The 4000 missing Israelis at the WTC

The case of the missing 4000 Israelis

Truth, hoax, or urban legend? A little bit of all three.

Nov 29, 2001 (last updated, Aug 29 2004)

You must have heard this story, especially if you live in the mainly Muslim areas of the world: 4000 Israeli citizens working at the World Trade Center are mysteriously absent on the morning of September 11, tipped off by the Israeli government (specifically, either Shabak or Mossad). To western eyes, this theory is completely ridiculous; unfortunately, this means that the claim has been treated dismissively by the media and the net in the West, with hardly any serious rebuttal at all. But the claim is still widely circulating in many other parts of the world, and is even accepted by officials of some governments, causing them to disbelieve the overwhelming evidence of Islamist terrorist involvement.

More precisely, the story being circulated comes from a September 17 report of Lebanon's Al-Manar television (as a simple Google search for Al-Manar and WTC will quickly attest). This report first circulated the 'net in a September 18 report on the Information Times mailing list [see footnote], and goes like this:

4,000 Jews Did Not Go To Work At WTC On Sept. 11

(AL-MANAR Television - Beirut Lebanon) With the announcement of the attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, the international media, particularly the Israeli one, hurried to take advantage of the incident and started mourning 4,000 Israelis who work at the two towers. Then suddenly, no one ever mentioned anything about those Israelis and later it became clear that they remarkably did not show up in their jobs the day the incident took place.

No one talked about any Israeli being killed or wounded in the attacks. Arab diplomatic sources revealed to the Jordanian al-Watan newspaper that those Israelis remained absent that day based on hints from the Israeli General Security apparatus, the Shabak, the fact which evoked unannounced suspicions on American officials who wanted to know how the Israeli government learned about the incident before it occurred, and the reasons why it refrained from informing the U.S authorities of the information it had.

Suspicions had increased further after Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot revealed that the Shabak prevented Israeli premier Ariel Sharon from traveling to New York and particularly to the city's eastern coast to participate in a festival organized by the Zionist organizations in support of the "Israel". Aharon Bernie, the commentator at the newspaper, brought up the issue and came up with a negative conclusion, saying "no answer". He then asked about the clue behind the Shabak's position in preventing Sharon's participation, and again without giving an answer.

Bernie added that Sharon, who was delighted for having his speech on top of the festival agenda, asked the head of the organization to mediate and convince the Shabak to change its position, but his attempts were in vain. The next day after Sharon's secretary officially announced that Sharon would not participate the incident took place.

For its part, the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper revealed that the FBI arrested five Israelis four hours after the attack on the Twin Towers while filming the smoking skyline from the roof of their company's building. The FBI had arrested the five for "puzzling behavior". They are said to have been caught videotaping the disaster in what was interpreted as cries of joy and mockery.

So there are three main points claimed here:

4000 Israelis/Jews didn't show up for work at the WTC, based on hints from Shabak, according to Arab diplomatic sources. The US knows this.
Sharon was prevented by Shabak from travelling to New York for an un-named "festival" by un-named "Zionist organizations".
The FBI arrested 5 Israelis four hours after the WTC attack.

This particular urban legend was partly debunked in an October 5 Slate article. Among the points made:

No independent confirmation of this story exists on the web.
Al-Manar Television has been used by Hezbollah as a propoganda tool. From this article in the Los Angeles Times, excerpted below:

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-000079328oct04.story (taken down now, but accessible via the Wayback machine)

October 4, 2001

LEBANON One Country's Terrorists Are Another's Liberators

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN, TIMES STAFF WRITER

AIN BOUSWAR, Lebanon -- Hezbollah, or Party of God [is] a Lebanese Shiite Muslim group that the United States has branded a terrorist organization, accusing it of operating cells around the world and having ties to Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network.

But to Lebanese, Hezbollah is a liberation movement, a well-oiled militia that forced Israel to withdraw after a nearly 20-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

...

Hezbollah's most high-tech and, some say, most effective tool is guarded by a man with an automatic weapon. Past a black metal gate, through a mirror-tiled lobby, up the secured elevator is the studio of Al Manar, or Hezbollah television.

The station allows Hezbollah to broadcast its brand of news to viewers throughout the region eager to have their sentiments confirmed, though there is still room for American comedies.

In the wake of the attacks on the United States it reported the widespread rumor that more than 4,000 Jews did not show up for work that day in the World Trade Center.

Krayem, the Al Manar executive, said the television engages in "psychological warfare" but has nothing to do with terrorism.

"If we are terrorists, then the French resistance were terrorists, then Americans are terrorists because they liberated Kuwait," he said.

The Information Times, who first reported the Al-Manar story on the net, is not exactly the most professional and unbiased news service in the region. It may well be that in transcribing the Al-Manar TV report, some liberties with the truth were taken to "enhance" the story. For instance,there is no Al-Watan Newspaper in Jordan.

All this does cast some doubt on the story, but doesn't really dispel it. Unfortunately, people on the net seem to have left it at that. (Officially, the story is being ignored, which is understandable given that official denials are often counterproductive. If someone alleged that 4,000 Britons didn't show up to work at the WTC, no-one would believe them - unless the British Government issued a hasty denial. Aha - now maybe there's a conspiracy!).

