Alleged ‘SPY’ in Egypt is US Citizen, IDF Paratrooper
14. Jun, 2011
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By YAAKOV KATZ
Jerusalem Post
Ilan Grapel, alleged Mossad spy who was arrested in Egypt fought in 2nd Lebanon War; Egypt claims Grapel incited youth to sectarian strife.
Ilan Grapel, the alleged Mossad agent arrested on Sunday in Egypt, is an American citizen who served in the IDF Paratrooper’s Brigade during the Second Lebanon War and interned last summer at the Israeli Supreme Court.
Grapel, originally from New York, moved to Israel after graduating from John Hopkins University in the US and enlisted in the IDF.
He was wounded during fighting against Hezbollah guerillas in the southern Lebanese town of Taibe in August, 2006. In an interview to the New York Daily News in 2006, Irene Grapel said her son decided to enlist in the IDF since he “didn’t want a boring life” and craved some adventure before enrolling in graduate school.
A friend of Grapel’s told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that he had worked as an intern at the Israel Project – an Israel advocacy organization – in 2008 and had studied Arabic and even lived for short period of times with Druse communities in northern Israel. He frequently traveled throughout the Arab world.
In recent years he was a student at Emory Law School and even interned at the Israeli Supreme Court, according to the Emory Law School website.
“You could call him something of an Arabist,” one friend said. Another friend said Grapel was “very pro-Arabic” and liked “hanging out in Egypt.”
In his Facebook account, Grapel cited “preaching” at Azhar University in Egypt as his job, likely a joke.
“He probably went there for an adventure and to see Tahrir Square,” the friend said. “He is very left-wing and has been in Cairo before for months at a time.”
On Sunday, Egyptian Judge Hesham Badawi of the supreme state security prosecution ordered Grapel to be detained for 15 days on suspicion of “spying on Egypt with the aim of harming its economic and political interests,” MENA news agency reported, while claiming that he worked for the Mossad, Israel’s espionage agency.
One judiciary source said the man had been active in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the revolt against Mubarak, after the former president stepped down.
“He was there on a daily basis inciting youths towards sectarian strife. He was distributing money to some of them,” the source said, adding he had been encouraging some youths to clash with the army. He said youths reported the man’s actions.
The US State Department was also informed Monday that a US Israeli citizen was under arrest in Egypt.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post that there has still been no official confirmation that there is in fact somebody in Egyptian custody, and if there is, that it is Ilan Grapel. Reports Sunday and Monday said that an American-Israeli citizen had been arrested by Egyptian authorities on suspicion of spying against Cairo for Israel.
Asked whether the American government is involved in efforts to release Grapel, the spokesperson said that if, as is reported, Grapel is in Egyptian custody and does hold US citizenship, he assumes that the Americans will be making their own efforts to have him released.
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How come they are all chicken necks?
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he belongs in one of mubarak’s old prisons in which he can get some more “action” if he hasn’t already got some by now. i am proud for the egyptian youth who didn’t fall for this zionist agent’s inflamatory tactics for which the obama administration has earmarked millions of dollars in what is now called a “suitcase democracy”–supplies dissident with low cost networking capacity for internal disruption. i am not against the arab spring but that has to come from the arabs not vermins in human skin.
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Hmmm
Last time I looked serving in a foreign Army automatically meant you forfited your US citizenship. Oh wait I forgot Jews get a special “RIGHT” not granted to anybody else if they join the Israeli Military.
Equal treatment under the law? I think not.
How can anyone honestly claim to be a loyal American if he joins a foreign army?
The short answer of course is NO ONE! Forfiture of your US citizenship should apply equally to ALL Americans including Jews. If you join a foreign Army you are NO lONGER a US citizen.
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Imagine my shock. Catching an American/Israeli subverting another country’s govt. Hang’em high
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Oh BTW, if they let him come back to the states, he could run for Congress in New York. They need a Weiner replacement soon.
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Did they catch the Mossad sharks aswell?
Good to see Arab paranoia alive and well
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