Israeli 'Art' Deportees Were IDF Intel, Intercept, Explosives Experts
by Julia Malone
The Palm Beach Post
March 11, 2002
WASHINGTON - The United States has deported in the past two years dozens of young Israelis who posed as art students and visited sensitive federal facilities, federal officials said Tuesday.
The Israeli visits came under renewed attention after a French Internet site posted a secret draft report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency that concluded there "may well be an organized intelligence gathering activity" dating back at least two years.
The report states that the Israelis had focused on the South, especially Florida, over a period of two years. The visitors typically knocked on the doors of agencies or the homes of federal agents offering to sell artwork.
The artwork had been made in China, the report said.
In December 2000, for example, two Israelis knocked on the door at the residence of a DEA special agent in the Atlanta area and offered to sell artwork. The agent grew suspicious later after seeing the exact same items for sale in a kiosk at the Mall of Georgia.
Moreover, the report said the visitors had recently served in the Israeli military, the majority in intelligence, electronic signal intercept or explosive ordnance units.
Federal law enforcement officials confirmed the arrest and deportations of young Israelis over the past two years, but they said they were removed for routine visa violations, not spying.
"The Department of Justice has no information to substantiate the report about Israeli art students being involved in espionage," said Susan Dryden, a spokesperson at the Justice Department.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari told the Associated Press that the spy report was "nonsense." And Irit Stopper, another spokeswoman, said that some Israelis had been deported for posing as art students and working without permits but not for espionage.
The 60-page DEA report that raised suspicions about the young Israeli visitors was first made public late last year by the Fox News Network.
Attorney General John Ashcroft declined to discuss the report during a news briefing.
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