Israel's Vast Spy Network of Fake Art Students
by Christopher Bollyn
March 20, 2002
Attorney General John Ashcroft's office said the explosive story of an Israeli
spy network of bogus art students operating across the United States is an
"urban myth," but other law enforcement officials say otherwise.
The important details of a massive Israeli spy ring that operated across the
United States—employing Israeli intelligence agents posing as "art students" to
gain access to sensitive U.S. government offices, defense companies, and the
private homes of employees of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA)—are starting to
emerge. What has now become clear is that the agents and modus operandi of the
ring were known by the highest levels of government and that policies were
changed to counter the threat of Israeli surveillance through computer networks.
The explosive story of the Israeli spy ring, discovered operating in the United
States last year, and the 61-page DEA task-force report that contained the
details about this spy ring was first revealed in detail on March 4 by
Intelligence Online (IO), a well-respected Internet news service based in Paris,
France. IO's story elaborated in some respects on earlier findings by Carl
Cameron of Fox News who referenced the "Israeli art students" as part of his
much larger story. Like the Cameron report, the IO story was picked up by the
leading French daily, Le Monde, and, in some respects, by the Associated Press,
but was quickly dropped.
Referring to the reports, the March 15 issue of Forward, one of the oldest and
most respected Jewish newspapers in America, commented that: "Despite angry
denials by Israel and its American supporters, reports that Israel was
conducting spying activities in the United States may have a grain of truth, the
Forward has learned." Forward commented smugly that: "Both the French and the
Fox reports were dismissed by Israel and its supporters and received limited
coverage in the American media."
LeMonde and Fox (as well as IO) suggested the likelihood that these Israeli
operatives were spying on Arab terrorist cells operating in the United States
and almost certainly had advance knowledge about the impending 9-11 attacks—a
theory that inflamed Israel and its American supporters. The Associated Press
was careful not to mention this aspect of the story.
A British intelligence and military analysis publication, Jane's Information
Group, noted the peculiar absence of reporting in the American media on the
"explosive story" of the huge network of Israeli spies that made headlines
around the world:
It is rather strange that the U.S. media . . . seem to be ignoring what may well
prove to be the most explosive story since the Sept. 11 attack, the alleged
breakup of a major Israeli espionage operation in the United States which aimed
to infiltrate both the Justice and Defense departments and which may also have
been tracking al Qaeda terrorists before the aircraft hijackings took place.
Reports of Israeli "art students" calling on DEA employees across the country
began as early as January 2000 and continued through June 2001. What is not
clear is what the ring of more than 120 agents was up to and why some Israelis
linked to the attacks in New York and Washington were allowed to flee or were
sent back to Israel after Sept. 11 on visa violations rather than being charged
and prosecuted.
The "art students" are reported to be active agents in electronic surveillance
units of the Israeli military. The Israelis covered the country in "organized"
teams of eight to 10 people, with each group having a team leader. The DEA
document lists the Israelis' military and intelligence specialties as "special
forces," "intelligence officer," "demolition/explosive ordnance specialist,"
"bodyguard to head of Israeli army," "electronic intercept operator," and "son
of a two-star (Israeli) army general."
American intelligence services have become worried by the dominance of Israeli
companies in sensitive areas of telecommunications. One Israeli company,
Comverse Infosys (now called Verint) has provided law enforcement agencies with
computer equipment for wiretapping. It is thought that the equipment came with
"catch gates" that allowed the Israelis to listen in. Software made by Amdocs,
another Israeli outfit records virtually every call placed through the 25
largest U.S. telephone companies. The relationship of these companies to the
detained Israelis is detailed in the 60-page document.
The DEA document reveals that many of the Israeli operatives had addresses in
San Diego, Little Rock, Irving (Tex.) and South Florida very close to the homes
of Arabs suspected of involvement in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. The alleged
hijacker, Mohammad Atta, lived at 3389 Sheridan St. in Hollywood, Fla., while a
few blocks away, at 4220 Sheridan, a group of the Israelis spies resided.
Especially in Florida, where 10 of the 19 alleged Sept. 11 terrorists lived, the
revelations about the Israeli activities bolster speculation that the Israelis
had advance knowledge but did not pass intelligence on to the U.S.
A Justice Department official briefed on an ongoing multi-agency task force
investigating the Israeli spy ring was quoted by newsweekly Insight as having
said: "We think there is something quite sinister here but are unable at this
time to put our finger on it." Another law-enforcement official said: "The
higher-ups don't want to deal with this and neither does the FBI because it
involves Israel."
The DEA report found that several military bases also had experienced
unauthorized entries by the Israelis including two bases from which Stealth
aircraft and other supersecret military units operate. Unauthorized
photographing of military sites and civilian industrial complexes, such as
petroleum-storage facilities, also was reported, the document confirms.
