The famed British intelligence
and military analysis publication, Jane’s
Information Group, has noted the peculiar absence of reporting in the
American media on what it has called the “explosive story” of a huge network of
Israeli spies on American soil. Jane’s commented:
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.
There is strong evidence Israeli
intelligence operatives on American soil almost certainly had specific
advance knowledge of the impending terrorist attacks on the United
States but America’s “ally,” Israel, did not report this information to
American authorities.
This shocking possibility first
reached a national audience in the December 17 issue of the Washington,
D.C.-based AMERICAN FREE PRESS which actually went to press on December 7,
2001.
On
December 17, AFP correspondent Michael Collins Piper noted that buried
within a story in The Washington Post on November 23 was the fact that a
number of Israelis taken into custody by federal authorities after the
September 11 tragedy were indeed suspected of having material knowledge
relative to the terrorist attacks.
Then, on December 12, five days
after the AFP story was published, Carl Cameron of Brit Hume’s Special
Report on Fox News broke his report on a wide-ranging Israeli espionage
ring on U.S. soil stating flat out that there was evidence these
Israelis were surveilling the 9-11 terrorists prior to the September 11
tragedy. On December 24, AFP summarized Cameron’s report in which he stated
in part:
There is no indication the Israelis
were involved in the September 11 attacks, but investigators suspect that
they may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance and not
shared it. A highly-placed investigator told Fox News there are
“tie-ins,” but when asked for details flatly refused to describe them.
“Evidence linking these Israelis to 9-11 is classified. I cannot tell
you about evidence that has been gathered. It is classified
information.”
During the segment, host Brit
Hume asked Cameron: “What about this question of advance knowledge of
what was going to happen on 9-11? How clear are investigators that some
Israeli agents may have known something?” Cameron responded: “It’s very
explosive information, obviously, and there’s a great deal of evidence
that they say they have collected. None of it necessarily conclusive.
It’s more when they put it all together. A bigger question, they say, is
‘How could they not have known?’ [That is] almost a direct quote [from
the investigators].”
The Fox report indicated that prior to
September 11 as many as 140 other Israelis had been detained or arrested in
what was described by Cameron as “a secretive and sprawling
investigation into suspected Israeli espionage” According to Cameron:
Investigators
are focusing part of their efforts on Israelis who said they are art
students from the University of Jerusalem or Bezalel Academy and
repeatedly made contact with U.S. government personnel by saying they
wanted to sell cheap art or handiwork.
Documents say they
“targeted” and penetrated military bases, the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, dozens of
government facilities and even secret offices and unlisted private homes
of law enforcement and intelligence personnel.
After
the Fox report, there was an angry response from the Israeli lobby in
America. The December 21 issue of Forward, one of the most prestigious
Jewish newspapers in America, reported that Fox and Cameron were “under
fire” from supporters of Israel. Forward also gloated that “the rest of
the American media” had “barely noted” the Fox News reports.
Whatever
the case, Fox News pulled the transcriptions of Cameron’s broadcast
reports off its Internet web site although Cameron told Forward he
continued to stand behind his story.
On March 4, 2002, the
story pioneered by AFP and Fox News popped back up when the famous
French daily, Le Monde, carried an update, relying largely on reporting
by an independent investigation conducted by the Paris-based internet
newsletter, Intelligence Online (IO), which, in turn, had been directed
by the sources made available to Fox. Citing the previous work by Fox,
Le Monde pointed out how Fox refused to cooperate with Le Monde, saying
it was “a problem,” but that Fox refused to be specific.
Le
Monde noted that IO had received a copy of a report prepared by an
officer of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and others
from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. A spokesman for the
DEA, Will Glaspy, confirmed to Le Monde that the DEA “holds a copy” of
that report.
It is that DEA report that you now hold in your hands.
The
DEA document reveals that many of the Israeli operatives had addresses
in South Florida very close to the homes of Arabs suspected of
involvement in the September 11 terror attacks. For example, the alleged
hijacking ringleader, Mohammad Atta, lived at 3389 Sheridan Street in
Hollywood, Florida, while a group of the Israelis resided only a few blocks
away, at 4220 Sheridan.
On March 5, Reuters reported Le
Monde’s article (even including the allegation of Israeli foreknowledge
of the September 11 terrorist attacks). Reuters, however, cited an unnamed
FBI spokesman who called it a “bogus story,” saying—despite all the
evidence to the contrary—that “there wasn’t a spy ring.”
On
March 6, Associated Press reported the story but did not mention,
however, that the Israelis were believed to have had intimate knowledge
relating to the 9-11 terrorists.
On March 6, Washington Post
staff writers John Mintz and Dan Eggen reported that Attorney General
Ashcroft’s spokeswoman at the Justice Department, Susan Dryden,
dismissed the story as “an urban myth that has been circulating for
months.” She added: “The department has no information at this time to
substantiate these widespread reports about Israeli art students
involved in espionage.”
The release of the DEA report by
government officials who are concerned about the obvious efforts by the
FBI and Attorney General Ashcroft to cover up the affair is a landmark
event. AFP is pleased to provide this copy of the report
and the accompanying materials.
8.5” x 11” over-sized saddle-stitched booklet, 60 pages