Rafi Eitan Plotting New 9/11?

[Franx]

On July 30, United Press International intelligence correspondent Richard Sale reported that Rafi Eitan, the Israeli spymaster who recruited Jonathan Jay Pollard to spy against the United States, ``has reemerged on American soil and is being scrutinized by the FBI.'' Sale elaborated, ``According to federal law enforcement officials, Eitan has, for the last year or so, been traveling to the United States on an Israeli passport, but using an alias.

These sources told UPI that Eitan lands at Columbus, Ohio, and then moves about the Midwest, to cities such as Indianapolis. Eitan has been seen and photographed in the company of `known dealers who belong to a ring dealing in the drug ecstasy,' one federal law enforcement official said.''

In a followup UPI story on Aug. 7, Sale wrote, "U.S. officials said Eitan, at first described by former Israeli officials as being 'sidelined' and 'in mothballs' as far as Israel is concerned, has, in fact, been brought back into government life by Sharon who is employing him as a counter-terrorism adviser... 'We all thought he he was in disgrace,' a federal law enforcement official said. 'We were wrong.''

Sale quoted from a June 1997 interview with Eitan by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot, in which the former chief of Mossad operations in Europe said, "I failed in the Pollard affair, just as I failed in other intelligence operations behind enemy lines. That is the lot of the intelligence officer who runs complex operations.'' Note Eitan's reference to the United States as "behind enemy lines.''

A New 9/11 Plot

EIR was the first publication to report on "Dirty Rafi's'' clandestine trips to the United States, early this year--with one very crucial additional detail: Eitan is making these high-risk journeys, U.S. and Israeli sources report, because he is directing plans for a major terrorist attack on American soil--a new 9/11--to be blamed on either Muslim or Latin American terrorists.

EIR's sources--both Israeli and American--have warned that Eitan is putting the finishing touches on such an operation, which coincides with Vice President Dick Cheney's agressive promotion of the idea that the United States is facing an imminent new 9/11 attack. Cheney launched this propaganda offensive at his July 24, 2003 speech at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, and he has been stumping the country, ever since, asserting an imminent terror attack.

As part of his current mission, sources report that Eitan has made two recent trips to Mexico, and on one occasion traveled to another location in Latin America, possibly Uruguay or Cuba (Eitan led an Israeli ``business'' delegation to Cuba several years ago).

You Read It First...

The Feb. 13, 2003 edition of EIR's twice-weekly EIR Executive Alert Service, under the headline ``The Real Story Behind the Heightened Terror Alert?,'' reported:

"A well-placed Israeli source has warned EIR that the Sharon gang in Israel may be actively plotting a terrorist incident inside the United States, to be blamed on `Islamic' terrorists, to insure that the U.S. launches the war on Iraq before the beginning of March.

The report comes amidst heightened terror alerts in the U.S., and a new purported `Osama Bin Laden' message, played on Tuesday on Al Jazeera, calling on Iraqis to carry out suicide bombings against American targets. As preposterous as it seems, today at the White House, Ari Fleischer was touting the tape as new `proof' of ties between Saddam and Al Qaeda.

"The Israeli source reported, specifically, that, last week, `Dirty' Rafi Eytan, the Sharon henchman and one-time controller of convicted spy Jonathan Pollard, snuck illegally into the United States, from Canada, on a phony Canadian passport. There is a standing arrest warrant in the U.S. for Eitan, dating back to the Pollard case.

According to the source, Eitan first landed in Las Vegas, and then traveled, on Saturday, to a still-unknown location in Ohio, which he has used as a base of operations in previous trips to the U.S.

The source said that Eitan's mission is to set up an `Islamic' terrorist incident, possibly involving the use of chemical or biological agents, to drive the American population over the edge, and drive Bush into the arms of the war party for an immediate invasion of Iraq.

"Last year, the source had passed on information about a similar illegal Eitan visit to the United States to EIR, and after several months, law enforcement contacts confirmed that the Eitan travel report was accurate.''

Bush, of course, did launch the Iraq war in March, and, sources report, the Eitan operation was postponed, but not aborted. Now, with Cheney, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, all facing political revolts at home, over the Iraq fiasco and, in Sharon's case, over financial fraud charges, there is no question who would benefit from a major distraction like a new 9/11.