Justice Department interviewed Harman after Rosen/Weissman charges were dropped, says military blog

The anonymous, telegraphic report is from Col Patrick Lang's blog (Lang is a highly-decorated retired intelligence officer, who served in the Defense Intelligence Agency):

 "Sources familiar with the FBI investigation… say that the investigation is continuing even though the charges against [former Israel lobbyists] Rosen and Weissman were dropped. [Congresswoman Jane] Harman was interviewed by DoJ prosecutors after the Rosen/Weissman charges were dropped.

Sources indicate that based on multi-agency reports of Israeli espionage activities in the U.S. prior to 9/11, George Tenet as DCI ordered his senior staff to assemble for him a study of all the files available concerning the history of Israeli espionage activities in the US. The resulting study shocked him."

Charges were dropped 12 days ago. Thanks to Ali Gharib of IPS.

About Philip Weiss

Philip Weiss is Founder and Co-Editor of Mondoweiss.net.
Posted in Israel Lobby, US Policy in the Middle East

{ 32 comments... read them below or add one }

  1. Colin Murray says:

    … the investigation is continuing … Excellent. The resulting study shocked [DCI George Tenet]. Mr. 'Medal of Freedom' really is pretty damn ignorant. It's no wonder that AIPAC and the Israelis run over us with idiots like him in charge. And then he was 'shocked' and proceeded to do … nothing.

  2. Ed says:

    The Democratic Party and Jewish Zionism are becoming synonymous. 95% of the 45 Jewish Zionists serving in Congress are Democrats (and 45 Jewish Zionists means 13.5% of Congress is Jewish Zionist, whereas Jews only comprise around 2% of the American population.) So obviously, the Democratic Party goes out of its way to see to it that Jewish Zionists are elected to national office. Why? Because they are reliably Big Government/Bolshevik, which is where the Democratic Party wants to take America. (The modern GOP is Big Government, too, but not Bolshevik; rather, Plutocratic.) Why does the Democratic Party want to take the U.S. down the Bolshevik road when the Soviet Union was such a failure and murdered millions of its own citizens? Good question, but all I can surmise is that those countries infected by the Judeofascist virus become sickly, deranged, and semi-suicidal. And contemporary, post-Christian America is unquestionably all of those.

  3. Doppler says:

    Well here's the money quote, as I read it: "The Israelis informed the US Government that Klingberg confessed, but they withheld from the US something much more important. Klingberg had been, according to the report presented to Tenet, a Soviet/Israeli double-agent. While in the US, Klingberg received 20,000 pages of documents onUS biological warfare and dbiological defense programs from two scientists at Ft. Detrick, Maryland. The classified information passed from Ft. Detrick to Israel greatly advanced Israelis biological warfare work, including aerosolized weaponized Anthrax." I'd like to hear Laura Rozen's take on this bit of info. Any chance Klingberg's two from Ft. Detrick were the same Zak and Rippy she reported on in early 2002 or late 2001, who were at least momentarily suspected of having been the ones who tried to blow a false whistle on an Arab scientist at Ft. Detrick, as a likely terrorist, just before the Anthrax letters were mailed, in part because they had been previously disciplined for harassing the guy because of his Arab background (the Camel Club), but whose potential role in the case was promptly thereafter disappeared from all media discussions of the Anthrax investigations.

  4. Doppler says:

    Here's Rozen's article from Salon re Zack and Rippy and Dr. Assaad: http://archive.salon.com/news/feature/2002/01/26/... I always felt there was another shoe to drop on this case.

  5. Saleema says:

    TIme for a third party. In Texas, I believe we can write in a candidate's name. I will no longer continue to give my support to the Democrats. I'm writing my neighbor's name in for presidential cadidate in the next election. He is an excellent neighbor. He has more than once helped me install my child's car seat. He is also my car insurance agent. His customer service is excellent. My parents also buy their car insurance policy from him. When my sis rammed their car into someon else's, he was there in a flash, helping. He has cut his other neighbor's yard, because the neighbor fails to do his duty. He also helps us board up when the hurricanes come around. If you are in Texas, for the next elections, vote for Eric Fauser.

