Good synopsis of the Israeli Spy Story, "The Story that Will Not Die," updated. Originally published at Antiwar.Com. I wonder if Joseph Farah considers this massive Israeli spy network in the United States to be a threat. Spies are not a threat?
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9/11: WHAT DID ISRAEL KNOW? and when did they tell us?
by Justin Raimondo
Israel had foreknowledge of 9/11 that was Carl
Cameron's explosive contention, made last year in a
blockbuster series of reports on Fox News exposing an
Israeli spy ring in the U.S. New evidence confirms his
story and points to a rather ominous conclusion
.
Reporting the round-up and deportation of scores of
Israeli agents masquerading as "art students"
Cameron noted last December that several were
"active Israeli military" and the rest had skills that one
normally associates with spies: electronic interception,
explosives, and special operations. Several failed
polygraph tests when asked if they were engaged in
"surveillance activities against and in the United
States." Aside from trying to penetrate U.S.
government facilities, this network, which went into
high gear in the months prior to 9/11, was also
watching the Al Qaeda terrorists, according to
Cameron:
"There is no indication that the Israelis were involved
in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that the
Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the
attacks in advance, and not shared it. A highly placed
investigator said there are quote 'tie-ins.' But when
asked for details, he flatly refused to describe them,
saying, quote 'evidence linking these Israelis to
9-11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that
has been gathered. It's classified information.'"
This was denied up and down by the U.S. and Israeli
governments, and the story was derided as an "urban
myth," denounced as an "anti-Semitic" canard, and
subsequently banished from the pages of the
"mainstream" media. But evidence began to pile up:
reports of hundreds of Israelis descending on U.S.
government facilities, and a massive round-up of these
operatives claiming to be "art students," began to leak
out.
The story refused to die. A secret government report
(originating with the Drug Enforcement Agency)
detailing the highly suspicious activities of these
aspiring Israeli "artists" was subsequently uncovered,
and a series of stories appeared in the international
media: Le Monde, the British media, and then leaping
across the Atlantic. An excellent article in Salon, by
Christopher Ketcham, and wire stories detailing the
leaked contents of the DEA report raised awareness of
a possible Israeli connection to the events surrounding
9/11.
I've been covering this since November of last year,
when I noticed a story in the Washington Post
reporting the detention of some 60 Israelis under the
same legal rubric as the Arabs being held on suspicion
of terrorist connections. These guys, said the Justice
Department lawyers, were of "special interest" to the
government; and, as their role in the events leading up
to 9/11 begins to come into clearer focus, I can see
why
..
A report in Die Zeit, a German newspaper, outlining
the glitches and outright obstructionism that led to the
greatest intelligence failure in our history reveals a
stunning bit of information. The BBC reports:
"The paper has uncovered details of a major Israeli spy
ring involving some a 120 agents for the intelligence
service Mossad operating across America and some
masquerading as arts students."
The Israeli "art student" story has come a long way
since the days when it could be airily dismissed: the
whitewashers have been forced back to their second
line of defense, which is admitting that, yes, there was
an Israeli spy ring in the U.S., but they had no
foreknowledge of 9/11. That was the conclusion
reached by a recent article in the Forward, as well as
an ABC News report, "The White Van." But the latest
revelation goes further:
"The ring was reportedly hard on the heels of at least
four members of the hijack gang, including its leader
Mohammed Atta."
The whitewashers, it seems, have retreated to their
third line of defense, as iterated by the BBC:
"But the Israeli agents were detected by their American
counterparts and thrown out of the country, it says.
The US authorities said then that they were students
whose visas had expired.
"Just a month before the deadly attacks, the paper
said, Mossad handed over to the Americans a detailed
report naming several suspects they believe were
preparing an attack on the United States."
So the Mossad has an alibi, after all. Or maybe not.
For, according to these same reports, including one in
Der Spiegel:
"An entire troop of Israeli terror investigators
disguised as students took to the tracks of Arabic
terrorists and their cells in the USA between December
2000 and April 2001. During their undercover
investigations, the Israelis came very close to the later
perpetrators of September 11. In Hollywood, Florida
they located both of the former Hamburg students and
later terrorist pilots Mohammed Atta and Marwan
al-Shehhi as potential terrorists. Agents settled down
in immediate proximity of their apartment and
observed the seemingly normal flight school students
around the clock."
So they were living next door to the terrorists,
including the leader of the 9/11 hijackers, watching
their every move but didn't tell us what they were up
to until August, 2001.
The list turned over to the FBI by the Israelis
apparently contained the names of at least four of the
nineteen hijackers, but the warning was non-specific:
only that these were potential terrorists. It stretches
the bounds of credulity to believe that, after observing
them up close for an extended period of time and
perhaps monitoring them in other ways the Israelis
knew no more than this.
