Saudi newspaper: Jews are using blood of our children for holiday pastries!

[Natan]

Chegitz, I hope you noticed my last post. Or at least that you notice it now, along with my new Avatar.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Natan
Chegitz, I hope you noticed my last post. Or at least that you notice it now, along with my new Avatar.

I did, but I havne't a clue who that man is.

[Natan]

The man is my namesake, Natan Sharansky. (for more info: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/bio...sharansky.html)

Also, it looks like the newspaper in question has apologized after Voice of America criticism. http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/0...ews.45527.html

[Natan]

Oh, and sorry for not taking my own advice. I guess I just had to get the last word.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Natan
The man is my namesake, Natan Sharansky. (for more info: http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/bio...sharansky.html)

Oh, him. Yeah, the Soviet Union was incredibly stupid when it came to Jews. It just seems stupid and petty and counter-productive. On the other hand, given that the priority Jewish culture places on education, and that many of these people were denied exit upon security grounds, there might have been something to Soviet claims. Most of he people trying to leave the USSR were well-educated folks, the kind of people no society can afford to left leave [i]enmasse. I'm not justifying what they did o him, or thousands of others, but they might have had a real fear that these gentlemen presented actual security risks. After all, it's not like Jews were the only people denied exit from the USSR.

Also, it looks like the newspaper in question has apologized after Voice of America criticism. http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/0...ews.45527.html

A day late and a dollar short. The editor ought to resign or be fired.

[Natan]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Oh, him. Yeah, the Soviet Union was incredibly stupid when it came to Jews. It just seems stupid and petty and counter-productive.

As it had been since the days of the Ezvektzia (sp?) in the 1920s, IMHO, and just as the USSR was incredibly stupid in its dealings with Ukrainians, tatars, central asians, and everyone else. The Soviets had a weird policy of forcing assimilation but then preventing full integration.

On the other hand, given that the priority Jewish culture places on education, and that many of these people were denied exit upon security grounds, there might have been something to Soviet claims.

The Soviets would claim that anyone who lived in the same city as a well-publicized tank factory was a "security risk" and couldn't be allowed to emigrate. If security was the issue, they wouldn't have required immigrants to show they had a relative in Israel (or any other destination country) who wanted them to come. Unless by security you mean importance to the economy.

Most of he people trying to leave the USSR were well-educated folks, the kind of people no society can afford to left leave [i]enmasse. I'm not justifying what they did o him, or thousands of others, but they might have had a real fear that these gentlemen presented actual security risks. After all, it's not like Jews were the only people denied exit from the USSR.

Yes, the USSR basically didn't want to lose all its engineers. Letting out the Jews might have led to letting out others, and these would of course have been the most educated, and then the regime would collapse.

A day late and a dollar short. The editor ought to resign or be fired.

I think newspaper editors in his country who would apologize for that are a rare enough commodity to let him keep the job. Then again, I don't know that much about Al-Watan.

[DinoDoc]

U.S. Deports Dozens of Israelis Amid Warnings of Possible Spy Activities

Now for something completely different:

WASHINGTON (AP) — Authorities have arrested and deported since early last year dozens of young Israelis who represented themselves as art students in efforts to gain access to restricted buildings and homes, U.S. officials said.


The Israelis tried to get inside sensitive federal office buildings and the homes of government employees, the officials said.

A draft report from the Drug Enforcement Administration — which first characterized the activities as suspicious — said the youths' actions "may well be an organized intelligence-gathering activity."

Immigration officials deported the Israelis for visa violations; no criminal espionage charges were filed.

"At this time, the Department of Justice does not have information to support these accounts of Israeli students possibly committing espionage," said Susan Dryden, a department spokeswoman. The deputy U.S. attorney general, Larry Thompson, declined to discuss the arrests when asked about them during a news conference Tuesday.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Yaffa Ben-Ari said it was "nonsense" that the students were spying on the United States.

Another Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Irit Stopper, confirmed that a few Israelis posing as art students were expelled from the United States for working without permits. However they were not accused of espionage, she said. She did not say how many Israelis were expelled and did not give any additional details.

The DEA report was first obtained by a French Web site that specializes in intelligence news, Intelligenceonline.com. DEA spokeswoman Rogene Waite in Washington confirmed that the agency had written a report on this subject and forwarded it to other law enforcement agencies.

"That these people are now traveling in the U.S. selling art seems not to fit their background," the DEA report said.

An FBI official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted there were no espionage charges filed against any of the individuals and that they had been deported. Asked whether any spying activity occurred, the official repeated that no charges had been filed.

The arrests, made in an unspecified number of major U.S. cities from California to Florida, came amid public warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies about suspicious behavior by people posing as Israeli art students and "attempting to bypass facility security and enter federal buildings."

The Israelis were arrested and deported on charges of working in the United States without authorization or overstaying visits on tourist visas, said Russ Bergeron, a spokesman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Washington. He described dozens of arrests since early 2001 but gave no exact figures.

The DEA report said a majority of the students questioned by U.S. investigators acknowledged having served in units of the Israeli military specializing in military intelligence, electronic signals interception or explosive ordnance. The DEA said one person questioned was the son of a two-star Israeli general, one had served as the bodyguard to the head of the Israeli Army and another served in a Patriot missile unit.

Most Israeli men and women are conscripted into their nation's military service at age 18.

A Justice Department official, who also asked not to be identified, said investigators have been aware of some "alleged linkage" between the students and alleged espionage activities in the United States since early 2001, and said authorities have made arrests in Dallas, Chicago, San Diego and in south Florida. INS spokesman Rodney Germain in Miami said five or six people were arrested in that area at least six months ago on immigration counts.

Although security experts at the DEA first characterized the youths' behavior as suspicious, and INS authorities later arrested them, the FBI typically investigates espionage cases in the United States.

The U.S. Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, a federal agency, circulated a public warning in March 2001 urging federal employees to report contact with people describing themselves as Israeli art students.

"These individuals have been described as aggressive," the warning said. "They attempt to engage employees in conversation rather than giving a sales pitch."

Cooperation with Israel, a longtime key ally, is increasingly important in the U.S. war on terrorism.

[Az]

DD: so ?

no evidence


We , au contraire, have evidence of you flying SR-71s around our turf. Sadly , we couldn't shoot it down

[Sirotnikov]

Dino Doc, that's an old article.


I even remember posting a follow up which disprooved it.

[DinoDoc]

Originally posted by Sirotnikov
Dino Doc, that's an old article.

That's odd because it was just filed with the AP this month. March 06 to be exact.

[KrazyHorse]

Natan, this is a bit of a sidebar, but who's the man in your avatar?

[Natan]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Natan, this is a bit of a sidebar, but who's the man in your avatar?

Natan Sharansky. For more info, just scroll up.

[KrazyHorse]

Merci.

You did a really good job of tranparencying the background, btw. That + the angle of the photo give a really frightening 3-d feeling to it.

[Eli]

Originally posted by Natan
Natan Sharansky.

Why?
The man is a moron.

[Natan]

Originally posted by Eli
Why?
The man is a moron.

He struggled against a totalitarian regime and won. What have you done lately?

Krazyhorse: Tell it to Siro, he's the one who sized it like this. I just picked out the picture from four he gave me as options, and he made it into an avatar.