Sept. 8/9/10, 2006 -- According to a source who knew the late FBI John O'Neill, the head of the Joint Terrorism Task Force in New York and the man who fought bureaucratic meddling in his investigation of the October 2000 USS Cole bombing and the Saudi connection to the funding of Al Qaeda, was also investigating Israeli "art students" and "movers" engaged in suspicious activity around sensitive facilities prior to the 911 attacks. O'Neill, who accepted the job as head of World Trade Center security just prior to 911 and after his retirement from the Bureau, was killed when the South Tower collapsed.
It is known that O'Neill was extremely upset at what he considered interference in his investigation of the Saudis and Israelis by the highest levels of the Bush administration and the FBI bureaucracy. WMR conducted a major investigation of the Israeli "art students" and "movers" story. Click here.
O'Neill was put under official FBI investigation after his briefcase, containing classified documents, was stolen at an FBI pre-retirement conference in Florida and recovered by police a few hours later in another Orlando hotel -- classified papers intact -- with a Montblanc pen, lighter, and cigar cutter missing. It is believed that among the documents contained in O'Neill's briefcase were reports about Israeli intelligence activity -- reports that originally emanated from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and later contained in a massive DEA report on the suspicious activities of the Israeli operatives in locations where the future 911 hijackers were also active.
The FBI continues to conduct a piecemeal approach to investigating Israeli "false flag" terrorist operations in the United States. However, on occasion, the FBI's surveillance of Israeli diplomat-spies also reveals their involvement with drug smuggling, particularly Ecstasy, and in one recent case -- pedophilia. The FBI has had the Israeli Consulate-General in Atlanta and its assigned diplomats (and intelligence agents) under electronic and physical surveillance since the consulate represents an important Israeli intelligence outpost responsible for the American Southeast. It is the Atlanta consulate that serves as a liaison to jailed Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard, who is imprisoned at the Butner Federal prison in North Carolina. The Atlanta consulate also interceded on behalf of Israeli agents disguised as "movers" and "art students" who were detained and arrested by Federal, state, and local police in Florida, Louisiana, North Carolina, and other states in the region before and after the 911 attacks. One of those who ran interference for arrested Israeli movers is Atlanta Deputy Counsel Aviv Ezra, a reported intelligence agent who routinely visits Pollard in prison.
FBI surveillance of the Israeli Consulate-General in Atlanta resulted in the recent arrest by Columbus, Georgia police and FBI and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents of Yosef Sagir Ofri, a diplomat assigned to the consulate-general on charges that he committed "illegal acts relating to sodomy, aggravated sodomy, child molestation and aggravated child molestation, utilizing verbal descriptions, narrative accounts and photographic depictions" through his use of the Internet and e-mail to make contact with minors. Ofri served as the security officer at the Israeli diplomatic post, a diplomatic portfolio that often disguises Mossad operatives. Sagir was indicted by a Columbia County grand jury before authorities moved in to make the arrest outside his home in DeKalb County. The FBI and other U.S. intelligence surveillance of Israeli targets had increased to "surge" levels in the weeks prior to the fifth anniversary of the 911 attacks.
In Sagiv's bail hearing, Superior Court Judge Duncan Wheale expressed surprise that prosecutors were merely asking for $25,000 bail and said that he would have granted a $75,000 bond. Wheale granted a $50,000 bail. Sagiv's defense attorney presented a letter of support for Sagiv from a local FBI agent who said he vouched for Sagiv because of his teaching anti-terrorism classes in the Atlanta area. Present at Sagiv's bail hearing were senior members of the Israeli Consulate General and one Israeli government official who flew from Tel Aviv to Atlanta. Part of Sagiv's bail agreement prohibits him from obtaining another passport without the prior knowledge of the U.S. government and the Columbia County District Attorney's office.
Israeli spies caught in the United States are routinely permitted to return to Israel without any protests from the United States. It is a situation that irritates rank-and-file CIA, FBI, and local law enforcement officials.
