating was because the attacks would be beneficial to Israel, that it was, quote, “a good thing for Israel” -- that's according to the FBI spokesman who spoke on the record about this -- and that it would bring sympathy for Israel's political agenda in the Middle East.
Marc Perelman:
I was able to confirm that, according to the FBI, two of those movers were identified as Mossad agents. And they were interrogated about it.
...
They were sent home to Israel in, I think, November, if I remember, allegedly for immigration violations.
Who Were The "Art Students" And What Were They Doing?
Christopher Ketcham:
These so-called art students were young Israeli men and women who were traveling the country. They were identified by the Drug Enforcement Agency as repeatedly attempting to penetrate government offices, including DEA offices, and to sell, to try to sell art, these cheap knockoff oil paintings, to government officials.
Now, after September 11th, when, in the wake of these sudden attacks, investigators began to go back and look at the nexus of art student activity with the nexuses of the activities of the future hijackers, of the 9/11 hijackers, and what they found was that the art students, in many cases, were living in very close proximity to the September 11 hijackers. Many of these art students were moving large amounts of cash, some of them were reportedly, according to Le Monde, carrying cell phones provided them by an Israeli vice consul in the US. Many of them were highly trained in electronic intercept and intelligence work that was far beyond the compulsory military training required by Israeli law.
So far so good, but now look at some of the packaging I've removed:
Trying To Do Too Much Too Fast Too Quick Too Soon
Amy Goodman:
Let's go to Alexander Cockburn. You have published this piece. It is titled "Cheering Movers and Art Student Spies: What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks?" [1] Who were the Israelis living next to Mohammed Atta? [2] What was in the van on the New Jersey shore? [3] How did two hijackers land on watch lists weeks before 9/11? [4] Who shut down FOX News’s Carl Cameron? We just have two minutes, but talk about [5] the way the media has covered this, [6] why you chose to cover it, and [7] that last story of FOX.
Thus Amy Goodman gives Alexander Cockburn seven questions and two minutes to answer them. It's hardly an invitation to go into anything at any depth but it does give him his choice of question to answer and virtually no chance of being challenged in a follow-up. So in effect it gives him a chance to rant about the way the story's been neglected elsewhere and how wonderful Counterpunch is to run it at all, especially since the two other gatekeeper publications mentioned above won't touch it.
It's also interesting to watch Christopher Ketcham trying to push the story along and Marc Perelman doing what appears to be damage control:
Discounting Crucial Evidence
Marc Perelman:
Obviously, the circumstances around the interrogation, there was a lot of panic after 9/11. People were looking for suspects everywhere. So the reports about exactly how they were behaving and what they said -- I mean, we should be a little bit careful about this, because -- and so, what I tried to do is go beyond the reports about them smiling and high-fiving, and so on, because I had my doubts about this. I still have them, by the way.
Nobody dared to speak up to counter this, but it seems transparent sham to me. Discounting the reports of the FBI because it was 9/11 and everybody was a bit excited is atrocious! Please!! These are trained professionals we're talking about, and they've been under stress once or twice before. After 9/11 they were alert and functioning 110%, for the most part. We're not talking about startled amateur eyewitnesses here.
And how about the reason given here?
...we should be a little bit careful about this, because -- and so...
I'm terribly sorry to say I don't find that reason even the slightest bit convincing. Please give me something better than "we should be a little bit careful about this, because -- and so..."
Avoiding Obvious Questions
Why does nobody ask: If the movers weren't dancing and high-fiving, holding their lighters up and worshiping the smoking ruins, why were they arrested in the first place?
Does it seem to you that they may have been shepherds of the hijackers, so to speak, handlers and caregivers at the same time, maneuvering them into place and making sure they got there safely and in plenty of time?
Possibly even protecting them from the FBI long enough to let them do the deed, and celebrating when it was done?
There's a whiff of that in the aroma of this operation, isn't there?
Or am I the only one who smells it?
Transparent Spin
Marc Perelman:
My reporting was narrow, was about those movers and what were they doing. And the conclusion was that they were essentially spying on radical activists in the region, and that they had been let go, because the American authorities had determined that they did not have foreknowledge of the attacks, which is different than what [Ketcham's] article says, because it implies that they were essentially shipped to Israel because of the Israel lobby, and because they knew, whereas what I have been able to find out is that they were sent home because they did something they were not supposed to do and without the knowledge of the American government.
Right. Sure. They were released because they had no foreknowledge but they were celebrating because why? Why were they the only people in New York who seemed to realize that the first impact was a terrorist attack and not an accident? Because they lacked foreknowledge?
Sure, Marc. And a pat on the head for you from AIPAC, no doubt.
Alexander Cockburn:
The main thing, Amy, is that basically the story, which Perelman and others did do good work on, has been systematically suppressed by the media for a very long time, starting with FOX News, which killed off Cameron [...]
