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Actual enemy (Israelis) found in North Carolina.

Thread ID: 13640 | Posts: 53 | Started: 2004-05-10

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Scott Paine [OP]

2004-05-10 07:05 | User Profile

[url="http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/8627949.htm"]http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/8627949.htm[/url]

By the way; "Erwin is home to Nuclear Fuel Services, which is the sole supplier of nuclear fuel to the U.S. Navy" [url="http://cgi.citizen-times.com/cgi-bin/story/regional/39575"][size=1]Source[/size][/url]

Scott Paine

2004-05-10 07:35 | User Profile

Is this old news?

Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 (excerpted) ... The men were taking video or photos of themselves with the World Trade Center burning in the background, she said. What struck Maria were the expressions on the men's faces. "They were like happy, you know … They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange," she said.

... arresting officers said they saw a lot that aroused their suspicion about the men. One of the passengers had $4,700 in cash hidden in his sock. Another was carrying two foreign passports. A box cutter was found in the van. But perhaps the biggest surprise for the officers came when the five men identified themselves as Israeli citizens. [url="http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_whitevan_020621.html"]http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_whitevan_020621.html[/url]

il ragno

2004-05-10 11:23 | User Profile

This is an issue the talk-radio kahnservatives (Savage, Limbaugh, etc) should be called to comment on, and - if necessary - have this story read aloud to them on the air. If you get strongarmed with "Jew-hater" (likely) do not bring up the dancing-rooftop mockies of 9/11 and the FAA's destruction of black-box evidence; simply deflect all accusations of anti-Semitism by returning the focus to this story and if they get hostile or standoffish?..... question their patriotism for ducking a major domestic-terrorism news item.

We should also (respectfully, without sounding like lunatics - a city room is not an abrasive radio show) be contacting local & national press via telephone, snail & e-mail, demanding a followup to this story. Take care to remember you're not complaining to Alex Linder - watch those slurs - but [I]do [/I] say things like, "All my life I have believed wholeheartedly in what the experts assured us - that Israel was our one trusted democratic ally in the region. But [I]now[/I]...." and go from there. ([I]Here [/I] is where you wanna bring up the FAA, the Dancing Hymies, the Sharon "we control America" address, Pollard, etc. But leave off the USS Liberty as that will give them all the excuse they need to relegate you to the crank-file....and when the subject is Israeli culpability, they're looking for a reason to sign your commitment papers.)

Quantrill

2004-05-10 13:43 | User Profile

This is just right down the road from me here in Tennessee, but I had not yet heard anything about it. I'll look around a little to see what the local spin is.

weisbrot

2004-05-10 14:48 | User Profile

Cloudcroft is within twenty miles of Alamagordo, NM, Fort Bliss and the White Sands Missle Range.

There was one followup story- citing an ongoing investigation- then nothing.

[url]http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3484.htm[/url]

This story appeared May 21, 2003

Cloudcroft chief stops Israelis with suspicious cargo By Michael Shinabery Staff Writer

CLOUDCROFT — That they were speeding through the school zone first got his attention. That they had Israeli driver's licenses and expired passports made him suspicious.

Cloudcroft Police Chief Gene Green stopped the 2-ton van on Thursday, for speeding. Initially, Green thought the truck was commercial because of exterior markings. But when he found it was out of Chicago, he asked for documentation such as logs books and manifests.

"They said this is a U-Haul truck and handed me a rental agreement (for) in-town delivery only in Illinois, (which) had expired two days before," Green said.

He called for backup, and Otero County Sheriff's Deputy Billy Anders, who patrols the Sacramento Mountains, arrived, along with Capt. Norbert Sanchez and Det. Eddie Medrano.

"We got them out and started digging a little deeper," Green said, "got permission to search the truck. They claimed they were hauling furniture from Austin to Chicago."

When officers advised the men they were not exactly en route from one town to another, Green said the two men claimed they were Deming bound.

"But they couldn't give us an address in Deming they were going to," he said. "Once we got into the truck, they had some junk furniture I wouldn't have given to Goodwill."

Also inside the vehicle were, Green said, "50 boxes" they claimed was a "private" delivery, but the men insisted they had no "idea what was in them."

At that point, the officers called for drug-sniffing and bomb-sniffing dogs. The men were turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and U-Haul recovered the truck. Contents of the boxes remain unknown, pending investigation.

© 1999-2003 MediaNews Group, Inc. and Mid-States Newspapers, Inc.

weisbrot

2004-05-10 15:16 | User Profile

[url]http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default.asp?SectionID=DETAIL&ID=34438[/url] Detained Israelis to have court date today

By Ron Scalf Erwin Bureau [email]rscalf@johnsoncitypress.com[/email]

ERWIN — Two Israeli nationals held here without bond in the Unicoi County Jail will appear in Unicoi County General Sessions Court this morning, Sheriff Kent Harris said Sunday. Harris said the FBI ordered him to hold the duo without bond pending an investigation following a high speed chase through a remote area of Unicoi County Saturday afternoon in which the pair reportedly threw several items out of a rented Ryder truck, Harris said. “They ignored my blue lights for two and one half miles and they were traveling 20 miles an hour over posted speed limits,” he said.

One man’s passport had expired and the other had a fake identification card, the sheriff said. By Sunday morning, Harris had identified the man who refused to give his first name as Almaliach Naor who was in the company of Shnuel Daran, 22, both from Israel and living in Miami, Fla.

“Our investigation has revealed they were on their way to Boston, Massachusetts,” Harris said. “Also, a vial of an unknown substance appears to be some kind of accelerant because when shook, it becomes warm,” he said. “I enlisted Ed Herndon, our homeland security officer, and the Tennessee Highway Patrol to run (preliminary) tests and the FBI has asked we package the vial up and send it to a crime lab. which we are inthe process of doing.”

A combing of the confiscated Ryder Truck “produced an odor of a liquid on a side panel of some kind that we will also send to the lab,” Harris said. “Other than that, the truck was clean,” he said.

Harris said his department worked through the night on Saturday positively identifying Naor and working with Interpol officials who late last night told the sheriff the two were not on any international wanted lists. Harris said the men entered the United States from Israel in January. It was not known what type of visas they were granted.

Harris said Naor told FBI agents he was carrying a fake identification card to “get into clubs in Miami.” The sheriff declined to answer other questions concerning the investigation that is ongoing.

Records at Unicoi County jail indicated Naor and Daran will face charges today on counts of criminal impersonation, reckless driving and lying to authorities about throwing items out of the truck, which they rented a short distance away in Mars Hill, N.C. Harris said the men told authorities they were moving furniture.

Following their arrest Saturday afternoon, the sheriff said he “had a sick feeling” when he found a “Learn to Fly” brochure in the truck, especially since the county is home to the Nuclear Fuel Services plant not far from downtown Erwin.

“This is still a very suspicious case,” Harris said Sunday as he reiterated the comment he made Saturday concerning the matter: “We’re living in a very different time. We all need to be vigilant when it comes to homeland security.”

weisbrot

2004-05-10 15:18 | User Profile

“There’s nothing going on here,” one man said as he tilled his garden. “Nobody comes around here anymore.”

Thanks to I-26, old U.S. Highway 23 is now the road less traveled [url]http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default.asp?SectionID=DETAIL&ID=34422[/url]

A view of I-26 bridge off U.S. Highway 23 (Ron Scalf / Johnson City Press) By Ron Scalf Erwin Bureau [email]rscalf@johnsoncitypress.com[/email]

ERWIN — Fast-moving tractor trailers and red eye gravy served piping hot at the County Kitchen Restaurant are a thing of the past thanks to the completion of Interstate 26 linking Tennessee with North Carolina through Unicoi County. On a recent drive along the old two-lane highway to the North Carolina border from Erwin, traffic was nonexistent. Several former businesses stood eerily quiet. Traffic hummed along overhead, zipping across the many bridges connecting Erwin with Asheville, N.C.

“There’s nothing going on here,” one man said as he tilled his garden. “Nobody comes around here anymore.”

Gone are the days of daily truck wrecks as zealous drivers attempted to challenge the hairpin curves clearly marked with 20 mph speed limit signs. Gone are the brightly colored quilts for sale along the way and signs beckoning visitors to check out authentic antiques. Gone are the throngs of summer drivers on their way to Myrtle Beach, S.C., at a snail’s pace.

From Temple Hill through Ernestville to Flag Pond the man was right. There is nothing going on here. “I guess one good thing is it’s quiet around here now,” he quickly added. The point was well taken as the only thing you could hear on Lower Higgins Creek was the steadily moving bubbling brook and a couple of startled rabbits scampering by from the sound of a rare passing automobile.

Lyle & Dian’s Country Kitchen, where a sign touts “Great Country Cooking,” has fallen on the same hard times as the Country Kitchen. And down the road across from the old Flag Pond School sits Rice’s Country Store, also closed with the gas pump stuck on a price per gallon we now long for.

You can still get a tank of gas at Franks Gas, Grocery & Hardware in Flag Pond, which might be a good idea since the BP gas station at the North Carolina line has been closed for some time. In less than two years, a fast-paced bedroom community to North Carolina lies forgotten in the Valley Beautiful.

While some people have moved out and while business has eroded, one establishment has been chugging along since 1951. Despite losing the business from tired and hungry truck drivers, Jenene Hensley says her Little Creek Cafe is thriving. She just sunk $40,000 into new restaurant equipment as a testament that she expects the place to be around for another 50 years or so.

“My grandma opened up years ago and the restaurant has been in the family over 50 years, except for about six years when we rented it out to people other than family members,” she said.

After closing for a couple of months late last year, Hensley reopened on Jan. 19. “Our family wanted someone within the family to take it back over, so I did,” she said.

“We get a lot of local business,” she said, as was evident with a steady stream of customers making their way through the door for the daily lunch special. “We don’t get the truckers because if they get off the (I-26) highway they don’t have a place to turn around. It’s sad in a way. And the state Highway Department told me there’ll never be an exit up here. I’ll just have to deal with that.”

Hensley said it would help if the state would let people know there is a restaurant open on U.S. Highway 23. “I can’t afford to pay the state the cost of a logo sign,” she said “They’re $1,000 to put up and another $1,200 a year for maintenance. It’s just not something I can budget for. But a sign would pull some people off the road.”

While Hensley says her “bread and butter” comes from the locals, “We get quite a few customers come in from hiking the Appalachian Trail and we’re busy race weeks and when there are local festivals. We get some people on their way to Wolf Laurel to ski.”

With six employees and a seven-day, long-hour schedule, Hensley is optimistic about the business’ future.

“We’re doing pretty well with the support of the local community. As they say, progress sometimes takes adjusting to,” she said with a smile.

weisbrot

2004-05-10 15:55 | User Profile

[url]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52681,00.html[/url]

Police Seize Rental Truck With TNT Traces

Monday, May 13, 2002 By Carl Cameron A Budget truck was pulled over in Oak Harbor, Wash., last Tuesday near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station and found to have traces of TNT on the gearshift and traces of RDX plastic explosive on the steering wheel, Fox News has learned.

Traces of explosives were also found on one of the truck's two occupants.

The FBI, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and local police are all investigating.

Government officials said the roadside stop was so close to the naval air station that military personnel took part in the initial arrest and naval intelligence has also been involved in the subsequent investigation.

Shortly after midnight on May 7, federal officials say local police pulled the vehicle over for speeding. Documents read to Fox News indicate that the driver and passenger told local police they were delivering furniture from California but that authorities doubted the story because of the early morning hour.

A bomb-sniffing dog first detected explosives on one of the men and inside the truck. High-tech equipment was used later to confirm the presence of TNT and RDX plastic explosive.

Documents read to Fox News indicate that both driver and passenger were Israeli nationals. Investigators say a roadside check of the national database of immigration records indicated that one of the men had not entered the country legally, and the other was in violation of his visa. Both men were taken into custody for immigration violations.

At 7:30 that morning local police were notified that the BATF and FBI had tested the truck and found traces of explosives on the steering wheel and gear shift.

Officials say no other charges of been filed against the driver and passenger and an investigation is ongoing.

Authorities say records for the Budget truck do not indicate any recent rental for the purposes of transporting explosives, which would require special permits.

Also see "case closed": [url]http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/70305_explosives14.shtml[/url]

Case of Whidbey Island 'terrorists' is a dud, FBI says

Tuesday, May 14, 2002

By MIKE BARBER SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A national cable TV news flash yesterday about the arrest of possible terrorists on Whidbey Island sounded explosive:

The FBI and other federal agents were investigating two Middle Eastern men who were arrested in Oak Harbor last Tuesday after police found traces of TNT and plastic explosive in a rental truck they were driving, the Fox News Channel reported.

The fact that Oak Harbor is near Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, home of the electronic warfare Prowler jets, heightened concerns.

