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.
© Copyright 2002
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