They didn't actually kill him off, of course, but they scrubbed this report:
from every place it appeared. As I understand it, this video -- no longer available in the FOX archives (or any other place where they have influence) comes from a blogger who snagged it as it went by.
Back to Alexander Cockburn:
[...] ABC News, which dropped it. And, obviously, there are thousands of questions, which Ketcham goes into in great detail, which should be the subject of congressional hearings and investigations, such as, was the Mossad essentially being subcontracted by the CIA to work in the United States on spying, which would be illegal?
Sure, Mr. Cockburn. Really. They were subcontracted by the CIA. That's beautiful.
Especially since it contradicts the spin coming from
Marc Perelman:
Sometimes friendly governments have agreements, where they can kind of like spy together. Apparently, this was a case where it was not happening.
Nobody is immune, not even
Christopher Ketcham:
Now, the upshot of all this available evidence is this: the Israeli government likely was conducting some kind of spy operation on US soil in the run-up to the September 11th attacks. The purpose of the operation was to identify and track Muslim extremists, possibly including members of al-Qaeda.
If al-Q'aeda exists at all...
Translucent Spin
On second thought it strikes me that perhaps the whole exercise here was not to get any new or valuable information out via DN! but to create an infomercial for the Counterpunch newsletter. Christopher Ketcham's article certainly doesn't appear to be available online.
If this was simply crass commercialism in the name of democracy then it wasn't the first time I've seen that.
Alexander Cockburn:
It’s absolutely extraordinary that Ketcham’s story, which has been worked on, which is a very long and complex story, could not find any market until Counterpunch, which is what we’re here for, could published it. Obviously, the main reason is the word “Israel.” People drop it like a hot potato. As soon as you hear people say it’s a good thing for Israel, the whole lobby came in and had those people whipped out of their jail and sent back to Israel. And since then, all questions regarding it had been systematically checked off. I think that’s the sort of, you know, journalistic patty-cake --
Patty-cake? Not quite the word I had in mind. But onward...
Who Were The "Movers"? Who Were The "Art Students"?
Let's forget Israel for a moment. Seriously. I don't care. I don't like to classify people by race or religion or anything else really; I think as soon as you start making sweeping generalizations you're better off keeping your mouth shut. So forget what country these "movers" and "art students" came from. And forget any notion of motive or skill.
Just look at what's been reported and picture the "movers" and "art students" simply as "foreign nationals" and try to imagine...
If I and (apparently) most of my readers are right, and 9/11 was a black op -- what could have been the role of these movers? And who were the art students really?
The explanation that seems simplest to me runs like this:
The movers were part of the cover; they ran interference to make sure the plot succeeded. They were dancing and cheering because their plot had worked! What could be clearer? Would they be dancing and high-fiving, would they be saying "this is good for our country", if they thought it would be bad for their country? How stupid do you think we are, anyway?
The "art students" look like very highly trained foreign espionage agents. It appears they were either trying to plant bugs in US government offices, or bringing money to US office-holders, or financing the hijackers, or protecting the hijackers, or some or even all of the above.
The cheap knock-off oil paintings were the props supporting their legend -- just something to get them in the door.
Why would the "art students" live near the "hijackers"?. Were they trying to restrain them? If they were trying to track them and restrain them and prevent an attack, why wouldn't they be working with the FBI, rather than without the knowledge -- let alone consent -- of the US authorities? What could be plainer? What else could they be doing?
Just suppose, for a moment, that they had been worried about a possible attack against the US, and that they had infiltrated the country surreptitiously in order to stop the attack. Why would they be trying to inflitrate government offices? If they represented a friendly nation, why would they doing whatever they were doing under the American radar unless the intent were sinister?
As for the movers, if they were trying to prevent a possible terrorist attack against the US, why would they be dancing and high-fiving and holding their lighters in salute to the burning towers? What else could their activities possibly signify? And if they weren't celebrating why were they arrested? And there just happened to be a couple of bona-fide foreign intelligence agents in the group. How coincidental!
Now tack on the geopolitical: Which countries' political agendas were advanced by the world's reaction to 9/11?
Now tack on the espionage angle: Which countries' intelligence agencies are sophisticated enough and slick enough to run an op like this, and almost get away clean?
Now tack on more geopolitical: Which foreign countries have enough clout to have their intelligence agents sprung quietly and spirited away?
How many foreign countries fits this complex description? In other words, how plausible is this story?
Do you see my point?
Do We See A Pattern Emerging?
So-called reputable journalists lay out dots but claim they're connected in ways other than they really are. Bloggers come along and rearrange the connections.
Is this the only way journalism can continue in this country? Not only this country, but in the entire world?
