On the eve of the 9/11 anniversary and in an eerie repeat of
Israeli �art student� activity a year and a half prior to the 9/11 attack
at the offices and homes of federal government, U.S. military, and even federal
judges, WMR has been informed of an increase in similar renewed activity
at the homes of current and former federal officials.
In the most recent incident, federal officials of the
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) report Israeli �art students�
visiting their homes in Brea, California, in Orange County. Similar to the art
student activity in late 2000 and early 2001, one Israeli, accompanied by one
or two others, including a driver, canvassed the neighborhood offering Israeli
paintings door-to-door. The TSA individuals in the area are not airport
screeners but more senior officials of the aviation security agency, part of
the Department of Homeland Security. In 2000 and 2001, it was the Drug
Enforcement Administration (DEA) that initiated an investigation of the
activity as an intelligence operation by Israel but the investigation was
eventually halted a few months prior to 9/11 on the orders of Attorney General
John Ashcroft and FBI director Louis Freeh. After 9/11 and the revelation of
the Israeli operation in the media, FBI director Robert Mueller continued the �hands-off�
approach to the Israeli activity.
WMR has also been alerted by a former member of Congress to
a new twist in Israeli activity in the Atlanta area. Foreign individuals
meeting the description of Israelis have visited the homes and made phone calls
to the family and a friend of the former member, asking if they would
consider hosting a foreign exchange student at their residences. There are
reports that these foreign exchange student canvassers travel in groups and
drive into neighborhoods in a similar fashion to the Israeli art student
vendors.
After reports that some Israeli mall kiosk vendors
selling Dead Sea skin care products had vanished from certain malls around
the country, WMR has received a report of Israelis working at the Coronado Mall
in Albuquerque, New Mexico engaging in aggressive sales tactics.
WMR has previously reported on Israeli kiosk vendors asking
probing questions of military members at malls in Norfolk, Virginia; Columbia,
Maryland; and at Pentagon City in Arlington, Virginia. Albuquerque is the home
of Kirtland Air Force Base, which hosts the Air Force Nuclear Weapons
Center and its subordinate wings, the 498th Nuclear Systems Wing and the
377th Air Base Wing. Kirtland is also the home of the Defense Threat
Reduction Agency (DTRA) Albuquerque office, the Air Force Safety Center,
the Air Force Inspection Agency, the Air Force Operational Test and evaluation
Center.
Previously
published in the Wayne
Madsen Report.
Copyright � 2010 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne
Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and
nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report
(subscription required).