A little digging on Google does reveal more about the story. Basically, there is a tiny grain of truth to each of the three main points in the Al-Manar report, but they are distorted, intentionally or not, by a huge mass of misinformation. Here's what I found on

the 4000 missing Israelis;
Sharon's cancelled trip to NYC;
the FBI five.

The origin of the 4000 Israelis

"With the announcement of the attacks at the World Trade Center in New York, the international media, particularly the Israeli one, hurried to take advantage of the incident and started mourning 4,000 Israelis who work at the two towers. Then suddenly, no one ever mentioned anything about those Israelis and later it became clear that they remarkably did not show up in their jobs the day the incident took place.

To begin with, one should point out the distinction between Israelis and Jews. Most Israelis are Jewish (although there is a significant Arab minority, among others), but most Jews are not Israeli. For instance, there are slightly more Jewish-Americans than Israeli Jews. (There are also more Anglo-Americans than Anglo-Britons. The US is a big country).

Having said that, the fact that 4000 Israelis worked at the WTC is rather unbelievable, to put it mildly. There were about 50,000 workers at the WTC overall, spread out over about 300 companies. Of these companies, only 2 were Israeli owned (ZIM Israel Navigation company and ClearForest. Incidentally, some ClearForest staff - who were Israeli - did show up to work on Sep 11). Also, bear in mind that the entire population of Israel is only about 6 million, compared to roughly 60 million for the UK and 280 million for the US. Having 4000 Israelis working at the WTC is about as believable as having 40,000 UK citizens working at the WTC. (Update, Aug 27, 2004: the number of Israeli-born residents of NYC was 21,288 as of 2000, or about 0.27% of the population of New York; multiplying this by the final WTC toll of 2602 would correspond to 7 Israeli deaths. Thanks to wikipedia for this information).

(On the other hand, it is fairly believable that among the 50,000 employees at the WTC, about 4,000 of them are Jewish. The state of New York is about 9% Jewish. But despite the headline, the body of the Al-Manar article refers clearly to Israelis, rather than Jews). Incidentally, the number of Jewish victims of the WTC attack has been estimated at 400-500.

Enough number crunching! Let's look for the origin of this 4000 number. We begin with this article in the Jerusalem Post, barely 16 hours after the WTC attack (Jerusalem is 7 hours ahead of New York):

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/12/News/News.34692.html

September 12, 2001

(07:55) Hundreds of Israelis missing in WTC attack
By The Jerusalem Post Internet Staff

A United Airlines spokesman confirmed that Alona Avraham, a resident of Ashdod, was a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 75, the second hijacked plane to crash into the World Trade Center in New York. [This story last updated 14:30]

Avraham was in her mid-twenties and had recently finished university studies.

Avraham had spent a few days in Boston with friends and was heading for Los Angeles for a two-week visit, to include Rosh Hashanah.

Israeli Daniel Levin, 31, was also reported to be on one of the hijacked planes that was forced down by terrorists, Army Radio reported.

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attack.

Israeli foreign missions in New York City and Washington are also working overtime to locate missing Israelis. For emergency telephone numbers set up to aid in the search and rescue efforts, click here.

OK! So here's the 4000 Israelis, mentioned in an Israeli newspaper no less! But wait... these aren't people who would have showed up to work at the WTC; these are merely the names received by friends and relatives worried that their loved one might be in the area. Also, this list would include those in the Virginia and DC area as well as New York. Notice the distortion between the above statement and the claim "The Israeli media, hurried to take advantage of the incident and started mourning 4,000 Israelis who work at the two towers" from the Al-Manar report. A grain of truth, but already we see the misinformation, and a hint of malice.

The Jerusalem Times staff here were intelligent enough to realize the distinction between "believed to have been in the areas" and "missing", and estimated the true number of missing in the hundreds, as the headline attests. Unfortunately, the next reporter wasn't quite so careful:

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/12/LatestNews/LatestNews.34656.html

Wednesday September 12, 2001

(08:15 - Wed) Thousands of Israelis missing near WTC, Pentagon

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has so far received the names of 4,000 Israelis believed to have been in the areas of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon at the time of the attack.

The list is made up of people who have not yet made contact with friends or family, Army Radio reported.

Telephone connections between Israel and the New York City and Washington, D.C. areas has been sporadic and unreliable since the multiple attacks yesterday.

Ten thousand people are estimated to have been killed in the New York attacks and another 800 in Washington.

Several hundred also went down with the hijacked planes.

This news item is more clarifying: the list of 4000 people come from those who have not yet made contact with friends or family. This is a big, big difference. Remember, its only 16 hours since the incident happened. There is bound to be a certain amount of confusion and delay. The fact that the phone lines were jammed (rather understandably) didn't help either. The 4000 names undoubtedly contain some duplications (people might be registered under slightly different variants of the same name), and may include people far away from the event. (I can imagine anyone with a relative in New Jersey or Pennsylvania, or who had merely intended to have taken a flight that day in the US (and may have been diverted to some odd place) would also think about contacting the government, and some of those might have been added to the list of 4000, given that the list seems to have been constructed rather hastily).