In great detail, the DEA document contains "scores of encounters" between
federal agents and Israeli agents posing as art students. The seemingly
innocuous cover was used to gain access to sensitive U.S. offices and military
installations, such as MacDill Air Force Base in March 2001, and Tinker Air
Force Base in Oklahoma City one month later, where "a special alert" was issued
because of the aggressive Israeli agents. Tinker houses AWACS surveillance
planes and repairs B-1 bombers. The Oklahoman, prompted by the French
revelations, recently reported that 10 months ago four of the Israeli agents
carrying military IDs were detained at Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma.
In virtually every incident reported by the DEA field-offices the Israelis used
the same methods: Israelis would attempt to enter secure buildings, take
photographs, follow federal agents when they left buildings, show up at their
homes and circle their neighborhoods, visiting their houses and then departing.
At a DEA agent's house in Chicago, the police were called because the Israelis
were so aggressive.
SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITIES
One report, titled "Suspicious Activities Involving Israeli Art Students at DEA
Facilities," lists more than 180 documented-incident cases. "The nature of the
individuals' conduct, combined with intelligence information and historical
information regarding past incidents involving Israeli organized crime, leads IS
[DEA's Internal Security division] to believe the incidents may well be an
organized intelligence-gathering activity," said one classified document quoted
by Insight. "This is very odd behavior under any situation," says a DEA
official who had heard but not yet seen the reports until Insight shared them.
"The patterns are clear and they pose a significant danger to our officers in
the field."
When I spoke with Guillaume Dasquie, of IO, he told me he had solid evidence of
the authenticity of the DEA document, and would reveal new evidence to counter
claims made by the Department of Justice that there had been "no case of Israeli
espionage" in the United States and that the matter was "an urban myth."
The Israeli spy ring was "examined at the highest levels of the Bush
administration," Dasquie said. On March 13, IO was informed by an official at
the Department of Justice that the report had been handed over to the
department's Joint Terrorism Task Force. The same day, at a DEA press
conference, the agency's administrator, Asa Hutchinson, said that he had passed
the document along to "other agencies" working on the matter. On March 14, IO
said it has a copy of a memorandum dated March 4 and signed by Robert Diegelman,
assistant attorney general for administration. The memo was addressed to
officials in charge of the Justice Department's information systems. It called
on them to forbid information system access to all non-U.S. citizens and no
longer use foreign-supplied computer and communication gear. The memo referred
to a warning entitled Department of Justice Order 2640.2D Information Technology
Security, dated 12 July 2001, which cautioned against using information
technology sold by foreign firms. The warning of July 12 confirmed that the
DEA's report was a security concern at the highest level.
The DEA task force issued an initial report in June of last year that listed the
names of 125 Israeli nationals and described their activities in the United
States. The document suggests that the ring had infiltrated federal buildings,
according to IO, and that Israeli computer companies sell equipment to U.S.
government departments. The DEA purchased $25 million worth of interception
equipment from a number of Israeli companies named in the report in September
1997.
An AP report from Washington on March 9 confirmed that the DEA document had been
the joint work of a task force. The AP report confirmed that several of the
Israelis had never enrolled in the art colleges they claimed to attend in
Israel. In addition, IO reported: "We've also obtained an internal document
from the US Coast Guard, an Intelligence Bulletin dated Jan. 17, 2002. Reserved
for security bosses in America's biggest companies, the bulletin regularly
tracks all attempts to penetrate protected sites recorded by the US Coast
Guard."
The Jan. 17 bulletin described the case of a man and woman "of Middle East
origin" taking pictures of a refinery. When questioned they said they were "art
students" even though they were able to discuss technical details concerning
refineries. Other cases of suspicious activity were also reported.
A spokesman for Attorney General John Ashcroft initially attempted to dismiss
the story as an "urban myth." However, the New York-based Forward effectively
exposed Ashcroft's prevarication on March 15:
In March 2001, the federal National Counter intelligence Executive issued a
warning urging employees to report all contact with people describing themselves
as Israeli art students. It said some had gone to private residences of senior
U.S. officials under the guise of selling art.
"These individuals have been described as aggressive," the warning said.
However, the warning added that there may be two groups involved, one with an
"apparently legitimate money-making goal while the second, perhaps a non-Israeli
group, may have ties to a Middle Eastern Islamic fundamentalist group." The
idea that two such groups were operating at the same time (and that one may have
been a "non-Israeli group" presumably posing as Israelis) should raise
questions. Some might suggest that a group of Israelis operating in the United
States were actually posing as Arabs.
Forward defended Israel saying that "far from pointing to Israeli spying against
U.S. government and military facilities . . . the incidents in question appear
to represent a case of Israelis in the United States spying on a common enemy,
radical Islamic networks suspected of links to Middle East terrorism."
Attempting to put a positive spin on the revelations, Forward contends that
tensions between the United States and Israel arise not from the fact that the
United States believed the Israelis were spying on Americans, but because the
Israelis had failed to advise the United States that they were engaged in spying
against Arabs on American soil.