But the FBI said last night it had taken a pass on the case, handing it over to immigration officials after further tests for explosives.

"All were negative," said FBI spokeswoman Melissa Mallon.

The two men came to the attention of authorities when an Oak Harbor police officer stopped them shortly after midnight May 7.

"It was a minor speeding violation," said Oak Harbor police Sgt. Bill Russell.

The officer grew suspicious, however, when one of the men produced only an international driver's license and an expired visa and the other could show no ID at all, Russell said.

And while the men said they were in Oak Harbor only to deliver furniture and were on their way back home to Canada, the officer noted that it was after midnight -- an odd hour for such work.

A bomb-sniffing dog was called in.

According to some reports, the dog indicated that it smelled something interesting in the driver's side of the truck cab, though a search turned up nothing suspicious.

Fox reported that a follow-up test had revealed traces of explosives on the steering wheel and gearshift.

However, a law enforcement source told the Post-Intelligencer that the dog and the first round of tests may have picked up nothing more than residue left by a cigarette lighter.

Border Patrol agents took custody of the two men, who claimed to be Israeli citizens, for investigation of immigration violations.

Garrison Courtney, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service, last night said he was uncertain about their status.

Whidbey Island residents have been vigilant about possible terrorism since the Sept. 11 attacks, largely because of the island's large military base and proximity to the border.

In the weeks after Sept. 11, Island County locals flooded emergency centers with reports of Canadian truckers who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent, said Island County Sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Smith.

Smith said delivery trucks from British Columbia routinely pass through the island on their way to the ferry slip at Keystone, a short-cut to the Olympic Peninsula.

She said the trucks are inspected at the Canadian border and are presumed safe.

In October, Island County Sgt. Mike Beech said the reaction "just shows the effect of Sept. 11.

They may have seen that truck or trucker get off the ferry every day -- but now they are more aware of it."

P-I reporter Chris McGann contributed to this report. P-I reporter Mike Barber can be reached at 206-448-8018 or [email]mikebarber@seattlepi.com[/email]

...but doors open

[url]http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/80403_fbi29.shtml[/url]

Open doors found at Seattle FBI office

Monday, July 29, 2002

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF Renee C. Byer / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Seattle police officers searched a floor at the FBI's Seattle headquarters yesterday after a building security officer reported finding three doors locked but open, an FBI spokesman confirmed.

Renee C. Byer / Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Police found no evidence of a break-in at the high-security building at 1110 Third Ave., said FBI spokesman Ray Lauer.

But the agency's leaders may decide to check for electronic monitoring devices just the same. It has yet to be determined, Lauer said, "if the front office decides to sweep the rooms" for bugs.

A security guard was making his rounds around 1:30 p.m. yesterday when he discovered that the doors to three rooms -- a telephone closet containing wiring for the FBI phone system, another room containing files on closed investigations, and the pump room for the building's boilers -- were locked but not closed.

Either the guard called police directly or his bosses did, Lauer said.

The police dispatcher who broadcast the call referred to "a federal agent in Denver" requesting assistance at the Seattle address. The Federal Protective Service of the U.S. General Services Administration, which manages federal buildings, lists its Denver office as the emergency contact number for Washington state.

Two patrol officers were at the Seattle FBI office for more than an hour.

A police officer initially reported over the radio: "This building is supposed to be secure. A door to the evidence room is propped open. I'm going to wait for backup."

Lauer said he did not know why police referred to an evidence room being open.

He said the building's five entrances are heavily secured with code requirements and other such protections.

weisbrot

2004-05-10 16:04 | User Profile

2 found with video of Sears Tower [url]http://www.zwire.com/site/mercury_101801.html[/url]

MICHELLE MOWAD, Special to The Mercury October 17, 2001

PLYMOUTH -- Two men whom police described as Middle Eastern were detained in the township by federal immigration authorities after being found with detailed video footage of the Sears Tower in Chicago. Plymouth Police encountered the men after an officer responded to Pizzeria Uno on the 1000 block of West Ridge Pike at 2:40 p.m. Thursday for a report of illegal dumping, according to reports.

A manager there advised the police officer that a tractor-trailer was observed backed up to the Dumpster at the rear of the restaurant. The manager noticed a freshly dumped pile of furniture adjacent to the Dumpster, according to police.

The manager confronted the vehicle's operator, a Middle Eastern man, police said.

The man, who later identified himself as Moshe Elmakias, 30, denied that he did anything and fled the scene, heading west on West Ridge Pike, according to police.

The manager was able to provide township police with the Florida registration number of the tractor-trailer and said that a sign posted on the side of the vehicle read "Moving Systems Incorporated" and included a phone number, police said.

The area was searched by township police, and the vehicle was spotted parked on the curb in front of John Kennedy Ford on Ridge Pike, just west of Industrial Way.

An officer proceeded to make contact with the occupants of the truck by knocking on the cab, according to reports.

A Middle Eastern man, later identified as Ron Katar, 23, exited the sleeper area of the cab and said that the operator was across the street as he pointed toward the Don Rosen Porsche dealer, reports said.

Elmakias and a white female, Ayelet Reisler, 23, were approaching the vehicle from the dealership, but the female then began walking in a different direction, acting as if she were not with Elmakias, according to reports.

Reisler was detained and checked for identification. She had a German passport in her name and medication in a different name, police said.

Plymouth Police Sgt. Thomas Longo was notified and responded to the incident.

Elmakias allegedly admitted to being behind Pizzeria Uno, although he said that he did not dump furniture, he was only turning around.

Elmakias said that his destination was New York and that he was also coming from New York. He said he was in Plymouth because he was supposed to make a pickup from a male in the morning and pointed toward the Storage USA facility on Belvoir Road and West Ridge Pike, police said.

Elmakias could not, however, provide a name or telephone number of the customer.

Township police dispatched a request for a Motor Carrier Safety Assistance Program Inspector. Officer Gerald Schwartz of the Whitpain Police Department responded.

Schwartz discovered through his investigation that the operator's log had been falsified and put the truck out of service due to violations, police said. In addition, the vehicle reportedly had numerous equipment violations that rendered the truck unsafe.

Inspection of the tractor-trailer's contents revealed a load three-quarters full containing household items, including furniture and boxes.

Among the items in the truck was a Sony video camera.

Plymouth Police Officer David McCann reviewed the tape found inside the camera. The tape had video footage of Chicago with zoomed-in shots of the Sears Tower, according to police.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified of the incident and all three subjects were transported to the Plymouth Police station.

The subjects were then processed through the National Crime Information Center and placed into detention, according to the report.

FBI Agents James Sweeney and Richard Tofani arrived at the station and proceeded to investigate both the subjects and their belongings with the assistance of Immigration and Naturalization Services.

Elmakias and Katar were eventually detained by INS and transported to a federal facility, said police. Reisler was released.

All evidence collected by Plymouth and Whitpain officers was transferred to federal facilities with the exception of a VCR.

Special Agent Linda Vizi, a spokeswoman for the Philadelphia FBI, could not be contacted for comment on further investigations.

©The Mercury 2001

Angler

2004-05-10 16:23 | User Profile

Excellent work, guys.

Quantrill

2004-05-10 17:07 | User Profile

Nice investigative work, Weisbrot! Very troubling, indeed.

You gotta love the way the story refers to Moshe Elmakias as "Middle Eastern." Hmm, I wonder what part of the Middle East, specifically, he hails from?

weisbrot

2004-05-10 17:43 | User Profile

[url]http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2003/03-048ii.html[/url]

U.S. NUCLEAR REGULATORY COMMISSION Office of Public Affairs, Region II 61 Forsyth Street SW, Atlanta, GA 30303 [url]www.nrc.gov[/url]

No. II-03-048 October 20, 2003 CONTACT: Ken Clark (404) 562-4416 Roger D. Hannah (404) 562-4417 E-mail: [email]opa2@nrc.gov[/email]

NRC FINES NFS $60,000 FOR VIOLATIONS OF NUCLEAR MATERIAL CONTROL AND ACCOUNTABILITY REQUIREMENTS Printable Version

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff has proposed a $60,000 fine against Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) for violations of NRC requirements related to the control and accountability of nuclear material at the company's nuclear fuel cycle facility in Erwin, Tennessee.

In a letter to the company, Luis Reyes, Administrator of the NRC Region II office in Atlanta, said that after several NRC inspections and investigations, the agency determined that the company could not account for a substantial amount of nuclear material for a period of about six weeks in June 2001. The material was later located in a secure storage vault so there were no radiological consequences for workers or members of the public. However, Reyes said that the NRC considers the violations related to this event a significant breakdown in the NFS system to control licensed nuclear material. He also said that while there were no actual consequences, the event’s potential consequences were significant.

The NRC is satisfied that the company has now taken appropriate corrective actions, but the agency determined that the promptness of the actions was not commensurate with the seriousness of the violations. The NRC also concluded that the initial NFS review of the event was less than adequate. Based on these determinations and the fact that NFS has been subject to escalated enforcement in the past two years, the NRC has doubled the $30,000 base civil penalty for violations of this type.

The company has 30 days from receipt of the letter to either pay the civil penalty or to protest its imposition.

Privacy Policy | Site Disclaimer Last revised Wednesday, December 31, 2003

Ed Toner

2004-05-10 20:44 | User Profile

Searching just ONE name, I found this:

Shmuel Dahan is a Likud spokesman.

[url]http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3618725.stm[/url] The plan is opposed by some factions in Likud, who see withdrawal as giving in to pressure from Palestinian militants.

Several cabinet ministers have said they will not support it without US backing.

'Understandings'

However, the party's Central Election Committee approved the referendum on Sunday, spokesman Shmuel Dahan said.

Centinel

2004-05-10 23:26 | User Profile

Anyone remember this story from almost two years ago?

[url=http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,52681,00.html]Fox News: Police Seize Rental Truck With TNT Traces[/url]

Sertorius

2004-05-11 13:10 | User Profile

Scott,

I made one small change to your title. I want as many people to see this thread as possible, especially the idiots that rely on talk radio for their information. It may pierce a few bullet heads. In fact, I'm going to pin this thread where it won't get lost. This is a fine addition with all the other news stories contain within to the other ones that show what our "strategic partner" and the "only democracy in the Middle East" ad nauseam is doing to us. Maybe we need a sub file to keep all the stories together that show how Israel sh*ts all over us.

Feric Jaggar

2004-05-11 17:39 | User Profile

Five Israelis were seen filming as jet liners ploughed into the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001 ... [url]http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MCK311A.html[/url]

by Neil Mackay Source: Scotland Herald 4 November 2003

Were they part of a massive spy ring which shadowed the 9/11 hijackers and knew that al-Qaeda planned a devastating terrorist attack on the USA?

THERE was ruin and terror in Manhattan, but, over the Hudson River in New Jersey, a handful of men were dancing. As the World Trade Centre burned and crumpled, the five men celebrated and filmed the worst atrocity ever committed on American soil as it played out before their eyes.

Who do you think they were? Palestinians? Saudis? Iraqis, even? Al-Qaeda, surely? Wrong on all counts. They were Israelis – and at least two of them were Israeli intelligence agents, working for Mossad, the equivalent of MI6 or the CIA.

Their discovery and arrest that morning is a matter of indisputable fact. To those who have investigated just what the Israelis were up to that day, the case raises one dreadful possibility: that Israeli intelligence had been shadowing the al-Qaeda hijackers as they moved from the Middle East through Europe and into America where they trained as pilots and prepared to suicide-bomb the symbolic heart of the United States. And the motive? To bind America in blood and mutual suffering to the Israeli cause.

After the attacks on New York and Washington, the former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was asked what the terrorist strikes would mean for US-Israeli relations. He said: “It’s very good.” Then he corrected himself, adding: “Well, it’s not good, but it will generate immediate sympathy [for Israel from Americans].”

If Israel’s closest ally felt the collective pain of mass civilian deaths at the hands of terrorists, then Israel would have an unbreakable bond with the world’s only hyperpower and an effective free hand in dealing with the Palestinian terrorists who had been murdering its innocent civilians as the second intifada dragged on throughout 2001.

It’s not surprising that the New Jersey housewife who first spotted the five Israelis and their white van wants to preserve her anonymity. She’s insisted that she only be identified as Maria. A neighbour in her apartment building had called her just after the first strike on the Twin Towers. Maria grabbed a pair of binoculars and, like millions across the world, she watched the horror of the day unfold.

As she gazed at the burning towers, she noticed a group of men kneeling on the roof of a white van in her parking lot. Here’s her recollection: “They seemed to be taking a movie. They were like happy, you know ... they didn’t look shocked to me. I thought it was strange.”

Maria jotted down the van’s registration and called the police. The FBI was alerted and soon there was a statewide all points bulletin put out for the apprehension of the van and its occupants. The cops traced the number, establishing that it belonged to a company called Urban Moving.

