[images and captions added by this website] Asbury Park Press December 22, 2002 [another 2002 Flashback] The Israeli national's expertise was in public relations. ExMcGreevey aide's credentials exaggerated By Sandy McClure GANNETT STATE BUREAU TRENTON Despite his statements to the contrary, Gov. McGreevey, from the beginning, intended to make his now-departed Israeli adviser and friend, whose expertise was public relations, the state's point man on terrorism, documents obtained last week under the federal Freedom of Information Act show. Using the terrorism attacks of Sept. 11 [2001] to justify the hiring, the governor's chief lawyer wrote a letter to the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service on McGreevey's inauguration day, telling the federal agency that New Jersey wanted Cipel to coordinate increased security with all branches of government and that Cipel had the necessary "substantial experience" in public security. The letter was part of a petition by the state for a specialty work visa that had to show Cipel was qualified for what he was being hired to do. Israeli military expert and journalist Yossi Melman said the letter "more than exaggerates" Cipel's experience and capabilities in the Israeli Defense Force. "The state of New Jersey's application (to the immigration service) in particular struck me as full of chutzpah," Melman said. "It is rather surprising that the governor went out of his way by using the pretext that his Israeli friend is a terrorist expert in order to accommodate him. I find it especially troubling to use the horrible events of 9/11 as a justification for the nomination of Golan Cipel to a highly important security position which he was not qualified for." Asked whether the public was misled about the role Cipel was slated to play in New Jersey's security, McGreevey spokesman Kevin Davitt said, "Not to my knowledge." "This is what we believed his (Cipel's) responsibilities were to be at that time," Davitt said of the letter. "As the administration moved forward, there was a determination made that we needed someone with better experience." Davitt said that the INS was not misled about Cipel's qualifications. As for whether Cipel was qualified for the security post, Davitt said, "I think it was found there were probably others more suited to do that job." Cipel did not respond to requests for comment. When Cipel quit last August after a Gannett New Jersey report on the exaggeration of his security credentials, the governor blamed the exaggeration on a poorly worded biography issued by McGreevey's office. But the governor's chief counsel, Paul Levinsohn, who served as McGreevey's campaign finance chairman and is a longtime confidant of the governor, was detailed when he wrote to the federal immigration service and described how Cipel was qualified to be the governor's point man on security. As McGreevey's special adviser on issues of homeland security and public safety, Cipel's duty would be disseminating and coordinating public safety programs with other state departments and branches of government, Levinsohn wrote. Although early news accounts of the Israeli's hiring by the state of New Jersey pointed out that Cipel, who is not an American citizen, could not qualify for federal security clearance, that was ignored in the Levinsohn description of Cipel's duties. The Levinsohn letter said Cipel would coordinate security issues between the governor's office and the New Jersey Domestic Security Preparedness Task Force, State Police, the New Jersey National Guard, the FBI and the Armed Forces.'Exaggerated' Assemblyman Guy Gregg, R-Morris, said the Levinsohn letter was crafted to place Cipel in a job he was not qualified to do. "Basically, they exaggerated at a level that most people would find much closer to a mistruth," he said. "It is almost admitted by this administration that he is not an expert in security. He doesn't have years and years experience in it. He wasn't going to be able to pass the simplest of fourway background checks to be a state trooper, let alone talk to one." Gannett New Jersey obtained the Levinsohn letter last week from the U.S. Department of Justice through a federal Freedom of Information Act request filed last summer with the immigration service. The requests traditionally take months for a response.   