Apparently there really were a number of Mossad agents in the US last year posing as art students. Or at least that's what Die Zeit says this week in a pair of articles about American intelligence failures prior to 9/11. What were the Israeli art students doing? They were tailing Mohammad Atta and his merry band of Muslim extremists and trying to figure out what the terrorists were up to. And they were trying to warn the CIA. But then the Israelis were deported. And the CIA didn't get their act together until it was too late. Parts of the story might not hold water, though, as a few readers have raised concerns about some of Die Zeit's sources.
See the two companion reports that I've now finished translating from this week's Die Zeit. The main report, titled Deadly Mistakes is a comprehensive overview of the intelligence failures leading up to September 11. Much of the material has already appeared in the US press, but this article does a particularly good job of telling the story and presenting the chronology. The sidebar article, Next Door to Mohammad Atta has the story about the "art students" who supposedly had Atta under surveillance.
BUT: BruceR fact-checks Die Zeit's ass on the Israeli Art Students story. He locates the DEA report, which was apparently Die Zeit's primary source for the article, and pokes holes in Die Zeit's interpretation. Bruce argues persuasively that the purported "spy ring" was nothing more than a petty fraud ring. I have no independent information other than what I read in the Die Zeit article, nor am I wedded to its conclusions. The article also mentions that Israel gave the US names of suspected terrorists prior to the attacks. That is outside the scope of the DEA report. If Oliver Schröm, the freelancer who wrote the article for Die Zeit has additional sources to back up his work, I'd certainly be interested in hearing what they are. I will try to get in touch with him to ask him directly.
Whether or not there was any stateside Israeli investigation of Mohammed Atta et al, the main point of Schröm's stories was that American intelligence and law enforcement disregarded a considerable number of clues that an Al Qaeda conspiracy was taking place in the US. I can confirm, at least, that I found corroborating sources for much of Schröm's main article (Deadly Mistakes). Nearly all of the quotes attributed to American officials are the original quotes which I found elsewhere on the web. And even if the Israel art student story doesn't check out, I'm still left to ask this question: Why does George Tenet still have the same job he had 13 months ago?
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at October 07, 2002 07:14 AMWhat this article leaves out: The draft report on this was originally leaked from the DEA. That was the first government document mentioning Israeli agents posing as "art students" who were casing federal government facilities (including military bases if I recall correctly) and sometimes visiting government workers at their homes. What is the connection with tracking Al Quaeda? What is the connection with Urban Moving Systems in New Jersey?
Justin Raimundo has been posting on this at antiwar.com. There have also been articles in an Atlanta alternative weekly paper and a brief report on Fox by Carl Cameron.
Raimundo has a tendency to make stuff up and spin any news story to blame the Jews. I do not consider him to be a credible source.
Citizen Able's IP address, by the way, is at the "Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation", which is probably where most of Justin Raimundo's readers live.
Posted by: Stefan Sharkansky on October 7, 2002 04:17 PMMossad tailing bad guys in the USA? I'm a new fan of Israeli art!
Posted by: Ipsofacto on October 7, 2002 04:53 PMart students again------a bit late though..
Posted by: leon on October 7, 2002 05:55 PMI can understand why Israel spies on the U.S. considering the constant threat they're under, but it certainly doesn't make good friends. I don't think the agencies could ever completely trust each other now.
Posted by: Frank J. on October 7, 2002 06:49 PMfox had this last december and then le monde a few months later. How come it is ok to focus on, and the gov has the resources to focus on, Israeli art students but not on Arab flight school students? Here is part of a post I did back in July:
I finally had a chance to look over the leaked and much reported report on the Israeli Art Student Spy Ring. The report is a joke and it shoddiness allows you to understand how the government can miss people going around asking government officials how would they feel if D.C. was taken out.
The report states:
“The nature of the individuals' conduct, combined with intelligence information and historical information regarding past incidents involving Israeli Organized Crime, leads IS to believe the incidents may well be an organized intelligence gathering activity. It is believed by IS that these incidents should not be the basis for any immediate concern for the safety and security of DEA personnel, however, employees should continue to exercise due caution in safeguarding information relating to DEA investigations, or activities.”
In fact, although 125 spies were questioned or even arrested there is absolutely no evidence whatsoever in the 48 page report that any “intelligence gathering” was going on.