Police Chief John Schmidig 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.”

By 4pm on the afternoon of September 11, the van was spotted near New Jersey’s Giants stadium. A squad car pulled it over and inside were five men in their 20s. They were hustled out of the car with guns levelled at their heads and handcuffed.

In the car was $4700 in cash, a couple of foreign passports and a pair of box cutters – the concealed Stanley Knife-type blades used by the 19 hijackers who’d flown jetliners into the World Trade Centre and Pentagon just hours before. There were also fresh pictures of the men standing with the smouldering wreckage of the Twin Towers in the background. One image showed a hand flicking a lighter in front of the devastated buildings, like a fan at a pop concert. The driver of the van then told the arresting officers: “We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.”

His name was Sivan Kurzberg. The other four passengers were Kurzberg’s brother Paul, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari. The men were dragged off to prison and transferred out of the custody of the FBI’s Criminal Division and into the hands of their Foreign Counterintelligence Section – the bureau’s anti-espionage squad.

A warrant was issued for a search of the Urban Moving premises in Weehawken in New Jersey. Boxes of papers and computers were removed. The FBI questioned the firm’s Israeli owner, Dominik Otto Suter, but when agents returned to re-interview him a few days later, he was gone. An employee of Urban Moving said his co-workers had laughed about the Manhattan attacks the day they happened. “I was in tears,” the man said. “These guys were joking and that bothered me. These guys were like, ‘Now America knows what we go through.’”

Vince Cannistraro, former chief of operations for counter-terrorism with the CIA, says the red flag went up among investigators when it was discovered that some of the Israelis’ names were found in a search of the national intelligence database. Cannistraro says many in the US intelligence community believed that some of the Israelis were working for Mossad and there was speculation over whether Urban Moving had been “set up or exploited for the purpose of launching an intelligence operation against radical Islamists”.

This makes it clear that there was no suggestion whatsoever from within American intelligence that the Israelis were colluding with the 9/11 hijackers – simply that the possibility remains that they knew the attacks were going to happen, but effectively did nothing to help stop them.

After the owner vanished, the offices of Urban Moving looked as if they’d been closed down in a big hurry. Mobile phones were littered about, the office phones were still connected and the property of at least a dozen clients were stacked up in the warehouse. The owner had cleared out his family home in New Jersey and returned to Israel.

Two weeks after their arrest, the Israelis were still in detention, held on immigration charges. Then a judge ruled that they should be deported. But the CIA scuppered the deal and the five remained in custody for another two months. Some went into solitary confinement, all underwent two polygraph tests and at least one underwent up to seven lie detector sessions before they were eventually deported at the end of November 2001. Paul Kurzberg refused to take a lie detector test for 10 weeks, but then failed it. His lawyer said he was reluctant to take the test as he had once worked for Israeli intelligence in another country.

Nevertheless, their lawyer, Ram Horvitz, dismissed the allegations as “stupid and ridiculous”. Yet US government sources still maintained that the Israelis were collecting information on the fundraising activities of groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Mark Regev, of the Israeli embassy in Washington, would have none of that and he said the allegations were “simply false”. The men themselves claimed they’d read about the World Trade Centre attacks on the internet, couldn’t see it from their office and went to the parking lot for a better view. Their lawyers and the embassy say their ghoulish and sinister celebrations as the Twin Towers blazed and thousands died were due to youthful foolishness.

The respected New York Jewish newspaper, The Forward, reported in March 2002, however, that it had received a briefing on the case of the five Israelis from a US official who was regularly updated by law enforcement agencies. This is what he told The Forward: “The assessment was that Urban Moving Systems was a front for the Mossad and operatives employed by it.” He added that “the conclusion of the FBI was that they were spying on local Arabs”, but the men were released because they “did not know anything about 9/11”.

Back in Israel, several of the men discussed what happened on an Israeli talk show. One of them made this remarkable comment: “The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event.” But how can you document an event unless you know it is going to happen?

We are now deep in conspiracy theory territory. But there is more than a little circumstantial evidence to show that Mossad – whose motto is “By way of deception, thou shalt do war” – was spying on Arab extremists in the USA and may have known that September 11 was in the offing, yet decided to withhold vital information from their American counterparts which could have prevented the terror attacks.

Following September 11, 2001, more than 60 Israelis were taken into custody under the Patriot Act and immigration laws. One highly placed investigator told Carl Cameron of Fox News that there were “tie-ins” between the Israelis and September 11; the hint was clearly that they’d gathered intelligence on the planned attacks but kept it to themselves.

The Fox News source refused to give details, saying: “Evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It’s classified information.” Fox News is not noted for its condemnation of Israel; it’s a ruggedly patriotic news channel owned by Rupert Murdoch and was President Bush’s main cheerleader in the war on terror and the invasion of Iraq.

Another group of around 140 Israelis were detained prior to September 11, 2001, in the USA as part of a widespread investigation into a suspected espionage ring run by Israel inside the USA. Government documents refer to the spy ring as an “organised intelligence-gathering operation” designed to “penetrate government facilities”. Most of those arrested had served in the Israeli armed forces – but military service is compulsory in Israel. Nevertheless, a number had an intelligence background.

The first glimmerings of an Israeli spying exercise in the USA came to light in spring 2001, when the FBI sent a warning to other federal agencies alerting them to be wary of visitors calling themselves “Israeli art students” and attempting to bypass security at federal buildings in order to sell paintings. A Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) report suggested the Israeli calls “may well be an organised intelligence-gathering activity”. Law enforcement documents say that the Israelis “targeted and penetrated military bases” as well as the DEA, FBI and dozens of government facilities, including secret offices and the unlisted private homes of law enforcement and intelligence personnel.

A number of Israelis questioned by the authorities said they were students from Bezalel Academy of Art and Design, but Pnina Calpen, a spokeswoman for the Israeli school, did not recognise the names of any Israelis mentioned as studying there in the past 10 years. A federal report into the so-called art students said many had served in intelligence and electronic signal intercept units during their military service.

According to a 61-page report, drafted after an investigation by the DEA and the US immigration service, the Israelis were organised into cells of four to six people. The significance of what the Israelis were doing didn’t emerge until after September 11, 2001, when a report by a French intelligence agency noted “according to the FBI, Arab terrorists and suspected terror cells lived in Phoenix, Arizona, as well as in Miami and Hollywood, Florida, from December 2000 to April 2001 in direct proximity to the Israeli spy cells”.

The report contended that Mossad agents were spying on Mohammed Atta and Marwan al-Shehi, two of leaders of the 9/11 hijack teams. The pair had settled in Hollywood, Florida, along with three other hijackers, after leaving Hamburg – where another Mossad team was operating close by.

Hollywood in Florida is a town of just 25,000 souls. The French intelligence report says the leader of the Mossad cell in Florida rented apartments “right near the apartment of Atta and al-Shehi”. More than a third of the Israeli “art students” claimed residence in Florida. Two other Israelis connected to the art ring showed up in Fort Lauderdale. At one time, eight of the hijackers lived just north of the town.

Put together, the facts do appear to indicate that Israel knew that 9/11, or at least a large-scale terror attack, was about to take place on American soil, but did nothing to warn the USA. But that’s not quite true. In August 2001, the Israelis handed over a list of terrorist suspects – on it were the names of four of the September 11 hijackers. Significantly, however, the warning said the terrorists were planning an attack “outside the United States”.

The Israeli embassy in Washington has dismissed claims about the spying ring as “simply untrue”. The same denials have been issued repeatedly by the five Israelis seen high-fiving each other as the World Trade Centre burned in front of them.

Their lawyer, Ram Horwitz, insisted his clients were not intelligence officers. Irit Stoffer, the Israeli foreign minister, said the allegations were “completely untrue”. She said the men were arrested because of “visa violations”, adding: “The FBI investigated those cases because of 9/11.”

Jim Margolin, an FBI spokesman in New York, implied that the public would never know the truth, saying: “If we found evidence of unauthorised intelligence operations that would be classified material.” Yet, Israel has long been known, according to US administration sources, for “conducting the most aggressive espionage operations against the US of any US ally”. Seventeen years ago, Jonathan Pollard, a civilian working for the American Navy, was jailed for life for passing secrets to Israel. At first, Israel claimed Pollard was part of a rogue operation, but the government later took responsibility for his work.

It has always been a long-accepted agreement among allies – such as Britain and America or America and Israel – that neither country will jail a “friendly spy” nor shame the allied country for espionage. Chip Berlet, a senior analyst at Boston’s Political Research Associates and an expert in intelligence, says: “It’s a backdoor agreement between allies that says that if one of your spies gets caught and didn’t do too much harm, he goes home. It goes on all the time. The official reason is always visa violation.”

What we are left with, then, is fact sullied by innuendo. Certainly, it seems, Israel was spying within the borders of the United States and it is equally certain that the targets were Islamic extremists probably linked to September 11. But did Israel know in advance that the Twin Towers would be hit and the world plunged into a war without end; a war which would give Israel the power to strike its enemies almost without limit? That’s a conspiracy theory too far, perhaps. But the unpleasant feeling that, in this age of spin and secrets, we do not know the full and unadulterated truth won’t go away. Maybe we can guess, but it’s for the history books to discover and decide.

© Copyright SCOTLAND HERALD 2003 For fair use only/ pour usage équitable seulement .

weisbrot

2004-05-12 03:05 | User Profile

Lawyers appointed for 2 Israelis [url]http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default.asp?SectionID=DETAIL&ID=34466[/url]

By Ron Scalf Erwin Bureau [email]rscalf@johnsoncitypress.com[/email]

ERWIN — Two Israeli nationals being held here without bond on a variety of charges placed over the weekend were appointed lawyers Monday by Unicoi County General Sessions Court Judge David Shultz. Almaliach Naor and Shnuel Daran, Tel Aviv, Israel, requested the Israeli Consulate also be notified of their incarceration. Naor told Shultz he could only speak Hebrew. Daran, who speaks both Hebrew and English, acted as a translator for Naor during the proceedings.

Erwin attorneys William Lawson and Kent Garland were appointed to represent the men. Lawson will represent Naor, while Garland was appointed Daran’s lawyer.

Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris arrested the two men after a rented 25-foot Ryder truck failed “to stop for my blue lights and they were speeding and swerving on Highway 352 in Flag Pond.” Harris said he finally pulled the truck over nearly three miles down the mountain at the Temple Hill community.

Harris said he found a false Florida driver’s license under Naor’s passenger seat. Harris also said one of the two threw out a vial containing some type of accelerant. The two deny throwing anything out of the truck, but Harris said he has a witness who said the men threw out several items.

The discarded vial was found by Unicoi County Sheriff’s officers who combed the area following the two men’s arrests.

Harris said after testing the vial locally it was sent to an FBI lab. “We’re still working with the FBI on the case,” he said.

At the request of Assistant District Attorney General Fred Lance, Shultz did not set bond at the brief morning hearing. However, he said he would consider the matter later Monday or today after the Israeli authorities were notified.

Harris said late Monday he was traveling to Mars Hill, N.C., to search a storage building the pair had rented from Triple A Storage, 1393 U.S. Highway 19. “We found a receipt in their truck, and we’ve received permission to inspect it,” Harris said. “One of the suspects will accompany us over there.”

Harris said upon further investigation, the Ryder truck was rented in Plantation, Fla., not Mars Hill, N.C., as previously thought. At the direction of the FBI, Harris said the vial has been sent to the director of Emergency Management for Tennessee in Sevierville. He said federal authorities had ruled out any federal charges, “unless the liquid in the vial is an illegal substance,” Harris said. State charges “are still intact,” he said.

Harris said he talked to an official at the Israeli Consulate’s office in Atlanta Monday afternoon, who in turn spoke to Daran, 22, and Naor, 19.

“He wanted to know how they were being treated,” Harris said. “Because of their religion, they are asking to be fed a special diet and we are complying with the request.”

Both men are expected to appear in Sessions Court today for a bond hearing.

[IMG]http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/images/Pics/IsraelCourt.jpg[/IMG]

Ponce

2004-05-12 03:36 | User Profile

And the American Government keeps calling those people "our friends"

You may have noticed that I said "the American Government" and not the American people..........

For how long more will the American people allow the Zionist Jews to get away with what they are doing?

Smedley Butler

2004-05-12 04:48 | User Profile

The poll that is on this thread is p.c...... Where is the choice for " String'em up now" ? For any visitor reading this who has not read [url]www.ussliberty.org[/url] please do read it. Until you do, you don't know a thing about the U.S.S. Liberty and Mr. Marrano L.B.J.

Scott Paine

2004-05-12 08:07 | User Profile

[QUOTE=Smedley Butler]The poll that is on this thread is p.c... [/QUOTE]Well, yeah. It's a really lame poll just to piss everyone off (especially the Devil Dogs).