One can imagine though the misinformation that these types of reports could instantly create. 4000 Israelis, possibly dead? Imagine how that story would propagate through the streets of Palestine or Lebanon. There are many there who have a grudge or two against Israel. Whether the news was credible or not, it would be worth spreading. The word "Pentagon" after the comma might easily be dropped in the retelling, thus "4000 Israelis missing near WTC".

Throughout the day, the Ministry worked frantically to track down these thousands of people. Duplications would be removed. Some families would hear word from their loved ones, and retract their name from the list. Within ten hours they had already contacted hundreds of them:

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/12/LatestNews/LatestNews.34717.html

Wednesday September 12, 2001

(16:35) Consulate helps some 500 Israelis contact their families

The Israeli consulate in New York has put close to 500 Israelis currently in New York in touch with their families in Israel.

The Israeli consul in New York, Alon Pinchas, said consulate workers are checking local hospitals for victims with Israeli sounding names, Army Radio reported.

Note that these are just the numbers from the New York consulate. The Washington embassy were probably contacting just as many, if not more, given that the situation there wasn't quite as chaotic. Indeed by the next day, 500 had become more than 1,000:

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/13/News/News.34747.html

Search in NYC locates 1,000 missing Israelis
By Melissa Radler

NEW YORK (September 13) - The number of Israelis considered missing in New York dropped to three last night when Ya'acov Habbi and his daughter Gali were located. Ya'acov, who lives near the World Trade Center, and Gali were trapped in a car next to the site for about 20 hours.

Consul for media and public affairs Ido Aharoni said efforts to locate others are continuing. A group of consulate workers are searching local hospitals for people admitted with Israeli-sounding names.

Foreign Ministry workers have succeeded in locating over 1,000 Israelis. Some 20 have been located at area hospitals.

"We're only at the very beginning," said Aharoni of efforts to track down missing Israelis. "In many instances, we were able to conference-call them together," said Aharoni of the families.

No Israeli businesses were based in the World Trade Center, said a consulate spokeswoman.

The Israeli Consulate in New York has processed more than 4,500 phone calls of people seeking information regarding missing relatives in New York as of yesterday morning, said Aharoni. "Hundreds of people have been tracked down," he said.

Consul-General Alon Pinkas estimated the number of those connected with their families in Israel at 500, Army Radio reported.

In Jerusalem, some two dozen Foreign Ministry employees are also handling hundreds of inquiries about relatives in New York.

The ministry has also established a page on its Web site - www.mfa.gov.il - to help Israelis find each other.

...

As the article states, the number of people found is about 1000 and growing rapidly. There's a number 4,500 in the story which is close to 4,000 but this is probably coincidental. It does confirm though that the initial report of 4000 names from worried friends and family would be about accurate.

Now, imagine the rumors on the streets in Palestine and Lebanon. The day before - 4000 Israelis missing near WTC. Today - only 3 Israelis dead. There would be people who would hear this, and hear the suspicion blamed on the Muslim world, and then assert that there must be a conspiracy.

Of course, the number of dead continues to fluctuate, as it does for all other nationalities including the US. For instance, later the same day:

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/13/LatestNews/LatestNews.34760.html

Thursday September 13, 2001

(08:50) NY consul estimate: More Israelis feared dead

Israel's consul-general in New York, Alon Pinkas, says estimates of Israeli victims of the World Trade Center attack may be low.

"At the moment, we are talking about a situation of no more than five or six Israelis that were either in, or in the vicinity of, the two towers,' Pinkas said, continuing, "and another 30-to-40 Israelis that were likely to have been in the general area."

Pinkas made the statements during an interview with Army Radio.

There are over 20 injured Israelis in local New Your area hospitals, spokesmen at the Foreign Ministry's situation room said.

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/13/LatestNews/LatestNews.34823.html

Thursday September 13, 2001

(21:05) Israeli consul: Four Israelis in twin towers collapse

Four Israelis were almost certainly in the twin towers of the World Trade Center when they collapsed, the Israeli consul in New York said this evening.

He added that in all likelihood, four more Israelis in nearby buildings are also among the casualties, Army Radio reported.

Contrast the above stories with "Then suddenly, no one ever mentioned anything about those Israelis and later it became clear that they remarkably did not show up in their jobs the day the incident took place. No one talked about any Israeli being killed or wounded in the attacks. " from Al-Manar. Again, a grain of truth wrapped in a mass of misinformation.

The death toll continues to fluctuate for all countries involved, not just Israel. On September 14:

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/14/LatestNews/LatestNews.34854.html

Friday September 14, 2001

(13:00) Foreign Ministry: No contact with more than 150 Israelis

At least eight Israelis were in the World Trade Center when the twin towers collapsed, Foreign Ministry sources said today.

Their fate is unknown, they added.

The sources said efforts are underway to determine the identity and condition of 10 people hospitalized in New York with Israel-sounding names.

