Jonathan Elinoff

Truth Alliance

October 20, 2009

Here is the mp3 of the 2nd appearance on Kevin Barret’s show where I explained in detail the rest of the story of the art students.

Kevin Barret’s Show (MP3) – Jonathan Elinof on the Israeli Art Student Mossad Connection

WATCH: Video of “;B-Thing”; Art Book

TruthAlliance Archived Link

To hear the details of the WTC Art Student story, listen to the following post from when I was on the Kevin Barret Show for the 2nd appearance. Although it was made clear that the story was to be released on Kevin Barret’s show, many missed the broadcast. This article will contain the information for part 2 of a story I began to break a few weeks ago.

Many misconceptions were and still are spreading about what exactly the implications of the story I broke are. The truth is, there has to be some background for people to understand the full scope of the investigation.

The Original Art Student Connection to 9/11

In January, 2001, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Office of Security Programs (IS), began to receive reports of Israeli art students attempting to penetrate several DEA Field Offices in the continental United States. Additionally, there have been reports of Israeli art students visiting the homes of numerous DEA employees. These incidents have occurred since at least the beginning of 2000, and have continued to the present. The number of reported incidents increased in November/December 2000, and has continued to date.

These incidents have involved several other law enforcement and Department of Defense agencies, with contacts made at other agencies’ facilities and the residences of their employees. Geographically, these incidents are very widespread, ranging from California to Florida. The majority of the incidents have occurred in the southern half of the continental U.S. with the most activity reported in the state of Florida. Since April 2001, the number of reported incidents has declined, however, the geographic spread of the incidents has increased to Wisconsin, Oklahoma, and Los Angeles. The activities of these Israeli art students raised the suspicion of IS and other field offices when attempts were made to circumvent the access control systems at DEA offices, and when these individuals began to solicit their paintings at the homes of DEA employees. The nature of the individuals’ conduct, combined with intelligence information and historical information regarding past incidents involving Israeli Organized Crime, leads IS to believe the incidents may well be an organized intelligence gathering activity. It is believed by IS that these incidents should not be the basis for any immediate concern for the safety and security of DEA personnel, however, employees should continue to exercise due caution in safeguarding information relating to DEA investigations, or activities.

DEA Orlando developed the first drug nexus to this group. Telephone numbers obtained from an Israel Art Student encountered at the Orlando D.O. have been linked to several ongoing DEA MDMA (Ecstasy) investigations in Florida, California, Texas, and New York. The Orlando D.O. has opened an investigation that is being coordinated with DEA HQs.

In general, these individuals appear to be organized in teams of 8 to 10 people, with one person described as the “;Team Leader”;. They are usually encountered in pairs or individually carrying a makeshift art portfolio. Several times, they have, been seen or admitted to being dropped off in an area by the Team Leader, who returns later to pick them up. The females are usually described as very attractive, and all are generally in their early to mid-20s. Most admit to having served in the Israeli Military. This is not surprising given the mandatory military service require in Israel, however, a majority of those questioned have stated they served in military intelligence, electronic signal intercept, or explosive ordinance units. Some have been linked to high-ranking officials in the Israeli military. One was the son of a two-star general, one served as the bodyguard to the head of the Israeli Army, one served in a Patriot missile unit. That these people are now traveling in the U.S. selling art seems not to fit their background.

Their stories are remarkable only in their consistency. At first, they will state that they are art students, either from the University of Jerusalem, or the Bezalel Academy of Arts in Jerusalem. Other times they will purport to be promoting a new art studio in the area. When pressed for details as to the location of the art studio or why they are selling the paintings, they become evasive. Some claim to be the artist who painted the artwork, others claim they are promoting the work of others or of Israel. Information has been received which indicates the art is actually produced in China. When told that they cannot solicit on federal facilities, they will claim that the paintings are not for sale, but that they are soliciting interest in the paintings, either for an art studio or for a future art sale.

An incident report by DEA Tampa has revealed much information relating to these individuals. DEA Agents at the Tampa District Office questioned the Team Leader of a group of 9 individuals at length, The Team Leader stated he purchases the paintings for $8 to $10 dollars from an individual in the Hollywood/Ft. Lauderdale, Florida area. The paintings are then sold for $50 to $80 dollars. (Other offices have reported the paintings selling for $150-$200 dollars.) The individuals come to the U. S. on tourist visas, and finance their stay here by selling the paintings. The Hollywood, Florida area seems to be a central point for these individuals with several having addresses in this area.

