A Timeline: Israel connection to 9/11

This is a small effort to clear the smoke screen to properly analyse and assess Israel connection to 9/11 if any. This post looks into any and all possible connection to Israel starting from 1996 till 2008. If someone is going to present any rebuttals or support I expect them to back up their words with sources, without that there is no guarantee your post will be addressed to or taken into consideration i.e, meaningless. Any attempts to derail the thread or personal attacks will be duly reported to Mods.

Timeline

July 8, 1996: Neoconservative Think Tank Advocates Aggressive Israeli Foreign Policy

The Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies, an Israeli think tank, publishes a paper titled “A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm.” [www.washtimes.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Washington Times, 10/7/2002] The paper, whose lead author is neoconservative Richard Perle, is meant to advise the new, right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Other authors include:
* influential neoconservative academic and former Bush adviser Richard Perle, primarily responsible for the content of the paper;
* Meyrav Wurmser, the future director of the neoconservative Hudson Institute’s Center for Middle East Policy;
* her husband David Wurmser, the future chief adviser for Middle East policy for future vice-president Dick Cheney;
* neoconservative Douglas Feith, who will be the prime architect of the Iraq war;
* and a number of lesser-known neoconservatives, including James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Jeffrey T. Bergner, Jonathan Torop, and Robert Loewenberg.
Rebuilding Zionism by Abandoning Past Policies - It advocates making a complete break with past policies by adopting a strategy “based on an entirely new intellectual foundation, one that restores strategic initiative and provides the nation the room to engage every possible energy on rebuilding Zionism.…” [Guardian, 9/3/2002]
Aggressive, Militant Israeli Policy towards Arab Neighbors - Much along the lines of an earlier paper by Israeli Oded Yinon (see February 1982), the document urges the Israelis to aggressively seek the downfall of their Arab neighbors—especially Syria and Iraq—by exploiting the inherent tensions within and among the Arab States. The first step is to be the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. A war with Iraq will destabilize the entire Middle East, allowing governments in Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and other countries to be replaced. “Israel will not only contain its foes; it will transcend them,” the paper says. [Perle, 7/8/1996] Iraq is first on the list of nations to be transformed. Saddam Hussein must be overthrown, the authors say.
Abandoning Oslo Accords, Militant Palestinian Policy - Other suggestions for Israel include abandoning the Oslo Accords, developing a foreign policy based on a traditional balance of power strategy, reserving its right to invade the West Bank and Gaza Strip as part of a strategy of “self-defense,” abandoning any notion of “land for peace,” reestablishing a policy of preemptive strikes, forging closer ties to the US while taking steps towards self-reliance, and seeking an alternative to Yasser Arafat as leader of the PLO. [Perle, 7/8/1996 'Seeds of a New Vision' - All these questions need not be answered right away, according to co-author Meyrav Wurmser. The document is “the beginning of thought,” she says, “… the seeds of a new vision.”
Similar to American Christian Right's Vision - According to author Craig Unger, the ideology of “ACB” is, in essence, a secularized version of the theology of the American Christian Right. Christian Zionists insist that Jews were ordained by God to reclaim the Biblican land of Judea and Samaria in the West Bank; the paper asserts that claim as well. The paper echoes Christian fundamentalists by demanding “the unconditional acceptance of Arabs of our rights, especially in their territorial dimension.” Perle and his fellow neoconservatives want to push the boundaries even further: the Bible can be interpreted to countenance Jewish dominion over all or parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and even Saudi Arabia. Thusly, the authors claim that Israel and the US, by waging war against Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, would reshape the “strategic environment” in the Middle East and greatly expand Israel’s influence in the region.
Influence in Upcoming Bush Administration - Perle will later become chairman of President Bush’s influential Defense Policy Board and will be instrumental is moving Bush’s US policy toward war with Iraq after the 9/11 attacks, as will Feith and the Wurmsers.[[Unger, 2007, pp. 145-148]

1998-1999: Israeli Spy Operation in US Reportedly Discovered, Said to Cause ‘Incredible Damage’ for US Security

In 2004, it will be reported, “A former very senior CIA counterintelligence official told UPI that in 1998-99, the CIA discovered an Israeli couple, who were subcontracted to a US phone company, were working for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service. ‘They did incredible damage—they got incredibly sensitive data, including key words identifying individuals or projects,’” this source said, adding he himself gave the case to the FBI. Additional details are not known. [United Press International, 12/9/2004] In 2005, a US criminal indictment will reveal that the FBI began monitoring some Israeli diplomatic officials in the US by April 1999 (see April 13, 1999-2004), but is it not known if there is any connection between that and this case.

April 13, 1999-2004: US Officials Illegally Pass on Highly Classified Information about Al-Qaeda and Other Matters to Israel

A 2005 US indictment will reveal that two employees for a pro-Israeli lobbying group had somehow obtained classified US information about al-Qaeda and was passing it on to Israeli officials. The two employees are Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman; both work for AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) until 2004. On April 13, 1999, Rosen gives Rafi Barak, the former deputy chief of mission at the Israeli embassy in Washington, what he calls a codeword-protected “extremely sensitive piece of intelligence” about terrorist activities in Central Asia. On June 11, 1999, Weissman tells Barak about a classified FBI report on the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing, which has been blamed on al-Qaeda and/or Iran (see June 25, 1996). In retrospect, FBI officials will determine that some, but not all, of this classified information comes from Larry Franklin, a Defense Department analyst on Iran known to be in favor of a tougher US policy regarding Iran (see 2000-2001). It is not known how or why US surveillance of Rosen and Weissman began. [National Public Radio, 8/4/2005; Eastern District of Virginia, 8/4/2005 pdf file]

Connection to Earlier Investigation? - However, there may be a connection to an earlier investigation. In 1997 and 1998, the FBI monitored Naor Gilon, an official at the Israeli embassy in Washington, as part of an investigation into whether a US intelligence official was illegally giving US spy plane film and other secret material to the Mossad. [Los Angeles Times, 9/3/2004]
Accusations Spark Further Investigation - The US will later accuse Rosen and Weissman of passing classified information given to them by Franklin to Gilon. In any case, the investigation will continue and grow. National Public Radio will later note that from 1999 to 2004, “Franklin, Rosen, and Weissman had regular discussions about the Middle East and about al-Qaeda with a variety of contacts,” sometimes illegally sharing highly classified information. Franklin will plead guilty to sharing classified information in 2005 (see October 5, 2005) while Rosen and Weissman are expected to be tried in 2007 or thereafter. [National Public Radio, 8/4/2005]

January 2000: Israeli Spy Ring Begins Penetrating US

A DEA government document later leaked to the press [Drug Enforcement Agency, 6/2001 pdf file] suggests that a large Israeli spy ring starts penetrating the US from at least this time, if not earlier. This ring, which will later become popularly known as the “art student spy ring,” is later shown to have strange connections to the events of 9/11.

