Mid-East Realities

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Israeli Spy Rings Rolled Up in U.S.

MID-EAST REALITIES - www.MiddleEast.Org - Washington - 4/05/2002: Israeli spying on the U.S. has long been going on; but it is usually covered up or glossed over by the major American news media. A search back through past MER articles shows a number of times in the past few years when major stories about Israeli spying on the U.S. have appeared but never "caught on"...no "traction" as they say. It's too soon to know just what to really make of this initial report, first reported by the French wire service, Agence France-Press:

US BREAKS ISRAELI SPY RING

[Agence France-Press - AFP - Paris, 4/4/2002]: US authorities have broken a network of Israeli spies living in the United States who were trying to burrow into the justice and defence departments, a French website specialising in intelligence matters reported on Monday.

The site, Intelligence Online, said it had exclusive access to a US justice department report that showed that "a huge Israeli spy ring operating in the United States was rolled up by the Justice Department's counter-espionage service".

Around 120 Israelis were arrested or deported as a result of the operation, which it said had been kept top-secret up to now. The website said the ring was active in the states of Arkansas, California, Florida and Texas. It was arranged in around 20 cells of between four and eight members, who were aged between 22 and 30 and had recently completed Israeli military service in an intelligence division.

It named several Israelis alleged to be espionage operatives, including three 13 Israeli "art students" it said were arrested in the Texan city of Irving on March 26 and 27 last year.
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Source: http://www.middleeast.org/articles/2002/3/677.htm