  6. MRW says:

    And what did that Plutocratic government accomplish in eight years, Ed? Name the great number of jobs it created. Talk about the industry sectors it supported that are thriving now, here, in the US and not India and China. Describe how many engineering, R&D, and white collar jobs it saved, and the concomitant tax dollars for those jobs currently enlivening the communities where those employees live. KNock yourself out. Dazzle us with those figures and facts. Definitely talk up the gains it made in education that brought the US from #12 worldwide in 2001 to #58 now, or is it #59, among the 110 listed Western countries in the annual poll. Describe how the Plutocrats protected the common folk from usury rates of 30% and predatory lending, especially that persnickety bankruptcy law, or the great strides in preserving former constitutional rights like habeas corpus and the right to privacy. Dont forget to mention what they did to preserve our national infrastructure, and rebuild New Orleans. And hey! How about that war. Knock yourself out, Ed, singing the praises of what these Plutocrats did that you think we should honor today. As a former Republican who got the bends at the idea of ever voting Democratic, I really want to hear what you have to say. See if you can convince me to reverse my revulsion at the most disgraceful terms of governance I’ve ever had to live through. Otherwise, take a hard look around you and realize that anything anything that puts us at fifty miles remove from eight years of abdication of everything this country stood for is the reaction now. You can bolshevik and molshevik the corrective measures needed to keep this country from sliding off the rails, but you know what? You’re seven years too late. [As for the power-Zios? They're playing catch-up because they never in a million years thought the black guy was going to win until a year ago. By then, 20% of them were singing the O is a Muslim theme; still are. Big whoop.]

  7. Richard Silverstein says:

    While Lang may be a credible source, he's quoting from Wayne Madsen's blog. Though some of the info here may be credible, Lang omitted the portion where Madsen claims Israelis celebrated at the 9/11 attacks. In other words, Madsen is not entirely credible & readers should know he was the source.

  8. Citizen says:

    Here's an interview with Klinberg, a case of the problem of Jewish dual loyalty if ever there was one, also reflecting that he had no problem at all justifying Soviet ideology, ignoring the 60 million deaths the Soviets caused, and passing on this ideology to his children, also dual loyalists, as Jews, to both Red ideology and Israel. http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?it...

  9. whatacrew says:

    2 Fine American Jews Zack & Rippy academic frauds tried to claim credit for Assaad's scientific work, when they failed, they resorted to anti-arab sport, spewing bad racist poems at their hatred club and both married, they also loved each other's rear

  10. RowanBerkeley says:

    What do you find incredible about the five Israelis (Sivan Kurzberg, Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari) who celebrated while watching the Twin Towers collapse, Richard? Three of them even appeared on mainstream Israeli TV, where Kurzberg said, rather ambiguously, "We were there to document the event."

  11. LeaNder22 says:

    he's quoting from Wayne Madsen's blog. How do you know? Lang omitted the portion where Madsen claims Israelis celebrated at the 9/11 attacks Well the famous movers in New York city actually were reported to the police and later arrested since they were perceived as celebrating the event. I am not sure what to make of Wayne Madsen, but that little item doesn't feel completely wrong. I think 9/11 was perceived as more or less good for Israel, something for which the celebrating Israelis above only provided an image. I don't find this hard to understand either… Finally the world sees what the Israelis have to deal with. So, yes I think it's part of the larger truth. Remember Hamas and Hisbollah are now listed as terrorists, which they are, but the issue is more complex. And Jack Lang somewhere wrote, you obviously have to keep in mind the author but apart from that no information is useless. I wonder though why he didn't tell us.

  12. Mooser says:

    Bug off, Silverstein. Gee, how many times did I hear after 9-11 that the Palestinians celebrated the event? Why, it was all over the news, wasn't it? Silverstein, if the Palestinians celebrated the event, than the Israelis could, too.

  13. Bourbon says:

    Richard Silverstein, I will not comment as to Wayne Madsen’s credibility; however, you use his claim that Israeli’s celebrated on 9/11 to dismiss him. In this case Mr. Madsen is correct; the infamous White Van was been documented and confirmed by knowledgeable people. Retired international lawyer Gerald Shea collated the reports in his memo to the 9/11 Commission: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2z5BnihtWfs Go to the 4:20 mark. Make no mistake – this event happened. Does it mean Israel was involved in 9/11? No, not necessarily; Baer makes a very plausible benign view that they were monitoring Hamas cells and stumbled upon the highjackers. It does however mean that you have to find a new avenue to question Mr. Madsen’s credibility.

