History of Information Sharing With Israel Bullock's attorney turned over to investigators an FBI intelligence report on the Nation of Islam whose disappearance had caused alarm at the bureau. The search of ADL offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles turned up more FBI materials, including a three-volume report on a Middle East terrorist group. Moreover, Bullock's written reports to the ADL, which he said were channeled across the country, contained legally confidential material that he attributed to "official friends," the ADL's euphemism for law enforcement officers. While denying that the ADL spies on individuals, Foxman testily argued in an interview that the organization has a right to do whatever it must within the law to combat antisemitism. "What are they [the FBI volumes] doing in our files?" Foxman said. "Because they belong in our files. ... because somebody shared it with us." Since news of the investigation broke, a group of Arab Americans listed in the ADL's files has charged in a civil lawsuit that the ADL invaded the Arab Americans' privacy with its "massive spying operation" and forwarded confidential information to the governments of Israel and South Africa. Evidence of the ADL's information sharing with the Israeli government is largely historical. In 1961, former ADL national director Benjamin R. Epstein wrote to a B'nai B'rith official that the ADL was following Arab diplomats and activists in America and sharing its information with the governments of Israel and the United States. In his 1988 autobiography, ADL general counsel Arnold Forster, who oversaw the fact-finding operation, described how "fact- finding and counteraction became the heart of the organization." He also wrote that he was often a "source" for the Mossad, Israel's CIA, in tracking down suspected war criminals. "ADL does not act as an agent of Israel," said Foxman, bristling at the charge. He called such questions about ADL's conduct "antisemitism. ... I'm sorry if it offends some people. This is far reaching. We see a conspiracy. I see a conspiracy. It's out there ... it's proved itself every day." Underlying the San Francisco case is a gradual evolution in the ADL's mission. Soon after the organization was founded, the 1915 lynching of Leo Frank, a leader of the Atlanta chapter of the Jewish fraternal organization B'nai B'rith, caused the group to focus much of its energy on protecting the physical safety of Jews by publicly exposing bigotry and forcing officials to act. Organized intelligence gathering was a natural outgrowth. In the 1930s, the ADL "undertook a massive research operation which uncovered the interlocking directorates of hate groups, their links to Hitler's Germany and other centers of Nazi propaganda," according to an ADL account. In the civil rights era, it worked in concert with the FBI to combat the Ku Klux Klan. In 1975, the ADL issued a report entitled "Target U.S.A.: The Arab Propaganda Offensive" that described how mainstream Arab- American groups were allied with non-Arab "apologists" such as "some church people, clergy and lay, a number of university-based intellectuals and scholars, plus elements in the liberal community ... some groups formerly active in the antiwar movement during the U.S. involvement in Vietnam, plus the extreme Left, Old and New, segments of the political Far Right, and the traditional anti-Jewish hate fringe . . . and a small number of anti-Israel, anti-Zionist Jews." Once this broad rationale took hold, the civil rights watchdog increasingly devoted its investigative apparatus to "counteracting" what it calls "anti-Israel" sentiment or "the new antisemitism" in the United States. In practice, this means the ADL keeps track of politically active Americans or groups that repeatedly criticize Israel or lobby for Palestinian rights. The ADL argues that any threat to Israel's "image" in America endangers the $3 billion annual package of U.S. military and economic aid to Israel and thereby jeopardizes the long-term fate of all Jews. "I understand that it's difficult for other people to understand," said Foxman, but a "viable, safe, secure haven" in Israel is "part and parcel of the safety and security and survival of the Jewish people." Bullock's work as described in the lengthy transcripts of his interviews with police and in FBI summaries of his statements tracks the shift in the ADL's emphasis. In the 1960s and 1970s, he focused primarily on tradtional organized antisemitic extremist organizations. But during the 1980s, Bullock said he increasingly focused on groups critical of Israeli policies, such as anti-apartheid groups, but not overtly antisemitic. Bullock's computer database grew to include more than 10,000 names of individuals and hundreds of political, social and business groups, including some that had worked closely with the ADL. But his primary concentration was on groups he labeled "Right," "Arabs," "Pinkos," and "Skins." He acknowledged sharing his information with law enforcement, a fact investigators confirmed when they searched Gerard's police department files and found duplicates of Bullock's files. Bullock told police that ADL officials knew about his database. Bullock said he got "checks regular once-a-week" from the ADL that were paid through Los Angeles attorney Bruce Hochman. Hochman said in an interview that he paid Bullock at the ADL's request to protect the undercover role. Bullock told police that he met Gerard at a meeting at the San Francisco ADL office and that executive director Richard