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The Israeli art student scam is a well-known con in which Israelis, claiming to be travelling art students, approach people in their homes or on the street and attempt to sell them oil paintings and frames for excessive prices. The paintings are represented as original and valuable art by up-and-coming talents but are in fact cheap, mass-produced works bought wholesale from China. The scammers explain that they are directly approaching people with offers because properly exhibiting the work in a gallery would be prohibitively expensive. [1], Australia[2], Seattle [3]

The scam has been reported in Canada [1], Australia[2], New Zealand [4] and Seattle [3].

The Northern Territory police has released a warning about the scheme. [5]

2001–2002 Israeli art student spying scandal

During the 2001–2002 period in the United States there were official reports of hundreds of young Israelis posing as art students spying on federal buildings and employees.

In January 2001 Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) field offices around the country reported that the "art students" had been attempting to penetrate offices for over a year, as well as other law enforcement and Department of Defence agencies. They had also visited the homes of many DEA officers and senior federal officials and attempted to sell art. Suspicious agents observed that when the "art students" departed they did not approach their neighbours. DEA Agents reported on 130 incidents involving "art student". Some "art students" were caught diagramming the architecture of federal buildings. Some were found to have photographed federal officials. [6]

Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive warning

In March 2001, the US Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (NCIX) issued a warning about people identifying themselves as "Israeli art students" attempting to bypass security and gain entry to federal buildings, and even to the private residences of senior federal officials under the guise of selling art.[7] Subsequently to the NCIX bulletin, officials raised other red flags, including an Air Force alert, a Federal Protective Services alert, an Office of National Drug Control Policy security alert and a request that the Immigration and Naturalization Service investigate a specific case. The "art students" were subsequently treated with more caution by officials. [6]

Leaked Drug Enforcement Agency report

A leaked 60-page DEA report in 2002 revealed that up to 200 young Israelis had been arrested in America in the past year, of which about 140 were arrested before the September 11 attacks. The other 60 were arrested on October 31, 2002 by the FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service in San Diego, Kansas City, Cleveland, Houston and St. Louis. Rather than selling art, these Israelis were working in kiosks in shopping centres across America selling toys. The FBI was investigating the kiosks as a front operation for espionage activities. The report said that most of the Israelis interrogated by Americans reported having served in the IDF in military intelligence, electronic signals interception and explosive ordnance units. One of the detainees was an Israeli general's son, another was a former bodyguard to the chief of the IDF, and another had operated Patriot missiles.[8][9] In 2002 several officials dismissed reports of a spy ring and said the allegations were made by a Drug Enforcement Agency who was angry his theories had been dismissed.[10]

Ha'aretz also published an article on the spying allegations, noting that most of the allegations were based upon an internal report from the DEA. [11]

September 11 allegations

It has been suggested that operatives in this "art student spy ring" were tracking the 9/11 hijackers and knew that the attacks were going to take place, although the DEA memo was primarily concerned with the students' efforts to foil investigations into unrelated Israeli organized crime.[12]

German weekly Die Zeit published two articles regarding the September 11 controversy, one of which, titled "Next Door to Mohammed Atta" concerned allegations that Israeli intelligence had been tailing the 911 hijackers before the attack. [13] [14]

Some of the Israeli "art students" lived for a period of time in Hollywood, Florida, the same small city where Mohammed Atta and fellow terrorists had lived before September 11. [6]