Here is the closest the report gets to evidence of spying:
“Aran OFEK [who was arrested and whose apartment was searched] stated that his father was a retired two-star general in the Israeli Army. (NFI). (ISP note: Israel recently launched its 5th spy satellite, identified as the OFEK 5. It is unknown if the name of the satellite and these persons is related.)” Hot dang, they caught that guy red handed.
And that is it, not even a hint of intelligence gathering besides that and that fact that among the people and places they tried to sell art included federal buildings and the homes of federal employees. There is no indication (or mention even by implication) of spying on Muslim radicals.
My friends in the art business who were questioned by the FBI concerning this matter have led me to believe that federal buildings could potentially have been targeted. But not for the reason feds would like to believe. It seems that federal employees can often be persuaded to buy over priced art since they can charge it to their federal petty cash credit card (and perhaps some of the art may wind up in their homes?). In the case of the Israeli’s though, they do not seem to have been taking credit cards so it seems likely that the homes of federal employees and federal offices were solicited just as anybody else’s house or office might be approached.
To go back to the first quote above, so there may be spying but there is no basis for concern? Seems to make the original conclusion look very weak.
In terms of resources, the 48 page report was prepared, many federal agencies involved, as evidenced by the report, “On March 16, 2001, the EPA Agent was informed by EPA-OIG that a security alert where "Israeli" art students are purportedly going to the residences of Federal Law Enforcement Agents around the country under the ruse of selling art.” And as a result of the report “[The DEA Office of Security Programs] requested that all DEA Field Divisions canvas their employees to determine if these activities have occurred in their area. Additionally, information has been received from several other federal law enforcement agencies.” Also, the FBI was involved questioning Americans in the door to door art business to understand the business’s nature.
If the Israelis were spying (and there is absolutely zero evidence in the report to this effect), they probably were not risking national security. At the same time these Israelis were being questioned and at times arrested, murderous terrorists had invaded U.S. flight schools learning how to turn passenger jets into guided missiles. While targeting the Israeli’s, the Federal Government did its best to avoid looking too hard at suspicious flight school students.
For all the reports of the Feds not wanted to target a racial group like Arabs even though some seem to have had terrorist ties, the Feds seemed to be very willing to target Israelis (Jews). Why is it OK to profile one and not the other?
Posted by: zion blog on October 8, 2002 09:50 AMi'm wondering if the israeli art students had any relation to the israeli moving company, the one whose employees were videotaping the world trade center from new jersey, on 9/11? the ones the FBI let go home after interrogating them? (last i heard they were preparing to sue the U.S. for detaining them... i'd love to see the secret documents that case'll generate.
what would make the movers especially interesting, is, at just what point did they began videotaping...? after the planes hit, or before? haven't seen any mainstream, blog or left/right sites clarify that one.
Zion Blog points out the most ironic part of this whole thing. Even the (no doubt well-meaning) DEA agent who wrote and leaked his own memo was only concerned about the Israelis because he thought some might be MOBBED UP (ie, some of them might be looking for a crooked cop or two the Israeli MOB could turn). Which, given that a lot of the Israelis involved were attractive young women, and they were almost certainly doing something fraudulent to start with, is not a completely unreasonable concern for a law enforcement agency. Some of them were connected with Ecstasy or Hash (catnip for a DEA investigator), and their often slightly more than expected military expertise or place in Israeli society seemed to contra-indicate their need to sell art on a Florida street corner. The DEA memo clearly states the writer thought the amount of military service was unusual because it didn't jive with being legitimate itinerant ARTISTS. ("That these people are now traveling in the U.S. selling art seems not to fit their background.") Even the main proponent within the DEA never thought for a second that these people, given how they behaved, were connected with Israeli INTELLIGENCE. ("Employees should continue to exercise due caution in safeguarding information relating to DEA investigations.") That whole spin was added only after Sept. 11, by people with highly suspect motives of their own.
Posted by: BruceR on October 9, 2002 11:19 AMWell the USA is not the only place where the "Israeli art students" are pitching their paintings. I live in Wellington, New Zealand.
In late 2002 I was galible enough to buy a nice painting (print?) for NZ$180 (US$110).
Paint by numbers is a story about these sales men and their art work.
I'd like to read the other 10 pages in the now famous PDB that were mentioned in that article (in the Crawford TX section).