Our government will really take izreal to task when they deport these guys, which does... them a favor. And they'll jew us on the airfare.

Point? It's frustrating when your government legally barrs you from fighting an obvious and deadly enemy. I'm with the Iraqis on deterrence; read a written statement then broadcast a summary beheading. With a Sawzall. To get the party going I volunteer to do the first cut.

Just to piss everyone else off, of course.

Sertorius

2004-05-12 10:19 | User Profile

[QUOTE]“He wanted to know how they were being treated,” Harris said. “Because of their religion, they are asking to be fed a special diet and we are complying with the request.”[/QUOTE]

Feed them country ham and if they don't like that, then chitlins.

Those boys look well turned out in their shackles and orange jumpsuits. All that is lacking is the yellow star of David and a conveniently located railway siding with a cattle car for these worthies.

These clowns are on the young side. I wonder who they were going to meet and what were they going to move? They certainly weren't there to enjoy the beautiful Smokey mountains. Here's something for the F.B.I. to investigate, for there are others in the area up to no good.

weisbrot

2004-05-12 22:18 | User Profile

Erwin, TN is more than 200 miles off 95, the most direct and by far easier route from almost anywhere in Florida to Boston.

[url]http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default.asp?SectionID=DETAIL&ID=34491[/url]

2 Israelis detained in Erwin face deportation hearing

By Ron Scalf Erwin Bureau [email]rscalf@johnsoncitypress.com[/email]

ERWIN — Two Israeli nationals being held since Saturday in the Unicoi County Jail after taking Sheriff Kent Harris on a 2 1/2-mile high speed chase in the Flag Pond community, following Saturday’s Ramp Festival, face a deportation hearing, Harris said Tuesday.

Bonds for the men were set late Tuesday afternoon in Unicoi County Sessions Court on state charges. Judge David Shultz set a secured bond of $2,500 for Almaliach Naor, 22, and a $5,000 secured bond for Shnuel Daran, 19, both of Tel Aviv, Israel.

Harris said even if the two made the cash bonds, “INS (Immigration and Naturalization Service) has issued two orders to detain the men, or ‘holds’ on them, until they can be taken to a INS facility to be questioned. Obviously, the state charges we are holding them on may become moot if they are deported back to Israel,” he said.

Naor and Daran “are in the United States illegally,” Harris said. “They are here on tourist visas and they are not following the guidelines because they’ve been working.” The men reportedly were moving furniture from Florida to Boston and took a wrong turn in Unicoi County.

INS agents from Knoxville appeared at Unicoi County Jail Tuesday afternoon to interview Harris and speak to the Israelis’ court-appointed lawyers.

Meanwhile, Aviz Ezra, Israeli deputy consulate general in Atlanta, contacted the Johnson City Press to say he believed the incident “was a big misunderstanding.”

“I understand one of the men did have a forged ID card, but there was no ‘Learn to Fly’ brochure. It was merely a card (advertising flying lessons) with a phone number on it, not a brochure with details,” he said. “I understand they are in the moving business from Florida, took a wrong turn and just got lost.

“The relationship between Israel and the United States has always been in the best interest of everyone,” Ezra added, saying he just returned from a law enforcement meeting where 15 Georgia law enforcement officers are taking a trip to Israel.

Following a test by an FBI crime lab, Harris said he received a report Tuesday on the substance inside a vial allegedly thrown out of the truck and later found by officers. The vial contained, “gloconic acid and Astromid 18,” Harris said. “We don’t know what the substances are but they’re not explosive. Our investigation in the matter continues.”

Harris said Naor and Daran were dropped from a federal investigation after FBI agents cleared them from being on any wanted list. Harris said Unicoi County deputies on Monday night searched a storage building that the men had rented in Mars Hill, N.C. He said the building was clean “except for some old, junk furniture.”

The men face charges of speeding, reckless driving, littering, producing false identification and evading arrest.

Harris said the investigation will be expanded further to include the people the men were working for

Sojourner

2004-05-13 16:51 | User Profile

[URL=http://www.madcowprod.com/]'Mover' is son of top Likud Official[/URL]

(pictures at the link)

May 12--Venice,FL. by Daniel Hopsicker

The leader of the two Israelis arrested after leading police on a high speed chase in a moving van last Saturday in rural Tennessee is the son of the spokesman for the Likud Party of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, the MadCowMorningNews has learned.

The arrested Israeli 'mover,' Shmuel Dahan, 23, is himself a former spokesman, for the National Union of Israeli Students which represents the country's 150,000 university students.

**News that one of the two Israeli 'movers' belonged to that country's political elite might have proven useful in the criminal investigation underway in rural North Carolina and Tennessee, where the two men led authorities on a high-speed chase in a rented moving van last weekend.

However, [u]the investigation was halted Wednesday, after the men were released from Unicol County Jail to the custody of federal officials from the INS, where they face only a deportation hearing[/u].**

"They're taking it out of my jurisdiction," stated Sheriff Kent Harris, who apprehended the men last Saturday after a high speed chase on a little-used state highway.

"We may never know what they were doing."

"They're our Israeli movers now"

Local law enforcement officials in Tennessee expressed dismay at losing custody until it had been established what two Israelis were doing attempting to elude police on a back road near the North Carolina border so far off the beaten track that the only local attractions within 25 miles are the Rural Life Museum, the Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, and the birthplace of Zebulon Baird Vance, a Civil War officer and governor of North Carolina, but not exactly a ‘Historical Hottie.”

Folks were puzzled.

Federal officials offered little guidance. A spokesman for Immigration and Customs Enforcement told a local reporter they couldn't comment on the case while the men were in the custody of local authorities, and was unavailable afterwards.

Charges against the two included reckless driving, littering, false identification and evading arrest. The Sheriff said the FBI had even ordered him to hold the duo without bond.

But now the only one doing any talking was the Israeli Deputy Consul General, who, in a bit of fancy footwork until his boys were ‘safely out of Dodge,’ told reporters the men had been “overwhelmed by the process.”

"If they did something that was wrong, out of parameters of the law,” stated Israeli Deputy Consul General Aviv Ezra in Atlanta, “they have to pay the punishment.”

Presumably he meant flying home in coach.

Israelis? Right here in River City?

Clearly the leader of the two Israelis while in custody, Dahan was called “the spokesman for the National Union of Israeli Students, which represents most of the country's 150,000 university students,” in the January 12, 2001 Jerusalem Post.

This gibes with early press reports after the men’s arrest in Tennessee, in which the Israeli deputy consul stated Dahan had recently graduated from college.

Dahan, like many Israeli students, is a reservist. He is quoted in the Jerusalem Post speaking for student reservists after Israeli students marched around the Defense Ministry compound in Tel Aviv in protest of an increase in the number of days required on reserve duty.

With an articulateness that would be the envy of most furniture movers, Dahan said, “They want to be paid for each day of duty, instead of only after a second or third consecutive day in the reserves.”

"Fiddler on the Roof" meets "Gomer Pyle"

While the Israelis were gone from his jail, for Sheriff Kent Harris, the mystery remains...

Although the two men had denied throwing a bottle of suspicious liquid from their vehicle during the chase, for example, Sheriff Harris said witnesses saw the men throw a bottle out the window during the pursuit. "I called the witnesses back in and both told me the same thing," Harris said. "The bottle was spinning in the road after the pursuit came by."

After a witness gave the bottle to authorities, Harris sent it for testing. Tests showed a chemical mix that turned out not to be explosive. "It's very dangerous to drink it, but other than that, there's nothing harmful," Harris said.

So why had the men lied?

But the biggest mystery surrounded the reason for the men’s presence in the area in the first place. William B. Lawson, one of the lawyers appointed to represent the Israeli men, said they rented a truck and were hauling furniture when they accidentally got off the interstate and got lost.

But this is unlikely, since local law enforcement officials had already stated that the men rented a storage locker nearby, in Mars Hill.

“Even if you’re trying to get lost,” explained Sheriff Harris, “Mars Hill is a hard place to get to.”

Indeed, Mars Hills, North Carolina, appears at first glance to be as remote a location as can be found in the Northern Hemisphere. Any further off the beaten track and they'd be getting yesterday's CNN Headline News.

One can only speculate on what business compelled two young Israeli men to visit the regions’ rural splendor...

Because they just can't get enough NASCAR in Tel Aviv?

Jonathon Pollard & Bin Laden's "Spiritual Mentor"

This remote region of North Carolina does have one big Israeli connection, however. We discovered that convicted Israeli spy Jonathon Pollard is imprisoned in the area, at the Federal Correctional Institute in Butner, North Carolina.

Strangely, the same Deputy Consul General from the Israeli Consulate in Atlanta that smoothed the release of the two latest Israeli movers to run afoul of the law, Aviv Ezra, “is a lifeline” to Pollard, according to a report at [url]www.johnathonpollard.org[/url], visits him regularly in prison, and acts as his interlocutor with visitors from the outside.

This is no doubt just sheer coincidence.

However the next sentence from the story on Pollard’s website mentioning Avri Ezra indicates to the conspiracy-minded (although certainly not to us) that perhaps something else is going on…

Israeli Deputy Consul Ezra himself may be a spook. At least he seems to know a lot of them…

Ezra’s “training for this sensitive task (hanging out with Pollard) was gained while working at the Israeli Embassy in Cairo,” states the convicted Israeli spy’s website, “where he also served as the contact person to Azzam Azzam.”

Azzam Azzam is an Israeli spy.

Don't deport the 'NASCAR' Israelis!

Azzam had been imprisoned for more than seven years in Cairo, we learned from news reports, until his release by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarek.

Israeli Deputy Consul Aviv Ezra, the 'NASCAR Israelis' friend and protector, can thus be said to be—and fairly—a “spy handler.”

Welcome to the Hall of Mirrors.

Still, this news puts a slightly different spin on what has otherwise become just the latest episode of “Israeli Movers Doing Inexplicable Things Before Being Deported.”

But not to the stolid campaigners at the FBI.

FBI agents searched the two men’s storage facility by late Monday night, The Asheville Citizen-Times reported, but found no evidence of anything suspicious.

What is suspicious is the unbelievable story the two men told investigators... that they were just on their way to West Virginia to deliver furniture.

Right.

"Israelis delivering furniture in West Virginia" doesn't exactly have what used to be called the ring of truth, does it.

It has been a day of strange omens in the news.

Mexican air force pilots filming UFOs. Israeli soldiers scouring Gaza for body parts of fallen soldiers. And now this...

Following their arrest last Saturday afternoon, the local sheriff said he had “had a sick feeling” when he found a “Learn to Fly” brochure in the Israelis moving van, especially since the county they were in was home to the nation’s only Nuclear Fuel Services plant.

It wasn’t a “learn to fly in Florida brochure," the Israeli Deputy Consul cheerfully assured everyone. It had been just a “learn to fly in Florida” business card.

Tonight the local Sheriff could be forgiven for feeling just a little sore at the Feds stepping in and screwing his case.

The man does not get all that many 'at bats.'

Last year in Mars Hill, according to 2001 crime statistics, the latest available, there were no murders, no rapes, no robberies, and one assault.

“This is still a very suspicious case,” Sheriff Harris said last Sunday, stubbornly reiterating the same comment he’d made a day earlier.

Four days later, nothing has changed.

Ed Toner

2004-05-14 12:27 | User Profile

[url]http://www.madcowprod.com/index55bb.html[/url]

Lot's of details worth noting in this.

weisbrot

2004-05-14 17:43 | User Profile

[url]http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default.asp?SectionID=DETAIL&ID=34594[/url]

Israelis headed for Knox INS appearance

By Ron Scalf Erwin Bureau [email]rscalf@johnsoncitypress.com[/email]

ERWIN — On the eve of possible deportation back to Israel, two Israeli nationals being held here without bond since a high-speed chase Saturday involving Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris declared their love for the United States in an interview with the Johnson City Press Thursday afternoon. With court-appointed Erwin attorneys Kent Garland and William “Bill” Lawson at their side, Almaliach Naor, 19, and Shnuel Daran, 22, both of Tel Aviv, Israel, seemed relaxed and in good spirits. Daran, who speaks English, said they were well treated at the Unicoi County Jail and conferred with Naor and Lawson before agreeing to answer questions.

One question his attorney advised him not to answer was a report from someone close to the investigation who confirmed Daran has a bank account with $11,000 in it.

When asked if he was anxious to go back home, Daran said, “To Israel? No, I love the United States, and I plan to stay here.”

Danan said he served three and one half years in the Israeli military and that Naor would be entering the Israeli military service.