The sources said the Foreign Ministry has lost contact with more than 150 Israelis since the terrorist attacks, Israel Radio reported.

This seems to be the source of the "130 Israelis" mentioned by President Bush in his September 20 speech; around this time Tsviya Shimon, at the Israeli consulate at New York, estimated that up to 100 Israelis could have been working at the WTC. The death toll has been revised down sharply several times (see e.g. this September 22 New York Times article), as outdated lists of the "missing" are corrected, and more of the survivors get in contact with the government. (Despite what some conspiracy theorists believe, governments are not so omnipotent as to be able to track all of their citizens continuously, especially abroad and especially after a major disruptive event).

This is not unique to Israel. For instance, in Great Britain, the various helplines hastily set up after the WTC crash received over 20,000 calls inquiring after Britich citizens in the US. By September 13 there were 100 confirmed dead and the number was expected to rise rapidly. By September 16 the number of dead and missing peaked at 300, and started trending downward again. By September 27, it became 200. By October 5, it was going below 100. This is not to trivialize the magnitude of the disaster - 100 deaths is still 100 too many - but the point is that the initial reports were overestimates, coming from duplication and the inability to get hold of some of the survivors early on. Note also that these numbers are broadly consistent with those from Israel, seeing as Great Britain has about ten times as many citizens as Israel (60 million vs 6 million), and both have close ties to the US.

The number of confirmed dead is in the 600s or so as of November 29. The New York Times has profiles of hundreds of these; ethnic backgrounds are not mentioned explicitly, but it's not hard to see all ethnicities are represented. (Update, Aug 8 2003: There appear to be five confirmed Israeli casualties: Alona Abraham, Leon Lebor, Shai Levinhar, Danny Lewin, and Haggai Sheffi. Once again, with a population a tenth the size of Great Britain, this is roughly comparable with the final list of sixty-seven confirmed British casualties.)

Sharon's cancelled NYC trip

"Suspicions had increased further after Israeli newspaper Yadiot Ahranot revealed that the Shabak prevented Israeli premier Ariel Sharon from traveling to New York and particularly to the city's eastern coast to participate in a festival organized by the Zionist organizations in support of the "Israel". Aharon Bernie, the commentator at the newspaper, brought up the issue and came up with a negative conclusion, saying "no answer". He then asked about the clue behind the Shabak's position in preventing Sharon's participation, and again without giving an answer.

Even before plunging into the web to verify the facts, there are some things odd about this story:

Why isn't the "festival" named? Why aren't the "Zionist organizations" named? Why isn't the head of the organization named? Why is there no date given as to the "festival"? One would think that additional detail would add credibility to the story.
What is the context of the rather strange sentence "Aharon Bernie... brought up the issue and came up with a negative conclusion, saying "no answer""?
How do we know Sharon was "delighted" for having the plenary speech of a festival? (I can't quite imagine Sharon telling a reporter, "I am delighted to have my speech on top of the festival agenda".)
How come the "head of the Zionist organization" has more influence on Shabak than the Premier of Israel? Is Sharon so blatantly a puppet of some more sinister organization? (Certainly, he seemed eager to be speaking there, never mind that being premier of a country would satisfy most egos and he has probably given more speeches in his life than he would want to remember).

To investigate this story, let's begin with these stories on Sep 11 (which, because of the nature of time zones, actually went to print before the WTC bombing):

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/11/News/News.34537.html

Senator urges Bush to appoint Mideast envoy
By Janine Zacharia

WASHINGTON (September 11) - Senator Joseph Biden (D-Delaware), chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the Bush administration yesterday to appoint a special Middle East envoy who would be stationed in the region and serve as a conduit between the parties.

He said the US was not doing enough to help bring an end to fighting between Israel and the Palestinians.

...

The Bush administration is still weighing whether Bush should meet Arafat at the upcoming UN General Assembly gathering in New York. Bush is due there from September 24-26.

A well-placed source in Washington said Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, had advised the president not to meet with Arafat, despite urging to do so by Bush's senior foreign policy advisers. Washington is awaiting the results of a meeting between Arafat and Foreign Minister Shimon Peres before deciding.

So far in New York Bush is due to hold meetings on the sidelines of the General Assembly with Middle Eastern leaders including Jordan's King Abdullah and Lebanese President Emile Lahoud. A White House spokesman said a final list of meetings was still being drawn up.

Israeli officials say it is very likely Bush will also meet with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, although Sharon's travel plans have not yet been finalized.

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/11/News/News.34531.html

Tuesday September 11, 2001

IDF said ready to strike Jenin
By Arieh O'Sullivan, Lamia Lahoud, and Herb Keinon

JERUSALEM (September 11) - The IDF appeared poised to move on Palestinian-controlled Jenin late last night, positioning tanks and armored personnel carriers around the West Bank city notorious for its suicide bombers.

...

Troops in the Jenin area arrested at least 11 Palestinians suspected of being connected with Hamas and Islamic Jihad and with the terror attacks on Sunday, Itim reported Palestinian sources as saying.

Despite the tension, Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer did not cancel his scheduled visit tonight to the US.

...