Hirschhaut was aware that Gerard was a key source. The ADL dispatched Bullock on special assignments to Chicago and Germany. For a particularly sensitive operation he said he got the approval of Irwin Suall, national director of fact finding. Both officials have come under scrutiny in the investigation. Suall and Hirschhaut declined comment. Bullock told police he was the ADL's "resident expert" on antisemitism in San Francisco and maintained the ADL office files. He said he was the only "fact finder, spy, whatever you want to call me, on the West Coast." Bullock monitored several of the groups profiled in the ADL's published reports, occasional exposes that are a blend of advocacy journalism and intelligence briefings. In 1987, Bullock volunteered to work on a march of the Mobilization for Jobs, Peace and Justice, a coalition of liberal groups that included the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), according to director Carl Finamore. "He [Bullock] just showed up at our office one day to help. He comes in, he's friendly, insinuates himself, asserts himself, tells a little bit about his personal background to get you interested in him as a human being, makes suggestions," Finamore said. Some `Material Is Clearly Contraband' The ADL wanted information on the ADC, a group that challenges defamatory Arab stereotypes, because it considered the organization a "highly active pro-PLO propaganda group." An ADL report said the ADC's members favor "political support for suspected PLO terrorists residing in the U.S." Bullock also volunteered at the ADC's San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where he carried banners, helped with crowd control during demonstrations and took photographs, according to Osama Doumani, who at the time served as the ADC's regional director. "He would come to my office and he would hug me in a comradely fashion and volunteer for work. He wanted to have a presence whenever we had something important," he said. The ADL has labored to draw a distinction between Bullock's more controversial activities and work he was authorized to do for ADL, leaving investigators largely unconvinced. In a court affidavit, San Francisco Police Inspector Ronald Roth said that based on a comparison of Bullock's database with the seized ADL records, "It is believed that Bullock's databases are in fact the ADL databases." Assistant District Attorney Thomas Dwyer argued in court that "some of that [ADL] material is clearly contraband." The ADL, he said, does not "have the right to rap sheet photographs; they do not have the right to people's fingerprint cards." But Foxman and other ADL officials say its fact finders basically employ the methods of investigative journalists, taking notes at public meetings, culling published material for facts, and cultivating law enforcement sources, in order to publish important exposes about bigotry and prejudice. "It's a First Amendment right," Foxman said. "We have a right to gather information and to disseminate it. ... We look at pieces. We look at individuals. We look at ideologies." [end] The Washington Post October 19, 1993 page A13 EVOLUTION OF THE ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE FULL NAME: Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith. MISSION: "The immediate object of the league is to stop, by appeals to reason and conscience, and if necessary, by appeals to law, the defamation of the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment to all citizens alike." (ADL founding charter, 1913) ORGANIZATION: National director Abraham H. Foxman oversees 200 staff members who work in New York, Washington, and 30 regional offices in major cities. About 15,000 ADL supporters donate time, money and advice. BUDGET: $31 million in 1992, chiefly raised through donations to the ADL, which is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit foundation established for educational purposes. BRIEF HISTORY: 1913 ÄÄ A group of Jewish attorneys in Chicago forms the ADL, using a grant from B'nai B'rith, an international fraternal organization. 1915 ÄÄ Lynching of Atlanta B'nai B'rith leader Leo Frank galvanizes the ADL to work toward protecting the physical safety of Jews. 1930s ÄÄ The ADL leads the U.S. fight against pro-Fascist groups and "America First" isolationists, establishing a pattern in which ADL research was shared with federal agencies. 1940s ÄÄ The ADL emphasizes involvement in civil rights litigation, contesting harsh immigration policies and opposing restrictive covenants that prevented Jews from moving into desirable neighborhoods. 1950s ÄÄ The ADL supplies federal agencies with information on alleged subversives, but also challenges Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy (R-Wis.) and works quietly to clear those wrongly accused of being communists or their sympathizers. 1960s ÄÄ The ADL works closely with law enforcement authorities on various types of civil rights litigation. It forms department of Middle Eastern affairs after the Six Day War in 1967 underscores Israel's vulnerability. 1970s ÄÄ The ADL increasingly focuses on the threat to Israel of pro-Arab or anti-Israel advocates in the United States, especially their efforts to persuade the United States to end its military assistance to Israel. 