Israeli art student activity reported at federal officials' homes

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By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer


Sep 13, 2010, 00:22

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On the eve of the 9/11 anniversary and in an eerie repeat of Israeli "art student" activity a year and a half prior to the 9/11 attack at the offices and homes of federal government, U.S. military, and even federal judges, WMR has been informed of an increase in similar renewed activity at the homes of current and former federal officials.

In the most recent incident, federal officials of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) report Israeli "art students" visiting their homes in Brea, California, in Orange County. Similar to the art student activity in late 2000 and early 2001, one Israeli, accompanied by one or two others, including a driver, canvassed the neighborhood offering Israeli paintings door-to-door. The TSA individuals in the area are not airport screeners but more senior officials of the aviation security agency, part of the Department of Homeland Security. In 2000 and 2001, it was the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) that initiated an investigation of the activity as an intelligence operation by Israel but the investigation was eventually halted a few months prior to 9/11 on the orders of Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI director Louis Freeh. After 9/11 and the revelation of the Israeli operation in the media, FBI director Robert Mueller continued the "hands-off" approach to the Israeli activity.

WMR has also been alerted by a former member of Congress to a new twist in Israeli activity in the Atlanta area. Foreign individuals meeting the description of Israelis have visited the homes and made phone calls to the family and a friend of the former member, asking if they would consider hosting a foreign exchange student at their residences. There are reports that these foreign exchange student canvassers travel in groups and drive into neighborhoods in a similar fashion to the Israeli art student vendors.

After reports that some Israeli mall kiosk vendors selling Dead Sea skin care products had vanished from certain malls around the country, WMR has received a report of Israelis working at the Coronado Mall in Albuquerque, New Mexico engaging in aggressive sales tactics.

WMR has previously reported on Israeli kiosk vendors asking probing questions of military members at malls in Norfolk, Virginia; Columbia, Maryland; and at Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia. Albuquerque is the home of Kirtland Air Force Base, which hosts the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center and its subordinate wings, the 498th Nuclear Systems Wing and the 377th Air Base Wing. Kirtland is also the home of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Albuquerque office, the Air Force Safety Center, the Air Force Inspection Agency, the Air Force Operational Test and evaluation Center.

Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.

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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).

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