Fox News, the conservative news channel, was the source of a recent report that seemed to put America’s ally, Israel, in a bad light. Reporter Carl Cameron said, "Since September 11, more than 60 Israelis have been arrested or detained, either under the new patriot anti-terrorism law, or for immigration violations. A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained, according to investigators, who say some of the detainees also failed polygraph questions when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States."

One observer noted that Fox seems to be the most pro-Israel news channel on TV and that is why the Cameron story was such a shock. "These are the last people in the media who are going to spread wild rumors about the Israelis," he said.

Cameron, alluding to conspiracy theories in the Arab world that Israel may have been behind the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America, added, "There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9-11 attacks, but investigators suspect that the Israelis may have gathered intelligence about the attacks in advance, and not shared it." Cameron went further in a discussion with Fox News bureau chief Brit Hume, quoting investigators as saying about the Israelis: "A bigger question, they say, is how could they not have known [about 9/11]?"

Emanuel A. Winston, a pro-Israel commentator and analyst on Middle East affairs, says it is obvious that the Israelis were spying on Arab or Islamic agents in the U.S. He says the Israelis in America were spying on Arab agents who were clearly connected to the same terrorist organizations which were attacking Israel daily. Winston says the FBI was supposed to be doing the same kind of surveillance in order to protect the American people. As he put it, "The question now is not whether Israel was tracking Arab agents in America but: Why were the American defense agencies NOT tracking them?"

Carl Cameron of Fox seemed to confirm Winston’s point, saying that one group of Israelis was suspected of keeping an apartment in California to spy on a group of Arabs who the United States is also investigating for links to terrorism. But in contrast to the report that Israel did not warn America in advance, Winston claimed that when Israel sent two Mossad agents to warn their counterparts in the CIA/FBI about an impending attack before 9/11, "they were ignored and pushed aside." This is apparently a reference to a report in the Daily Telegraph of London that Israeli intelligence officials had traveled to Washington before 9/11 to warn the CIA and the FBI that a cell of up to 200 terrorists was planning a major operation.

The paper said that Israeli officials specifically warned their counterparts in Washington that "large-scale terrorist attacks on highly visible targets on the American mainland were imminent." They offered no specific information about targets, but they did link the plot to Osama bin Laden, and they told the U.S. there was "strong grounds" for suspecting Iraqi involvement. Evidence, of course, has linked bin Laden to the attacks and there is circumstantial evidence that has developed about an Iraqi role.

Reed Irvine can be reached at ri@aim.org

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