  14. LeaNder22 says:

    I crossposted it at Patrick Lang's sic semper tyrannis. This is his answer:

    Leander & Richard Silverstein I relied on my source, who did not tell me he was quoting Madsen. I know nothing of Madsen. I certainly DO NOT think Israel had anything to do with 9/11. Nevertheless, the material on Klingberg and the DoJ meeting with Harman is correct. I had an additional, separate corroborating source. pl

  15. LeaNder22 says:

    You shouldn't be so rude to my friend Richard, Mooser. But concerning the much spread celebrating Palestinians–with video footing that has been contested, if I remember correctly–I absolutely agree with you.

  16. Dicky Witt says:

    they were just free-spirited brothers who happened to have video equipment handy and happened to be where they were at the time.

  17. MRW says:

    Lang omitted the portion where Madsen claims Israelis celebrated at the 9/11 attacks. In other words, Madsen is not entirely credible & readers should know he was the source. Whoa! What kind of nonsense is this? Are you trying to maintain that five Israelis where not seen dancing on the top of a white van with lighters and celebrating the fall of the first tower by filming it, and that a woman in an apartment mistook them for Arabs and called the police with their license plate…and that they weren't picked up within the hour? Are you trying to maintain that, Richard? And on this basis you're calling Wayne Madsen not credible? Because it you are, you're the one who's not credible. And I’m shocked. Because you’ve always seemed to me as someone who wants the truth. Because not only did this happen, two vans of Israelis were caught, and the Israelis spent something like 40 or 80 days in a Brooklyn jail before being deported to Israel on visa violations. Not only that, three of them went on Israeli TV and discussed it. They actually had the balls to say they went to America as tourists to “document the event.” It was reported they were Mossad, which the three on Israeli TV denied. “Breaking the Taboo on Israel's Spying Efforts on the United States” By Christopher Ketcham, AlterNet. Posted March 10, 2009. (Originally on Salon. com in 2002) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw Wayne Madsen didn’t make it up. He worked at the NSA where they were tracking these things, as Ketcham reports here. An Israeli Trojan Horse By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM How Israeli Backdoor Technology Penetrated the U.S. Government's Telecom System and Compromised National Security http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw A CounterPunch Special Investigation High-Fivers and Art Student Spies What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks? By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM Reproduced here, because it was behind a paper subscription: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw Here are some YouTubes with differing points-of-view about it. But dont for a goddam minute tell me Israelis weren't arrested on 911 for dancing on top of a white white van celebrating the demolition of the WTC tower, because I believe the woman who saw them doing that and called the police. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw omitted the portion where Madsen claims Israelis celebrated at the 9/11 attacks. In other words, Madsen is not entirely credible & readers should know he was the source. Whoa! What kind of nonsense is this? Are you trying to maintain that five Israelis where not seen dancing on the top of a white van with lighters and celebrating the fall of the first tower by filming it, and that a woman in an apartment mistook them for Arabs and called the police with their license plate…and that they weren't picked up within the hour? Are you trying to maintain that, Richard? And on this basis you're calling Wayne Madsen not credible? Because it you are, you're the one who's not credible. And I’m shocked. Because you’ve always seemed to me as someone who wants the truth. Because not only did this happen, two vans of Israelis were caught, and the Israelis spent something like 40 or 80 days in a Brooklyn jail before being deported to Israel on visa violations. Not only that, three of them went on Israeli TV and discussed it. They actually had the balls to say they went to America as tourists to “document the event.” It was reported they were Mossad, which the three on Israeli TV denied. “Breaking the Taboo on Israel's Spying Efforts on the United States” By Christopher Ketcham, AlterNet. Posted March 10, 2009. (Originally on Salon. com in 2002) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw Wayne Madsen didn’t make it up. He worked at the NSA where they were tracking these things, as Ketcham reports here. An Israeli Trojan Horse By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM How Israeli Backdoor Technology Penetrated the U.S. Government's Telecom System and Compromised National Security http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw A CounterPunch Special Investigation High-Fivers and Art Student Spies What Did Israel Know in Advance of the 9/11 Attacks? By CHRISTOPHER KETCHAM Reproduced here on an Australian site, because it was behind a paper subscription: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw For a footnoted account of news clips of the Five Dancing Israelis, as they are called: THE FIVE "DANCING" ISRAELIS ARRESTED ON 911 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw Here are some YouTubes with differing points-of-view about it. But dont for a goddam minute tell me Israelis weren't arrested on 911 for dancing on top of a white white van celebrating the demolition of the WTC tower, because I believe the woman who saw them doing that and called the police. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw

  18. MRW says:

    Yikes, how did the double post happen? I wrote it , then copied it, deleted the post in the message box, refreshed this page, then pasted it. Must have been a magical double click I didnt notice. Sorry.