Are Alexander Cockburn and Christopher Ketcham and Marc Perelman all quaking in their boots lest they say too much and wind up like Anna Politkovskaya?
Recently award winning journalist Peter Lance did something quite similar, with his book Triple Cross. He starts out with all sorts of indications that al-Q'aeda is an instrument of NATO intelligence, if it exists at all, and winds up making it all Patrick Fitzgerald's fault!
Respected researchers such as Peter Dale Scott now quote Triple Cross but without mentioning the aspects of it which if not obviously wrong are at least open to a vastly different interpretation than the twist Lance gives them. But hey! At least he got it published. He got those dots in the public record.
And now courtesy of Democracy Now! we have more of the same: Amy Goodman, Alexander Cockburn, Marc Perelman and Christopher Ketchum have all laid pieces of the puzzle in plain sight, and I thank them for that. But somehow I can't shake the feeling that they have interpreted their material in a very bizarre fashion.
But hey! At least they got it published.
Such is power in American journalism at the moment, friends.
It's not as bad as it was in USSR during the Stalinist era, but we keep getting closer. | | | | Alpha | | Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 10:43 am Post subject: |
| Hi JD,
I haven't heard... Isn't that incredible.. If that case involved an Arab/Muslim lobby trying to get US into wars against the enemy (enemies) of a certain Arab/Muslim country in the Middle East, we wouldn't hear the end of it.. Try doing a search for AIPAC at www.washingstonpost.com or a search for AIPAC at google.com and yahoo.com as I would like to know the latest about the case.. | | | | davidjones | | Posted: Sun Feb 11, 2007 8:49 pm Post subject: |
| Odigo Says Workers
Were Warned of 9/11 Attacks
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=77744&contrassID=/has%5C
Odigo, the instant messaging service, says that two of its workers received messages two hours before the Twin Towers attack on September 11 predicting the attack would happen, and the company has been cooperating with Israeli and American law enforcement, including the FBI, in trying to find the original sender of the message predicting the attack.
Micha Macover, CEO of the company, said the two workers received the messages and immediately after the terror attack informed the company's management, which immediately contacted the Israeli security services, which brought in the FBI.
"I have no idea why the message was sent to these two workers, who don't know the sender. It may just have been someone who was joking and turned out they accidentally got it right. And I don't know if our information was useful in any of the arrests the FBI has made," said Macover. Odigo is a U.S.-based company whose headquarters are in New York, with offices in Herzliya.
As an instant messaging service, Odigo users are not limited to sending messages only to people on their "buddy" list, as is the case with ICQ, the other well-known Israeli instant messaging application.
Odigo usually zealously protects the privacy of its registered users, said Macover, but in this case the company took the initiative to provide the law enforcement services with the originating Internet Presence address of the message, so the FBI could track down the Internet Service Provider, and the actual sender of the original message.
Map of Odigo offices relative to the WTC:
On the left is the aerial photo of New York. The red Building is the edge of Ground Zero. On the right is the corresponding street map, courtesy of Mapquest. | | | | davidjones | | Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007 7:00 am Post subject: |
| Two major 9/11 anomalies have been thoroughly documented, specifically:
1) The stand down of US air defense on the morning of 9/11 that permitted commercial jet aircraft to fly erratically and in restricted air space without challenge
2) Overwhelming physical evidence that World Trade Center buildings #1, #2, and #7 were brought down by controlled demolition
A third significant anomaly has not been discussed, let alone acknowledged: the reporting by the major US TV news networks in the first hours few hours immediately after the attacks.
Specifically:
1. MSNBC presented an elaborately detailed story about the lifestyle and anti-US philosophy of Osama bin Laden - while both towers were still burning and long before Bin Laden had been accused by anyone.
2. Fox News featured a "man in the street" eye witness who explained in strangely formal language the science behind why the towers collapsed when most engineers and firemen were utterly baffled and in shock by what had just taken place.
3. CBS featured a Bush administration insider (and not identified as such) as a guest who actively worked to dissuade Dan Rather (and viewers) from speculating that there must have been explosive charges placed in the buildings for them to have collapsed the way they did.
How was it that these stories - based on no fact, no research and no inquirry - appeared in full blown form so quickly on US news networks and then became part of the core myths of what happened on 9/11?
Were these stories prepared in advance?
There's an old intelligence saying that "once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, but three times is enemy action."
Because most of these clips ran only once and were not repeated after they'd done their job, it made it difficult, if not impossible, for viewers to analyze them critically.
Now, thanks to the magic of video tape and a few people who immediately started taping the news after the attacks, we have this important evidence that at the very least these attacks appear to have been anticipated and prepared for by forces that have the ability to exert strong influence over the output of the newsrooms of major US news networks.
Now watch this essential video here.
Source: http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/80.html | | | | | ©2002-2009 WarWithoutEnd.co.uk |