LEVINSOHN has been the subject of his own recent controversy over the money he earned, just before McGreevey took office, from a billboard company whose procedures in obtaining a lucrative billboard deal in South Jersey have been questioned. The FBI is investigating that deal. In the U.S. Department of Labor application, dated Jan. 9, before McGreevey took office, Levinsohn listed his title as assistant attorney general, a courtesy title the administration said he was given, and swornin to, during the transition period. Cipel's potential employer is listed as the state Department of Law and Public Safety. Davitt said the letter could not be found in state files, but Levinsohn had a copy at his home. To hire Cipel for the homeland security and public safety post, the state needed to show that Cipel had a bachelor's degree in an area related to security or collegiate-level expertise in the field, according to U.S Labor Department expert Stephen Stefanko. In the state's application on Cipel's behalf for his H-1B work visa for a specialty occupation, Levinsohn said Cipel had the necessary background in the areas of security and antiterrorism initiatives. From 1995 to 1999, while earning his bachelor's and master's degrees in communications from the New York Institute of Technology, Cipel worked for the Consulate General of Israel in New York, where he had the title of chief information officer. In his letter, Levinsohn described Cipel's work at the consul: "In particular, his experience as chief information officer, consulate general of Israel, involved responsibility for developing and maintaining the country's terrorism portfolio, keeping government authorities abreast of terrorist activities and threats, maintaining a database of such activities and coordinating that information with data obtained from other agencies." But former Consul Collett Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament and the official in charge of the consulate while Cipel worked there, told Gannett, "He (Cipel) was not involved in anything related to terrorism." The Levinsohn letter also stated that "as a naval officer in the Israel Defense Force, Mr. Cipel functioned as a special operations officer and was appointed as media adviser, disseminating data on military operations and antiterrorism measures to the media while insuring that sensitive information was not disclosed. As such, he is well-qualified in the areas of information gathering, dissemination and sharing with other agencies." Cipel served for five years in the Israel Defense Force with a Navy patrol boat unit before serving a 10-year stint in the reserves at the Homeland Command, where he reached the rank of lieutenant. Melman likened Cipel's military service to serving five years in the U.S. Navy followed by 10 years in the National Guard Reserves. Service in the Homeland Command is non-combatant duty known in Israel as an easy, comfortable place to do military service, Melman said. Levinsohn told the INS that Cipel would be paid $80,000. As one of McGreevey's highest advisers, his salary was $110,000. When Cipel's appointment first came under fire early this year, McGreevey said Cipel was never intended to be the state's official terrorism leader, only a personal adviser on the issue. His security role from the beginning, McGreevey said in August, was to do an exhaustive evaluation of published best practices on the subject. In the August interview, McGreevey argued that Cipel had been hired in the role of adviser to the governor on numerous issues and that his first assignment was security. McGreevey initially responded to the criticism concerning Cipel by taking him off the security issue and moving him to a general adviser. INS records show that the state applied in March to change Cipel's specialty designation from special consul to the governor on security issues to policy adviser. The March letter, authored by Levinsohn, does not mention security issues or Cipel's security qualifications. After Cipel resigned in August, McGreevey recommended him for a job at the politically connected public relations firm of MWW Group in East Rutherford. An official there said Cipel only stayed a month because the company and Cipel did not agree on the amount of time he was expected to spend in the office. With another recommendation from McGreevey, Cipel has been hired at State Street Partners, a small Trenton lobbying firm whose partners include McGreevey's best friend, Rahway Mayor James Kennedy. McGreevey has described Cipel as a very good friend whose advice he still seeks and who still does outreach for the governor to the Jewish community. Before joining the McGreevey administration, Cipel was part-time director of Jewish outreach for the Democratic State Committee during McGreevey's election campaign at a salary listed on the INS application at $30,000 a year. He also was a parttime public relations associate for McGreevey's top campaign contributor, at an additional $30,000 a year, INS records show. The contributor, Charles Kushner, has since been appointed to the board of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. McGreevey said he met Cipel during a 2000 trip to Israel, where Cipel served as spokesman for the city of Rishon Le Zion. Kushner's firm filed the first INS application for Cipel in the fall of 2000, and he reentered the United States in February 2001, according to INS records. Lawyers for Kushner's firm and the Democratic State Committee also filed letters with INS applications for his work visas, but the letters made no mention of his security qualifications.

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