  19. MRW says:

    BS. On top of a van in the private outdoor parking lot (2nd floor) for an apartment building with a Video and Tripod before the towers go down but after the first airplane hits? And they claim on Israeli TV that they were just coming over here to document the event? They've got box cutters, phony passports and $4700 in cash, and explosive residue found in back of their van? According to the NJ police, not me.

  20. MRW says:

    Actual FOIA-released Police Radio tapes of Van of Explosives Detained at the GeorgeWasington Bridge (Israelis) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVDCzymSTw8

  21. Richard Silverstein says:

    Are you trying to maintain that five Israelis where not seen dancing on the top of a white van with lighters and celebrating the fall of the first tower by filming it, and that a woman in an apartment mistook them for Arabs and called the police with their license plate…and that they weren't picked up within the hour? Are you trying to maintain that, Richard?

    Cue Twilight Zone music…

  22. Richard Silverstein says:

    This is a quote from Wayne Madsen's post fr. which Lang's source derived the Klingberg story: http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/2009051... (unfortunately subscription required) I'd like a show of hands how many Modoweiss readers find this passage credible in any way shape or form: "“WMR previously reported that the Israeli Urban Moving Systems employees who were seen celebrating the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 were also discovered by U.S. law enforcement of stockpiling anthrax samples at the moving company's Weehawken, New Jersey warehouse. The anthrax letters mailed to the U.S. Senate were later found to have been sent from New Jersey.”

  23. RowanBerkeley says:

    You're moving the goalposts, Richard.

  24. Bourbon says:

    Did you not see the Robert Baer video or take a look the Shea report? I suggest you do before you comment further. Here is a link to the Counterpunch story: http://www.christopherketcham.com/wp-content/uplo...

  25. Bourbon says:

    Hand raised. The US Bioweapons and research program is likely a target of Israeli espionage, as it is for other nations. The Israeli's have programs of their own, and steal information and materials (including samples) to support it. If Urban Moving Systems was a front for intelligence collection, and there is good indication it was; then yes there is some credibility to the claim that anthrax samples were found at the company. Further, anthrax letters were found to have been sent from New Jersey: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol8no10/02-0329.ht... Did Madsen claim the Israeli's sent the anthrax letters in the passage? No. And yes, you have absolutely moved the goalposts.

  26. MRW says:

    From Wikipedia:

    September 17 or September 18: Attack #1 — Five anthrax letters are believed to have been mailed around this time (Trenton, New Jersey postmark dated September 18), targeting news media: ABC News, CBS News, NBC News and the New York Post, all in New York City; and the National Enquirer at American Media, Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida, which publishes supermarket tabloids. (Only the New York Post and NBC News letters were actually found; the existence of the other three letters is inferred from the pattern of infection).

    <img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Anthraxreward.j... Here's part of Madsen's original report on this, which Mondoweiss readers can use to determine if Madsen is thorough or not, if he has some unreasonable grudge, and if he is credible "in any way, shape or form." Since this is the end of a thread, I am going to include the whole thing, since it is behind a subscription.

    ". . . suspected Israeli intelligence activity surrounding 9/11, including the arrest by New Jersey police near Giants Stadium of five Israelis who were seen celebrating, high-fiving, jumping up and down, and videotaping the collapse of the World Trade Center, was reported by the media. A New Jersey apartment resident named Maria, who declined to give her last name, told ABC News about several Israelis she saw celebrating the attack on the Twin Towers in her parking lot. The Israelis were later linked to an Israeli-owned office moving company called Urban Moving Systems headquartered in Weehawken, New Jersey at 3 West 18th Street. Another Urban Moving office was located on West 50th Street in Manhattan. Urban Moving’s owner, Dominik Otto Suter, fled to Israel shortly before he was to be re-questioned by the FBI. One of the five Israelis had a ticket for Bangkok and was due to fly out on September 13. The New York Department of Transportation revoked Urban Moving Systems’ license after it was discovered that its Manhattan business address was merely a post office box. At 3:31 P.M. [on September 11] the FBI issued a nationwide alert called 'Be On Lookout' or 'BOLO' for the Israelis. Drafted by Special Agent Dave O’Brien, it read: 'Vehicle possibly related to New York terrorist attack. White, 2000 Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration (JYJ 13Y) with ‘Urban Moving Systems’ sign on back seen at Liberty State Park. Jersey City, NJ, at the time of the first impact of jetliner into World Trade Center.'