The two pleaded guilty in Unicoi County Sessions Court Thursday of evading arrest and possession of a false identification card. Harris called the pleas “moot” since he was holding the pair for the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He said INS agents would pick the two up today for a federal court appearance in Knoxville concerning their visa status in the United States. Harris said they were in the country on tourist visas and weren’t supposed to be working.

Sessions Judge David Shults fined Naor $10 and court costs along with a 30-day suspended sentence for time served for possession of a false identification card. Daran was also fined $10 and court costs on a misdemeanor evading arrest charge. He received an 11-month, 29-day sentence suspended on time served.

The two were arrested in a 25-foot rented truck on Tenn. Highway 352 in Flag Pond after failing to yield to Harris’ cruiser blue lights for two and one half miles. They said they were hauling furniture to Boston and got lost on the two-lane road near the North Carolina border.

A vial Harris said witnesses saw thrown from the truck contained Astromid 18 and Gluconic Acid, according to a scientist enlisted by the sheriff’s department after a crime lab couldn’t positively identify the liquid.

“It’s a toxic decomposing agent used in the backing of carpet,” Harris said. “And it is also a flammable latex furniture stripper. I don’t know why they just didn’t tell me what it was in the beginning.”

The men have denied throwing anything out of the truck. The vial was found after officers combed the area following a report by a neighbor that something was tossed from the truck, Harris said.

Harris said he respected the men’s religious diet and was feeding them “mostly chicken sandwiches and Chicken McNuggets from McDonalds at their request. They also asked for their Bible, and I retrieved it from the truck and gave it to them,” he said. A local rabbi visited them in jail Thursday morning, Harris said.

Harris said turning the Israelis over to INS agents today will expedite matters and get them into the federal system. “After a hearing in Knoxville, I understand they will probably be moved to Memphis where they could make bond,” he said, “but they could also be deported, depending on the outcome of the hearing.”

Smedley Butler

2004-05-15 09:29 | User Profile

Local Rabbi visit's invaders in Jail? NOW how can it be that there is supposed to be only 3% Self Choosenite's running around in our population, yet they are here, there and every where, and stirring up trouble. As soon as about dozen got to my area, the schools had to be indoctrinated in feeling guilty about a syndicate with ice water in their veins. Every one of Gawds pet's that has moved here is pro Mexican invader with out exception etc.

Sertorius

2004-05-15 10:26 | User Profile

[QUOTE]When asked if he was anxious to go back home, Daran said, “To Israel? No, I love the United States, and I plan to stay here.”[/QUOTE]

Gawd help us. That is all we need, is more Jews, especially ones like this guy.

Local Rabbi huh? The diaspora is vast indeed!

DakotaBlue

2004-05-15 21:39 | User Profile

Israel has a very strange training program. Go into the Army in Israel and come out a furniture mover in the US. It makes sense to me.

weisbrot

2004-05-19 14:53 | User Profile

Interesting comment from a guy claiming to be a local...

[url]http://www.goldismoney.info/forums/showthread.php?p=45868#post45868[/url]

Re: Israelis with Bomb Material Arrested after High-Speed Chase in Tennessee???

Little more on this story, since it happened about 10 miles from here and I happen to know some of the fellows in the department.

The two Who-ever-they-are, and they AIN'T talking, rented a Ryder truck/van over in NC at Mars Hill....about 15 miles across the state line and mountain from Unicoi Co. where they were arrested.

The new 1-26 would have been the obvious choice to come across on, and continue on up the country. Instead, they took a winding little two lane, which makes me think they have "business" here...why else take a little local road ?

The sheriff, Kent Harris, was at a local festible up at that end of the county ( politicin' the goers, no doubt) and just happened to come up behind these two on the way back to town.....

This probably IS some sort of drug related deal, since they bust meth labs around here on a pretty regular basis.....BUT here is also something for thought....

In the town to which these two were headed is Nuclear Fuel Services. They make fuel rods for the navy, and there is another facility that does some sort of "re-processing" of nuclear bomb material into fuel rods.....very hush hush.

In the mid 70's, a NRC audit found this same plant was "missing" about 10-15 lbs of plutonium.......not 10-15 grams....10-15 POUNDS .....they finally glossed it over as an "accounting" error.... Rumor control has it that material and some more went to Israel for the nuke program they don't have.

There is a fellow here that is an Israeli citizen that runs a "restuarant"......worst food and service you can imagine, like he doesn't care if he makes a living at it or not.....and yet has been in business for years. This same guy was caught flying an ultralite over the nuke facility, on , get this, Sept 11th.....the same day the towers went down.....FBI took his camera that he had with him. Probably he was just goofing off.....cause he's still here serving lousy food to folks that don't know better than to go there.

For a little one horse county, there sure are a lot of strange things that go on

" I wish a buck was still silver, like it was when the country was strong.... Is the best of the free life behind us now, Are the good times really over for good ? "

Merle Haggard

weisbrot

2004-05-20 15:27 | User Profile

[url]http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/default.asp?SectionID=DETAIL&ID=34797[/url]

Israeli official says detentions of 2 men ‘comedy of mistakes’

By Ron Scalf Erwin Bureau [email]rscalf@johnsoncitypress.com[/email]

ERWIN — Two Israeli nationals turned over last week to officials from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office will be transferred from Knoxville to Miami today to face a possible deportation hearing, an official at the Israeli consulate in Atlanta confirmed Wednesday.

Almaliach Naor, 19 and Shmuel Dahan, 22, both of Tel Aviv, Israel, were arrested May 8 near Flag Pond after taking Unicoi County Sheriff Kent Harris on a 2 1/2-mile high-speed chase in a moving truck. Harris held the duo in the Unicoi County Jail without bond after consulting with the FBI concerning possible espionage.

In his office in Atlanta, Aviz Ezra, Israeli deputy consulate general, called the entire episode “a comedy of mistakes,” emphasizing Israel’s partnership with the United States.

“We have a Hebrew saying that in translation says: ‘When a cow has its first-born calf he wants to create something. . . make some noise,’ ” he said. “There was absolutely no conspiracy involving these two men. No real threat to the United States. Not from Israel. America and Israel don’t have a lot of friends. But America and Israel have always stood together.”

Ezra criticized Harris for being overzealous in his investigation. “He’s an elected official, and this was a sexy case,” he said. “But in the end (there was) nothing to it.

“It’s not my case, but my office got involved with the situation because of the nationality of the men,” he said. “They will have to face the (immigration) charges. They will have to pay their fines and deal with the INS. You deal with these kinds of things in my position from time-to-time.”

Ezra suggested Harris shouldn’t have talked so freely with the press. “I don’t blame you. You’ve got a job to do. He’s an elected official, and he should not be making statements that he was sick to his stomach when he saw a ‘learn to fly’ brochure (it was a business card) and talking about a nuclear plant (NFS) being close to where these guys were stopped.”

And, would Harris do anything different?

“Absolutely not,” he said. “I would have done the same thing. Anybody this suspicious found three miles from a nuclear plant, you have to use extreme care. If you don’t you’re not doing your job.”

The FBI later cleared the men after failing to find them on any federal wanted lists. Harris turned the two over to immigration officials after it was discovered they were working in the United States without permission while in possession of tourist visas. They had been stopped driving a 25-foot Ryder truck filled with old furniture at a high rate of speed.

The two men said they were taking furniture to Boston from Plantation, Fla., and had reportedly been living in an apartment in Miami.

Last week, after being appointed local attorneys, the two paid small fines and court costs on misdemeanor charges of littering, producing a false ID and evading arrest. They steadfastly denied throwing anything out of the truck, but Harris said he could produce witnesses to the contrary.

Harris said several “red flags” went up during his investigation that produced a false driver’s license, a “learn to fly” business card in one of the men’s wallet and a vial of an unknown substance reportedly thrown out by one of the men during the high-speed chase. Dahan reportedly surrendered an ATM bank receipt at his booking showing a bank balance of more than $11,000 in a Florida bank. It was returned to him following his release.

Ezra said the men’s families were concerned and upset concerning their situation in the United States. Harris said it was his understanding the two would most likely be deported back to Israel in days to come.

“They are here illegally,” he said. “You can’t be a foreign national with a tourist visa and work in the United States."

weisbrot

2004-05-20 16:15 | User Profile

Oak Ridge, TN to Erwin, TN

SUMMARY Driving distance: 142.6 miles Trip duration: 2 hours, 24 minutes Driving time: 2 hours, 24 minutes

[url]http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/163303[/url]

Fire breaks out at former K-25 plant 2004-05-09 by Staff and Wire Reports

OAK RIDGE -- A chemical fire broke out Saturday at the East Tennessee Technology Park, forcing an evacuation of residents living within a half mile of the Department of Energy's former K-25 plant.

DOE spokesman Walter Perry said the fire occurred when liquid sodium reacted with water vapor in the air at a recycling operation.

There is no radioactive material involved in this incident,'' Perry said.No injuries were reported, and all personnel were accounted for at the site.''

Perry said fire and emergency personnel were monitoring the situation.

``The fire is continuing to burn itself out, and we are letting that progress throughout the evening,'' he said.

It was reported that a company at the site was recycling ``sodium shields'' from Oak Ridge National Laboratory at the time of the fire.

The K-25 plant used to be the uranium enrichment site for the weapons plant. Now the area on federal property in Roane County is being converted into an industrial park.

DOE's emergency sirens sounded at about 1:10 p.m. to warn area residents of the situation.

Roads near K-25 were closed, including Gallaher Road between I-40 and Oak Ridge. Sections of Tenn. 95 and Tenn. 58 were also closed.

Officers of the Tennessee Wilderness Resources Agency patrolled the Clinch River to keep boaters away from the evacuation area.

The evacuation was ordered by the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency for people within a half mile of the site.

Evacuees were advised to report to Roane State Community College in Harriman, where a shelter was set up in the gymnasium on campus and staffed by American Red Cross disaster volunteers.

The evacuation was expected to stay in effect overnight Saturday and into Sunday morning as emergency crews monitored the situation.

Water could not be placed on the fire because it could cause a reaction. Because of the chemicals involved, officials planned to let the fire burn itself out.

weisbrot

2004-05-20 16:21 | User Profile

Getting busy in the three-eyed-frog breeding business up around ORNL. Has to be coincidence...

[url]http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2896803,00.html[/url]

DOE upgrades radioactive spill probe Officials order 2nd-highest type of inquiry due to cost of incident

By FRANK MUNGER, [email]munger@knews.com[/email] May 19, 2004

OAK RIDGE - The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday upgraded its investigation of a radioactive spill that contaminated four roads, including state Highway 95.

Federal officials ordered a formal Type B investigation after it became apparent the cost of the weekend incident would be between $1 million and $2.5 million, said Steven Wyatt, DOE's director of public affairs.

Cost is one of the justifications for a lengthy, highly structured Type B, the second-highest investigation within the agency's purview.

DOE said a yet-to-be-named team would examine all factors that contributed to the strontium-90 contamination, as well as the emergency response. A report is to be completed within a month, the agency said.

This investigation will run concurrently with another Type B investigation already under way into a May 8 chemical fire on the DOE reservation. The sodium fire forced the shutdown of Highway 58 near the East Tennessee Technology Park and the evacuation of nearby residents.

Robert Crowley, a health and safety official from the DOE headquarters in Washington, is heading the fire investigation.

Meanwhile, three of the four roads contaminated with radioactive strontium-90 have been cleaned and repaved, according to Mark Neuhart of Bechtel Jacobs Co. BJC is the Department of Energy's environmental cleanup manager in Oak Ridge.

The incident occurred Friday when a truck was transporting an old waste tank from a cleanup site near ORNL to a nuclear landfill several miles away on the government's Oak Ridge reservation. The tank contained some radioactive liquids that leaked from the truck, particularly on incline sections of the roadway.

Highway 95 was reopened late Sunday after a weekend cleanup, and work on Bethel Valley Road near Oak Ridge National Laboratory was completed Monday.

Neuhart said crews wrapped up the repaving of Bear Creek Road late Tuesday afternoon.

The last road to be decontaminated is Melton Valley Access Road near the site where the truck shipment originated. Neuhart said that work should be finished today.

Bechtel Jacobs has temporarily shut down work at the cleanup site and at the nuclear landfill.

Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329

Quantrill

2004-05-20 17:33 | User Profile

[QUOTE=weisbrot] In his office in Atlanta, Aviz Ezra, Israeli deputy consulate general, called the entire episode “a comedy of mistakes,” emphasizing Israel’s partnership with the United States.

“We have a Hebrew saying that in translation says: ‘When a cow has its first-born calf he wants to create something. . . make some noise,’ ” he said. “There was absolutely no conspiracy involving these two men. No real threat to the United States. Not from Israel. America and Israel don’t have a lot of friends. But America and Israel have always stood together.”

Repeat after me -- there is no conspiracy involving these men. There is no real threat. These are not the droids you're looking for.