[Source]

February 6, 2000: Apparent Mossad Attempt to Infiltrate Al-Qaeda Thwarted

India’s largest Newsweekly reports that it appears a recent Mossad attempt to infiltrate al-Qaeda failed when undercover agents were stopped on their way to Bangladesh by Indian customs officials. These 11 men appeared to be from Afghanistan, but had Israeli passports. One expert states, “It is not unlikely for Mossad to recruit 11 Afghans in Iran and grant them Israeli citizenship to penetrate a network such as bin Laden’s. They would begin by infiltrating them into an Islamic radical group in an unlikely place like Bangladesh.” [Week, 2/6/2000]

December 2000-April 2001: Israeli Investigators Deported After Identifying Two Hijackers

According to later German reports, “a whole horde of Israeli counter-terror investigators, posing as students, [follow] the trails of Arab terrorists and their cells in the United States.… In the town of Hollywood, Florida, they [identify]… Atta and Marwan Alshehhi as possible terrorists. Agents [live] in the vicinity of the apartment of the two seemingly normal flight school students, observing them around the clock.” Supposedly, around April, the Israeli agents are discovered and deported, terminating the investigation. [Der Spiegel (Hamburg),10/1/2002]

(The original German (Der Spiegel) link is dead end, if someone can help me track the archive page it would be really appreciated...I only found a small reference to this story here

2001: FBI Discovers ‘Massive’ Israeli Spy Operation Inside US

Sometime this year, the FBI discovers a new and “massive” Israeli spying operation inside the US. In 2004, UPI will report that, according to a former senior US government official, the FBI learned of a spy operation in the East Coast of the US, including New York and New Jersey. The FBI begins intensive surveillance on certain Israeli diplomats and other suspects. As part of this surveillance, in 2003 the FBI will be videotaping Naor Gilon, chief of political affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, when they will discover Gilon is meeting with Larry Franklin, Defense Department analyst. In 2005, Franklin will plead guilty to passing classified secrets to Israeli officials (see October 5, 2005). It appears that the surveillance of some Israeli diplomatic officials in the US actually began by April 1999 (see April 13, 1999-2004), though details remain murky. [United Press International, 12/9/2004] It is not known if this discovered spy operation is connected to or the same as the Israeli art student and moving van spy rings, which appears to have been discovered in 2001 (see March 23, 2001 and June 2001), or something completely different. It is also not clear if the discovery came from an investigation of media leaks begun two days before 9/11 (see September 9, 2001), or if it predated that and the 9/11 attacks.

March 23, 2001: DEA Issues Alert to Look Out for Israeli Spies

The Office of National Drug Control Policy issues a National Security Alert describing “apparent attempts by Israeli nationals to learn about government personnel and office layouts.” This later becomes known through a leaked DEA document called “Suspicious Activities Involving Israeli Art Students at DEA Facilities.” A crackdown ensues and by June, around 120 Israelis are apprehended. More are apprehended later.S

Summer 2001: Israel Warns US of ‘Big Attack’

The Associated Press will report in May 2002, “Israeli intelligence services were aware several months before Sept. 11 that bin Laden was planning a large-scale terror attack but did not know what his targets would be, Israeli officials have said. An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, tells the Associated Press shortly after the attacks that ‘everybody knew about a heightened alert and knew that bin Laden was preparing a big attack.’ He said information was passed on to Washington but denied Israel had any concrete intelligence that could have been used to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.” [Associated Press, 5/19/2002] The claim that Israel lacks concrete intelligence is contradicted by other media reports (see August 8-15, 2001) (see August 23, 2001) (see September 4, 2001).

June 2001: DEA Draws Up Report on Israeli Spies

States the Israeli spy ring were known to have operated in, according to a June 2001 Drug Enforcement Administration report (this Fox news graphic was based on information from that report)

The DEA’s Office of Security Programs prepares a 60-page internal memo on the Israeli “art student spy ring.” [Drug Enforcement Agency, 6/2001- (link dead)] The Memo is a compilation of dozens of field reports, and was meant only for the eyes of senior officials at the Justice Department (of which the DEA is adjunct), but it is leaked to the press around December 2001. The report connects the spies to efforts to foil investigations into Israeli organized crime activity involving the importation of the drug Ecstasy. The spies also appear to be snooping on top-secret military bases. For instance, on April 30, 2001, an Air Force alert was issued from Tinker Air Force Base in Oklahoma City concerning “possible intelligence collection being conducted by Israeli art students.” Tinker AFB houses AWACS surveillance craft and Stealth bombers. By the time of the report, the US has “apprehended or expelled close to 120 Israeli nationals” but many remain at large. [Salon, 5/7/2002] An additional 20 or so Israeli spies are apprehended between June and 9/11. [Fox News, 12/12/2001]

August 8-15, 2001: Israel Reportedly Warns of Major Assault on the US

At some point between these dates, Israel warns the US that an al-Qaeda attack is imminent. [Fox News, 5/17/2002] Reportedly, two high-ranking agents from the Mossad come to Washington and warn the FBI and CIA that from 50 to 200 terrorists have slipped into the US and are planning “a major assault on the United States.” They say indications point to a “large scale target,” and that Americans would be “very vulnerable.” They add there could be Iraqi connections to the al-Qaeda attack. [Daily Telegraph, 9/16/2001; www.latimes.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Los Angeles Times, 9/20/2001] The Los Angeles Times later retracts its story after a CIA spokesperson says, “There was no such warning. Allegations that there was are complete and utter nonsense.” [www.latimes.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">Los Angeles Times, 9/21/2001] Other newspapers do not retract it.

August 23, 2001: Mossad Reportedly Gives CIA List of Terrorists Living in US; at Least Four 9/11 Hijackers Named

According to German newspapers, the Mossad gives the CIA a list of 19 terrorists living in the US and say that they appear to be planning to carry out an attack in the near future. It is unknown if these are the 19 9/11 hijackers or if the number is a coincidence. However, four names on the list are known, and these four will be 9/11 hijackers: Nawaf Alhazmi, Khalid Almihdhar, Marwan Alshehhi, and Mohamed Atta. [Der Spiegel (Hamburg), 10/1/2002; BBC, 10/2/2002; Ha'aretz, 10/3/2002] The Mossad appears to have learned about this through its “art student spy ring.” Yet apparently, this warning and list are not treated as particularly urgent by the CIA and the information is not passed on to the FBI. It is unclear whether this warning influenced the decision to add Alhazmi and Almihdhar to a terrorism watch list on this same day, and if so, why only those two. Israel has denied that there were any Mossad agents in the US. [Ha'aretz, 10/3/2002]

August 29-September 6, 2001: Bush Tries to Repair Relations with Saudis, But Policy Change Halted by 9/11 Attacks

The Bush administration attempts to repair its relation with Saudi Arabia after a dramatic letter from Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah. On August 27, 2001, Abdullah, the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia, sent a message to President Bush threatening to end the Saudi alliance with the US because of what they see as US favoritism towards Israel (see August 27, 2001). Two days later, Bush sends a two-page letter to Abdullah:

“Let me make one thing clear up front: nothing should ever break the relationship between us. There has been no change in the strategic equation. I firmly believe the Palestinian people have a right to self-determination and to live peacefully and securely in their own state, in their own homeland, just as the Israelis have the right to live peacefully and safely in their own state.”

Journalist Bob Woodward will later note that this

“was a much bigger step than President Clinton had taken. Even as Clinton had tried to fashion a Middle East peace agreement as his legacy, he had never directly supported a separate Palestinian state.”

On September 6, Abdullah replies,

“Mr. President, it was a great relief to me to find in your letter a clear commitment confirming the principle in which the peace process was established. I was particularly pleased with your commitment to the right of the Palestinians to self-determination as well as the right to peace without humiliation, within their independent state.”

The Saudis appear appeased. [Woodward, 2006, pp. 77-79] Also on September 6, Bush holds a meeting with his top advisers and suggests a change of policy towards Palestine, including public support for a separate Palestinian state. However, days before Bush is to announce these new policies, the 9/11 attacks take place. None of the planned US policy changes materialize (see September 6, 2001).

September 4, 2001: Mossad Gives Another Warning of Major, Imminent Attack

“On or around” this day, the Mossad give their “latest” warning to the US of a major, imminent attack by al-Qaeda, according to sources close to Mossad. One former Mossad agent says, “My understanding is that the warning was not specific. No target was identified. But it should have resulted in an increased state of security.” US intelligence claims this never happened.]

