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The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

salon.com

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Re: The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

#23

Man, this makes me really miss Actual Journalism.

I've seen lots of negative comments (and negative moderation) on HN toward content sourced from Fox News and The Washington Times (and other "conservative" outlets). This article seems to claim that those two employed the only journalists actually pursuing this story, and that other outlets (such as The Washington Post) were actively trying to discredit or sabotage their work. I'm in the small minority that only gets…

Things have changed a lot in 20 years but well done on having an open mind

Re: The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

#24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen lots of negative comments (and negative moderation) on HN toward content sourced from Fox News and The Washington Times (and other "conservative" outlets). This article seems to claim that those two employed the only journalists actually pursuing this story, and that other outlets (such as The Washington Post) were actively trying to discredit or sabotage their work. I'm in the small minority that only gets…

Not that I'm disagreeing with you, but I simply found it startling that the article was so well-written, and well-researched, given that my only exposure to Salon has been since the “bloggification of news”, which has seen them become just as much of a shitrag as everyone else these days. But this guy put some serious time and effort into researching this story, and then further time and effort to coalesce it into th…

[deleted]

Re: The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have never seen that before. If I am reading that correctly: it is interesting that Israel was doing the work on US soil, giving the FBI/CIA a heads up about a potential large scale terrorist attack against the US and then the FBI/CIA seemingly do little to stop what eventually becomes 9/11 later that year. The FBI/CIA then obfuscate where their intel came from.

"Why the Israeli government decided not to share with us all the critical information they had, and the extent of that information, is a subject for the public inquiry. They may have thought some sort of warning prudent in the event their surveillance activities later became a matter of public knowledge. But any energetic Israeli effort to assist the United States in preventing the attacks would not have served their…

Keep in mind that Gerald Shea was a lawyer (DA in California at the time he wrote this) without access to any official information this isn’t an official document, it’s something that a person wrote on their own and submitted it.

This is very much bordering on conspiracy theories…

Re: The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

#26

Check out the Shea Memorandum, see page 53 in the PDF for the detailed short summary of points. https://www.yale64.org/news/shea.pdf

Updated version of the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of... ?

Despite the downvotes not far off…

Re: The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

#27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Why the Israeli government decided not to share with us all the critical information they had, and the extent of that information, is a subject for the public inquiry. They may have thought some sort of warning prudent in the event their surveillance activities later became a matter of public knowledge. But any energetic Israeli effort to assist the United States in preventing the attacks would not have served their…

Keep in mind that Gerald Shea was a lawyer (DA in California at the time he wrote this) without access to any official information this isn’t an official document, it’s something that a person wrote on their own and submitted it. This is very much bordering on conspiracy theories…

Thanks for the info on Gerald Shea! Though if you'd like to comment on the "Shea Memorandum" / Gerald Shea I think that would be more appropriate on the parent comment?

A question was asked, I answered with the relevant quote from the paper, you replied "conspiracy theory" on that specific quote & ad-hominem'ed the author?

Calling "conspiracy theory" is not good-faith discussion and employs a number of logical fallacies like appeal to ridicule & poisoning the well.

What parts of the "Shea Memorandum" do you think are likely non-factual? The Israeli art students?

Re: The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

#29
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen lots of negative comments (and negative moderation) on HN toward content sourced from Fox News and The Washington Times (and other "conservative" outlets). This article seems to claim that those two employed the only journalists actually pursuing this story, and that other outlets (such as The Washington Post) were actively trying to discredit or sabotage their work. I'm in the small minority that only gets…

Things have changed a lot in 20 years but well done on having an open mind

I agree that things have changed. Objective journalism has suffered greatly over the past 20 years.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advocacy_journalism

Re: The Israeli "art student" mystery (2002)

#30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've seen lots of negative comments (and negative moderation) on HN toward content sourced from Fox News and The Washington Times (and other "conservative" outlets). This article seems to claim that those two employed the only journalists actually pursuing this story, and that other outlets (such as The Washington Post) were actively trying to discredit or sabotage their work. I'm in the small minority that only gets…

> other outlets (such as The Washington Post) were actively trying to discredit or sabotage their work. This is news to me. Can you share more about it, articles published, etc..?

Did you read the article?

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Still, the U.S. press was uninterested. Just one day after the Le Monde report, the Washington Post ran a story on March 6 that seemed to put the whole thing to rest. Headlined “Reports of Israeli Spy Ring Dismissed,” the piece, by John Mintz and Dan Eggen, opened with official denials from a “wide array of U.S. officials” and quoted Justice Department spokeswoman Susan Dryden as saying, “This seems to be an urban myth that has been circulating for months. The department has no information at this time to substantiate these widespread reports about Israeli art students involved in espionage.”

The Post quoted anonymous officials who said they thought the allegations had been “circulated by a single employee of the Drug Enforcement Administration who is angry that his theories have not gained currency … [T]wo law enforcement officials said the disgruntled DEA agent, who disagreed with the conclusion of FBI and CIA intelligence experts that no spying was taking place, appears to be leaking a memo that he himself wrote.”

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