"The Israeli 'Art Student' Mystery"

I've been on ATS for a while now and somehow I missed this!

I did an ATS search and the story is referenced in 9/11 threads but I think this is the best narrative account - definitely it's one of the most interesting stories I've read in a while.

dir.salon.com...

For almost two years, hundreds of young Israelis falsely claiming to be art students haunted federal offices -- in particular, the DEA. No one knows why -- and no one seems to want to find out.

May 7, 2002 | In January 2001, the security branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency began to receive a number of peculiar reports from DEA field offices across the country. According to the reports, young Israelis claiming to be art students and offering artwork for sale had been attempting to penetrate DEA offices for over a year. The Israelis had also attempted to penetrate the offices of other law enforcement and Department of Defense agencies. Strangest of all, the "students" had visited the homes of numerous DEA officers and other senior federal officials.

As a pattern slowly emerged, the DEA appeared to have been targeted in what it called an "organized intelligence gathering activity." But to what end, and for whom, no one knew.

Reports of the mysterious Israelis with an inexplicable interest in peddling art to G-men came in from more than 40 U.S. cities and continued throughout the first six months of 2001. Agents of the DEA, ATF, Air Force, Secret Service, FBI, and U.S. Marshals Service documented some 130 separate incidents of "art student" encounters. Some of the Israelis were observed diagramming the inside of federal buildings. Some were found carrying photographs they had taken of federal agents. One was discovered with a computer printout in his luggage that referred to "DEA groups."

In some cases, the Israelis visited locations not known to the public -- areas without street addresses, for example, or DEA offices not identified as such -- leading authorities to suspect that information had been gathered from prior surveillance or perhaps electronically, from credit cards and other sources. One Israeli was discovered holding banking receipts for substantial sums of money, close to $180,000 in withdrawals and deposits over a two-month period. A number of the Israelis resided for a period of time in Hollywood, Fla. -- the small city where Mohammed Atta and three terrorist comrades lived for a time before Sept. 11.

Read much more at the link.



[edit on 11/12/2008 by kosmicjack]

Originally posted by kosmicjack


[edit on 11/12/2008 by kosmicjack]

People dont want to investigate these things because once truth be known.... shows over. Thanks for comming out.

[edit on 12-12-2008 by IvanZana]

[edit on 12-12-2008 by IvanZana]

reply to post by IvanZana

Well, it's likely many people on ATS have heard this story before - I just never had. It's a doozey.

I had never heard it reported on by the media before, but I always wondered what happened to those reports. I think that anyone who was working in law enforcement at the time remembers the deluge of NLETS teletypes that described these situations. I remember discussing this with some of my co-workers (suburban town PD in Massachusetts) and and we were pretty sure it was a prelude to some kind of sabotage or attack. But as far as I know, nothing ever happened. Then again, knowing what I know now, many times actual incidents are covered up with a story, so we may never know.

Here's a coupla vids worth a gander.

If they don't embed right, (that never works for me,) praps someone else could do it and show me how.

The videos work fine, thanks a lot! I had never seen the Israeli interview before, it is incredible how that man seems to slip and say he was there "to document the event." Highly incriminating...but...can anyone here provide a translation of that interview? Do we know who was doing the translating, and what agenda he may have? I am not saying it looks faked, I am just saying that for those of us who do not speak the language, it would be nice to have an outside source to confirm what was said.

Some firsthand info....

I worked in a mall in an unnamed city in Northern California. Up until the day of 9/11 there were quite a few kiosks in the mall that I had to walk past on the way to work. Some of these kiosks had what appeared to be young (mid 20's) Israeli's selling helicopter toys and kitchen tools. They spoke hebrew to each other when they had some downtime - they often worked next to each other. They disappeared after 9/11 happened and I found out later that there was an arrest of an AQ operative in the same city about a week after 9/11.

Anyway, I always thought that it was strange that they were gone after 9/11. A weird coincidence was that the mall I worked in was closed on 9/11 because the management company was involved in a lease deal with the WTC and they were nervous because of the relationship.