  27. MRW says:

    Contd.

    After the van was traced to the Israeli moving company, the BOLO went out for the arrest of the vehicle’s driver and passengers. An East Rutherford policeman directing traffic away from the closed Lincoln Tunnel on Route 3 East noticed the van was driving slowly on the service road toward the tunnel. The tag of the vehicle was only off by one letter from what was contained in the BOLO (JRJ 13Y) and the front New Jersey plate had been removed. It is very possible that to confuse the police, the Israelis were using NJ plate JRJ 13Y as the rear tag on two white vans – the one sighted in Liberty State Park and the other in Maria’s apartment building parking lot. In fact, local police reported a number of white van sightings during September 11, with a number of them phoned into the police. Maria told ABC News she phoned tag number JRJ 13Y to the Jersey City Police after seeing the Israelis driving in a white van celebrating the first plane’s impact, while Liberty State Park witnesses said the same tag number — JRJ 13Y — had been passed to the police and FBI after a white van with 'celebrating Arabs' had been chased from the park by the park’s chief ranger after the first plane impact. It was clear that officials of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection in Trenton, which has authority over the state’s parks, ordered Liberty State Park officials not to talk to the media about September 11 and the Israeli van. The East Rutherford Police report on the Israeli van states: 'Officer assigned to Special Detail on Route 3 was rerouting traffic on Highway 3 East to Hwy 120 and 3 West. Lincoln Tunnel was shut down and officer was diverting traffic. Officer notified by dispatch of a National Broadcast to be on lookout for 2000 Chevy Van White, NJ tag JYJ 13Y. 3 to 4 occupants. Officer noticed van traveling at slow speed east toward Lincoln Tunnel on the Service Road with 2 occupants visible. Officer informed sergeant of possible match. No front license plate but JRJ 13Y tag may have one letter off from National Broadcast. Sergeant told officer to stop vehicle because van seen in Liberty State Park at time of first impact. Driver did not exit vehicle. He fumbled with a black “fanny pack.” Officer removed driver and van was searched. County bomb squad and FBI notified. FBI Newark ordered occupants to be held for prints because occupants were seen in Liberty State Park at time of first impact. 5 individuals were detained. Vehicle registration and insurance card were obtained. Officer spoke to FBI Special Agents Robert F. Taylor, Jr., Bill Lloyd, and Dave O’Brien. Prior to transportation to NJ State Police Barracks at Giants Stadium, driver said, 'We are Israelis, we are not your problem. Your problems are our problem. Palestinians are the problem.' After the Israelis were arrested they misrepresented their location to one of the arresting police officers, Scott DeCarlo, claiming they were driving on West Side Highway in Manhattan when the planes struck the Trade Center. Dogs provided by the Bergen County Police K-9 unit alerted to the presence of explosives in the van. The nearby Homestead Studio Suites Hotel was evacuated for several hours. Asked about the Israelis in the van being present at Liberty State Park at the time of the first World Trade Center impact, one East Rutherford officer responded, 'sure they were there.' Another confidential source told the Bergen County Record, 'There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted . . . It looked like they’re hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park.' According to several Weehawken neighbors of the Urban Moving Systems warehouse, the FBI, upon searching the the warehouse, discovered fertilizer, other chemicals for making explosives, pipes, caps, and traces of anthrax. After anthrax was discovered, investigators wearing hazardous material suits went through the warehouse. Residents around Urban Moving Systems who had connections to the local police also reported that helicopters with infrared radar swooped in over the warehouse on several occasions. According to the ABC 20/20 report and echoing the East Rutherford police report, the van’s driver, Sivan Kurzburg, told DeCarlo, 'We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.' The Israelis also reportedly told police they were tourists. When the FBI developed the photos taken by the Israelis of the World Trade Center carnage, one photo depicted Kurzburg flicking a cigarette lighter in a celebratory manner with the burning buildings in the background.