There have been incidents where criminal and/or suspicious activity has been associated with these individuals. Two were arrested by FPS in Plantation, FL with counterfeit Social Security Cards. Baton Rouge, LA discovered a small amount (personal use amount) of marijuana in the residence of one group, and some of the individuals interviewed by DEA/Tampa admitted to smoking marijuana. Criminal records checks have revealed some arrest history on persons associated with these groups. Passport irregularities have been reported. A review of their passports shows travel to several other countries, to include Thailand, Laos, India, Kenya, Central and South America, Australia, Germany, Amsterdam, and Canada. One individual presented a Canadian citizenship card along with his Israeli passport. A report from EPA/Denver involved a female art student going to the house of an EPA Special Agent to sell art, and returning later to photograph the house. There is a report of one of these individuals being seen diagramming the layout of a federal facility. This information has not been directly reported to DEA, and has not been confirmed by first-hand observation. When encountered at residences, some of these individuals are persistent in trying to get inside the home. Some have asked to use the telephone when leaving. Some employees have reported that they came only to their house, while others have reported that the students approached the entire neighborhood.

The B-Thing Connection

The members of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council were invited to use the 91 and 92 floor in WTC Tower 1, as part of a residency program (World Views program) from 1997 to 2001. In this program, the Gelitin crew, according to the New York Times article and the insert in the book I obtained from Gelitin, there were 14 art students who specifically shared the 91st floor together that knew and/or where involved in “The B Thing.”

According to the photos, those in the helicopter, across the street, and in the tower on the morning of the stunt number to around 6, although 4 are listed as having been involved in the stunt. There was a photographer on the ground taking photos of the helicopter and there were 2 other females with the 3 pictured men in the tower performing the stunt, so that added with the helicopter makes a minimum of 6 involved. Then there was the dealer of the art group who allegedly watched from a hotel. The New York Times article states, “Their dealer, who witnesses say watched the event from a hotel suite, now claims it never happened.”

90th floor WTC 1 B-Thing Israeli art students ready to remove a window

Members in their construction rigging and apparatus for the observation deck (crop)

Members in their construction rigging and aparatus for the observation deck (Full)

Diagam of observation deck

Boxes framing the observation deck area

Ariel view from rented helicopter showing member of B-Thing on observation deck

The night before the B-Thing, Mr. Harris said, he rented a top-floor suite at the Millennium Hilton, across the street from the Gelatin studio, and invited people to what guests described as a night of decadence. Near dawn, he and several others took cameras and boarded a helicopter, communicating with Gelatin via cell phone.

”If you write about the balcony, maybe you can just not write about it too much,” Ari Janka said to the New York Times to say after the initial interview he did with them, the first of several calls that allegedly took place protesting the appearance of the article released by the New York Times, despite the fact that the artists had published the book.

Josh Harris, the Internet entrepreneur once known for holding extravagant art parties, explained that Leo Koenig, the 24-year-old art dealer who represents Gelatin, got him involved. Mr. Koenig now says the balcony stunt never happened and, at any rate, he didn’t see it. The book is meant to provoke questions about its veracity, he said.

At the suggestion that the project might have been faked, Mr. Harris seemed almost offended. He produced March 2000 credit card bills bearing charges of $2,167.44 from the Millennium Hilton and $1,625 from Helicopter Flight Service.

Moukhtar Kocache, the director of the studio program, insisted that the photos of the balcony were obviously faked. But digital manipulation experts disagreed. George Dash, the co-owner of Nucleus Imaging on East 30th Street, and a colleague, John Grasso, used magnifying loupes to examine a copy of ”The B-Thing.” Neither could detect inconsistencies. ”The angles are all too perfect,” Mr. Grasso said. ”It looks real to me. Absolutely. I’ve been doing this for 22 years.”

Let me make clear that this stunt specifically was performing a construction operation in the WTC that was illegal according to WTC Security and the New York Times Article which states that certain people would have needed to of been contacted to remove a window from a building in New York as to not violate building codes and such. No one was contacted to be there outside the members involved in the stunt itself. It was initially denied that the stunt even took place, according to the New York Times, “Cherrie Nanninga, the director of real estate for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which until recently ran the World Trade Center. Port Authority officials, shown a copy of ”The B-Thing” by a reporter, reacted with disbelief, then outrage. Although their own investigation turned up no evidence, Ms. Nanninga said, ‘we have no reason to believe it didn’t happen.’ Window removal is considered so dangerous that when it is done the streets below are cordoned off, she said. ”It was really a stupid and irrational act that in my view borders on the criminal,” she said, adding that the stunt had jeopardized the studio program, whose space is donated by the Trade Center.”