So take it for what its worth, I was never into CT before but not seeing those guys around anymore got me interested in finding out more stuff from every source I could get my hands on.

Indeed a good mystery Ive never heard of before. You'd think israeli and U.S. Intelligence services cooperate instead of spy on each other. Apparently not. And just what they hope to gain by sending art students to DEA employees is also a mystery.

It wasn't until nearly three months after the Fox reports that the "art student" enigma resurfaced in newsrooms, this time in Europe. On Feb. 28, the respected Paris-based espionage newsletter Intelligence Online reported in detail on what turned out to have been one of Cameron's key source documents: the 60-page DEA memo. The memo itself, which Salon obtained in mid-March, went no further than to speculate in the most general terms that the "nature of the individuals' conduct" suggested some sort of "organized intelligence gathering activity." The memo also pointed out that there was some evidence connecting the art students to a drug ring. "DEA Orlando has developed the first drug nexus to this group," the memo read. "Telephone numbers obtained from an Israeli Art Student encountered at the Orlando D.O. [District Office] have been linked to several ongoing DEA MDMA (Ecstasy) investigations in Florida, California, Texas and New York."

I had not heard this information before. I suspect there may be a dual nature to Israeli organized crime and their intelligence services.

It would seem plausible that intelligence services worldwide tap organized crime syndicates for their unique assets and the fact that it would give them "plausible denyability."

I think we are seeing this same intermarriage between MOB and Spook in Russia with the ascension of Putin. We have also seen wisps of it during the 60's with the foiled Castro assassination schemes and possibly even with the death of JFK.

[edit on 14-12-2008 by clay2 baraka]

reply to post by kosmicjack


If this happened, they're most likely just Israeli intelligence assets gathering information. On what only they will know.

Intelligence agencies all over the world do this day-in, day-out.

Just as the CIA has massive links to drug cartels around the world, I'm sure Mossad does, too. It's the perfect way to make money.

Anyone who thinks Israel and the US are in some kind of partnership of equals is ridiculously fooled. Never before in the history of the world have two countries had mutual interests in the name of national security. Israel is only Israel's friend.

There is no way an investigation into this will amount to anything. Intelligence agencies don't exactly make it easy to trace what they are doing and through whom it is being done.

Originally posted by therainmaker
The videos work fine, thanks a lot! I had never seen the Israeli interview before, it is incredible how that man seems to slip and say he was there "to document the event." Highly incriminating...but...can anyone here provide a translation of that interview? Do we know who was doing the translating, and what agenda he may have? I am not saying it looks faked, I am just saying that for those of us who do not speak the language, it would be nice to have an outside source to confirm what was said.

This video has been doing the rounds for 7 years now and no-one has ever denied that it was translated correctly.

Gppgle "dancing Israelis" 9/11 and spend some time reading up what you find. Youll find that info will lead to lots of other info you won't have heard about too.

So weird! You would think that, if it wasn't a hoax, they would at least get a new cover story:

www.abc4.com...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, Utah (ABC 4 News) - Sales people working neighborhoods in Northern Utah County have been asking some odd questions that have nothing to do with making the sale. Folks are reporting that they're asking about the new National Security Agency's data center that is being built at Camp Williams.

The sales people say they're Israeli art students and are selling their works to raise money for a gallery. Some have even produced what appear to be legitimate Israeli passports.

So, why would art students be interested in an NSA data center?

reply to post by kosmicjack


And the plot thickens.

I read this thread a while ago and it got a big ol' "hmmmm" out of me.

Assuming those who say we are in Israel's pocket, or vise versa, are right, why would they be trying to spy on us?

It's all just fishy...very very fishy.

reply to post by iamsupermanv2


It just won't go away will it? Here is a link to many other links covering this story over the last eight or nine years:

cryptome.org...

reply to post by Multiple Junkie


It's weird, but back then I had them stop in my offices. It was not a government building of any sort. They were just hocking cubist-like oil paintings. I bought one and in fact still have it.

I think they were here honestly selling stuff, but after 9/11, maybe it was deemed "unsafe" for Israeli nationals to be in the US?