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"THIS STORY NO LONGER EXISTS"
MAJOR ISRAELI SPY SCANDAL UNFOLDING ONCE AGAIN
MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 3/05/2002:
Just a few months ago, in December of last year, FOX News ran a major 4-part
expose on Israeli spying in the U.S. The story was hightlighted on consecutive days
on FOX News TV and was published in a major way on their Internet site. It was at the
time said to be the biggest story about Israeli spying ever, with more than sixty
Israelis held in custody at that time.
Tremendous pressure was brought to bear in a coverup in which the U.S. government
is now thought to have participated. And in an unprecedented move FOX News not only
did no further broadcast stories about this matter but even removed the stories from
its website. "This story no longer exists" is what FOX has to say about the matter.
But now the story is comng back to life, not in the U.S. so far, but in foreign
publications, including France's most important newspaper, Le Monde:
FRENCH REPORTS: U.S. BUSTS BIG ISRAELI SPY RING
[PARIS (Reuters - 5 March)] - The French daily Le Monde reported on Tuesday that the
United States had broken up a huge Israeli spy ring that may have trailed suspected al
Qaeda members in the United States without informing federal authorities.
The newspaper cited a secret U.S. government report outlining spying activities by
Israelis that it said contained "elements (that) support the theory that Israel did
not give the U.S. all the information it had about the planning for the September 11
attacks."
In Washington, however, U.S. law enforcement officials discounted the report, with one
calling the assertion of a spy ring "a bogus story."
Le Monde said the secret study said the Israelis posed as graphic arts students and
tried to enter buildings belonging to the Drug Enforcement Administration and other
U.S. agencies.
Intelligence Online, a Paris-based newsletter that reported on the study Monday, said
some 120 Israeli spies had been arrested or expelled and inquiries were continuing.
Asked by Reuters Monday about the Intelligence Online report, an FBI spokesman flatly
called it a "bogus story." The spokesman said: "There wasn't a spy ring."
In Washington on Tuesday, U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said of the
Le Monde report, "At this time, we have no information to support this."
U.S. officials said some Israeli students had been sent out of the country for
immigration violations, not for spying.
In Israel on Monday, a spokesman said the prime minister had no comment on the
matter.
Le Monde reported Intelligence Online's findings and added elements it said its
reporters had uncovered.
"A vast Israeli espionage network operating on American territory has been broken up,"
it wrote.
The French newspaper described it as the biggest Israeli spy case in the United States
to be made public since 1986, a reference to the life sentence given Jonathan Pollard,
an American Jew who passed U.S. military secrets to Israel.
The Pollard affair strained relations between the United States and Israel, two
traditionally close allies.
Guillaume Dasquie, editor of Intelligence Online, told Reuters Monday the report did
not specify exactly what information the alleged agents were seeking.
"The report shows the clandestine network was engaged in several intelligence
operations. It was a long-term project," he said.
Le Monde said it published excerpts from the introduction of the June 2001 report,
including a comment that the women in the spy ring were "usually very attractive."
AL QAEDA LINK?
Le Monde said more than one third of the suspected Israeli spies had lived in Florida,
where at least 10 of the 19 Arabs involved in the Sept. 11 airplane attacks on New
York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon also lived.
At least five of the spies resided in Hollywood, Florida, where alleged hijacker
Mohammad Atta and four accomplices in the attacks also lived, the paper said.
The United States holds Saudi-born Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network responsible for
the September attacks.
Two Israelis lived in Fort Lauderdale, near Delray Beach, where hijackers in the
planes that crashed into the Pentagon and in Pennsylvania resided temporarily, the
report added.
"This concordance could be the source of the American view that one of the missions of
the Israeli 'students' could have been to track al Qaeda terrorists on (U.S) territory
without informing federal authorities," Le Monde said.
The newspaper said it had seen a copy of the secret report, and that it had learned
that six suspected spies had used portable telephones bought by a former Israeli vice
consul in the United States.
Both Le Monde and Intelligence Online said the DEA had confirmed the existence of the
report drawn up for the Justice Department by the drug agency together with the
Immigration and Naturalization Service, the FBI and the U.S. Air Force. A spokesman
for the U.S. anti-drug agency was not immediately available for comment.
Intelligence Online said the suspects, all between 22 and 30, had recently completed
their Israeli military service and one was related to a two-star Israeli general. It
named several of the Israelis it said had been arrested.
The inquiry began in February 2001 and is still continuing, it quoted the report as
saying.
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