Well it was criminal, because according to the New York skyscraper codes, she was right. The street would of needed to have been cordoned off and permits issued for the removal of a window, which is why in the insert of the book released by the art students, “Everything top secret and illegal of course. In days of conspiratorial work… They kept very mum about it all, because if word had crept out about their coup they could have been fined very heavily for sabotaging a national treasure… Incidentally, as proof that they were there, there is now a piece of old chewing gum stuck to the outside of the building at a dizzy height,” writes Tex Rubinowitz, in “The B-Thing.”

The art book shown in the video above shows the photos and drawings available to the public, however, after contacting some individuals involved with the stunt and a source who now lives in San Francisco who worked at the WTC on 9/11, I have obtained some other documents that never made it to the book, including a WTC construction pass.

Willie Rodriguez, one of the janitors who worked at the WTC and helped save lives that day, was the last person pulled from the rubble and was even recognized by the president for his actions. Aside from experiencing basement and sub-level explosions on 9/11 before the 1st plane hit, he also stated that he did see the art students in the WTC in an email exchange I had with him.

So why is all this information about an innocent art stunt so important, aside from the fact that these individuals had WTC construction passes in 2000 before releasing their book in August of 2001? Because according to the DEA report on the investigation into a separate story of art students in the country penetrating military bases, government agencies and so fourth as a part of a spy ring, 2 names show up in the arrests of over 140 spies that sparked interest for me.

Hanan Serfaty was arrested by DEA agents in connection to the Israeli spy ring. What makes him stand out, is that he was listed as being an art student who was apart of the World Views program, which was in the World Trade Center on floors 90 and 91 in the Lower Manhatten Cultural Council. Although he is not listed by Gelitin as a member of “The B-Thing,” the listing of the identities of the other 14 students who were on floor 91 at the time was never released to the public, neither was the total list of those involved in the stunt which numbers at a minimum of 6.

It should be noted that 1 member of the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council died on 9/11 while working in his studio on the 91st floor. His name appears on the list of those who were in the building when it came down.

Hanan was an “;art student”; who was a former Israeli military intelligence officer who rented two Hollywood apartments close to the mail drop and apartment of Mohammed Atta and four other hijackers. Serfaty was moving large amounts of cash: he carried bank slips showing more than $100,000 deposited from December 2000 through the first quarter of 2001; other bank slips showed withdrawals for about $80,000 during the same period. Serfaty’s apartments, serving as crash pads for at least two other “;art students”;, were located at 4220 Sheridan Street and 701 South 21st Avenue. Lead hijacker Mohammed Atta’s mail drop was at 3389 Sheridan Street–approximately 2,700 feet from Serfaty’s Sheridan Street apartment. Both Atta and Marwan al-Shehhi, the suicide pilot on United Airlines Flight 175, which smashed into World Trade Center 2, lived in a rented apartment at 1818 Jackson Street, some 1,800 feet from Serfaty’s South 21st Avenue apartment.

In fact, an improbable series of coincidences emerges from a close reading of the 2001 DEA memo, the 9/11 Commission’s staff statements and final report, FBI and Justice Department watch lists, hijacker timelines compiled by major media and statements by local, state and federal law enforcement personnel. In at least six urban centers, suspected Israeli spies and 9/11 hijackers and/or al-Qaeda¬ connected suspects lived and operated near one another, in some cases less than half a mile apart, for various periods during 2001 in the run-up to the attacks. In addition to northern New Jersey and Hollywood, Florida, these centers included Arlington and Fredericksburg, Virginia; Atlanta; Oklahoma City; Los Angeles; and San Diego.

Israeli “;art students”; also lived close to terror suspects in and around Dallas, Texas. A 25-year-old “;art student”; named Michael Calmanovic, arrested and questioned by Texas-based DEA officers in April 2001, maintained a mail drop at 3575 North Beltline Road, less than a thousand feet from the 4045 North Beltline Road apartment of Ahmed Khalefa, an FBI terror suspect. Dallas and its environs, especially the town of Richardson, Texas, throbbed with “;art student”; activity. Richardson is notable as the home of the Holy Land Foundation, an Islamic charity designated as a terrorist funder by the European Union and U.S. government in December 2001. Sources in 2002 told The Forward, in a report unrelated to the question of the “;art students”;, that “;Israeli intelligence played a key role in helping the Bush administration to crack down on Islamic charities suspected of funneling money to terrorist groups, most notably the Richardson, Texas-based Holy Land Foundation, last December [2001]”;. It’s plausible that the intelligence prompting the shutdown of the Holy Land Foundation came from “;art student”; spies in the Richardson area.

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