  28. MRW says:

    Contd 3

    On the morning of September 12, the FBI canvassed the residents of the Israelis’ apartment building, The Doric, in Union City. They asked the residents if they could identify photographs of the five Israelis. The three Newark-based FBI agents on the case were Robert F. Taylor, Jr., Bill Lloyd and Dave O’Brien, the same agents who questioned the van drivers arrested in East Rutherford. All have subsequently been transferred from the Newark Field Office. A Union City off-duty policemen, saw three suspicious people at Union Park next to the Doric Temple at the corner of 9th Street and Palisades Avenue in Union City. The three, who matched the description of other Israeli false flag' teams, were filming New York City’s skyline before the first plane hit the World Trade Center. The officer also witnessed the three high-fiving each other. The officer chased the celebrants on foot but was unable to apprehend them. The officer later reported the three headed into Jersey City by car. Another van carrying explosives was stopped by police on an approach ramp to the George Washington Bridge from the New Jersey side. Police suspected the perpetrators were trying to blow up the bridge. According to Jersey City police sources, another FBI agent, Monica Patton, investigated the activities of Israeli 'movers' and four of the hijackers, Mohammed Atta, Marwan al Shehhi, and two Saudi brothers – Waleed M. and Wail Al-Shehri — at the same video rental store in Jersey City. One of the videos the Saudi brothers rented was an HBO documentary on the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Another video they rented was 'The Towering Inferno.' The video storeowner said his video rental records were later stolen after the FBI interviewed him and he told them about the Saudis’ rental history. The Al Shehri brothers also purchased phone cards from the video store for special use in calling Dubai. The Jersey City intrigue does not stop with the Saudis and Israelis. Jersey City Police also reported that the business card of a Jersey City municipal government social worker had been found on Timothy McVeigh after his arrest for the bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. After serving two and a half months in prison and after a barrage of official complaints from the Israeli government, the five Israeli 'movers' (Kurzberg, his brother Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Elner, and Omer Marmari) were released over the objections of the CIA and permitted to return home. However, when Jersey City police checked the Israelis’ van they found $4,700 hidden in a sock, two foreign passports and a Stanley-knife box cutter (the same brand used by the 911 hijackers). Paul Kurzberg, refused for ten weeks to take a polygraph and then flunked it when he did. His lawyer said his client once worked for Israeli intelligence in 'another country.' Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert interceded twice with his good friend New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani to have the Israelis released. On September 14, 2004, the five 'dancing Israelis' filed suit against the United States in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn for wrongful arrest and imprisonment. A number of interesting facts are stated in the Israelis’ complaint. It states that some of the Israelis were classified as being 'of high interest' to the government’s terrorism investigation, 'Witness Security' and/or 'Management Interest Group 155.' They were 'housed in one of the most highly restrictive prison settings possible, the Administrative Maximum Special Housing Unit ('ADMAX SHU') of the Metropolitan Detention Center ('MDC').' The government was also interested in the Israelis’ possessions. The complaint states the government 'confiscated personal identification, money, and valuable personal items' from the Israelis. In addition, the government searched the homes of the Israelis and confiscated additional personal items. One intriguing complaint was that the U.S. government detained the Israelis precisely because they were Jewish Israelis. The court filing states: 'Defendants and others have also engaged in racial, religious, ethnic, and/or national origin profiling. Plaintiffs’ race, religion, ethnicity, and/or national origin played a determinative role in Defendants’ decision to detain them initially, to subject them to a blanket non-bond policy, to subject them to punishing and dangerous conditions of confinement, and then to keep them detained beyond the point at which removal or voluntary departure could have been effectuated . . .' Silvan Kurzberg was required to provide a blood sample while in prison, an indication that federal authorities may have had some DNA evidence they wanted to match. At the time of their arrest, all the Israelis had plane tickets back to Israel. When they were first detained, the Israelis were not permitted to meet with a Rabbi. Later access to a Rabbi was granted under 'severely limited' circumstances. Prayer books and a bible given to the Israelis by the Rabbi were inspected by prison guards. During their first two weeks of detention, the FBI prohibited the Israeli Consul in New York from meeting with the Israelis.