September 4, 2001: Israeli Company Moves Out of WTC

The Zim-American Israeli Shipping Co. moves their North American headquarters from the 16th floor of the WTC to Norfolk, Virginia, one week before the 9/11 attacks. The Israeli government owns 49 percent of the company. Zim announced the move and its date six months earlier. More than 200 workers had just been moved out; about ten are still in the building making final moving arrangements on 9/11, but escape. The move leaves only one Israeli company, ClearForest, with 18 employees, in the WTC on 9/11. The four or five employees in the building at the time manage to escape. One year later, a Zim ship is impounded while attempting to ship Israeli military equipment to Iran; it is speculated that this is done with the knowledge of Israel. (original links *[Virginian-Pilot, 9/4/2001][Jerusalem Post, 9/13/2001; Journal of Commerce, 10/18/2001][Agence France-Presse, 3/29/2002] dead - other related links here)

September 6, 2001: US Considers More Favorable Policy Towards Palestinians; But Change Is Halted by 9/11 Attacks

According to a New York Times article several days later, on this day President Bush holds a National Security Council meeting with Secretary of State Powell, National Security Adviser Rice, and others, to consider how to change his Middle East policy. This potential change in US policy comes after the Saudis threatened to end their alliance with the US because of US policy towards Israel and Palestine (see August 27, 2001 and August 29-September 6, 2001). It is reported that he is considering meeting with Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat when Arafat is scheduled to come to New York for the opening of the United Nations General Assembly two weeks later. Bush has so far been firm in refusing to meet with Arafat. According to the New York Times, at this meeting, “Bush discussed the wisdom of changing tack, officials said. While no clear decision was made, there was an inclination to go ahead with a meeting with Arafat if events unfolded in a more favorable way in the next 10 days or so…” Additionally, it is reported that Israeli foreign minister Shimon Peres will meet with Arafat in mid-September, in what it is hoped will be “the first of a series that could start a process of serious dialogue” between Palestine and Israel. [New York Times, 9/9/2001- link dead] Reporter Bob Woodward will add in 2006, “Bush agreed to come out publicly for a Palestinian state. A big rollout was planned for the week of September 10, 2001.” [Woodward, 2006, pp. 77] But after the 9/11 attacks a few days later, Bush and Peres do not go forward with any meetings with Arafat and US policy does not change. The Nation will later comment, “In the aftermath of [9/11], few people recalled that for a brief moment in the late summer of 2001, the Bush Administration had considered meeting with Arafat and deepening its political involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” [Nation, 7/14/2005] The leak to the New York Times about this September 6 meeting will result in a wide FBI investigation of Israeli spying in the US (see September 9, 2001).

September 9, 2001: Media Leak Leads to Investigation into Israeli Spying in US

National Security Adviser Rice, upset with a media leak, orders an investigation that will uncover evidence of widespread Israeli spying in the US. The Saudis had recently threatened to end their close alliance with the US (see August 27, 2001 and August 29-September 6, 2001), and on September 6, 2001, President Bush held a meeting attended by Rice and others to work on how to appease Saudi concerns (see September 6, 2001). Just three days after the meeting, there is a story by Jane Perlez in the New York Times accurately detailing what was discussed in the meeting. It will later be reported that Rice is furious about the leak to Perlez and immediately demands a clampdown on leakers. The determination to improve secrecy increases in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. This leak investigation focuses on Israelis in the US. No one is ever prosecuted for the leak to Perlez, but the investigation will takes on a life of its own and continue for years. [ JTA (Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 5/17/2005; Nation, 7/14/2005] It appears the FBI had been investigating Israeli spying in the US since at least 1999 (see April 13, 1999-2004), and there are reports of a discovery of a “massive” Israeli spy operation in the US in 2001 (see 2001) and/or the discovery of the Israeli art student spy ring (see March 23, 2001 and June 2001). It is unclear if there is any connection between these investigations and this media link investigation or not.

September 10, 2001: Army School Peacekeeping Report Says Mossad Can Target US Forces with False Flag Attacks

A group of second-year students at the Army School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) produces a 68-page plan for sending peacekeepers to Israel in the event that the Israelis and Palestinians agree to a peace plan and the creation of a Palestinian state. Though the cover of the report indicates that the report has been written for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Maj. Chris Garver, a Fort Leavenworth spokesman, says that it was only an academic exercise. An article about the report appears in the Washington Times on September 10, 2001. The report refers to Israel’s armed forces as a “500-pound gorilla in Israel” that is “well armed and trained” and is “known to disregard international law to accomplish mission.” Of the Mossad, the report says: “Wildcard. Ruthless and cunning. Has capability to target US forces and make it look like a Palestinian/Arab act.” It describes Palestinian youths as “loose cannons; under no control, sometimes violent.” The SAMS officers write that US goals for the first 30 days of such a mission would be to “create conditions for development of Palestinian State and security of Israel”; ensure “equal distribution of contract value or equivalent aid” that would help legitimize the peacekeeping force and stimulate economic growth; “promote US investment in Palestine”; “encourage reconciliation between entities based on acceptance of new national identities”; and “build lasting relationship based on new legal borders and not religious-territorial claims.” [Washington Times, 9/10/2001]

(6:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Two Hours Before Attacks, Israeli Company Employees Receive Warnings

Two employees of Odigo, Inc., an Israeli company, receive warnings of an imminent attack in New York City about two hours before the first plane hits the WTC. Odigo, one of the world’s largest instant messaging companies, has its headquarters two blocks from the WTC. The Odigo Research and Development offices where the warnings were received are located in Herzliyya, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Israeli security and the FBI were notified immediately after the 9/11 attacks began. The two employees claim not to know who sent the warnings. “Odigo service includes a feature called People Finder that allows users to seek out and contact others based on certain interests or demographics. [Alex] Diamandis [Odigo vice president of sales and marketing] said it was possible that the attack warning was broadcast to other Odigo members, but the company has not received reports of other recipients of the message.” [Ha'aretz, 9/26/2001] Odigo claims the warning did not specifically mention the WTC, but the company refuses to divulge what was specified, claiming, “Providing more details would only lead to more conjecture.” However, a later newspaper report claims that the message declared “that some sort of attack was about to take place. The notes ended with an anti-Semitic slur. ‘The messages said something big was going to happen in a certain amount of time, and it did—almost to the minute,’ said Alex Diamandis, vice president of sales for the high-tech company… He said the employees did not know the person who sent the message, but they traced it to a computer address and have given that information to the FBI.” [Washington Post, 10/4/2001] Odigo gave the FBI the Internet address of the message’s sender so the name of the sender could be found.Two months later, it is reported that the FBI is still investigating the matter, but there have been no reports since.

September 11, 2001: The 9/11 Attack: 3,000 Die in New York City and Washington, D.C.

The September 11, 2001 attacks. From left to right: The World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Flight 93 crash.
The 9/11 attack: Four planes are hijacked, two crash into the WTC, one into the Pentagon, and one crashes into the Pennsylvania countryside. Nearly 3,000 people are killed.

(8:20 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Israeli Special-Ops Passenger Possibly Shot or Stabbed by Hijackers

An FAA memo written on the evening of 9/11, and later leaked, will suggest that a man on Flight 11 is shot and killed by a gun before the plane crashes into the World Trade Center. The “Executive Summary,” based on information relayed by a flight attendant to the American Airlines Operation Center, states “that a passenger located in seat 10B [Satam Al Suqami] shot and killed a passenger in seat 9B [Daniel Lewin] at 9:20 a.m.” (Note that since Flight 11 crashes at 8:46, the time must be a typographical error, probably meaning 8:20). A report in Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz on September 17 will identify Lewin as a former member of the Israel Defense Force Sayeret Matkal, Israel’s most successful Special Operations unit. [www.upi.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">United Press International, 3/6/2002] Sayeret Matkal is a deep penetration unit that has been involved in assassinations, the theft of foreign signals intelligence materials, and the theft and destruction of foreign nuclear weaponry. It is best known for the 1976 rescue of 106 passengers at Entebbe Airport in Uganda. Lewin founded Akamai, a successful computer company, and his connections to Sayeret Matkal will remain hidden until the gun story becomes known. [Guardian, 9/15/2001] FAA and American Airline officials will later deny the gun story and suggest that Lewin is probably stabbed to death instead. [www.upi.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">United Press International, 3/6/2002] Officials assert that the leaked document was a “first draft,” and subsequently corrected, but decline to release the final draft, calling it “protected information.” However, an FAA official present when the memo is drafted will dispute the FAA’s claim, asserting that “[t]he document was reviewed for accuracy by a number of people in the room, including myself and a couple of managers of the operations center.” [WorldNetDaily, 3/7/2002] This unnamed official is probably Bogdan Dzakovic, a leader of the FAA’s “red team” conducting covert security inspections. He will later tell the 9/11 Commission:

“There are serious indications that the FAA deceived the public about what happened on 9/11. On the afternoon of September 11, 2001, I was working in one of the FAA operations centers collecting information on details of what happened during the hijacking. We received information that a firearm was used on one of the hijacked aircraft.… That evening the administrator of FAA requested an executive summary covering the day’s activities, and this information about a gun was included in the summary. Days later, without any explanation or questioning of the summary’s author, the administrator publicly announced that no guns had been used in the hijacking. Several months passed when the press re-surfaced this issue. FAA’s initial response was that no so such executive summary existed. Later, when confronted with the document, FAA admitted the executive summary existed, but denied its accuracy. Sometime later I learned that another operations center also received a report that a firearm was used.… There were also reports of a possible explosive threatened on a flight.”