The Palestinians, he added, do not believe the PA can reach any progress with Sharon, and charged he is trying to undo previous agreements and create obstacles to prevent any future government from returning to the negotiations where they left off.

However, another senior Palestinian source said the planned meetings between Arafat and Peres are well prepared and it is likely that this time some progress would be achieved. The source said the EU is suggesting to start the negotiations over the implementation of a timetable for Mitchell.

He said that more meetings might be held at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York later this month.

PA Planning Minister Nabil Shaath said talks are under way to arrange a summit among Bush, Sharon, and Arafat in New York. But Palestinian officials said such a meeting is unlikely, and could only be held if real progress is made between Arafat and Peres.

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/11/LatestNews/LatestNews.34559.html

September 12, 2001

(09:30) Ben-Eliezer heads to Washington
By Arieh O'Sullivan

Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer departs tonight for the US on a belated visit where he is expected to raise the fear that Iran may produce a nuclear bomb within four years.

Ben-Eliezer is to meet with top US officials, including US Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld and over 40 Congressmen.

A senior defense official said yesterday that Ben-Eliezer is to probe US readiness to take a more active role in Middle East peacemaking.

Ben-Eliezer is also expected to meet with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to discuss UNIFIL's involvement with a videotape in connection with three Israeli soldiers kidnapped on Israel's border with Lebanon.

The defense minister is scheduled to return to Israel by Sunday morning.

Elsewhere, a delegation of eight Knesset members, led by MK Eliezer Cohen of Yisrael Beiteinu, opened a two-day study mission to Washington yesterday designed to educate legislators about the importance of drafting an Israeli constitution.

But then, of course, the WTC is destroyed, and Ben-Eliezer cancels:

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/09/11/LatestNews/LatestNews.34588.html

September 12, 2001

(17:55) Ben-Eliezer US trip likely cancelled

Minister of Defense Binyamin Ben-Eliezer will very likely not travel to the US this evening due to the horrific terror attacks in New York and Washington.

So Sharon DID intend to visit New York City - for a meeting of the UN General Assembly, which was originally scheduled from September 24 to October 5 (though after the Sep 11 event it was postponed to November 10-16. It's famous, among other things, for President Bush's speech in which he used the word "Palestine" for the first time). Compare this with Al-Manar's "Ariel Sharon traveling to New York and particularly to the city's eastern coast to participate in a festival organized by the Zionist organizations in support of the "Israel"". Now it becomes clear why Al-Manar doesn't want to name the "festival", and is also careful to not actually give the time of the visit. The United Nations building in New York does, by the way, lie on the eastern coast of Manhattan and does, technically, support Israel through UN General Assembly Resolution 273. Though it doesn't seem to be the "Zionist" organization left un-named by Al-Manar. That seems to be the General Assembly of the United Jewish Communities (Originally scheduled on Sep 23, but postponed on Sep 12 for obvious reasons, and was ultimately held Nov 11-13 in Washington DC), which Sharon was going to attend while there for the General Assembly. (Eventually he ended up giving them an video address from Jerusalem (also available in RealVideo)). [Update, Aug 29, 2004: Thanks to Lameen Souag for supplying some of these links]

In the light of the September 11 attacks, it is likely that Israeli's security apparatus Shabak would recommend, or at least suggest, that Sharon not attend the September 23 meeting (though it would soon be postponed anyway, and ultimately only the Foreign Minister Shimon Peres would attend). This can then be distorted to "Shabak prevented Israeli premier Ariel Sharon from traveling to New York". Was the cancellation after September 11 or before September 11? Not enough evidence to say either way. From the first article in this sequence, dated a few hours before the Sep 11 attack (taking into account the time zone difference between Israel and New York) we see Sharon's travel plans "were not yet finalized". From this Sep 14 article it seems that Sharon had not cancelled by the time the event was postponed.

One thing we see, though, is that there is quite a lot of high-level travel between Israel and the US - the Defense Minister was also about to visit, and had to cancel on the day, and there were also eight Knesset ministers already in Washington. These types of contacts happen frequently - Washington and New York are major centres of world diplomacy. (For instance, the prime minister of my home country Australia was also visiting Washington during Sep 11 and indeed was stranded there for a few days due to the grounding of all aircraft). Given the frequency of these visits, and the fact that the busy schedules of all involved cause many of these visits get cancelled or postponed (for instance, the Defense Minister's visit was "belated"), the fact that one of them happened to be cancelled on the day of the attacks (or perhaps a little earlier) is not in itself suspicious. It's not unique to Israel either - San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown also had his Sep 11 flight plans cancelled by security. You might amuse yourself constructing a WTC conspiracy involving both Israel and the city of San Francisco.

And what of the source "Yadiot Ahranot"? Well, it's more commonly spelt "Yediot Ahranot", and is one of the largest Hebrew-language newspapers in Israel. It is likely that the stories above from the Jerusalem Post and other sources were also repeated in Yediot Ahranot. I couldn't find any mention of any "Aharon Bernie" or the involvement of Shabak outside of the Al-Mazar article and its future copies, though, mainly due to my inability to read Hebrew. I would be grateful for any light shed on this lead. [Update, Sep 4, 2002: It seems that there is a reporter at Yediot Ahranot named Aharon Barne'ah (who may also be the Israeli journalist and newscaster who published his interview with a PLO commander). However, I still cannot obtain independent confirmation of his involvement in this story. Thanks to Yaffa Weisman for this information.]