References

  1. ^ a b ""Israeli art scam" preying on people's kindness". Calgary Sun. 2009-08-19. |first=Renato |last=Gandia
  2. ^ a b "Oil painting scam hits the Border". Border Mail. 2009-04-22.
  3. ^ a b "Information On An Israeli Art Scam". Komo News. 2006-08-30.
  4. ^ Coulter, Narelle (2006-01-18). "Door slammed on 'original' art scam". Star News Group.
  5. ^ "Police warn against art scam". Northern Territory police. 2006-11-22.
  6. ^ a b c Ketcham, Christopher (2002-05-07). "The Israeli "art student" mystery".
  7. ^ "Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive: Suspicious Visitors to Federal Facilities (archived at Internet Archive". Archived from the original on 2007-01-24.
  8. ^ "Telegraph.co.uk: US arrests 200 young Israelis in spying investigation".
  9. ^ "Sunday Herald (UK) via Internet Archive: 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?". Archived from the original on 2006-04-23.
  10. ^ Mintz, John (March 7, 2002). "U.S. officials dismiss report of Israeli spies". Washington Post. Retrieved October 18, 2008. ((cite news)): Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Guttman, Nathan (2002-05-07). "Spies, or students? Were the Israelis just trying to sell their paintings, or agents in a massive espionage ring?". Haaretz.
  12. ^ An Enigma: Vast Israeli Spy Network Dismantled in the US. Le Monde (Paris) March 5, 2002. Retrieved 2010-01-12.
  13. ^ "Deadly Mistakes". Die Zeit. 2002-10-02.
  14. ^ "Next Door to Mohammed Atta". Die Zeit. 2002-10-02.

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Israeli art students exist in fairly large Israeli artist colonies in Israel and have gained notice in the United States in a number of ways. For example, they have migrated to trendy art centers in New York City such as in Manhattan's Greenwich Village, known as The Village, SoHo and Tribeca. These young Israeli artists have created paintings and works of art and in order to raise some money for themselves, some have gone door to door in major American cities, such as in Manhattan, and have attempted to sell works of art to workers and people in offices and businesses.

During the first half of 2001, individuals saying they were Israeli art students attempted to sell art work at United States federal government offices and the homes of U.S. federal officials, as well as at homes and offices of persons not connected to the federal government. In March, 2001 the American Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX) described these individuals, and noted that there were possibly two different groups describing themselves as "Israeli art students", one with "an apparently legitimate money-making goal" and a "second, perhaps a non-Israeli group" which possibly had "ties to a Middle Eastern Islamic fundamentalist group". ONCIX directed U.S. government employees to report these kinds of activities to security officials.[1]

Some of the government buildings at which these individuals appeared housed offices of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA). It is possible that at least one (and perhaps a few more) American federal law enforcement agents became suspicious of these individuals and started an investigation into whether they were attempting to gain information from government employees. An anonymous individual who may have been a DEA employee assembled a narrative depicting attempts by Israelis and others to sell art to federal workers. This anonymous individual concluded the Israeli art student phenomenon may have been "an organized intelligence gathering activity." The narrative also alleged that the individuals were not enrolled in art universities, that the art itself was made in China, and that the individuals had backgrounds with the Israeli military in areas of intelligence, surveillance,and explosives. However, the provenance of the narrative is not known. It is not an official DEA report. An alleged photocopy of the document containing the narrative does not include timestamps and security classifications of a type often found in government documents. It is unclear whether any DEA agents were involved in writing the report or how many believed its contents or conclusions to be accurate. Subsequent stories in Fox News the Associated Press and Le Monde reported claims that Israeli criminal networks and/or the Israeli government's intelligence establishment had used the cover of Israeli art students to conduct espionage and surveillance activities in the United States and Europe. The Arab press and conspiracy theorists took up the stories, often linking them to various 9/11 conspiracy theories.[2]

On March 6 2002 the Washington Post published an article stating that the alleged DEA report was actually an unofficial draft by a disgruntled DEA official. According to the Post "allegations ... of a massive U.S. probe of Israeli spies appear to have been circulated by a single employee of the Drug Enforcement Administration who is angry that his theories have not gained currency ... [and who] appears to be leaking a memo that he himself wrote." The Post also reported, "a wide array of U.S. officials yesterday dismissed reports that the U.S. government had broken up an Israeli espionage ring ..." Justice Department official Susan Dryden characterized the allegations as an "urban myth." Immigration official Russell Bergeron said the arrests of young Israelis were "routine, normal cases ... I have no knowledge of any espionage-related issues with these people." The narrative itself is posted online here http://cryptome.org/dea-il-spy.htm

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