Dangerous Blind Spot in War on Terror

Israeli ‘Movers’ Detained, Deported Without Investigation

 

By Christopher Bollyn

 

A gaping hole in America’s “war on terrorism” was exposed by the reaction of federal law enforcement to recent criminal activity allegedly carried out by Israeli military personnel in the proximity of U.S. nuclear facilities.

Two recent incidents in the Southeastern United States reveal how Israeli military personnel can violate U.S. laws and are only deported when they are caught.

The first incident occurred in the proximity of several nuclear facilities in Erwin, Tenn., including the Nuclear Fuel Services plant.

Nuclear Fuel Services is a company that provides fuel for nuclear submarines and reprocesses spent nuclear materials. This is the kind of radioactive material that could be used in a so-called “dirty bomb,” which senior law enforcement officials say they fear could be used someplace in the United States this summer.

The Israeli incident began late on Saturday afternoon, May 8, when Unicoi County (Tenn.) Sheriff Kent Harris spotted a rental truck speeding on former U.S. Highway 23, a lightly traveled highway near the North Carolina state line.

Two young Israeli men in the rented moving truck evaded Harris in a high-speed chase for three miles. During the chase the Israelis threw a bottle containing a fluid from the truck, an act they later denied. The vial contained an unknown substance, which appeared to be some kind of accelerant because it became warm when it was shaken, said Harris.

“They were driving recklessly and at a high rate of speed down an old highway that nobody uses anymore. I was really concerned because the driver would not stop after I flashed my headlights for nearly three miles. He was weaving back and forth, and I was wondering what a large truck was doing on a two-lane highway instead of the much-faster I-26 interstate,” Harris told independent journalist Dan Hopsicker.

“They ignored my blue lights for two-and-a-half miles, and they were traveling 20 miles an hour over posted speed limits,” the sheriff said.

Asked if it was possible the Israelis were unaware they were being pursued, the sheriff said: “Oh no, he had to see me. The siren was going. . . . I could see him in the mirror, looking back at me.”

Two young Israelis, Shmuel Dahan, 23, and Almaliach Naor, were taken into custody. In the wallet of Dahan, an Israeli soldier based in Miami Beach, police reportedly discovered a “Learn to Fly in Florida” business card.

The Israelis’ truck tested positive for drugs, Hopsicker reported. “While the FBI dismissed the finding as a ‘false positive,’ local law enforcement regard the test as highly accurate,” wrote Hopsicker.

“They were just three miles from where, if you get off at exit 15, off I-26, you’re just a half-mile from all the nuclear plants,” Harris told the Associated Press. “There’s Nuclear Fuel Services, which is a privately owned company. Studdwick, another privately owned company. And they’re building a third one now.

“I got a sick feeling when I saw it. It’s the nation’s sole provider of fuel for the Navy’s nuclear subs,” said Harris.

Harris contacted the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and various local authorities to investigate the situation.

“We’re not overreacting. We have a responsibility to protect the citizens of Unicoi County, and that’s what I’m going to do at any cost. I’d rather overreact, if that’s what you call it, than be sorry later,” Harris said.

LEARN TO FLY

Hopsicker claims that the “Learn to Fly in Florida” business card belongs to another Israeli named Nissan Giat.

Giat is an “Israeli military veteran,” said Hopsicker, and a freelance flight instructor in the Miami area, working out of the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport.

Asked about Dahan and Naor, Giat told Hopsicker: “These guys aren’t terrorists; they belong to the Israeli military.”

The two Israeli soldiers were carrying false identification cards. Dahan had a fake Florida driver’s license, and Naor had a phony identification card.

Dahan was charged with reckless driving, littering, false identification and evading arrest. Naor was charged with false identification and evading arrest.

The truck, rented from Ryder, was reportedly held for an FBI investigation, according to officials. Police said the FBI was investigating the Israelis.

However Special Agent Gary Kidder of the Knoxville field office denied that federal law enforcement was looking into the arrest.

“Your premise is all wrong. An FBI investigation was never opened. The case was never turned over to the FBI,” Kidder told AFP.

The only charges brought against the two Israelis, Kidder said, were immigration charges.

The two were quickly released from government custody after a judge in Erwin, Tenn., suspended a 30-day sentence and turned them over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a bureau under the Department of Homeland Security.

Immigration officials said Dahan and Naor would be subject to immediate deportation. Yet despite convictions for evading arrest and working illegally on tourist visas, the Israelis were soon released and back at Summit Moving Van Lines in Miami, claims Hopsicker.

A spokesperson at the Washington office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement was unable to answer any questions by press time about the status of the two Israelis or two others who were recently detained trying to access a naval submarine base near St. Marys, Ga.

On May 21, two Israeli “movers” with false identification tried to enter the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, home to eight Trident submarines. When an inspection of their rented moving truck revealed evidence of explosives, the base was shut down for more than three hours, according to base spokesman Ed Buczek.

When Tamir D. Sason, 24, and Daniel Levy, 23, tried to access the base without proper identification an inspection team checked out the truck. Dogs trained to detect explosives and drugs “hit on something in the cab of the truck,” Buczek told AFP. “Potential explosives” led to a lockdown of the base, and St. Mary’s police closed off the area around the base and called in a bomb squad.

It was a “textbook scenario,” Buczek said. “We saw something that wasn’t right.

Buczek told AFP that guards closed access to the base and notified the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service.

Buczek said the two were driving a Budget rental truck and were working for the moving company, Advantage Moving and Storage in Norcross, Ga.

There was no answer when AFP made repeated phone calls to the office of Advantage on May 26 and May 27.

SUSPICIOUS MOVING COMPANIES

Israeli-owned “moving companies” have been involved in numerous cases of criminal activity across the country. One notable case was a company based in Weehawken, N.J., which many people believe was an Israeli intelligence operation with prior knowledge of the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Four of its agents were detained in the immediate aftermath of 9-11 after being caught filming and apparently celebrating the terror attacks on the World Trade Center.

After being held and refusing to cooperate with government investigators, the four were turned over to immigration authorities and deported to Israel. One of the four later told Israeli radio that the “movers” with video cameras had been prepared to “document” the attacks.

Like some 60 other Israelis apprehended in the aftermath of 9-11, the two young Israeli movers who tried to access Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base, were turned over to federal immigration officers.

Although the truck had tested positive for explosives, and a thorough criminal investigation should have been conducted, the two were released to immigration authorities because one of them was carrying an expired passport. The two were reportedly being held for deportation.

Marc Raimondi, spokesman at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in Washington, told AFP that both Sason and Levy will be deported. Raimondi said ICE had taken custody of the two individuals and checked them out through immigration and known criminal databases. Their only offense, Raimondi said, was that they had worked illegally on visitor visas.

“Perhaps the conspiracy theory has merit,” Raimondi said when asked why Israeli agents involved in criminal activities were being deported on visa violations. Raimondi was unable to answer when asked if DHS was concerned about the network of Israeli-owned moving companies in the United States, some with proven ties to Israeli intelligence.

He said the agency welcomes any information that could be helpful.