[CBS News, 2/25/2002; 9/11 Commission, 5/22/2003

Shortly After 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001: Neighbor Sees Suspicious Men Documenting First WTC Attack and Cheering, Calls Police

A homemaker living near Liberty State Park, Jersey City, New Jersey sees three men behaving strangely on a nearby roof and alerts the authorities. This homemaker, who has given only her first name Maria, is called by a neighbor shortly after the first plane has hit the WTC and is told about the impact. She has a view of the WTC from her apartment building so she gets her binoculars and watches the disaster. However, she also notices three young men kneeling on the roof of a white van in the parking lot of her apartment building. Maria will later recall, “They seemed to be taking a movie.” They are taking video or photos of themselves with the WTC burning in the background. But what strikes Maria is their expressions: “They were like happy, you know… They didn’t look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange.” She writes down the license plate number of the van and calls the police. [abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002] Apparently the men leave the area a few minutes after the first attack is over. An FBI lookout bulletin for the van will be issued later in the day (see 3:31 p.m. September 11, 2001) and the three men (plus two more discovered with them) will be detained (see 3:56 p.m. September 11, 2001). When the men detained, one of them will be found with pictures of the group standing with the burning wreckage of the WTC in the background. [Forward, 3/15/2002] At least some of the pictures were taken while standing on top of the van. [www.nytimes.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">New York Times, 10/8/2001] The lawyer for the five men will later note that one photograph developed by the FBI shows one of the men, Sivan Kurzberg, holding a lighted lighter in the foreground, with the burning WTC in the background. [New York Times, 11/21/2001] It will apparently be determined at least two of the men are Israeli spies, but what they were doing and why will remain in dispute. One of these Israelis will later say, “our purpose was to document the event.” [abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002]

Shortly after 10:28 a.m. September 11, 2001:: Suspicous Hebrew-Speaking Witnesses to the WTC Collapse Allegedly Observed at Liberty State Park

According to an editorial written in the Black Agenda Report by executive editor Glen Ford written in 2008, Ford claims that he observes two presumably Israeli witnesses to the collapse of the second World Trade Center tower who exhibit suspicious behavior. They are already positioned at the river bank when he arrives at the scene on foot after having rushed past police, who had blocked all vehicular entrance to the park. They are thus the apparent owners of the only vehicle in the lot, having arrived prior to its closure, at an unknown time. The so-described athletic, military-aged duo is clicking away with two very expensive-looking cameras. They speak excitedly to each other in Hebrew—a language Mr. Ford instantly recognizes from his two decades as a Manhattanite—but clumsily claim to be “Polish” when asked where they are from. Informed by Ford that he is a reporter, they claim, “Yes, we are reporters, too!” They display two laminated New Jersey press cards that appear genuine except they are the wrong color, and cheerfully admit they are phony. “They are easy to make,” one says, laughing. When prompted, one states with pleasure that “yes, everything has changed” by the events just witnessed. [Ford, 10/8/2008]

September 11, 2001: Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: 9/11 Very Good for Israeli-US Relations

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, when asked what the 9/11 attacks means for relations between the US and Israel, replies, “It’s very good.” Then he edits himself: “Well, not very good, but it will generate immediate sympathy.” [New York Times, 9/12/2001] A week later, the Village Voice states, “From national networks to small-town newspapers, the view that America’s terrible taste of terrorism will finally do away with even modest calls for the restraint of Israel’s military attacks on Palestinian towns has become an instant, unshakable axiom.… Now, support for Israel in America is officially absolute, and Palestinians are cast once again as players in a global terrorist conspiracy.” [Village Voice, 9/19/2001]

3:56 p.m. September 11, 2001: Five Apparent Israeli Spies Arrested for Puzzling Behavior at Time of First WTC Attack

Five Israelis are arrested for “puzzling behavior” related to the WTC attacks. Shortly after an FBI lookout bulletin was issued for a van with the words “Urban Moving Systems” written on the side, officers with the East Rutherford Police Department in New Jersey stop the van after matching the license plate number with the one given in the bulletin. According to the police report, Officer Scott DeCarlo and Sgt. Dennis Rivelli approach the van and demand the driver exit the vehicle. The driver, Sivan Kurzberg, does not obey after being asked several more times, so the police physically remove Kurzberg and four other men from the van and handcuff them. They have not been told the reasons for their arrest, but Kurzberg tells them, “We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem.” Again before the police have made any mention of the 9/11 attacks, another one of the arrested men says, “[W]e were on the West Side Highway in New York City during the incident.” In fact, it will later be determined they were on the roof of a building at Liberty State Park, watching and videotaping the first crash into the WTC (see Shortly After 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Ha'aretz, 9/17/2001] The FBI and additional police quickly arrive. They shut down the section of Route 3 in East Rutherford where the van was stopped and evacuate a nearby hotel as a security precaution. One man is found with $4,700 in cash hidden in his sock, another has two foreign passports on him, and a box cutter is found in the van. [abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002] Another has pictures of the men standing with the burning wreckage of the WTC in the background. [Forward, 3/15/2002] All five identify themselves as Israeli citizens and claim to be working for the New Jersey-based Urban Moving Systems company. In addition to the driver Sivan Kurzberg, the others are identified as Paul Kurzberg (Sivan’s brother), Oded Ellner, Omer Marmari, and Yaron Shmuel. The men are detained but not charged. [Forward, 3/15/2002; abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002] The next day it will be reported that “bomb-sniffing dogs reacted as if they had detected explosives.” An investigator high up in the Bergen County law enforcement hierarchy will say in 2006, “There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted…. It looked like they’re hooked in with this [referring to the 9/11 attacks]. It looked like they knew what was going to happen.…It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park.” The FBI will later conclude at least two of the five are Mossad agents and that all were on a Mossad surveillance mission. The FBI interrogates them for weeks. [Forward, 3/15/2002] They are held on immigration violation charges, but will be released 71 days later (see November 20, 2001). [abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002]

September 12-November 9, 2001: Two More Movers Arrested in US; Suspected to Be Israeli Spies

Five Israeli men working for the Urban Moving Systems company had been arrested on 9/11 over suspicions that they had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks (, and now two more Israeli men working for the same company are arrested. The two men, Roy Barak and Motti Butbul, are driving one of their company’s moving vans in northern Pennsylvania when they are pulled over and arrested at around noon on September 12, 2001. Barak has overstayed his six-month visa and Butbul has no work permit. Both were in the Israeli military, Barak as an ex-paratrooper and Butful as a cook. Barak says he worked for Urban Moving Systems since the summer of 2000. The two are detained and sometimes kept in solitary confinement, but they later claim no ill treatment. Barak will later recall that US interrogators were most interested if he was connected to the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. “They asked if someone sent me to the United States. They asked me if I worked in a moving company so I could monitor people’s movements.” He is given polygraph tests and claims to have satisfied his questioners except on the issue of who sent him to the US. On November 9, 2001, both are deported back to Israel.S

