9 Israelis face deportation-Spy agency suspects they may be foreign agts

[eablair3]

the israeli art students back in the news.

___________________

Ottawa Sun
September 19, 2003

Nine Israelis face deportation
Spy agency suspects they may be foreign agents

By JOHN STEINBACHS and ANDREW SEYMOUR
Ottawa Sun

NINE Israeli nationals -- who CSIS suspects are possible foreign agents -- were arrested by Immigration and Ottawa police tactical officers last Friday, blocks from Parliament Hill.

The nine have all been charged by Immigration for working in Canada illegally. All are in their 20s and were apparently selling art in Ottawa. The arrests follow similar takedowns of Israelis in Toronto and Calgary over the past few weeks.

An Ottawa police source said police were told members of the group were possible agents from Mossad, Israel's spy agency, but given no further information by CSIS.

CSIS declined to comment yesterday.

snip

"We're outraged"

The story of Israeli art students peddling paintings in foreign countries has been reported in the media and on the Internet in the past.

U.S. reports have alleged that groups of students had been trying to sell art in federal government buildings, prompting concerns about intelligence gathering, but no proof has ever been found linking the art peddlers with espionage.

"I keep seeing these things and looking into them, I really don't know how credible they are," said former CSIS chief of strategic planning David Harris. "Certainly it would be extremely surprising if such an outfit would repeat a (technique) in that sort of way."

Israeli Embassy spokesman Ben Forer said the matter is being treated very seriously.

"These are illegal workers ... we're outraged by this," he said. "We expect Israeli citizens that would like to work in Canada to equip themselves with the appropriate work permits before they come to Canada."

Forer laughed when asked if the arrests had anything to do with terrorism or if the nine are agents of Mossad -- whose operatives have been known in the past to favour using bogus Canadian passports.

"We don't know full details about what the paintings were but it was a completely commercial matter," Forer said.

http://fairuse.1accesshost.com/news1/ottawa-sun1.html

[drewb]

1. Ahhh yes... The infamous "art students"...

Whatever could they have been doing???

Hmmmm.... :tinfoilhat:

[Fight_n_back]

2. According to the article

they were selling art.

[Darranar]

3. I think you're right, YANG...

to me, this seems to be a load of conspiracy theorist junk.