The "dancing Israelis"
On September 14, 2001, The New York Times and Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that four hours after the attack, the FBI arrested five Israelis who had been filming the smoking skyline from the roof of a white van in the parking lot of an apartment building a headline given by Haaretz observed that they had been described as displaying "puzzling behavior".
Police found the van and a search revealed $4,700 in cash hidden, along with foreign passports and a boxcutter which aroused suspicions and led to the detention of the occupants.
ABC News investigative reporter John Miller, in a report aired 21 June 2002, spoke to the witness who reported it to the police. She was watching the twin towers burning from her apartment in New Jersey, when she noticed three men on top of a van, posing for pictures, with the towers burning in the background. She said: "I could see that they were happy, they didn't look shocked to me, I thought it was very strange." In a check of National Security Agency databases, some of the men "were listed as having had connections to Israeli intelligence."[92] The FBI report includes an interview of a woman who stated that "all of the males appeared to be jovial in that they smiled, hugged one another, and gave 'high fives'."[93] This description led the incident to become known as the "dancing Israelis" in conspiracy theory circles.[94]
The men were charged with illegally residing in the United States and working in it without permits and were held in detention, during which time they were interrogated and given polygraph tests before being deported back to Israel.[95]
Back home, several of the men appeared on an Israeli TV chat show, where one of them, Oded Ellner, subsequently stated that “The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event”.
The five men worked at Urban Moving Systems Inc., which was owned and operated by Dominik Suter. After the men were arrested, the FBI searched their offices and questioned Suter however, Suter is reported as having fled to Israel before he could be questioned further.
His name subsequently appeared on the May 2002 FBI Suspect List along with the Sep 11 hijackers and other suspected extremists.[97] One of Urban's employees later told the FBI that, after being aware of the attack, she heard one of the detainees state: “Now you see what they are capable of doing. The US will have to get involved now.”
|
The "dancing Israelis"...[more]