| U.S. Deports Dozens
of Israelis Amid Warnings of Possible Spy Activities
Wednesday, March 06, 2002 Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Authorities have arrested
and deported since early last year dozens of young Israelis who
represented themselves as art students in efforts to gain access
to restricted buildings and homes, U.S. officials said.
The Israelis tried to get inside sensitive federal
office buildings and the homes of government employees, the officials
said.
A draft report from the Drug Enforcement Administration
— which first characterized the activities as suspicious — said
the youths' actions "may well be an organized intelligence-gathering
activity."
Immigration officials deported the Israelis for
visa violations; no criminal espionage charges were filed.
"At this time, the Department of Justice
does not have information to support these accounts of Israeli
students possibly committing espionage," said Susan Dryden,
a department spokeswoman. The deputy U.S. attorney general, Larry
Thompson, declined to discuss the arrests when asked about them
during a news conference Tuesday.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari
said it was "nonsense" that the students were spying
on the United States.
Another Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Irit Stopper,
confirmed that a few Israelis posing as art students were expelled
from the United States for working without permits. However they
were not accused of espionage, she said. She did not say how many
Israelis were expelled and did not give any additional details.
The DEA report was first obtained by a French
Web site that specializes in intelligence news, Intelligenceonline.com.
DEA spokeswoman Rogene Waite in Washington confirmed that the
agency had written a report on this subject and forwarded it to
other law enforcement agencies.
"That these people are now traveling in
the U.S. selling art seems not to fit their background,"
the DEA report said.
An FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity,
noted there were no espionage charges filed against any of the
individuals and that they had been deported. Asked whether any
spying activity occurred, the official repeated that no charges
had been filed.
The arrests, made in an unspecified number of
major U.S. cities from California to Florida, came amid public
warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies about suspicious behavior
by people posing as Israeli art students and "attempting
to bypass facility security and enter federal buildings."
The Israelis were arrested and deported on charges
of working in the United States without authorization or overstaying
visits on tourist visas, said Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the
Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington. He described
dozens of arrests since early 2001 but gave no exact figures.
The DEA report said a majority of the students
questioned by U.S. investigators acknowledged having served in
units of the Israeli military specializing in military intelligence,
electronic signals interception or explosive ordnance. The DEA
said one person questioned was the son of a two-star Israeli general,
one had served as the bodyguard to the head of the Israeli Army
and another served in a Patriot missile unit.
Most Israeli men and women are conscripted into
their nation's military service at age 18.
A Justice Department official, who also asked
not to be identified, said investigators have been aware of some
"alleged linkage" between the students and alleged espionage
activities in the United States since early 2001, and said authorities
have made arrests in Dallas, Chicago, San Diego and in south Florida.
INS spokesman Rodney Germain in Miami said five or six people
were arrested in that area at least six months ago on immigration
counts.
Although security experts at the DEA first characterized
the youths' behavior as suspicious, and INS authorities later
arrested them, the FBI typically investigates espionage cases
in the United States.
The U.S. Office of the National Counterintelligence
Executive, a federal agency, circulated a public warning in March
2001 urging federal employees to report contact with people describing
themselves as Israeli art students. "These
individuals have been described as aggressive," the warning
said. "They attempt to engage employees in conversation rather
than giving a sales pitch."
Cooperation with Israel, a longtime key ally,
is increasingly important in the U.S. war on terrorism.
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