1980s ÄÄ The ADL emerges as a vigorous member of the pro-Israel lobby, even as it continues to investigate left- and right-wing extremist groups. It develops a model for hate crimes legislation, which recently was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. Recent ADL reports: In addition to its annual audits of antisemitic incidents, the ADL has published reports that discussed the views of such diverse figures as Patrick J. Buchanan, David Duke, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr., and Louis Farrakhan. It has issued studies on antisemitic sentiment among black nationalist and left-wing radicals; the continuing activities of Ku Klux Klan leaders, the pursuit of Nazi war criminals, the phenomenon of Skinheads and several reports on what it calls the "anti-Israel Lobby" or pro-Arab propaganda groups in the United States. Compiled by Barbara J. Saffir from news services and ADL. [end] The Washington Post October 19, 1993 page A12 Case of the Critical Librarians Research on Bibliographer Used to Counter Vote on Israeli Censorship by Jim McGee Reference librarian David L. Williams says he learned firsthand how the ADL's fact-finding operation uses information to counteract critics of Israel. Williams, who works at the Chicago Public Library, was listed in ADL fact finder Roy H. Bullock's files as an "Arab" activist. Involved in liberal causes since the Vietnam War, Williams in 1977 joined the Palestine Human Rights Campaign (PHRC), a Chicago-based group that published a newsletter about what it considered human rights abuses by Israel. The ADL has described the PHRC as an "anti- Israeli propaganda group." The Chicago ADL office built up a file on Williams, according to Barry Morrison, who headed the city's ADL office at the time. Bullock told the FBI that he was sent to Chicago on special assignment specifically to investigate the PHRC. Williams's name was listed in the database that Bullock shared with a San Francisco police intelligence officer, Thomas Gerard. Williams's interest in the rights of Palestinians dovetailed with his duties at the Chicago Public Library, where he was assigned to order books on the Middle East. In 1989, Williams prepared an in- house bibliography for the Chicago library system on the Palestinian- Israeli conflict. The ADL thought the bibliography was weighted in favor of the pro- Palestinian authors and went to Williams's superiors with its information on his political activities. Williams also was a member of the American Library Association (ALA), which for years has approved resolutions condemning censorship in other countries. In 1992, Williams and other ALA members persuaded the association to adopt a resolution criticizing Israeli censorship in the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Morrison met privately with ALA officials to argue that a resolution singling out Israel was unfair and laid out the ADL's information on Williams. ALA President Marilyn Miller said she told the ADL officials that "we don't censor our own members." "Obviously I felt strongly that ALA should take a stand on this or I wouldn't have gone to them with this," Williams said. "... They [the ADL] equate that with antisemitism." In February, the ADL issued a news release condemning the ALA for its failure to retract what the ADL called a "false and biased anti- Israel resolution." The release noted that the ADL "fights antisemitism and all forms of bigotry." "When we ultimately found that despite numerous efforts that we had failed, then we chose to condemn and attack the ALA," Morrison said. "Ultimately their officials are responsible for the image, reputation and stature of their organization." "I think they [the ALA] were made to feel that they were in danger of being condemned for being antisemitic for voicing any kind of criticism of Israel," said Mark Rosenweig, a Jewish librarian from New York who supported the ALA's censorship resolution. The ADL began working at the "grass-roots level," according to Morrison, encouraging Jewish librarians in the library association to push for retraction of the measure. An ALA group called the Jewish Librarians Committee took the lead; a fact sheet prepared by the ADL was distributed to ALA members. In June, at its annual convention in New Orleans, the ALA revoked the Israeli censorship resolution. "ADL did not engage in any form of pressure or intimidation ...," said Kenneth Jacobson, the ADL's director of international affairs. "We recognize and respect the First Amendment rights of Israel's critics in this country and fully exercise our own free speech rights. There is nothing illegal, improper, or clandestine about our efforts and nothing merits our apology." [end] The Washington Times October 19, 1993 page A13 Loudoun Investigator's Mission: An Expenses-Paid Trip to Israel by Robert O'Harrow, Jr. For much of his career, Donald Moore was an investigator with the Loudoun County sheriff's department. He loved undercover surveillance, and sometimes went through trash dumpsters in a furtive search for clues. For eight days in May 1991, More became a police emissary of sorts on an all-expenses paid "mission" to Israel sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) of B'nai B'rith. He and 11 other American officers, including some from the District and Montgomery County, received a military briefing and shared ideas with national police leaders. Two years later, the trip and other ADL-sponsored missions came under scrutiny by the San Francisco District Attorney's office, which has been examining whether the ADL granted favors to peace officers to encourage them to share confidential police information with the organization. One officer who went along on Moore's trip, former San Francisco inspector Thomas Gerard, has pleaded