My guess, based on this information, is that a number of stories got mixed together - the General Assembly of the UJC got confused with the General Assembly of the UN, and perhaps the Defense Minister's trip got confused with Sharon's trip. Whether the confusion was unintentional or deliberate, I can't say. The Shabak stuff seems to be put in for the sole purpose of muddying the waters, to make an otherwise innocuous story look dark and suspicious.

The 5 arrested Israelis

"For its part, the Israeli Ha'aretz newspaper revealed that the FBI arrested five Israelis four hours after the attack on the Twin Towers while filming the smoking skyline from the roof of their company's building. The FBI had arrested the five for "puzzling behavior". They are said to have been caught videotaping the disaster in what was interpreted as cries of joy and mockery."

Before we begin, let's make a few points:

The US has made over 1,000 arrests or detentions in relation to the September 11 attacks, from people of all backgrounds (though with a rather disproportionately large number being of Arabic descent, for understandable if not completely agreeable reasons). Of these, about 500 are still in custody as of Nov 29, 2001. There are probably at least ten times as many Arabs arrested than Israelis. Does this make the Arab nationalities ten times as guilty? Hardly.
The concept of celebrating a massive terrorist attack is distasteful, but not actually evidence of any criminal activity. There were about 5 Palestinians celebrating in Nablus on the day of the attack too, but they clearly had nothing to do with the bombing.
Unlike the other two points in the article, this filming occured after the attacks, not before. This is entirely unsuspicious - the WTC was a major NYC landmark, after all, and its obvious why anyone with a camera in their hands on the day of the attacks would want to take a picture of what is unarguably a most spectacular image. There is a Pakistani, Raza Nasir Khan, who had the misfortune to film the WTC a few days before the attacks, and is now in US custody, but this is hardly evidence of Pakistan's involvement in the WTC attack.

Now to look at the story itself. Al Manar cites the story from Ha'aretz newspaper:

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=75266&contrassID=2&subContrassID=1&sbSubContrassID=0&listSrc=Y
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.

Well, unlike the other two components to the Al Manar tale, this story is actually largely true. Here's a later article from October 26:

http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/10/26/News/News.36989.html

Israelis mistaken for terrorists may be home soon
By Melissa Radler

NEW YORK (October 26) - Five Israeli men detained in New Jersey with box-cutters, multiple passports, and $4,000 cash on September 11, the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, may be deported back to Israel for immigration violations as early as next week, according to the Israeli consulate in New York.

Consul for Media and Public Affairs Ido Aharoni said the deportation order was issued by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service, and it must be approved by the Justice Department.

But the lawyer for the men, Steven Gordon, said the group is still waiting for the INS to sign the deportation order.

Gordon said the plight of the five, who were almost immediately cleared by authorities but subsequently held on relatively minor immigration violations, including overstaying a tourist visa by nine days and working illegally on a tourist visa, serves as a warning to anyone concerned with civil liberties in the wake of September 11.

"However, after ascertaining almost immediately that they had no involvement, it is just unconscionable that they have been denied bail and the government is deporting them," he said.

The consulate has visited the men twice, said Aharoni, the first time two weeks ago. Consul-General Alon Pinkas plans to visit them Monday.

Gordon said they have continuously requested, and not yet received, kosher food.

Trouble began for Sivan Kurzberg, his brother Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Gavriel Marmari, all in their twenties and workers at a New Jersey-based moving company, on September 11 when they were picked up in a during the heightened security sweep following the attacks on New York and Washington.

A series of coincidences brought the police and FBI in hot pursuit of the men, said Gordon. After the two terrorist airplanes hit the World Trade Center, the men went to the rooftop of their workplace, and the rooftop of their moving van, and began taking pictures of the burning buildings, some with themselves in the foreground smiling.

In each location, the men, described in press reports as rugged and Middle Eastern-looking, evoked the ire of neighbors, who called the police to report suspicious activity.

Hours later, the men, who were driving back to their home in Brooklyn, were pulled over based on the description of the van given to police. With their box-cutters and cash seen as hijacker's weapons rather than tools of the moving trade, they were taken to Meadowlands police station, forced to lie down for 1.5 hours in a grassy area, then questioned by the FBI for 12-16 hours. They were not given food for the duration of the interrogation, said Gordon.

After determining the men were not connected to the attacks, they were turned over to INS custody and detained on immigration violations. A new round of interrogations began after the FBI developed their film, which, according to their lawyer, showed them posing on the rooftop and van as the World Trade Center collapsed behind them.

All five were held in solitary confinement until last week.

When asked if they had complained of being mistreated, Aharoni said, "All the reports that we received said they're in a maximum security facility. How well can you be treated in such a facility?"