  29. MRW says:

    Contd 4

    One of the most astounding claims of the Israelis was that the FBI, Bureau of Prisons, and Immigration and Naturalization Service did not understand the difference between Arab Muslims and Jewish Israelis. The complaint states: 'The plaintiffs are Jewish Israelis, not Moslems, but due to the similarity of language and the geographical location of Israel in the Middle East, and the ignorance or lack of understanding of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the fact that Israel is an ally of the United States, the defendants mentally placed the plaintiffs in the same category as Moslems, and discriminated against them the same way.' At around noon on September 12, 2001, Roy Barak, a former Israeli paratrooper, and Motti Butbul, both employed by Urban Moving Systems as drivers, were stopped by police near York, Pennsylvania. They were en route from Chicago to New York City. Police discovered Barak had an expired visa and Butbul had no work permit. FBI agents were soon on the scene and grew suspicious when a box cutter was found inside the truck. The FBI polygraphed Barak and showed him a picture of his five colleagues arrested in New Jersey and asked him why they were smiling. Barak responded that they were not smiling. The FBI thought Barak was a possible terrorist and a Mossad spy. The FBI was particularly interested if someone sent Barak to the United States and if, at the time, he held a security clearance in the Israeli army. Barak spent his second week in solitary confinement without a television, radio, or any books. Vince Cannistraro, the former operations chief for counter-terrorism for the CIA, said that a search of the CIA’s national intelligence database turned up some of the names of Israelis arrested in New Jersey. He said a number of people in the U.S. intelligence community concluded that Urban Moving was a Mossad operation and the Israelis were pursuing Islamist radicals in the New Jersey-New York area and particularly in Patterson, New Jersey. Pauline Stepkovich, who lived across the street from Urban Moving, told ABC News that FBI agents removed about a dozen boxes and computers, enough to fill up two SUVs. Cannistraro told ABC News that the FBI was concerned that the Israeli movers had some advanced knowledge of the 911 attacks but failed to warn the United States. 'The fear of some of the FBI investigators in this particular case was that this group had some advanced knowledge of what was going to happen on 911. And once they understood there was an Israeli connection–an Israeli intelligence connection–they became very disturbed, because the implication was that the Israelis may have had some advanced knowledge of the events of 911 and hadn’t told us,' Cannistraro said. Israeli intelligence foreknowledge about the 911 attacks was confirmed by two senior-level intelligence officials at the CIA and FBI. In Washington, Israeli embassy spokesman, Mark Regev, dismissed the espionage charges, claiming the excitement of the Israelis seeing the World Trade Center collapse was due to 'youthful foolishness.' A lawyer for one of the Israelis said his client denied celebrating the terrorist attack on the Trade Center, however, after the FBI developed their film it clearly showed three of the Israelis on top of the van 'smiling and clowning around' with the buildings burning in the background. The evidence bolstered what Maria and Pat told the police and proved that the Israelis lied to the police when they claimed they were in Manhattan during the attack. The Jewish weekly newspaper, The Forward, reported that a top U.S. government official told it, 'The assessment was that Urban Moving Systems was a front for the Mossad and operatives employed by it… the conclusion of the FBI was that they were spying on local Arabs.' ABC 20/20 host Barbara Walters commented on how the story of the Israeli movers was received in the Arab world, 'The story is that Israel knew more than it would like to admit about the terrorist attack in this country. It's a rumor, but in some Arab countries–including Saudi Arabia, which I visited earlier this year–even educated people told me that they believe it is absolutely true.' Perhaps the young Israelis were only mirroring the feelings of former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who when asked how the 911 attacks would affect U.S.-Israeli relations, said, 'It’s very good… Well, it’s not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy for Israel from Americans.' Bergen County Police Chief John Schmidig was not as serene. He said, 'We got an alert to be on the lookout for a white Chevrolet van with New Jersey registration and writing on the side. Three individuals were seen celebrating in Liberty State Park after the impact. They said three people were jumping up and down.' From OMBWatch's FedSpending.org: Assistance to URBAN MOVING SYSTEMS INC in NJ (FY 2000-2006) List of Recipients for FY 2001 You can click on the column headers below to re-sort the search. Recipient NameStateFederal Funding (for this search) URBAN MOVING SYSTEMS INCNew Jersey$498,750 Total recipients for fiscal year 2001: 1 Federal funding (within this search) for the year : $498,750 The data was obtained from the U.S. Census Bureau's Federal Assistance Award Data System (FAADS).

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