User:Tiamut/IAS

=Newer Article= 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. , Australia, Seattle

The scam has been reported in Canada, Australia , New Zealand and Seattle.

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

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.

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. 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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Links claiming Israeli art student conspiracy

 * The Israeli Art Students Files
 * Suspicious Activities Involving Israeli Art Students at DEA Facilities (alleged DEA Report)
 * Carl Cameron of FOX News reports on Israeli Spying
 * The Israeli "Art Student" Mystery
 * The Spies Who Came In From The Art Sale
 * Urban Myth, My Ass!
 * An Enigma: Vast Israeli Spy Network Dismantled in the US
 * U.S. arrests 200 young Israelis in spying investigation
 * Intelligence Agents or Art Students?
 * French Reports: U.S. Busts Big Israeli Spy Ring
 * Next Door to Mohammed Atta
 * Report details U.S. 'intelligence failures'
 * German press reports on Israeli Art Students
 * The Israeli Spy Ring
 * The Israeli Spy Ring Scandal

Skeptical links

 * Reports of Israeli Spy Ring Dismissed
 * Refuting theories about Israeli involvement in the 9/11 attacks.