The Fox News network reported this month on the existence of an Israeli spy ring, which purportedly had advanced warning of the upcoming September 11th terrorist attacks, but did not pass on this information to the American authorities. But close examination of the television news report reveals little proof and much speculation based, at best, on circumstantial evidence.

Fox News correspondent Carl Cameron reported on December 11 of the arrest and/or detention of more than 60 Israelis in the weeks following September 11 "either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations." According to Cameron, a "handful of active Israeli military were among those detained" and investigators said that some of the detainees also failed polygraph questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States.

Cameron emphasized that there is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the September attacks, but raised the suspicion that the Israelis "may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it." Fox News reported on one group of Israelis who kept an apartment in California allegedly to keep track of a group of Arabs, that the U.S. was also investigating on suspicion of links to terrorism.

The Fox News report focused on a number of various, unconnected spying allegations. Even before September 11, the network reported, as many as 140 Israelis had been detained as part of an ongoing investigation into suspected Israeli espionage. Some of the Israelis "targeted and penetrated military bases," according to the report. Many of the Israelis involved, Fox said, were art students from the University of Jerusalem [sic] and Bazala [sic] Academy.

Israelis working at mall kiosks
"Another part of the investigation has resulted in the detention and arrests of dozens of Israelis at American mall kiosks, where they've been selling toys called Puzzle Car and Zoom Copter. Investigators suspect a front." - Fox News

An estimated 60 young Israelis were arrested and detained in the U.S. on immigration charges since September 11. Many of them ended up spending a month or longer in prison before being deported. Many of these Israelis found work with a moving company, operated by former Israelis, or at mall kiosks, where they did, in fact sell the toys mentioned in the Fox News report. The network of toy kiosks was also operated by former Israelis, whose apparent real crime was offering jobs to Israelis who hadn't received visa extensions or work permits.

Oren Feldmann and four other young Israelis were arrested in Columbia, Missouri, after they had been selling the toys in a city mall. Yaniv Hani and Oren Behr were held in custody in Ohio for four weeks where they were first asked about connections to terrorism, then whether they worked for the Mossad.

"After a while, I think that they (investigators) understand that we are not terrorists,'' Hani said, "so they think that we are spies from the Mossad that come to the U.S. to spy - to follow after Arab groups or to get pictures of Arab people and get pictures of buildings or something.''

Five young Israelis, who worked for a moving company in New Jersey and had overstayed their visas, are planning to sue American authorities for the abuse they say they were subjected to. They were reportedly kept in solitary confinement, beaten, deprived of food, and interrogated while blindfolded and in their underwear, as American authorities questioned them over supposed links to terrorism.

After the Americans realized that the young Israelis had no connection to terrorism, they were released from prison and deported from the United States. But, according to Maariv, four Israelis detained after September 11 are still being held in American prisons.

Mark Regev, a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, said that "not a single one [of the Israelis detained] has been charged with intelligence violations. It has all been visa violations.''

Telephone records
"Some American terrorist investigators fear certain suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks may have managed to stay ahead of them, by knowing who and when investigators are calling on the telephone - by obtaining and analyzing data that's generated every time someone in the U.S. makes a call." - Fox News

According to Fox, most directory assistance calls, and virtually all call records and billing in the U.S. are done for the phone companies by Amdocs, an Israeli-based private telecommunications company. Amdocs has contracts with the 25 biggest phone companies in America, and more worldwide. It is virtually impossible to make a call on normal phones, Fox reports, without generating an Amdocs record of it.

Fox said that Amdocs has been subject to an FBI investigation in recent years, under the suspicion that a record of calls in the United States was falling into foreign hands. An internal Amdocs memo, the report said, suggested that the call records could be used to prevent phone fraud. According to American security officials, security breaches were possible.

Fox clarifies that "U.S. intelligence does not believe the Israeli government is involved in a misuse of information, and Amdocs insists that its data is secure." Apparently, American officials are worried about the possibility that Amdocs data could get into the wrong hands, particularly organized crime. In other words, the Amdocs billing system's faults, if they exist, are not connected to the terrorism of September 11.

"Amdocs is unaware of any investigation or any charges against it raised in the Fox News report," stated Thomas O'Brien, a vice president in the company. "No one turned to us from the government, or from any other agency. We are certain that Amdocs has no connection to any illegal activities, whatsoever," he said.

Electronic eavesdropping
"Custom computers and software, made by companies like Comverse Infosys, a subsidiary of an Israeli-run private telecommunications firm, are tied into that network to intercept, record and store the wiretapped calls, and at the same time transmit them to investigators." - Fox News

According to Fox News, the Comverse systems have a back door through which wiretaps themselves can be intercepted by unauthorized parties. Raising the investigators' suspicion, apparently, is the fact that Comverse works closely with the Israeli government. Yet Fox offered no suggestions that the company's systems were part of an Israeli espionage effort.

"We deny everything in the Fox report," said Danny Bodner, CEO of Comverse Infosys. "There are no direct allegations against us in the report, only insinuations that sound like we are connected. They didn't even ask for our response. We are not acting in the name of the Israeli government, and we have no interest other than to supply equipment to our customers," he said.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington also emphatically denied the Fox allegations. "The report on Fox News contains no quoted source; it has in no way demonstrated anything more than anonymous innuendo, and should be regarded accordingly," Regev said. "Israel does not spy on the United States of America and the allegation that Israel did not share intelligence regarding the September 11 attack with the Americans is "totally unfounded and incorrect."

The four-part Fox News report portrayed various scenarios that "could" be possible but which offered no proof to the existence of an alleged Israeli spy ring. The main allegation - that Israeli agents "may have been" aware of plans to perpetrate the September 11 attacks, in Fox's own words, was never proven. Other examples given incorrectly suggested the reason for the detention of so many young Israelis and raised the possibility that two well-known Israeli companies "could have" utilized their technologies to conduct espionage. The main question behind Carl Cameron's report was left unanswered - what underlying motive did he have for trying to tie together many unconnected loose ends and suggest that they offered proof for Israeli spying in the United States?

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