[QUOTE=weisbrot] Ezra criticized Harris for being overzealous in his investigation. “He’s an elected official, and this was a sexy case,” he said. “But in the end (there was) nothing to it.

A sexy case? There was hardly any mention of the story in the local press AT ALL! This seems more like a cover-up than a "sexy case." Weisbrot has done yeoman's work to collect just these few articles.

weisbrot

2004-05-21 21:34 | User Profile

Norris Dam is upstream of Oak Ridge National Labs and all of their facilities. It creates Norris Lake, and allows the Clinch River to flow downstream through Oak Ridge. Most of the lab's facilities are located on or near the Clinch.

Norris Dam to Oak Ridge, TN

SUMMARY Driving distance: 26.2 miles Trip duration: 40 minutes Driving time: 40 minutes

[url]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31351[/url]

HOMELAND INSECURITY Feds probe suspicious activity at Norris Dam Middle Eastern men arrested for using fake IDs after picture-taking incident

Posted: March 4, 2003 1:35 p.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Federal investigators probing suspicious activity in East Tennessee have arrested two Middle Eastern men, according to local television reports.

Agents arrested the two brothers yesterday on charges of using fake IDs to get Virginia drivers licenses. Ahmed Mostafa, 23, and Hatem Elsakaan, 27, were taken into custody at bus terminals in Roanoke, Va., yesterday.

According to WATE-TV, Tennessee police questioned Mostafa and an unidentified woman at the Norris Dam early Sunday morning. The two were reportedly taking pictures of the structure.

The manager of the Norris Dam marina told WATE-TV he saw flashing lights at the dam Sunday when he couldn't sleep.

"I saw a white light, a flash. I was watching it and it flashed about three or four times. I thought it might be a TVA patrol car but normally they don't have white lights," said Steve Pemberton.

Pemberton said he also spotted a man taking pictures at the marina a few days earlier.

"I thought it was kind of unusual because it really wasn't a good view of anything," he added.

Tennessee police didn't detain the picture-taking couple but alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the incident. The Joint Terrorism Task Force was also contacted.

The FBI later discovered Mostafa was wanted in Virginia.

"What the arrest warrant was issued on was fraudulent documentation to obtain documents related to interstate commerce," FBI special agent R. Joe Clark told WVLT-TV.

"That in itself is not a real crime, but what you do with those documents is of real interest to the [Joint Terrorism Task Force] and those who investigate terrorism," he said.

Clark said the motivation behind the picture taking was not yet known.

According to WATE, the dam incident follows reports of suspicious picture-taking attempts by unidentified men at medical facilities in Knoxville.

Workers at Covenant Health headquarters and St. Mary's Hospital told WATE-TV men repeatedly attempted to take pictures, but were rebuffed by security guards.

Similar reports have surfaced regarding major banks and businesses in Knoxville over the past year.

None of the earlier reports led to any arrests.

Sojourner

2004-05-23 14:36 | User Profile

May 20, 04 --Venice, FL by Daniel Hopsicker

For the second time in the past two weeks Israelis in a moving van have been detained near a U.S. nuclear facility, this time at the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base near St. Marys, GA., near Sea Island, host of the G-8 Summit next month.

[URL=http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/052204/geo_15672724.shtml]"Security scare shuts Kings Bay"[/URL] reported the Jacksonville Times-Union on Saturday. "Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base was locked down for security reasons Friday after two Israelis were detained for questioning."

Two Israeli men attempted to enter the base about 10:30 a.m., on the pretext that that had been hired by a moving-and-storage company to pick up household goods at an address on the base, the paper reported.

One occupant of the vehicle was unable to provide base security personnel with proper credentials, a base spokesman told reporters.

"Base personnel then inspected the van."

What the MP's found has no doubt since become highly classified. But before that could happen, a base spokesman had blurted this much of it out...

"A briefcase was removed from the vehicle with a remote control robot, but nothing was found in it."

By the time the story made it onto the AP newswire, the "remote control robot in a briefcase" briefcase had been made to disappear...

"Nothing was found in the van, but both men, whose names were not released, were later taken into custody," read the AP report.

Another 'NASCAR Israeli' incident

But wait. There's more...

A bomb squad was called in after the van tested positive for a bomb. Local police were notified and shut down all roads leading to the base.

The Times-Union said, "Military dogs trained to detect bombs were called in. The military dogs were alerted to a scent in the cab of the truck. Guards closed access to the base and notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service."

The parallels between today's account and last week's incident (see story below: Israeli Movers Freed, Back in Miami,") are almost too numerous to mention...

"The dogs were called in again for a second pass of the vehicle, and they didn't pick up anything," said a base spokesman.

The two Israelis, whose names were not released, were taken into custody by federal immigration officers in Savannah for possible deportation.

The [URL=http://www.madcowprod.com]MadCowMorningNews[/URL] has a crew on its way to the site, and will have a full report. See the latest episode of "Conspiracy Tonight" for an 8 min. peek at the "NASCAR Israelis" recent "Adventure in Appalachia."

DEVELOPING.

Ponce

2004-05-23 16:06 | User Profile

I find it interesting that the Jews are 2.6% of the US population and yet the "terrorists" arrested are 65% Jews,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

But of course if they were Arabs, or worse yet Palestinians, then our "friends" would be calling for a public lynching of those involved.

And you know what? the Zionist Jews would then claim that they were the ones, that either, found them or gave the intelligence to the proper authority in order for the terrorists to be arrested.

weisbrot

2004-05-23 16:46 | User Profile

King's Bay is a high security Trident Sub base. It is located about 30 miles to the south of Sea Island, GA- the site of the upcoming (June) G-8 summit. Just outside Sea Island near Brunswick, GA is the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC), which has gained in prominence since federal funding began shifting around after 9.11. Federal, state and local LEO's from numerous agencies have been training at Sea Island and in the area since last year for the G-8, and Sea Island is supposedly fully buttoned up or will be soon.

[url]http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2003/07/14/daily18.htm[/url]

LATEST NEWS July 15, 2003 Sea Island to host next G-8 Sea Island, a posh South Georgia resort a little over an hour north of Jacksonville, has been chosen to host next year's meeting of leaders of the world's major industrial countries, according to several major news sources.

U.S. Sens. Zell Miller and Saxby Chambliss announced Tuesday that President Bush chose Sea Island as the site for the G-8 economic summit, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

"Hosting the G-8 Summit will deliver a significant economic boost to our coastal communities and allow us the opportunity to showcase Georgia to the world," Chambliss said to the Journal-Constitution. "Our hard work advocating Sea Island to the White House has paid off, and this is certainly excellent news for Georgia."

Sea Island's barrier location could keep away protesters and enforce security efforts, state officials said.

Anti-globalization protesters have had a growing presence at the annual summits, where leaders from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States meet to discuss economic and political issues.

During the summit last month in Evian, France, protesters generally were kept to neighboring Switzerland, where vandalism and looting left a mark.

Sea Island is a private, 5-mile-long resort island. It is near federal military and law enforcement installations as well as the King's Bay submarine base.

The island is owned by the Sea Island Co., formed in the early part of the last century by auto manufacturer Howard Coffin, founder of the Hudson Motor Co.

Among the top properties on or near the island are The Cloister and The Lodge at Sea Island, which carries a five-star rating. The island has three championship golf courses along with about 500 private homes. Denver hosted the last U.S. G-8 summit in 1997. Houston hosted the meeting in 1990.

© 2003 American City Business Journals Inc.

[url]http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/facility/kings_bay.htm[/url]

SWFLANT, King's Bay, Georgia Maps and Imagery Units Strategic Weapons Facility, Atlantic (SWFLANT) TRIDENT Refit Facility [TRF, ex TRIREFAC] Trident Training Facility [TTF, ex TRITRAFAC] Official Homepage SWFLANT, King's Bay, Georgia Sources MicroSoft TerraServer USGS Aerial Imagery - 22-28 February 1988

King's Bay, Georgia, is near St. Mary's, Camden County, Georgia, on an arm of Cumberland Sound, 35 - 40 miles north of Jacksonville, Florida. The base encompasses approximately 16,000 acres. Military and civilian personnel, including contract personnel, number more than 9,000.

In 1954, the Army began to acquire land at King's Bay, on which it planned to build a military ocean terminal which would be used to ship ammunition in the event of a national emergency. Construction activity began in 1956 and was completed in 1958 at a cost of $11 million. Because there was not immediate operational need for the installation, it was placed in an inactive ready status.

A Treaty of Friendship and Cooperation was being drafted with Spain in 1976. It would require withdrawal of Submarine Squadron Sixteen from Rota, Spain, by July 1979. As a result, the CNO ordered, in 1976, a study to select a new site for relocating the SSBN tender from Rota to the East Coast. A site selection steering group evaluated sites along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts.

On 30 November 1976, the SECNAV announced that King's Bay, Georgia, has been identified for further study as the preferred alternative location for the possible construction of an East Coast FBM Tender refit site. It was on 26 January 1978 that the SECNAV announced that King's Bay, Georgia, would be the new location of the submarine tender to support Submarine Squadron Sixteen.

Preparations were started for an orderly transfer of the property from the Army to the Navy, and the actual transfer took place on 1 July 1978. Throughout the remainder of 1978 and into 1979, preparations for the arrival of the submarine squadron went forward with haste.

On 2 July 1979, the commander of Submarine Squadron Sixteen, embarked in the submarine tender USS Simon Lake (AS-33), arrived at King's Bay. Four days later, the USS James Monroe (SSBN-622) entered King's Bay and moored alongside the USS Simon Lake's (AS-33) starboard side to begin a routine refit in preparation for another deterrent patrol.

In May 1979, the SSBN tender refit site at King's Bay was selected by the Navy as its preferred site for an East Coast strategic TRIDENT submarine facility in the Atlantic, similar to SWFPAC at Bangor, Washington. Following environmental impact studies, in October 1980, SECNAV Edward Hidalgo announced the decision: King's Bay would become the Atlantic home for the new Ohio-class submarines.

On 1 April 1982, the title of the base was changed from Naval Submarine Support Base to Naval Submarine Base to reflect the growing significance of King's Bay.

Facilities at the base enable King's Bay to serve as a homeport, refit site, and training facility for the Navy people that operate and maintain the Ohio-class strategic submarines. The original facilities here, to refit between patrols SSBNs which were homeported elsewhere, cost approximately $125 million. The TRIDENT basing decision touched off a building project of vastly-larger magnitude. Through the 1980's, the Navy spent more than $1.7 billion in the military construction effort alone...

Blond Knight

2004-05-24 02:40 | User Profile

Sojourner, thanks for posting your article. Same story as reported in a different newspaper:

Suspicious moving van prompt Kings Bay lockdown

Military scare

Associated Press

ST. MARYS - Military officials locked down Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base for security reasons after two men were detained for questioning. Two Israeli men working for a moving-and-storage company attempted to enter the base about 10:30 a.m. Friday to pick up some items in base housing, said base spokesman Ed Buczek.

One of them was unable to provide security personnel with proper credentials, so base personnel and bomb-sniffing dogs inspected the van.

''The military dogs were alerted to a scent in the cab of the truck,'' Buczek said. ''Guards closed access to the base and notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.''

St. Marys police closed access to an area one-half mile surrounding the base and called in a bomb squad, Buczek said.

Nothing was found in the van, but both men, whose names were not released, were later taken into custody by federal immigration officers for possible deportation, he said.

Kings Bay is near Sea Island, which will host the G-8 Summit next month.

Click here to return to story: [url]http://onlineathens.com/stories/052304/new_20040523079.shtml[/url]

P.S. Attn: Hymie and the rest of the yids,

You really need to get another modus operandi, we are getting tired of the "Two Israeli's in a moving truck" :yawn: . Why not try a couple of black guys in a pimpmobile, or two mexicans in a "jumpmobile" ?

weisbrot

2004-05-24 13:24 | User Profile

[url]http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,584658,00.html[/url]

Nuclear plot suspects freed after mix-up

Julian Borger in Washington Thursday November 1, 2001 The Guardian

Six "Middle Eastern" men were stopped in the American Midwest while carrying pictures and plans of a Florida nuclear plant and the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, only to be released after a security mix-up, it was revealed yesterday. The incident, which took place in an unnamed state last weekend, is one of the factors that triggered a string of heightened security measures at US nuclear power stations, including a ban on flights below 18,000ft and within 10 miles of a reactor. The mix-up that led to their release has also opened up rifts between America's security services.

Another of the factors behind the FBI's general alert was revealed yesterday as the interception of communications between known members of al-Qaida. One of them was sent from Canada to Afghanistan, and passed to the US by Canadian intelligence. According to one report, the message referred to a big event which was supposed to happen "down south" this week.