not guilty to felony charges that he passed along police information to longtime ADL operative Roy H. Bullock. Authorities say Moore and the other officers on the May 1991 trip are not targets of the investigation; at least three of the officers have been interviewed by the FBI or police authorities in California. Bullock has said the ADL had "numerous peace officers" supplying confidential criminal records and other information, court records show. Some civil rights groups and privacy rights experts say they fear the ADL, and possibly other private groups, quietly have supplemented police intelligence-gathering by doing investigative work off limits to police. "That is a real question that we have, not only in San Francisco, but also in other communities," said John Crew, an American Civil Liberties Union attorney. ADL officials acknowledge they have worked closely with law enforcement on investigating bias crimes, police training, and drafting hate crimes legislation. But they say such cooperation is part of the organization's civic duty and deny knowingly accepting illegal information. "There's nothing that we do that is sinister and there's nothing that we do that is against the law," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL's national director. Moore and other officers say they often have turned to the ADL for help, but not to the point of sharing restricted information. Moore was fired last year in an unrelated incident after sheriff's officials said he was found going through private phone messages. He was acquitted last year of charges that he helped plan an abduction of Lewis du Pont Smith, an heir to the du Pont fortune and a longtime follower of political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. It was his investigation of LaRouche that brought Moore into close contact with the ADL. In 1986, he was assigned to investigate LaRouche followers after the group moved its headquarters to Leesburg in Loudoun County. Working as a local point man in an investigation that eventually involved federal agents in several cities, Moore set up a computer database in Leesburg listing LaRouche associates and cultivated local residents to help track their movements. Moore began working with ADL fact finder Mira Boland, who joined the ADL in 1982 and was assigned to cultivate law enforcement sources. Boland is now widely known among police as a source of reliable tips, sometimes from "snitches" who infiltrate hate groups. Boland declined repeated requests to be interviewed, saying ADL leaders denied her permission. Beginning in 1986, court records show, Boland said she began sharing information on LaRouche with Moore and other Loudoun sheriff's deputies. The two regularly exchanged details about LaRouche, including clips from his groups' publications and county gun permit records. When LaRouche was convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud in 1988 in Alexandria, the ADL celebrated with prosecutors, Moore and others involved in the case. Boland has a photo of the celebration in her office. Transcripts of a recent federal wiretap of Moore's telephone on an unrelated case describe his relationship with the ADL. "I need to find a guy the ADL had a little old woman knocking on his apartment in New York two hours after I had asked," Moore said on the recording, court papers show. "I told the feds exactly where, when and how to get him. And he was got." Moore said in an interview that he has never passed along restricted records to the ADL. "Did I share any information with them? Nothing that wasn't public information," he said. Despite questions raised by investigators about ADL's tactics, Washington area police agencies praise the group. They say Boland's fact-finding office in the District and the publications it produces are helpful in researching extremist groups. In Maryland, the District and Virginia, for instance, police are not allowed to create files on individuals or groups solely because of their political or racial views. The ADL has no such restraints, police say. ADL officials say fact finders such as Boland work in the same ways as journalists. "In one way, it's like another law enforcement agency," said Lt. Tim Boyle, of the Maryland-National Capital Park Police in Montgomery, who went on the 1991 ADL trip to Israel. "They can tell you who the leaders are, when they started, that type of thing. They have no restrictions on them." Boyle turned to the ADL in 1989 when a teenager of Asian descent was taunted as a "gook" and attacked with steel-toed boots by a gang of Skinheads. When one of the gang leaders disappeared, the ADL offered to use its sources to help find him, Boyle said. Eventually, using a young undercover operative, the ADL infiltrated the Skinheads and found the suspect, who was arrested in Pittsburgh. Much of the ADL's work with law enforcement goes beyond investigations. In New Jersey, the ADL helped the state attorney general's office produce a hate-crime training video, now circulated to some 700 police agencies across the country. The ADL also helps police draft legislation to curb hate crimes. The ADL views its special police missions to Israel as another intensive training activity, giving officers a chance to meet with top Israeli police, intelligence officers and political leaders. "They have been our unofficial consultant," said James Mulvihill, a New Jersey assistant attorney general who speaks with ADL officials on an almost weekly basis. "I regard them as the premier prejudice fighting organization. [end]