What appeared to have happened is that these young Israeli men were making rather bad taste jokes while filming what was perhaps the most dramatic event in their lives. And, as employees of a moving company, they had the misfortune to be using box-cutters. Here is an older article:

http://www.bergen.com/news/probe15200109152.htm

Five hijack suspects had links to N.J.
Saturday, September 15, 2001
By ADAM LISBERG
Staff Writer

Federal investigators made their first arrest Friday in the probe of this week's terror attacks, taking a person into custody in New York City as a material witness.

They also publicly identified 19 people as the suspected hijackers of the four airplanes used in the attacks, including at least five with possible New Jersey connections.
...
Two men aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the World Trade Center, Mohamed Atta and Abdulaziz Alomari, were believed to be carrying New Jersey driver's licenses days earlier, said the governor of Maine, where the men apparently lived for some time.

In addition, Nawaq Alhamzi and Salem Alhamzi, suspected hijackers aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon, received mail at businesses in Fort Lee and Wayne, FBI officials said. An FBI spokeswoman said investigators did not know whether the men actually lived in New Jersey.

A fifth man, Saeed Alghamdi, who was on the United Airlines jet that crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently lived in a Florham Park apartment complex several years ago. Investigators said he lived recently in Delray Beach, Fla.

All 19 hijackers died in their bloody suicide missions, but experts said they would have needed the help of many other conspirators -- people whom the government wants to find and punish.
...
Closer to New York, FBI agents and Bergen County Sheriff's Department crime scene technicians spent three hours Thursday night searching the Weehawken headquarters of Urban Moving Systems at 3 W. 18th St.

Investigators first became interested in the business after witnesses reported Tuesday that three men seemed to celebrate the World Trade Center explosions in Liberty State Park, then drove away in a company van.

"To the best of my knowledge, my client Urban Moving Systems and Dominik Suter are not targets," said attorney Jay Hamill of Jersey City. "This is an informational situation. We're cooperating completely and have objected to nothing they've requested."

Agents took pictures inside the company's office Thursday night and seized 13 computer hard drives. They also showed a keen interest in the roof, which had a very clear view of the World Trade Center until Tuesday. A half-dozen agents searched the roof with flashlights and appeared particularly interested in the the sight lines from the roof toward downtown Manhattan.

East Rutherford police stopped an Urban Moving Systems van on Route 3 Tuesday and detained five men inside, at least some of them company employees. The occupants said they were all Israelis. They were being detained because they are in violation of immigration regulations, and all have expressed a desire to leave the country on their own, according to an Immigration and Naturalization Service spokesman.

An employee of Urban Moving Systems, who would not give his name, said the majority of his co-workers are Israelis and were joking on the day of the attacks.

"I was in tears," the man said. "These guys were joking and that bothered me. These guys were like, 'Now America knows what we go through.' "

...

It's interesting to compare "'Now America knows what we go through'" to "interpreted as cries of joy and mockery".

There appear to be a few dozen Israelis in custody on immigration violations, as part of up to a thousand picked up in the US sweep on recent Middle Eastern violations. (See for instance the November 25 New York Times article, interviewing several detainees from the Middle East, including one from Israel). Basically it seems that anyone who looked vaguely Middle-Eastern and aroused the suspicions of neighbours on September 11 eventually got a visit from the FBI; not completely fair or logical, but understandable given the current situation. As yet, it doesn't seem to implicate Israel any more than it implicates the nationalities of all the other hundreds of detainees. (And perhaps the US is in a no-win situation. Suppose the US detained all suspicious immigrants from the Middle East except those from Israel. Wouldn't that have caused even greater rumors of conspiracy, or at least of blatant pro-Israel and anti-Arab prejudice?)

Just to add to the confusion, here is another story about the same time which sounds superficially similar but is actually unrelated. It does put some of this in context, though:

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/4222.htm (Moved now, but still viewable from the Wayback machine)

September 16, 2001 -- EXCLUSIVE

Three suspects in the bloodiest terrorist attack in U.S. history were in federal custody in New York three months ago - and set free, The Post has learned.

The three were taken into custody last June after Federal Protective Service cops spotted them brazenly snapping reconnaissance photos of 26 Federal Plaza, federal law-enforcement and military-intelligence sources said.

The men - who appeared to be of Middle Eastern descent - were grilled by FBI and Immigration and Naturalization Service agents, their film was confiscated and then they were released.

Sources in the FBI and military intelligence now believe the three are tied to exiled Saudi terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and that investigators botched an opportunity to gather critical information about the scheme to destroy the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and other symbols of U.S. power.

An article about the feds' brief detention of the picture-taking men appeared in The Post on July 1. The exclusive report disclosed that federal cops had taken an unidentified man into custody after he was seen snapping pictures at 26 Federal Plaza, which houses the FBI and other federal agencies.

It said the man was questioned and released - something authorities regretted days later when the film was developed.

The photos were of security checkpoints, police posts and surveillance cameras at 26 Federal Plaza, two federal courthouses and the federal building at 290 Broadway.

A newly obtained U.S. Marshals Service memo provides more detail about the incident - including the fact that three men were involved in the picture taking.