September 14, 2001: Head of Shadowy Company Flees US

Dominick Suter, owner of the company Urban Moving Systems, flees the country to Israel. The FBI later tells ABC News, “Urban Moving may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation.” Suter has been tied to the five Israeli agents caught filming the WTC attack. The FBI had questioned Suter around September 12, removing boxes of documents and a dozen computer hard drives. However, when the FBI returns a few days later, he is gone. [New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety, 12/13/2001;abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002]

September 29-30, 2001: Suspected Mossad Agents Detained, Released

Police in the Midwest stop six men carrying suspicious documents. They possess photos and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline, and have “box cutters and other equipment.” All six have Israeli passports. They are released the same day after their passports are shown to be valid, but before anyone interviews them. The FBI is reportedly furious about their release. The six men may have been Mossad agents. In addition to snooping on the DEA and Islamic militants, some Mossad agents in the “art student spy ring” have been caught trying to break into military bases and other top-secret facilities (see March 23, 2001). [Salon, 5/7/2002]

October 10, 2001: Two Israelis Are Detained in Mexican Legislature Building after Behaving Suspiciously and Found To Be Carrying Arms

Two Israelis, Salvador Gersson Smike, 34, and Sar Ben Zui, 27, are arrested in the Mexican Congress Building in Mexico City. Smike is carrying a plastic 9 mm sophisticated Glock 9 mm pistol tucked into his underwear in his lower back. Glock pistols are made with a special plastic material and are very easy to smuggle. [Correo, 10/11/2001; El Heraldo de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001;] He also has with him a briefcase reported to contain 58 bullets, bomb-making materials, three detonators, and nine grenades. [El Heraldo de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001] The two were apprehended after ex-sugarcane workers, who were waiting for a congressional hearing, saw the two Israelis behaving strangely at around 4:00 p.m. They were reportedly photographing the workers below the belt. When the workers demanded that the two men identify themselves, the Israelis said they were press photographers. The workers dismissed their claims, overcame them, and then discovered they were armed with pistols and other high caliber arms. The two men had apparently also been seen the day before taking pictures. [Cronica de Hoy (Mexico City), 10/12/2001] Security guards soon arrived, disarmed the men, and took them to the security office. At around 6:00 p.m., it is learned that the two men are Israelis and that one of them, Salvador Gersson, is a former colonel of the Israeli Special Forces. [Correo, 10/11/2001; Diario de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001 pdf file] Soon after, a man claiming to be a supervisor from the company, Desarrollo de Sistemas de Seguridad Privada (Private Security Systems Development), says the two men are employees at the firm and that they were taking pictures because they are “vacationing.” The journalists who are present scoff at the claim. [Correo, 10/11/2001; El Heraldo de Mexico (Mexico City), 10/11/2001] After October 13, no additional information is reported about the incident.

October 16, 2001: Several Israelis Arrested for Curious Sears Tower Surveillance

Two men, Moshe Elmakias and Ron Katar, are arrested in rural Pennsylvania after being found with a detailed video of the Sears Tower in Chicago. In addition, a woman named Ayelet Reisler is found with them, carrying conflicting identification information. They are arrested for illegal dumping, using a van with the name Moving Systems Incorporated. The video contains extensive zoom in shots of the Sears Tower; it is not known when the video was filmed. [Mercury (Philadelphia), 10/17/2001]

Late October 2001: Intense Political Pressure to Release Suspected Israeli Spies Arrested on 9/11

Around this time intense political pressure is put on US officials holding five Israeli men arrested for suspicious behavior at the time of the 9/11 attacks. According to the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and two unidentified “prominent New York congressmen” lobby heavily for their release. According to a source at ABC News, well-known criminal lawyer Alan Dershowitz also becomes involved as a negotiator to help get the men released. (Dershowitz will later refuse to comment on the matter.). ABC News will later report that was “high-level negotiations between Israeli and US government officials” over the five men, resulting in a settlement. [abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002] Apparently the political pressure will succeed because the men will be released a few weeks later

November 20, 2001: Israelis Who Videotaped WTC Attack Are Released and Deported

The five Israelis arrested on 9/11 for videotaping the WTC attack and then cheering about it (see 3:56 p.m. September 11, 2001) are released and deported to Israel. Some of the men’s names had appeared in a US national intelligence database, and the FBI has concluded that at least two of the men were working for the Mossad, according to ABC News. However, the FBI says that none of the Israelis had any advanced knowledge of the 9/11 attacks, and they were released as part of a deal between the US and the Israeli government. After their release, they claim to have been tortured. [Forward, 3/15/2002; abcnews.go.com..." target="_blank" class="postlink">ABC News, 6/21/2002]

November 23, 2001: More Israelis Arrested in Wake of 9/11

The Washington Post reports that “[a]t least 60 young Israeli Jews have been arrested and detained around the country on immigration charges since the September 11 attacks, many of them held on US government officials’ invocation of national security.” An INS official who requested anonymity says the use of the term “special interest” for Israelis being held in Cleveland, St. Louis, and other places means the case in question is “related to the investigation of September 11th.” [Washington Post, 11/23/2001] Most of them are deported. However, Intelligence Online claims that “For the overwhelming majority of the ring’s members expelled, there was no problem at all with visas, and in the lists we only found a few minor cases of expired visas.””

Late 2001: Israeli Government Reportedly Privately Admits to Running Spy Operation in US Before 9/11

The Forward, a popular Jewish weekly in the US, will later report that at the end of 2001, the Israeli government admits to having conducted a large-scale spying operation in the US before 9/11, using art students and moving vans as cover stories. The Forward quotes an anonymous former US official said to have been regularly briefed about the US investigation into Israeli spying: “The assessment was that Urban Moving Systems was a front for the Mossad and operatives employed by it. The conclusion of the FBI was that they were spying on local Arabs but that they could [be deported] because they did not know anything about 9/11.” He further claims that US officials confront the Israeli government at this time and Israel privately admits the operation while continuing to publicly deny it. Israel privately apologizes for violating a secret gentlemen’s agreement between the two countries under which espionage on each other’s soil is coordinated in advance. The Forward notes, “Most experts and former officials interviewed for this article said that such so-called unilateral or uncoordinated Israeli monitoring of radical Muslims in America would not be surprising.” [Forward, 3/15/2002] In 2007, Mark Perelman, the author of the 2002 Forward story that made these claims, will say he still stands by his story and his sources in the Mossad don’t deny it. CounterPunch also will claim to independently confirm Israel’s admission through two former CIA officers.

December 12-15, 2001: News Reports Raises Israeli Spying Questions

Google Video Link

Fox News reports, “Investigators within the DEA, INS, and FBI have all told Fox News that to pursue or even suggest Israeli spying… is considered career suicide.” “A highly placed investigator says there are ‘tie-ins’ between the spy ring and 9/11. However, when asked for details, he flatly refuses to describe them, saying, ‘evidence linking these Israelis to 9/11 is classified. I cannot tell you about evidence that has been gathered. It’s classified information.’” The report also reveals that Amdocs, an Israeli company, is recording virtually every phone call in the US and could be passing information on to the Israeli government (similar claims were first raised in 2000). Fox News suggests that the position of this company might impede the 9/11 investigation. [Fox News, 12/12/2001]

December 16, 2001: Fox News Removes Controversial Story from Website

FOX News removes its series on the “art student spy ring” from its website after only two days, in response to pressure from The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) and others. CAMERA suggests the reporter “has something, personally, about Israel.… Maybe he’s very sympathetic to the Arab side.” [Salon, 5/7/2002] The head of the ADL calls the report “sinister dangerous innuendo which fuels anti-Semitism.” Yet there does not appear to be any substance to these personal attacks (and Forward later reverses its stance on the spy ring (see March 15, 2002)). Fox News also never makes a formal repudiation or correction about the series. The contents of the series continues to be generally ignored by the mainstream media, but it makes a big impact inside the US government: An internal DEA communiqué from December 18 mentions the Fox report by name, and warns of security breaches in telecommunications as described in the Fox report. [Salon, 5/7/2002]

