> >5 Israelis detained for `puzzling behavior' after WTC tragedy >By Yossi Melman (Ha'aretz, 17 September 2001) > >Five Israelis who had worked for a moving company based in New Jersey are >being held in U.S. prisons for what the Federal Bureau of Investigation has >described as "puzzling behavior" following the terror attack on the World >Trade Center in New York last Tuesday. The five are expected to be deported >sometime soon. > >The families of the five, who asked that their names not be released, said >that their sons had been questioned by the FBI for hours on end, had been >kept in solitary confinement for three days, and had been humiliated, >stripped of their clothes and blindfolded. > >The mother of one of the young men explained the chain of events as she >understands it to Ha'aretz: > >She said that the five had worked for the company, which is owned by an >Israeli, for between two months and two years. They had been arrested some >four hours after the attack on the Twin Towers while filming the smoking >skyline from the roof of their company's building, she said. It appears that >they were spotted by one of the neighbors who called the police and the FBI. > >The mother said that the families and friends of the five in Israel had >known nothing of the men's whereabouts for a number of days. > >"When they finally let my son make a phone call for the first time to a >friend in the United States two days ago, he told him that he had been >tortured by the FBI in a basement," the mother said. "He was stripped to his >underwear; he was blindfolded and questioned for 14 hours. They thought that >because he has citizenship of a European country as well as of Israel that >he was working for the Mossad [Israel's secret service]." > >Seven FBI agents later stormed the apartment of one of the Israelis, >searched it and questioned his roommate. The Israeli owner of the company, >who has U.S. citizenship, was also questioned. Both men were subsequently >released. > >The families here complained that the Israeli consulate in New York and the >situation room set up by the Foreign Ministry there to locate missing >Israelis had done nothing to help their sons. The Foreign Ministry told the >families that the FBI had denied holding the five and that the consulate had >chosen to believe the FBI, the mother said. > >The five were transferred out of the FBI's facility on Saturday morning and >are now being held in two prisons in New Jersey by the Immigration and >Naturalization Services. They are charged with illegally residing in the >United States and working there without permits. > >The Foreign Ministry said in response that it had been informed by the >consulate in New York that the FBI had arrested the five for "puzzling >behavior." They are said to have had been caught videotaping the disaster >and shouting in what was interpreted as cries of joy and mockery. >========================================================= >To unsubscribe send an e-mail to: >RePorterNoteBook@aol.com > >From ......RePortersNoteBook.com >What sort of Truth is it that crushes the freedom to seek the truth? >RePortersNoteBook.com........... Bulletin Board >Add your thoughts or start your own discussion... >Michael Santomauro >RePortersNoteBook.com >212-787-7891