"These three subjects were discovered taking pictures in and around an N.Y.C. federal facility that served no legitimate purpose," the secret memo reports.

"Further investigation by the FBI showed that the three have left their last known residences, leaving behind paychecks from their employment."

The memo directed authorities to detain the men if they were spotted.

Three grainy intelligence photos of the men were attached to the memo, with the name of one suspect, Mohamed Hassan Abbadi, scrawled under what appeared to be a passport picture.

Also stapled to the memo was The Post story, in which anxious authorities expressed concern that plans for a terror attack were under way.

The release of the three men "was definitely a lost opportunity," author and terrorism expert Tony Dennis told The Post.

"That's just a simple bureaucratic foul-up and lack of coordination.

"The feds could have immediately developed the pictures and run more, detailed intelligence checks" on the suspects, he said.

That would have raised "probable cause" to arrest the suspects or allow the feds to track their movements and tap their phones, he added.

Dennis suspects FBI and INS agents did not exchange information about the men with each other.

"We don't necessarily need more laws to pry into peoples' lives," Dennis said. "We need more inter-agency cooperation."

Former New York FBI chief Lewis Schiliro agreed that more extensive background checks could have been conducted and the film developed more quickly, but he defended the agents' actions.

"What they did was probably reasonable at the time," he said. "I don't see where they could have done too much more."

Schiliro said detaining the three men until more complete background checks were made might have raised the controversial issue of "profiling" suspects and violated their civil liberties.

The incident took place shortly after four bin Laden henchmen had been convicted in Manhattan federal court for the August 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

As ov November 29, there are about 500 of the detainees (maybe a dozen from Israel) still in custody. We'll see how the story develops. [Update, Sep 4, 2002: This story seems very much alive. There appears to be some rumors that two of the Israelis were spies of some sort - a claim which seems to so far be backed up only by "unnamed sources", but perhaps more detail will emerge in the future - but they have all since been deported back to Israel, returning in November 20-21, 2001.]

Miscellaneous

The above conspiracy theory is basically trying to allege that Israel had some suspicious foreknowledge of the attacks. Actually, there are many conspiracy theories of this nature; for instance several people have noted this September 10 Guardian article about the US shutting down Muslim sites. Very suspicious timing, hmm? But this conspiracy theory seems incompatible with the Israeli one. It just goes to show that co-incidences can happen. Governments are huge organizations, and they do thousands of noteworthy activities every day.

This September 16 Telegraph article reports that Mossad even informed the US of a major terrorist operation back in August. Is this part of the conspiracy? If so, it would be an amazing example of chutzpah - "I've got an idea - let's warn the US of a major terrorist attack, and then stage it ourselves!". There are far easier and safer ways to say "I told you so".

Not mentioned in the above articles is another widely cited fact, that two employees of Odigo (an Israeli-based instant messaging company, bought by the New York-based company Comverse in May 2002) in Israel received warning of the attacks two hours in advance. This sounds extremely interesting... until you learn that the warnings didn’t actually mention the World Trade Center or give any other details. In other words, it was just a generic "Death to Israel! Death to America!" threat, which happens on a daily basis in Israel. Kind of like how the White House gets several threats to assassinate the President a day. No doubt the Whitehouse threats which came in shortly before Sep 11 would be taken more seriously than usual, but that's only natural given the higher security level nowadays. The FBI is investigating the Odigo story, of course, but probably will end up not panning out, like the vast majority of the other thousands of potential leads the FBI was chasing.

Oh, and there's also ZIM Israel Navigation Company, who was lucky enough to vacate their WTC offices two weeks before September 11, mainly to seek cheaper rent in Norfolk, Virginia. Suspicious? Well it was planned all the way back in April. Hmm. If they were in on the conspiracy as far back as April, you'd have thought they'd have vacated, say, in July to reduce suspicion. Incidentally, another Israeli company, ClearForest, was still occupying the WTC at the time, though they managed to get all their employees out.

One thing striking about all these disparate pieces of "evidence" is their random incoherency. One item shows Israel warning the US in advance; another shows the US acting against Muslims in advance; another shows some unknown group warning a company in Israel in advance; another shows Israel secretly warning 4000 citizens in advance. This incoherency is great for muddying the issue, but not particularly helpful for trying to actually establish what happened.

Note: further information on these theories can be found on the wikipedia.

Footnote 1: This article used to be at

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/InfoTimes/message/1054

You can't find it now, as it was taken down soon after the October Slate article on the issue - some time between October 9 and October 15, in fact. However, you can still see it using the wonderful resource of the Wayback machine. (Which can also be used for any other 404'ed links on this page, which thanks to the inevitability of link rot is likely to increase over time).

Author's note: I am an Australian citizen of Chinese descent. I have no strong pro-Israel or anti-Israel feelings. I was mainly interested in the project of discovering the truth as an intellectual challenge; it's amazing what one can do with Google, the Wayback machine (great for resolving those pesky 404 errors), and a few hours of patience. I think the whole exercise is also a good object lesson as to how selective reporting and modest embellishments can turn an innocuous story into an inflammatory one.

This web page is public domain, and its content may be freely distributed.