March 5, 2002: Israeli Spies Reportedly Tracked 9/11 Hijackers

It is reported that many spies in the uncovered Israeli spy ring seemed to have been trailing the 9/11 hijackers. At the very least, they were in close proximity. For instance, five Israeli spies are intercepted in the tiny town of Hollywood, Florida, and four 9/11 hijackers are known to have spent time in Hollywood, Florida. [Le Monde (Paris), 3/5/2002; Reuters, 3/5/2002; Jane's Intelligence Digest, 3/15/2002] In one case, some Israeli spies lived at 4220 Sheridan Street, only a few hundred feet from where Mohamed Atta was living at 3389 Sheridan Street. Israeli spies appear to have been close to at least ten of the 19 9/11 hijackers. [Salon, 5/7/2002]

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]

May 7, 2002: Explosives Detected on Illegal Israelis

A moving truck is pulled over for speeding in the middle of the night in Oak Harbor, Washington, near the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station. The base is the home of the advanced electronic warfare Prowler jets. A bomb-sniffing dog detects explosives on one of the men and inside the truck. High-tech equipment is then used to confirm the presence of TNT on the gearshift and RDX plastic explosive on the steering wheel. Both men turn out to be Israeli (one with an altered passport) and in the country illegally. [Fox News, 5/13/2002] However, the FBI later clears the two men, saying both the dog and the tests just detected false positives from “residue left by a cigarette lighter.” [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 5/14/2002] The “art student spy ring” frequently uses moving vans as cover, and has been caught spying on the most top secret military bases. [Salon, 5/7/2002] In a possibly related story, the Seattle FBI office that handled this case will be broken into a few weeks later, and even a room containing evidence will be penetrated. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 7/29/2002]

November 2002: Saudi Interior Minister Blames Jews for 9/11 Attacks

Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef blames Zionists and Jews for the 9/11 attacks. He tells journalists, “Who has benefited from September 11 attacks? I think [the Jews] were the protagonists of such attacks.” Nayef is in charge of the Saudi investigation into the attacks, and some US congresspeople respond to the comments by questioning how strongly Saudi Arabia is investigating the involvement of the 15 Saudi 9/11 hijackers. [Associated Press, 12/5/2002]

May 2004: More Israelis Are Arrested in Suspicious Circumstances, Again Traveling in Moving Vans

On May 9, two Israelis are arrested after a high-speed chase in Tennessee. They are found with false documents. On May 27, two others are arrested after trying to enter an Atlanta military base. Explosives are possibly discovered in their van. [Kings Bay Periscope, 5/27/2004]

May 3, 2004: Future Saudi Arabian King Claims Israel Is behind Saudi Dissidents

Following an attack on an oil company’s office in Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, in which six Westerners were killed (see May 1, 2004), Saudi officials say Israel played a role in the attacks. Crown Prince Abdullah, who will become king in 2005 (see August 1, 2005), says he is 95 percent sure “that Zionism is behind everything.” Foreign Minister Prince Saud says it is “well known” that Saudi dissidents based in London “have contacts and are financed by parties that are linked to Israel.” Although such allegations have been made before, this is the first time a figure as senior as Crown Prince Abdullah has repeated them. The suspected mastermind behind the attacks, Mustafa al-Ansari, was a member of the London-based Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights (CDLR) in the mid-1990s. However, prominent Saudi dissident Mohammed al-Massari, who founded the CDLR, dismisses the accusations of Israeli support. Newsweek notes that, “No evidence of such links has ever been made public,” and another prominent dissident, Saad al-Fagih, comments, “This is like saying George Bush is sponsoring bin Laden.” [Associated Press, 5/4/2004; Newsweek, 5/4/2004]

September 3, 2004: Report: Israel Maintains ‘Huge, Aggressive’ Spy Operations Inside US

The Los Angeles Times reports that US officials claim, “Despite its fervent denials, Israel secretly maintains a large and active intelligence-gathering operation in the United States that has long attempted to recruit US officials as spies and to procure classified documents….” In turn, US agents have long monitored Israeli diplomats and agents in the US. An intelligence official who had recently left government says, “There is a huge, aggressive, ongoing set of Israeli activities directed against the United States.… Anybody who worked in counterintelligence in a professional capacity will tell you the Israelis are among the most aggressive and active countries targeting the United States.… The denials are laughable.” The Times adds, “Current and former officials involved with Israel at the White House, CIA, State Department, and in Congress had similar appraisals, although not all were as harsh in their assessments.” Officials note that Israel is considered a very close ally and is frequently given highly classified information. But it is also noted that US and Israeli intelligence agencies do not completely trust each other. [Los Angeles Times, 9/3/2004]

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. 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.

September 16, 2004: New Israeli Art Student Ring in Canada Has Unexplained Link to Islamic Fundamentalist Fundraising

In a curious echo of reports of an Israeli “art student spy ring” in the US before 9/11, it is reported that numerous young Israelis claiming to be from non-existent art schools in Israel are being arrested and deported for selling art in Canada. Unlike the earlier events in the US, there are no reports of government offices and workers being targeted. Rather, it appears to be a money making scam to sell cheap Asian art for vastly inflated prices in numerous Canadian cities. However, it is reported these Israelis “may be linked to a group fronting for Islamic fundamentalist fundraisers.” The nature and detail of the connection between the Israelis and Islamic fundamentalists is not explained in the newspaper accounts of this scam. [Ha'aretz, 9/16/2004; Jerusalem Post, 9/16/2004]

October 5, 2005: Defense Department Official Pleads Guilty for Passing Secrets to Israel

Defense Department analyst Larry Franklin pleads guilty to passing government secrets to two employees of a pro-Israel lobbying group and to an Israeli government official, a violation of the Espionage Act. He is later sentenced to 12 and a half years in prison. [Washington Post, 10/6/2005; Washington Post, 1/21/2006; Savage, 2007, pp. 173] Franklin, an Iran specialist, gave details of US policy towards Iran to Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman, two members of AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) which the Washington Post calls “one of Washington’s most influential lobbying organizations.” He also admits to giving classified information directly to Naor Gilon, chief of political affairs at the Israeli Embassy in Washington. Gilon returned to Israel, but Rosen and Weissman have been charged in what prosecutors claim was a conspiracy to obtain and illegally pass classified US information to foreign officials and news reporters. Franklin reportedly has been cooperating with investigators in return for a relatively lenient sentence. [Washington Post, 10/6/2005; Washington Post, 1/21/2006] It appears that Franklin was caught by accident in 2003 as part of a larger FBI investigation into Israeli spying that began in 2001 (see September 9, 2001). Investigators had been monitoring Gilon and were reportedly “floored” to watch Franklin sit down and eat lunch with him. [United Press International, 12/9/2004]

November 30, 2007: CIA and Mossad Committed 9/11, Says Former Italian President Francesco Cossiga

Francesco Cossiga, former president of Italy, says in an interview, “All of the democratic circles of America and of Europe […] now know well that the disastrous [9/11] attack was planned and realized by the American CIA and Mossad with the help of the Zionist world to put under accusation the Arabic Countries and to persuade the Western powers to intervene in Iraq and Afghanistan.” [Corriere della Sera (Milan), 11/30/2007] Cossiga was president of Italy in the early 1990s, when the NATO-led Gladio “stay behind” network was exposed. Gladio was a decades-long secret right wing effort to prevent left wing forces from taking power in Europe, and the network sometimes staged false-flag bombings and assassinations blamed on left-wing groups to discredit them. Cossiga admitted his long involvement in the network in 1990, adding, “I am proud of the fact that we have kept the secret [of Gladio] for 45 years.” [Guardian, 3/26/2001; Ganser, 2005, pp. 14]

April 17, 2008: Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Says 9/11 Attacks and Iraq War Good for Israel

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells an audience at Bar Ilan university in Israel that the 9/11 attacks were beneficial for Israel. “We are benefiting from one thing, and that is the attack on the Twin Towers and Pentagon, and the American struggle in Iraq. […] [The attacks] swung American public opinion in our favor.” [Ha'aretz, 4/17/2008]

November 2008: Cousin of 9/11 Hijacker Ziad Jarrah Arrested in Lebanon, Accused of Spying for Israel

Ali al-Jarrah.

