French Reports: U.S. Busts Big Israeli Spy Ring

Reuters
March 5, 2002
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/020305/5/kkwj.html



PARIS - The United States has broken up a huge Israeli spy ring that may have trailed suspected al Qaeda members in the United States without informing federal authorities, the French daily Le Monde reported Tuesday.

A secret U.S. government report outlining spying activities by Israelis contained "elements (that) support the theory that Israel did not give the U.S. all the information it had about the planning for the Sept. 11 attacks," it wrote.

Le Monde said the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration had confirmed the existence of the secret study, which says the Israelis posed as graphic arts students and tried to enter buildings belonging to the DEA 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 called it a "bogus story." The spokesman said: "There wasn't a spy ring."

U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden said on Tuesday in response to 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 Monday, a spokesman told Reuters: "The prime minister's office declines to comment on this matter."

Le Monde Tuesday 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," Le Monde 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, not a one-off coup," he said.

Le Monde published what it said were 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.

It noted that Fox News television reported in December that Israeli agents were sent to the United States before Sept. 11 to warn Washington about a threat, but the agents did not have enough useful information for U.S. officials to act on.

Le Monde, which said it had seen a copy of the secret report, said it also had learned that six suspected spies had used portable telephones bought by a former Israeli vice-consul in the United States.

Le Monde said several suspected spies had frequently entered and left the United States after only short stays.

HIGH-TECH CONNECTIONS

Intelligence Online said the DEA also 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.

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 Feb. 2001 and is still continuing, the newsletter quoted the report as saying.

"The network targeted some of the most sensitive sites in the United States," the twice-monthly newsletter said, citing an Air Force base near Oklahoma City and unnamed federal offices buildings where the Israelis tried to sell artwork.

Intelligence Online said the suspected agents also had cultivated contacts with Israeli information technology companies based in the United States and serving as regular suppliers to various U.S. federal agencies.

 

Copyright © 2002 Reuters Limited.

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