A source close to the investigation into the September 11 attacks said the men stopped in the Midwest - travelling in two groups of three in light-coloured cars - were of Middle Eastern appearance and were carrying Israeli passports.

As well as the pictures and descriptions of the nuclear plant and the pipeline, retractable knives similar to the so-called box cutters used by the September 11 hijackers were found in the cars.

"The police did check the passport numbers with the INS (Immigration and Naturalisation Service), but got an OK on them, so they let them go," the source said.

It was unclear last night whether the men had Hebrew or Arab names, and a spokesman for the Israeli embassy said he was unaware of the incident. The INS also denied any knowledge of the incident.

The attorney general, John Ashcroft, and the FBI director, Robert Mueller, were said to be "furious" that the INS allowed the men to go free before the FBI could question them.

Vincent Cannistraro, the former chief of CIA counter-terrorist operations said the incident exposed the deficiencies of the US security organisations. "There's a lot of bickering, a lot of turf battles. You've got a culture which doesn't share information. I don't see how you go about breaking that," Mr Cannistraro said.

Tom Ridge, the newly created director of homeland security, has the task of forcing the competing agencies to cooperate, but so far he has had difficulties coordinating the administration's message.

Quantrill

2004-05-24 13:27 | User Profile

Wow. This is getting scary. Oak Ridge and Knoxville are just up the road from me. I had not heard about the suspicious men trying to take pictures of medical facillities in Knoxville. One of the hospitals mentioned is the one I was born in. Something bad is definitely going on here.

Sertorius

2004-05-26 11:35 | User Profile

News4Jax.com Movers Who Prompt Kings Bay Lockdown To Be Deported POSTED: 1:44 PM EDT May 25, 2004

ST. MARYS, Ga. -- Two Israeli men working for a moving-and-storage company who attempted Kings Bay Submarine Base Friday are being held for deportation.

The two entered the Franklin gate about 10:30 a.m. Friday to pick up some items in base housing, base spokesman Ed Buczek said.

Neither was able to present valid work permits to security personnel, and one had an expired passport. Base personnel and bomb-sniffing dogs inspected the van, prompting a lockdown of the base.

St. Marys police closed access to an area one-half mile surrounding the base and called in a bomb squad, Buczek said.

"The military dogs were alerted to a scent in the cab of the truck," Buczek said. "Guards closed access to the base and notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service."

Nothing was found in the van, but both men, Tamir D. Sason, 24 and Daniel Levy, 23, both of Metar, Israel, were turned over to federal immigration officers as undocumented aliens. They are being held for deportation.

Kings Bay is near Sea Island, which will host the G8 Summit next month.

Previous Story: May 22, 2004: Kings Bay Naval Base Locked Down Copyright 2004 by News4Jax.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[url=http://www.news4jax.com/news4georgia/3344771/detail.html]http://www.news4jax.com/news4georgia/3344771/detail.html[/url]

They are being held for deportation.

Never enough Jews to suit me. Idiot "freeper" and "dittohead." Aren't you in the least slightly interested in what these people doing? They are not looking for the red heifer. Or are you that brain dead? Turn off the damn radio and start reading and think.

Ed Toner

2004-05-26 12:14 | User Profile

I answered a Macy's advertisement for duct cleaning in my home. Two men showed up, olive complected with strong accents of some type, not familiar to me. They looked like the type shown in the photo above in this thread.

They were punctual, and worked hard and did a very good job, and charged the agreed upon price when they finished.

During the 2 hours they were here, I asked where they were from. "Toms River" was the reply, a nice town just South of here (Brick) in Ocean Co. NJ.

I corrected myself, and asked again where they were originally from. "Israel" was the reply, and I could tell they were not going to go further with this.

It was a Saturday, and I doubt if Israeli Jews would be working that day. Also, Jews in the area flock to Lakewood, a town full of them, bordering on Brick and Lakewood. Jews generally do not seek work in hard, dirty jobs such as this.

They spoke among themselves a lot, part of doing the job, and I did not recognise the language they used. It was not Hebrew, which has a distinctive guttural sound about it.

I think they were probably Palestinians.

weisbrot

2004-06-07 01:54 | User Profile

[url]http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/dangerous_blind_spot.html[/url] Dangerous Blind Spot in War on Terror

Israeli ‘Movers’ Detained, Deported Without Investigation

By Christopher Bollyn

A gaping hole in America’s “war on terrorism” was exposed by the reaction of federal law enforcement to recent criminal activity allegedly carried out by Israeli military personnel in the proximity of U.S. nuclear facilities.

Two recent incidents in the Southeastern United States reveal how Israeli military personnel can violate U.S. laws and are only deported when they are caught.

The first incident occurred in the proximity of several nuclear facilities in Erwin, Tenn., including the Nuclear Fuel Services plant.

Nuclear Fuel Services is a company that provides fuel for nuclear submarines and reprocesses spent nuclear materials. This is the kind of radioactive material that could be used in a so-called “dirty bomb,” which senior law enforcement officials say they fear could be used someplace in the United States this summer.

The Israeli incident began late on Saturday afternoon, May 8, when Unicoi County (Tenn.) Sheriff Kent Harris spotted a rental truck speeding on former U.S. Highway 23, a lightly traveled highway near the North Carolina state line.

Two young Israeli men in the rented moving truck evaded Harris in a high-speed chase for three miles. During the chase the Israelis threw a bottle containing a fluid from the truck, an act they later denied. The vial contained an unknown substance, which appeared to be some kind of accelerant because it became warm when it was shaken, said Harris.

“They were driving recklessly and at a high rate of speed down an old highway that nobody uses anymore. I was really concerned because the driver would not stop after I flashed my headlights for nearly three miles. He was weaving back and forth, and I was wondering what a large truck was doing on a two-lane highway instead of the much-faster I-26 interstate,” Harris told independent journalist Dan Hopsicker.

“They ignored my blue lights for two-and-a-half miles, and they were traveling 20 miles an hour over posted speed limits,” the sheriff said.

Asked if it was possible the Israelis were unaware they were being pursued, the sheriff said: “Oh no, he had to see me. The siren was going. . . . I could see him in the mirror, looking back at me.”

Two young Israelis, Shmuel Dahan, 23, and Almaliach Naor, were taken into custody. In the wallet of Dahan, an Israeli soldier based in Miami Beach, police reportedly discovered a “Learn to Fly in Florida” business card.

The Israelis’ truck tested positive for drugs, Hopsicker reported. “While the FBI dismissed the finding as a ‘false positive,’ local law enforcement regard the test as highly accurate,” wrote Hopsicker.

“They were just three miles from where, if you get off at exit 15, off I-26, you’re just a half-mile from all the nuclear plants,” Harris told the Associated Press. “There’s Nuclear Fuel Services, which is a privately owned company. Studdwick, another privately owned company. And they’re building a third one now.

“I got a sick feeling when I saw it. It’s the nation’s sole provider of fuel for the Navy’s nuclear subs,” said Harris.

Harris contacted the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and various local authorities to investigate the situation.

“We’re not overreacting. We have a responsibility to protect the citizens of Unicoi County, and that’s what I’m going to do at any cost. I’d rather overreact, if that’s what you call it, than be sorry later,” Harris said.

LEARN TO FLY

Hopsicker claims that the “Learn to Fly in Florida” business card belongs to another Israeli named Nissan Giat.

Giat is an “Israeli military veteran,” said Hopsicker, and a freelance flight instructor in the Miami area, working out of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

Asked about Dahan and Naor, Giat told Hopsicker: “These guys aren’t terrorists; they belong to the Israeli military.”

The two Israeli soldiers were carrying false identification cards. Dahan had a fake Florida driver’s license, and Naor had a phony identification card.

Dahan was charged with reckless driving, littering, false identification and evading arrest. Naor was charged with false identification and evading arrest.

The truck, rented from Ryder, was reportedly held for an FBI investigation, according to officials. Police said the FBI was investigating the Israelis.

However Special Agent Gary Kidder of the Knoxville field office denied that federal law enforcement was looking into the arrest.

“Your premise is all wrong. An FBI investigation was never opened. The case was never turned over to the FBI,” Kidder told AFP.

The only charges brought against the two Israelis, Kidder said, were immigration charges.

The two were quickly released from government custody after a judge in Erwin, Tenn., suspended a 30-day sentence and turned them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a bureau under the Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration officials said Dahan and Naor would be subject to immediate deportation. Yet despite convictions for evading arrest and working illegally on tourist visas, the Israelis were soon released and back at Summit Moving Van Lines in Miami, claims Hopsicker.

A spokesperson at the Washington office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was unable to answer any questions by press time about the status of the two Israelis or two others who were recently detained trying to access a naval submarine base near St. Marys, Ga.

On May 21, two Israeli “movers” with false identification tried to enter the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, home to eight Trident submarines. When an inspection of their rented moving truck revealed evidence of explosives, the base was shut down for more than three hours, according to base spokesman Ed Buczek.

When Tamir D. Sason, 24, and Daniel Levy, 23, tried to access the base without proper identification an inspection team checked out the truck. Dogs trained to detect explosives and drugs “hit on something in the cab of the truck,” Buczek told AFP. “Potential explosives” led to a lockdown of the base, and St. Mary’s police closed off the area around the base and called in a bomb squad.

It was a “textbook scenario,” Buczek said. “We saw something that wasn’t right.

Buczek told AFP that guards closed access to the base and notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Buczek said the two were driving a Budget rental truck and were working for the moving company, Advantage Moving and Storage in Norcross, Ga.

There was no answer when AFP made repeated phone calls to the office of Advantage on May 26 and May 27.

SUSPICIOUS MOVING COMPANIES

Israeli-owned “moving companies” have been involved in numerous cases of criminal activity across the country. One notable case was a company based in Weehawken, N.J., which many people believe was an Israeli intelligence operation with prior knowledge of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Four of its agents were detained in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 after being caught filming and apparently celebrating the terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

After being held and refusing to cooperate with government investigators, the four were turned over to immigration authorities and deported to Israel. One of the four later told Israeli radio that the “movers” with video cameras had been prepared to “document” the attacks.

Like some 60 other Israelis apprehended in the aftermath of 9-11, the two young Israeli movers who tried to access Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, were turned over to federal immigration officers.

Although the truck had tested positive for explosives, and a thorough criminal investigation should have been conducted, the two were released to immigration authorities because one of them was carrying an expired passport. The two were reportedly being held for deportation.

Marc Raimondi, spokesman at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Washington, told AFP that both Sason and Levy will be deported. Raimondi said ICE had taken custody of the two individuals and checked them out through immigration and known criminal databases. Their only offense, Raimondi said, was that they had worked illegally on visitor visas.

“Perhaps the conspiracy theory has merit,” Raimondi said when asked why Israeli agents involved in criminal activities were being deported on visa violations. Raimondi was unable to answer when asked if DHS was concerned about the network of Israeli-owned moving companies in the United States, some with proven ties to Israeli intelligence.

He said the agency welcomes any information that could be helpful.

Pennsylvania_Dutch

2004-06-07 03:03 | User Profile

I hope those interested in immigration enforcement take a peek at this thread!

Good job, there Weisbrot.

weisbrot

2004-08-10 17:45 | User Profile

[url]http://www.kansascity.com/mld/charlotte/news/breaking_news/9364043.htm?1c[/url]

Posted on Tue, Aug. 10, 2004

Kamran Shaikh, AKA Kamran Akhtar

Man was taping Charlotte landmarks

Pakistani national held by federal authorities

SCOTT DODD

Staff Writer

Federal authorities are holding a Pakistani foreign national in Charlotte this morning who is suspected of videotaping landmark buildings, dams and transit systems throughout the Southeast - including the Bank of America and Wachovia buildings in uptown Charlotte.

A Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officer stopped and questioned Kamran Akhtar, also known as Kamran Shaikh, of Elmhurst, N.Y., on July 20 while he was videotaping near the intersection of South Tryon Street and Stonewall Avenue.

Authorities have charged him with immigration violations. Videotapes found in his possession include footage of buildings in Atlanta, Austin, Houston, Dallas and New Orleans, as well as transit systems in those cities and a dam in Texas, according to a federal criminal complaint filed last week. The suspect appeared in federal court in Charlotte this morning. The city has scheduled a news conference for 11:45 a.m.

Shaikh, as he is referred to in the complaint, left Pakistan in 1991 and was found in violation of U.S. immigration laws and ordered to leave the country by a New York City immigration court in 1998, according to an affidavit.

Shaikh's arrest led federal authorities to issue a bulletin late last week to police officers in the cities where he had videotaped landmarks. It urges police to remain vigilant and instructs commanders to tell patrol officers to be on the lookout for suspicious activity.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Officer Anthony Maglione spotted Shaikh videotaping downtown Charlotte on July 20 and asked what he was doing, according to the affidavit. When he acted suspiciously, officers asked him to accompany them to the Charlotte FBI office a few blocks away.