Ali al-Jarrah, a cousin of 9/11 hijacker Ziad Jarrah, is arrested by the Lebanese military. He is accused of spying for Israel since the early 1980s. According to Lebanese investigators interviewed by the New York Times, he was recruited in 1983—a year after Israel invaded Lebanon—by Israeli officers who had imprisoned him. Jarrah, 50, worked as a school administrator. He is accused of providing information on Palestinian forces and Syrian troop movements. He is also suspected of involvement in the assassination of Imad Mughniyeh, a Hezbollah commander killed in Damascus in February 2008. His brother Yusuf, who is accused of helping him spy, is also arrested. Ali and Ziad Jarrah were “20 years apart in age and do not appear to have known each other well.” [Jerusalem Post, 11/3/2008; London Times, 11/9/2008; Independe nt, 11/13/2008; New York Times, 2/19/2009]

S

FIVE Possible Scenarios

As the story developed, however, we are faced with only few possible explanations:

1-The Israelis knew, but didn't tell US Government or:

2-The Israelis knew and did tell, but the incompetence of the US Government got in the way of effective preventive action or

3.-The Israelis one branch took part in 9/11 attack and the other branch didn't know about it and tried to inform US Govt. about possible attacks or:

4.-The Israelis one branch took part in 9/11 attack and the other branch did know about it and tried to create smoke screen with party student scam or:

5.-The Israelis didn't knew anything about it at all.

To choose which explanation suits the information available at hand one has to consider all the given information and more presented more.

Most excellent thread my friend. Well put together with amazing loads of information.

The truth is out there and now it is here. Good job mate!

Warning to people who are reading this thread:

Be aware of the vile people who will come here and try to debunk this information using inflammatory comments and trying to call you and this thread an anti-semite. It is a weak tactic that is usually employed in the face of damaging true information meant to discredit the information and poster and usually done by weak minded people with nothing intelligent to offer.


Criticizing Israel has nothing to do with Judaism or semites. It is finger pointing at the Israeli Government and it's sponsored agencies. This would be akin to calling people anti-christs for not supporting the war in Iraq or Afghanistan which I might add is what some elements in the ME wished for and probably why 911 was planned, executed and unstopped by these same agencies.



[edit on 5-3-2010 by Shadow Herder]

[edit on 5-3-2010 by Shadow Herder]

reply to post by December_Rain



I ask most of you to re-read the information then research it elsewhere, you will find many interesting, jaw dropping revelations that destroy the official story and lead you to the real perps of 911.

Originally posted by Shadow Herder
Most excellent thread my friend. Well put together with amazing loads of information. The truth is out there and now it is here. Good job mate!

Thank you for your kind words. Took me several hours creating this thread and collecting few alternative sources so I hope the info. above would be useful as it covers a lot of ground.

Warning to people who are reading this thread: Be aware of the vile people who will come here and try to debunk this information using inflammatory comments and trying to call you and this thread an anti-semite. It is a weak tactic that is usually employed in the face of damaging true information meant to discredit the information and poster and usually done by weak minded people with nothing intelligent to offer.
Criticizing Israel has nothing to do with Judaism or semites. It is finger pointing at the Israeli Government and it's sponsored agencies. This would be akin to calling people anti-christs for not supporting the war in Iraq or Afghanistan which I might add is what some elements in the ME wished for and probably why 911 was planned, executed and unstopped by these same agencies.

I already mentioned in OP without sources any claims would be meaningless and any attempt to derail the thread or personal attacks will be reported to Mods.

I've often wondered however who those FIVE DANCING YISRAELI's REALLY were on the early morning of Sept 11th 2001 atop a building across the river from the NYC Twin Towers in Weehawken NJ (the Twin Towers were nicknamed 'Nelson & David' Rockefeller).

whatreallyhappened.com...

They were 'high-fiving' each other (according to several credible eye-witnesses after the 1st tower fell, and they were recording ALL the action from before the planes were even in sight, on high resolution colour video equipment--so these persons KNEW what was coming down the pike that morning...how many OTHER persons in the area knew? Makes one want to get a list of all those employees of the Twin Towers who had headaches that day and failed to show up for work - i.e. not on 'vacation'--and trace their nationalities...there's a homework project for some eager-beaver !).

killtown.blogspot.com...

Sivan Kurzberg (the driver of the Van the dancing Israeli's used) & Paul Kurzberg are the names of the 2 brothers among the 5 Yisraeli dancing high-fivers that day--naturally their families back in Yisro'el have requested that their names not be published, but they were apparently anyway, and it is known that these two were brothers.

Of course the FBI seized the camera and the Five Yisraeli's (who were dressed as 'Palestinian Arabs' of course) and held these five Mossad agents for nearly 3 weeks before they were secretly escorted back to Eretz Yisro'el under armed guards.

And of course their files are marked ABOVE TOP SECRET and their depositions are sealed. Permanently.

www.conspiracyplanet.com...

Makes you wonder if the Yisraeli government KNEW it was going to happen and WITHHELD vital info from the US (or as Nuttin'Honey said that day, 'To-day we are ALL Yisraeli's..and this should generate a lot of sympathy for Israel, so...it's good...well not good, but you know what I mean...') meaning, 'we wanted you Americans to know what it feels like to be the object of terrorism -- so take THAT, America. Just make sure all those gentile-backed-checks aren't late this month !!

whatreallyhappened.wikia.com...

"The 5 Israelis worked for a Weehawken moving Company known as Urban Moving Systems, a known Mossad cover operation in NYC, run by Mossad operative Dominick Suter (cover name) who fled the US to Eretz Yisro'el sometime later that week of 9-11-2001...


wakeupfromyourslumber.com...

According to ABC's 20/20 attempted whitewash of the incident, in addition to their outrageous and highly suspicious behavior, the five also has in their possession the following items: box-cutters, European passports, and $4700 in cash hidden in a dirty black sock.

Why were these Israeli agents so happy about the horrible massacre unfolding before their very eyes? … Could it be that these happy Israeli army veterans were in some way linked to this monstrous attack? That's what officials close to the investigation told the Bergen Record newspaper of New Jersey.

www.sott.net...

An American 'employee' of Urban Moving Systems told the Bergen Record that a majority of his co- workers were Israelis and they were all joking about the attacks (!!)

The employee, who declined to give his name, said "I was in tears. These guys were joking and that bothered me."

Not sure if these links (below) tell us anything (i.e. amidst all the clearly biased, anti-Yahwist sentiments), but maybe worth reading just for kicks and giggles anyway...it's all about 'reputable source material' and there will be many on this thread who will say most of this is made up...but at least SOME of it has the ring of truth..and if SOME of it is true...then maybe there is more to this whole thing than meets the eye....

Sure makes you think sometimes that WHERE THERE IS SMOKE, sometimes THERE REALLY IS FIRE !!

reply to post by Shadow Herder


Well said sir! This information is undeniable, however, like the rest, I imagine this thread will eventually be derailed and hijacked by the usual suspects.

reply to post by December_Rain


Excellent work my friend! Great job organizing and properly disseminating an almost overwhelming bit of information.

I rarely reply to 9/11 threads anymore on here, I suppose I got tired of playing ring around the rosies with the professionals.

However, this thread is of such high quality, I felt it necessary to put my stamp of approval on it! Once again, well done.

reply to post by December_Rain

Congrats, good to see you authoring another great thread.
Starred and flagged.

I believe some of the details are different to this account, particularly re the Pentagon attack, but you have provided great evidence of Israeli involvement. However it was most likely a joint effort, also involving some highly placed, traitorous Americans.

Originally posted by Kailassa
reply to post by December_Rain

 

Congrats, good to see you authoring another great thread.
Starred and flagged.

I believe some of the details are different to this account, particularly re the Pentagon attack, but you have provided great evidence of Israeli involvement. However it was most likely a joint effort, also involving some highly placed, traitorous Americans.

for sure. most likely the neo cons. it only makes sense. i dont see why people cant spot the connections...