The DEA report names South Florida, and specifically
Hollywood, a small city near Ft. Lauderdale, as the
nexus of the Israeli "art student" spy ring: "The
Hollywood, Florida area seems to be a central point for
these individuals with several having addresses in this
area." The DEA investigators also noted that a whole
platoon of these characters, including the leaders,
were apprehended in the South Florida area from
March to May, 2001. Prior to 9/11, the authorities had
detained 140 of them nationwide: and they were still
rounding them up, some 60 more, after the event.
So if the Israelis had decided, in August, to come clean
with the information they had, then why were federal
agents still arresting and detaining our "partners" in
the "war on terrorism" in late November and early
December? The DEA report also shows that the South
Florida operation was active since at least January,
perhaps earlier: plenty of time and opportunity to
gather more than vague inferences as to the terrorists'
intentions.
But the spin put on this by Die Zeit and Der Spiegel is
that if only those stupid Americans had listened to
their friends, the Mossad, 9/11 would never have
happened. The latter avers that no sooner had the
Mossad located Atta and his crew, then the ungrateful
Americans acted in their typically pig-headed and even
vindictive manner:.
"Yet soon after, the agents were unmasked by US
authorities and deported to Israel. As usual in such
cases, the exposure was not made public and only led
to disgruntlement between the traditionally
competitive intelligence agencies Mossad and CIA.
This case proves once again that even in concretely
dangerous situations, the US agents were not obliged
to cooperate, instead opting to antagonize each other."
This case proves nothing of the sort. What it does
prove is 1) that those of us who identified the Israeli
"art students" as part of a spy operation in the U.S.
were absolutely correct, 2) that the Israelis were not
only conducting covert operations against U.S.
government facilities but were also watching the
hijackers very closely, and 3) that some people will go
to any lengths to avoid considering some very
unpleasant and politically explosive possibilities.
It is possible that the Israelis were doing more than
merely watching the hijackers. As Mohammed Atta
and Marwan Alshehhi went back and forth between
Huffman Aviation, a flight school in nearby Venice,
and their Hollywood apartment, what were the
Mossad agents next door doing and why did they
wait until August, after their operation had been
discovered and busted up, to share this vital
information?
But Der Spiegel knows better than to implicate the
Israelis in anything untoward, and instead mournfully
reports that "observation of the
terrorists also
ceased" when the "art students" were apprehended.
But if the information had been shared then and there
in March, when the authorities first became aware of
the Hollywood-centered South Florida operation
then what prevented the FBI from taking up where the
Mossad had left off? Der Spiegel is vague about this:
"The Israelis' list with at least four of the 19 assassins
from September 11 was apparently not handled by the
CIA with the necessary urgency, nor was it forwarded
to the FBI. Fact is that the US authorities did not
efficiently follow up on the Israeli agents' leads.
Information on the Israeli tips has also been made
known in the USA during the [Senate intelligence
committee 9/11 hearings], which has been ongoing for
weeks."
While the FBI is scapegoated for its alleged
inefficiency, the Israelis were not exactly forthcoming.
On March 3, 2001, alerted to the Israeli "art student"
invasion, the Orlando office of the DEA took one Peer
Segalovitz into custody, and interrogated him for four
hours. According to the DEA report:
"Segalovitz was untruthful about his reasoning to be
in the United States for approximately the first 3
hours. Segalovitz finally admitted that he was one of
approximately 30 Israeli art students who are
currently in Florida. Segalovitz would not admit what
their purpose was in Florida, but did state that they
were not here for legitimate means."
A 27-year-old officer of the Israeli special military
forces, attached to the 650th battalion stationed in the
Golan Heights, Segalovitz gave his rank (Lieutenant)
and serial number (5087989) and said that he
"specialized in demolition." After recounting his
familiarity with military operations, and stating "that
the only thing he was not trained to operate was
military aircraft," he "asked agents not to divulge this
information to Israel because it would lead to his
immediate arrest in Israel."
If it's true, as Der Spiegel avers, that the distinguished
members of the Senate Committee investigating 9/11
are pinning the blame on our own intelligence
agencies and exonerating the role of the Mossad, one
can only wonder why they don't call Mr. Segalovitz as
an expert witness?
And while they're at it, they might also call for the
extradition from Israel of two people named on the
FBI's terrorist suspect list: Dominik Suter and Ornit
Levinson Suter, who fled when their Urban Moving
Systems office and warehouse was raided by the
police. Four employees of this New Jersey-based firm
had been arrested on 9/11, hours after the attacks,
when they were seen cheering as the World Trade
Towers burned. They were held for months, and then
deported. Even Barbara Walters' whitewash of this
incident admitted that Urban Moving Systems was
undoubtedly a Mossad front.
Did the "art students" stand behind the terrorists in
line at the local supermarket? Did they bump into each
other in the street and what, pray tell, did these
dedicated Al Qaeda cadre think of a group of Israelis
living in such close proximity?