He was asked about his immigration status and allegedly said he had a "green card," which his wife had obtained for him in 1997. He said he was born in Karachi, Pakistan, and entered the United States illegally in 1991 by crossing in from Mexico.

Authorities say they reviewed the tapes in his camera and ones Shaikh was carrying. The one of Charlotte included the Wachovia Building where the FBI is located, as well as the city's tallest landmark, the Bank of America building.

He also had footage of the Texas governor's mansion and what appeared to be the Mansfield Dam in Austin, as well as transit centers in several Southeastern cities.

A review of Shaikh's immigration file found he did not have a green card and was in the country illegally. He applied for political asylum in 1992 but was denied in 1997.

Shaikh is not charged with any crimes in relation to the videotapes. The federal Department of Homeland Security has not issued any alerts in relation to the arrest.

Kathy Walt, spokeswoman for Texas Gov. Rick Perry, told the Austin American-Statesman on Monday night: "We don't believe there is a credible threat against the State of Texas. Obviously, there is a concern when any situation crops up. But this individual is in custody."

Federal authorities showed the Texas videotape to more than 50 federal, state and local law enforcement officers in a closed-door meeting in Austin on Monday. It was unknown if similar meetings had been held in Charlotte and other cities.

weisbrot

2004-08-10 17:56 | User Profile

...also see previous post on Charlotte arrest of another Pakistani...

*I emailed this reporter questioning the story and it's implausible resolution at the time it was published. His response made sarcastic mention to "black helicopters". The story was then dropped and now can't be found anywhere on Atlanta or AP news sites, to my knowledge. The story fails to mention several Justice Department-related agencies that have regional offices in the building.

Not long ago I saw it mentioned that the presumably Mossad-attached individuals who attempted to blow up the Mexican Congress two years ago carried phony Pakistani passports; Pakistani nationals have also been implicated in the New Zealand-Mossad passport investigation.

Whenever we ask where our true friendships lie, it would most likely be best to tack on a supplemental question:

Qui bono?*

Downtown video mystery solved Maurice Tamman - Staff Saturday, October 20, 2001

The mystery of the downtown Atlanta video cameras has been solved.

Five men who were being questioned by Immigration and Secret Service agents after authorities found them removing video cameras pointed at a downtown office building turned out to be conducting a private traffic survey.

The reports had sparked rumors and concerns that the men may have been spying on the building, which houses a number of federal agencies.

The cameras were attached to utility poles at around eye level with bungee cords in the 400 block of West Peachtree Street. The cameras were pointed toward the Peachtree Summit building, which is home to the Minority Business Development Agency, Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration and the Internal Revenue Service.

The group was detained when they came to pick up the equipment between 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday.

Atlanta police Lt. Nick Roberts said police were told about the cameras by security at the nearby Baltimore Row Apartments.

Atlanta police Maj. John Woodard said the incident was unusual. "We're trying to be as proactive as possible and we're looking for unusual things," he said. "As a result we are going to come across things that will require additional investigation before we really know what the background is. . . .In my nine years down here, I don't think I've ever seen a camera bungee-corded onto a pole."

The names and nationalities of the men were not released, but authorities said one was carrying a Pakistani passport and could not speak English.

The men were released early Friday and were not charged with any crimes, an Atlanta police spokeswoman said.

Roberts said members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force responded. The task force is headed by the FBI and includes members of the Secret Service, Immigration and Naturalization Service and other state and local agencies.

The task force was created in 1994 in the run-up to the 1996 Olympic Games.

Sertorius

2005-02-10 12:24 | User Profile

February 8, 2005

Mall kiosk probe ends in Israelis' deportation

BY CINDY GONZALEZ

WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Federal authorities have deported an Israeli man and his employees after busting a scheme in which officials said he staffed Nebraska shopping mall kiosks with illegal "tourist" workers.

Ohad Cohen, 27, also forfeited $35,325 that was in a backpack he threw off while being chased by immigration agents.

The illegal employment scheme was part of a broader investigation involving kiosks in the Midwest, officials said Monday.

Michael Wardy of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Omaha said Cohen helped recruit Israelis to come to the United States on tourist visas. They would sell video games, beauty products and other items at the kiosks.

Cohen would pay their rent and take care of other arrangements during their stay. The employees would work on commission.

"These aren't the guys that come up through the desert, risking their lives to get here," Wardy said. "These are middle-class people."

Cohen pleaded guilty last month in federal court. As part of a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Cohen agreed to formal deportation as an aggravated felon.

Cohen had entered the United States multiple times during 2004 on a visitor's visa. In Nebraska, agents observed him supervising employees and transporting goods and cash as he managed kiosks that sold merchandise in Omaha's Oak View Mall and Lincoln's Gateway Westfield Mall.

Nine Israeli citizens who were working illegally at the Nebraska kiosks, four of them for Cohen, also were arrested and returned to their country, immigration officials said.

Agents in other parts of the Midwest disrupted similar schemes in December.

In Minnesota, a joint investigation by the FBI and immigration officials led to the arrest of 15 Israelis. Agents seized electronic game units loaded with illegal copies of games copyrighted by such companies as Nintendo of America. In Grand Forks, N.D., immigration agents arrested three Israeli employees at a mall kiosk.

Copyright ©2005 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or distributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.

[url]http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_np=0&u_pg=1638&u_sid=1331091[/url]

Okay, fine and dandy. Now, tell me what they were really doing out there?

weisbrot

2005-02-11 02:37 | User Profile

[QUOTE]Okay, fine and dandy. Now, tell me what they were really doing out there?[/QUOTE]

[B]Offutt AFB[/B] [url]http://www.offutt.af.mil/55thWing/mission_history.htm[/url]

[I]Mission: A professional team providing worldwide reconnaissance, real-time intelligence, command and control, information warfare and combat support to national leadership and warfighting commanders[/I]

weisbrot

2005-04-22 13:03 | User Profile

[url]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7680-2005Apr21.html[/url]

Fake Hospital Inspectors Probed FBI Investigates Incidents at Facilities in Boston, Detroit, L.A.

By David Brown Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, April 22, 2005; Page A10

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are looking into incidents in which people masquerading as unannounced inspectors were found poking around three hospitals in Boston, Detroit and Los Angeles.

In each case the impostors were stopped by security guards or hospital staff, and then either left or were expelled. No one has been arrested, and neither the identity of the intruders nor their motives are known.

"There is no working hypothesis. It could be any number of things, from identity theft to something more nefarious," an FBI spokesman, who declined to be named, said yesterday.

The Department of Homeland Security is also "aware of these suspicious reports," said Brian Roehrkasse, a department spokesman. He added the agency does not have "any intelligence information that indicates al Qaeda is planning an attack or targeting hospitals."

Virtually all U.S. hospitals are subject to unannounced inspections by surveyors from the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO). The surveyors can ask to see hospital records, gain admittance to nonpublic areas, and watch people work. In all three incidents, the impostors implied or stated outright they were JCAHO surveyors.

In the past the organization has occasionally gotten reports of people falsely claiming to be its inspectors. Usually, though, they were seeking favored treatment, such as moving ahead of others in the emergency room or getting copies of a patient's medical chart. That was not the case in the recent incidents, which occurred from late February through mid-March.

"We decided that this represented a pattern of behavior that we had not seen before, and our anxiety level went up," said Joe Cappiello, JCAHO's vice president for accreditation/field operations.

In the first, a well-dressed man and woman were stopped by a security guard at a Los Angeles hospital about 2 a.m. They showed badges similar to those issued by JCAHO and asked to be let in. When the guard asked for more identification, they retreated, saying they were at the wrong hospital.

The second incident occurred three days later at a hospital in Boston. A well-dressed man described as being 35 to 40 and of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent was stopped about 3 a.m.

"He seemed to have some authority about him, and again when pressed for identification that person fled the medical center," Cappiello said.

About a week later, a woman was found in the maternity ward of a Detroit hospital. She identified herself as a Joint Commission surveyor but fled when staff members asked more questions.

A fourth incident, which occurred in daylight hours on March 27 at a hospital in Sussex County, N.J., was deemed unrelated to the others. In that one, three men told a security guard they were doctors, and asked for a hospital directory and information about bed capacity and services. They did not mention JCAHO.

It is unclear whether any of the impostors in the three incidents participated in more than one. An FBI spokesman said he was "not going to get into any specifics."

Neither JCAHO nor the FBI would identify the hospitals, and officials at the hospital associations in California, Massachusetts and Michigan said they did not know.

The Joint Commission sent two security alerts to the 5,000 medical institutions it accredits, describing the incidents and warning the hospitals to be on the lookout for suspicious activities.

"It might all be coincidence," Cappiello said. Although hospitals have been named as possible terrorist targets, he noted they also may be attractive to people wanting to steal drugs, expensive equipment or identity information.

JCAHO surveyors go to about 1,700 hospitals a year, with about 300 of the visits unannounced. Only a few are done outside usual work hours, and those are usually to investigate complaints made about specific night-shift activities.

In response to the three incidents, the organization said that all unannounced surveyors will now carry a letter signed by its executive vice president.

Ron Czajkowski, vice president of the New Jersey Hospital Association, said his organization used to post on its Web site the names of Joint Commission surveyors working in the state. It stopped that practice two weeks ago.

[url]http://www.asq.org/news/qualitynews/2005/04/06/20050406fakejcahoinspectors.html[/url]

JCAHO Alerts Hospitals To Check Inspectors’ Credentials SOURCE: American Medical News

The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) is asking hospitals to look out for people posing as JCAHO inspectors.

The warning was issued after fake inspectors visited three hospitals across the country. JCAHO also contacted the FBI about the incidents last year. Officials have warned hospitals they could be terrorist targets.

JCAHO has placed a copy of its ID badge on a secure website for hospitals to look at. The group is asking hospitals to request identification and contact JCAHO if they see anyone suspicious.

“We told our own staff, ‘Expect to be challenged’ by hospital employees checking ID, said Joe Cappiello, JCAHO’s vice president of accreditation field operations.

weisbrot

2005-04-22 13:06 | User Profile

An earlier post in this thread

[url]http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/a...RTICLE_ID=31351[/url]

HOMELAND INSECURITY Feds probe suspicious activity at Norris Dam Middle Eastern men arrested for using fake IDs after picture-taking incident

Posted: March 4, 2003 1:35 p.m. Eastern

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Federal investigators probing suspicious activity in East Tennessee have arrested two Middle Eastern men, according to local television reports.

Agents arrested the two brothers yesterday on charges of using fake IDs to get Virginia drivers licenses. Ahmed Mostafa, 23, and Hatem Elsakaan, 27, were taken into custody at bus terminals in Roanoke, Va., yesterday.

According to WATE-TV, Tennessee police questioned Mostafa and an unidentified woman at the Norris Dam early Sunday morning. The two were reportedly taking pictures of the structure.

The manager of the Norris Dam marina told WATE-TV he saw flashing lights at the dam Sunday when he couldn't sleep.

"I saw a white light, a flash. I was watching it and it flashed about three or four times. I thought it might be a TVA patrol car but normally they don't have white lights," said Steve Pemberton.

Pemberton said he also spotted a man taking pictures at the marina a few days earlier.

"I thought it was kind of unusual because it really wasn't a good view of anything," he added.

Tennessee police didn't detain the picture-taking couple but alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the incident. The Joint Terrorism Task Force was also contacted.

The FBI later discovered Mostafa was wanted in Virginia.

"What the arrest warrant was issued on was fraudulent documentation to obtain documents related to interstate commerce," FBI special agent R. Joe Clark told WVLT-TV.

"That in itself is not a real crime, but what you do with those documents is of real interest to the [Joint Terrorism Task Force] and those who investigate terrorism," he said.

Clark said the motivation behind the picture taking was not yet known.

[B]According to WATE, the dam incident follows reports of suspicious picture-taking attempts by unidentified men at medical facilities in Knoxville.

Workers at Covenant Health headquarters and St. Mary's Hospital told WATE-TV men repeatedly attempted to take pictures, but were rebuffed by security guards. [/B]

Similar reports have surfaced regarding major banks and businesses in Knoxville over the past year.

None of the earlier reports led to any arrests.

Marxist

2005-06-25 19:07 | User Profile

Can't seem to vote here.

Sertorius

2005-06-25 19:09 | User Profile

This is an old poll and the time to have voted has expired.

van helsing

2005-10-16 04:42 | User Profile

if i get ambitious i will try and repost the ins interviews with 3 israeli... uh... students... who were among or involved with those celebrating the takedown of the towers wbw.

lie bulsht lie bulsht...

perhaps they would best be handled by remanding them to the control of some backwoods county sheriffs who happen to have a predominant jail population of former nawlins looters nowadays.