I can't even imagine how much blood sweat and tears went into this thread my friend, well done.

I haven't the time to read it just now, but will pour over it at an opportune time.

Well done, I hope members appreciate the hard work and great presentation, read it carefully and comment before just reacting to the explosive nature of the topic (the whole 911/Israel thing!).

Star and Flag mate, well done again, I'll be dropping in after I've had a read.

reply to post by Kailassa


Thank you I am leaning towards the concept of shared information and feel it is highly likely that two or more separate teams were working. This is the first time I have looked into the 9/11 angle this deep.

Keeping in considering the first link of [July 8, 1996: Neoconservative Think Tank Advocates Aggressive Israeli Foreign Policy] provides some disturbing information regarding future steps and the people involved in authoring the report. For eg. they cite their "The first step is to be the removal of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.". And if you connect this [August 29-September 6, 2001: Bush Tries to Repair Relations with Saudis, But Policy Change Halted by 9/11 Attacks] & this [September 6, 2001: US Considers More Favorable Policy Towards Palestinians; But Change Is Halted by 9/11 Attacks] with above then in the words of [September 11, 2001: Former Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu: 9/11 Very Good for Israeli-US Relations ] indeed.

Secondly as stated in [April 13, 1999-2004: US Officials Illegally Pass on Highly Classified Information about Al-Qaeda and Other Matters to Israel] and if you relate this to [February 6, 2000: Apparent Mossad Attempt to Infiltrate Al-Qaeda Thwarted] to this [November 2008: Cousin of 9/11 Hijacker Ziad Jarrah Arrested in Lebanon, Accused of Spying for Israel] ...there is a wide scope of covert op.

“Now you will discover the definitive truth about 9/11 and learn why even the most popular movies on the subject have failed to address the evidence exhaustively presented in this video. The facts will make it abundantly clear that the so-called 9/11 “Truth” movement has been infiltrated and is ultimately controlled by the same criminal group who masterminded the attacks. As they say, ‘if you want to control the dissent you lead the dissent.’ Utilizing evidence from the FBI, CIA, NSA, US Armed Forces Intelligence sectors, Foreign Intelligence organizations, local law enforcement agencies and independent investigators, Missing Links goes where no other 9/11 video has dared to.”

www.911missinglinks.com...

To summarize and simplify:

That many areas in the US and that many israeli spies moving around freely tells me they had a free pass to do as they willed.

They run these surface DEA, FBI surveillance shows to show that the so called threat is being monitored. The agents doing the grunt work really do beleive they are monitoring and securing the safety of the US but as you move up the chain of command...a blk ops is running the entire show.

Lets move to the sinister part that most cannot believe. 911 was orchestrated for many reasons. To get the world to think we were really attacked by islamic terrorists and get us into the middle east with blessings from those that witnessed 911. On top of this there was a lot of magic and symbolistic ceremonies that took place around the event before and after to give the "intent" power.
(Kinda like the Secret) but 100 times more powerful.

There is no mistake the presidents name Obama sounds like Osama and his middle name is Hussein (Iraqi President)

Those arabic folks look more like biblical characters than the Israelis if you dont mind me saying so. Cant imagine why they would be going after the islamic arabic folks After all we have to build the throne for the one that rules over this planet. But it isnt what you think. The ones in power have covered it quite nicely. Folks like me get to actually have military and spooks at higher levels to monitor me and electronicall herass me which is fine by me. I do not need sophisticated technology to monitor them because of spiritual gifts. Stargate program was nothing compared to those blessed with these talents from a divine source.

This I do know...most all of us are going to pay a very difficult price...worse than death and torture.
I don't need to prove what I have just said. I am simply here to deliver the message. take it or leave it. It is none of my business and really couldnt care less what you do with it.

Enjoy

Wow, great job! There is tons of information in the thread, I am still trying to going over it.

I think you are definitely on to something. I believe that Israel playing a major role in 9/11 is one of the more likely scenarios, especially when compared to the official story and the reasons for the "War on Terror" in Afghanistan and Iraq. I don't know why the public and our government doesn't take this information more seriously?

Keep it up, S&F!

reply to post by December_Rain


Before everyone jumps down my throat I'm not coming into the room to throw rocks. Not at the OP, and the immense amount of work done, here, to compile all of this.

But, you may wish to duck from the possible "vile invective"---was that the term a poster up above used?--- from certain members who vehemently post here screaming 'Inside Job!" and are constantly blaming our own (USA) Gov't for this.

Wonder how they're gonna take this information?

Will be interesting to watch....

Meanwhile, whether or not this pans out as viable, at least it could be considered, in the main, as a possible explanation, but I fear it may only be the tip of the iceberg. What I mean is, the persons to actually fear and revile might not be the US Gov't, nor the Israeli Gov't, but some other faction is pulling the strings, somehow.

AND, I bet they laugh their arses off, watching everyone dance to their tune.

Ideas?

“our purpose was to document the event.” As was later heard, "How do you document an event no one knew was going to happen?" The original statement alone should have set off alarm bells everywhere, but, strangely, it just seemed to be ignored completely.

some people are saying that the 9/11 truth movement has been infiltrated, do you really think Jason Bermas is working for the Rothschilds? Seriously? I think I am one of those people who used to shout "inside job" and blame it on our government, because while I knew bits and pieces of this information, I had not placed it all together yet. There is no doubt that Loose Change does not involve the Jewish connection, however, Fabled Enemies does, and is almost entirely focused on Israel. So perhaps we can say that the 9/11 truth movement is just slow to realize the whole truth, but that is not surprising, many people do not claim to know everything, in fact that was not even the tactic of 9/11 truth, the tactic was to prove the official story wrong, not even to blame anyone. Now that years have gone by, and we are starting to see who they real criminals are, the 9/11 truth movement will move in that direction. To assume they are "working for the elite" is preposterous, however, at this point it is now abundantly clear the elite know what is going on. I always had my suspicions that the "no plane theory" was made up by the elite in order to derail the "radio controlled plane theory," however, I do not think that the 9/11 truth movement is infiltrated. The OP mentioned that proofs are required, and I'm fine with that request

www.iamthewitness.com

This website, while providing a lot of good information on Israel, is 100 percent against Alex Jones, Ron Paul, Jason Bermas, We are Change, Jesse Ventura, I mean come on, this guy said that Jews run the world, but Alex Jones is worse than them because he hides the truth. Alex Jones doesn't hide the truth, he just does not come out blaming everything on the Jews, which is a sure fire way of making yourself look like a fool, not to mention it is a generalization and no one but government run neo-nazis blame everything on the jews. So my point being, a lot of people are accusing the 9/11 truth movement for not providing this information, but at least give people a chance. If they are really for the truth, the whole truth, they will naturally follow this kind of information.

Good job and thank you for putting this together, it will take a while to read but I believe well worth it.

[edit on 5-3-2010 by ancient_wisdom]

reply to post by December_Rain


Great post, simply great post.

What people don't understand is the vast variables here. Those things that needed to happen for the whole project to continue. Everything that you posted I have investigated to no end. There is even more info out there, but I am so convinced I need not search any longer. My mind knows for sure.

The warehouses that were siezed, the 170+ Israeli soldiers that were detained and when the FBI went back to question them, they had all been taken out of the country. The Anthrax attacks by the Jewish Chemist who was fired for racial slurs to another employee. ON VIDEO, going back in with his key card and coming out with a box?

There is so much more to this. But will we ever have justice? Just like the U.S.S. Liberty incident. People here should look at that too.

What is their agenda folks?

[edit on 5-3-2010 by daddio]

reply to post by December_Rain




Well done my friend, I never heard of this theory but I am reading it now and running some searches and I have to say that well written threads like this are a welcomed and rare thing on ATS.

Considering that USA has as many Jews as Israel living within its borders it is a very possible idea.
Go here
www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org...

I don’t star or flag many post’s as you can see from my profile but excellent job and SF