related:
http://antiwar.com/israeli-files.phpThe 'Israeli Art Student' Files Media coverage of Israel's underground in the US – and the 9/11 connection. In chronological orderAs for
why the government investigation into the Israeli connection was scotched, Ketcham cites a former CIA counter-terrorism officer: “
There was no question but that [the order to close down the investigation] came from the White House.”http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=_israeli_art_students_...
May 7, 2002: Sloppy Israeli Spy Ring Could Have Been Smoke Screen Salon reports on the Israeli “art student spy ring.”
All the “students” claim to have come from either Bezalel Academy or
the University of Jerusalem.
A look in the Bezalel database shows that not a single “art student” appears to have attended school there.
There is no such thing as the University of Jerusalem. In fact, the article points out that the sheer sloppiness and brazenness of the spy operation appears to be a great mystery, especially since the Mossad is renowned as one of the best spy agencies in the world.
One government source suggests a theory to Salon that the “art students” were actually a smoke screen. They were meant to be caught and connected to DEA surveillance so that a smaller number of spies also posing as art students could complete other missions. One such mission could have been the monitoring of al-Qaeda operatives. [Salon, 5/7/2002]
Shortly afterwards, a major Israeli newspaper publishes a story about the spy ring, but does not come to any conclusions. [Ha'aretz, 5/14/2002]
...
September 16, 2004: Israelis Arrested on 9/11 Sue the US, Claiming Mistreatment and Torture
...
Four of the five Israelis arrested on 9/11 (see 3:56 p.m. September 11, 2001), Paul and Sivan Kurzberg, Omer Marmari, and Yaron Shmuel, file a multimillion dollar lawsuit against the US Justice Department. They claim they were arrested illegally, then held without charge and interrogated and tortured for months. Their lawyer claims the case will serve as a venue to debunk theories that Israel was behind the 9/11 attacks. [Ha'aretz, 9/16/2004; Jerusalem Post, 9/16/2004]
Forward, a publication geared towards the Jewish population in the US, reported in 2002 that the FBI concluded at least two of the five were Mossad agents and that all were on a Mossad surveillance mission. [Forward, 3/15/2002]
As of early 2008, there have been no further media reports about this lawsuit.