Israeli "art students" at it again!

[satya]

Door-to-door spies in Utah County?
Reported by: Brent Hunsaker
Last Update: 9/29 2:15 am

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?

Blogs and even church bulletins are buzzing. One such bulletin sent out to LDS women in Highland said, "This is a scam! These are not art students and federal law enforcement groups are actually investigating their ties to organized crime and terrorist groups." The note went on, "Part of their mission here is to gain information on the new NSA installation coming to our area."

One Israeli artist knocked on Gail Black's door in Eagle Mountain. She bought a painting from him knowing that the price was too high, but she explained that she felt sorry for him. I asked her if he looked like a Mossad spy, she laughed and said, "No, just a poor thirsty boy." She said the subject of the NSA did not come up in their conversation.

Saratoga Springs residents have complained to their police department about the art students. Officer Matt Schauerhamer tracked down one group at a restaurant. He  does not know if they were spies, but they're definitely not artists. "I told them, 'If you're actually an artist, why don't you draw something?' I gave them a piece of paper and gave them my pen. They produced a picture that was about on par with what my kindergartner could have done."

Officer Schauerhamer cited the group for soliciting without a city business license and then passed along their information to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. He said ICE is investigating.

ABC 4 also contacted other agencies that might have interest in possible door-to-door spies. We were told by a spokesman for Utah Homeland Security that they were unaware of the Israeli artists and the FBI had no comment.
Copyright 2010 Newport Television LLC All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/slc/st ... k4ZJw.cspx

[maz]

Save this page I think this is going to be big.

[Whaler]

There's a local TV News report.
 
[youtube:1kiibygc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Rsq3eV1r4[/youtube]1kiibygc]

[Androgynus]

Somehow (after watching the ABC news video)...I get the sensation of viewing just so much concerned-but-passing prime-time fluff newsbytes... Wonder how it would have been  "presented" if the inquisitive "art students" were pegged as Arabic or Iranians (even if they could draw impromptu pictures for the cops)...

~~A~~

[Whaler]

The video is going viral. 11,000 + views
http://www.google.com/search?q=Israeli+ ... =firefox-a

Here is the Raw story article. Check out the comment section and leave a comment.

Utah residents fear 'Israeli art students' prying into NSA data center
Raw Story.com

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/utah ... dents-nsa/

A local ABC affiliate in Salt Lake City, Utah has caused a stir online with a report suggesting that self-proclaimed Israeli art students, peddling their artwork from door to door, have been asking disturbing questions about plans to build an NSA data center in the area.

"These salespeople say they're Israeli students," ABC4 reporter Brent Hunsaker explained. "They even produce Israeli passports. They say they're selling their own artwork to raise money to open a gallery. So why would the Israeli art students want to know about the National Security Agency?"

According to Hunsaker, warnings about the students are being spread through blogs and church bulletins. One bulletin sent out to Mormon women even claimed that "federal law enforcement groups are actually investigating their ties to organized crime and terrorist groups."

There may, however, be less to the story than meets the eye.

The basis for the suspicions goes back to 2002, when a lengthy article at Salon described how Drug Enforcement Agency field offices were reporting that "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."

According to author Christopher Ketcham, "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."

These reports were summarized in a June 2001 internal DEA memo, but what brought the story to public notice was a Fox News special in December of that year. It suggested that the "art students" might have been Israeli spies who had trailed al-Qaeda members across the United States but had never shared any information they might have gained on the plans for September 11 with US authorities.

Ultimately, the more conspiratorial aspects of the story proved impossible to confirm, and it became one more unsolved 9/11 mystery. Since then, self-proclaimed "Israeli art students" have continued to show up from time to time, but most of them are clearly running a scam.

Police in Ontario, Canada, for example, are currently issuing warnings about individuals going door to door and asking hundreds of dollars for "one of a kind" artworks that are "actually mass-produced oil paintings from China worth about $15."

The situation is somewhat different in Utah, however, where the sudden appearance of the art students is being tied to recent news reports that "the Army has awarded a $1.2 billion contract to a construction consortium to build a spacious new data center in Utah for the National Security Agency's (NSA's) cybersecurity effort."

The facility is part of the Comprehensive National Security Initiative, launched in 2008, whose aim is to protect military computer networks from cyber-threats and provide assistance to the Department of Homeland Security in securing the federal government's civilian networks.

Hunsaker's investigation, on the other hand, was unable to turn up anyone who had actually been asked questions about the data center. One woman who had bought a painting said the subject was never raised. And a Saratoga Springs policeman commented only that the young people he ticketed for soliciting without a business license "looked like everyday college students," but that when he asked one of them to draw a picture, "it was about on par with what my kindergartner could have done."

"They just may be young people selling cheap art at high prices," Hunsaker concluded. "A scam."