Opinion Editorials, December 2013

FBI Investigated Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for Espionage

"Quashed case" mystery solved: culprit is once again secret Israeli intervention 

2013 marks the 20th anniversary of the infamous "Anti-Defamation League (ADL) files controversy"  in which the ADL was discovered infiltrating, spying on and otherwise violating the privacy rights of a large number of anti-Apartheid, civil-rights and peace groups through the unlawful acquisition of private data from corrupt local law enforcement officials....The FBI files, originally scheduled for declassification in 2038, were suddenly released to IRmep under the Freedom of Information Act on November 20, 2013 and may now be browsed and downloaded from the Israel Lobby Archive.  It is also a timely release since one of Israel's most harmful spies, Arnon Milchan, is openly boasting about his criminal exploits and Americans may soon demand not only that unsuccessful old law enforcement tactics be retired but new strategies be fielded to punish Israel lobby wrongdoers and end their long stint of immunity. 

ADL stalls for time

A March 16, 1993 memo launched the  ADL espionage investigation from the FBI's Los Angeles office.  The FBI discovered "unidentified individuals at the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in possession of [Federal] Bureau [of Investigation] classified information" along with "confidential police reports and files belonging to the San Francisco Police Department" after the ADL's Los Angeles and San Francisco offices were raided and searched under warrant.  Until that time, Israel was interested in preserving close economic and military ties (including nuclear weapons sales pitches) to Apartheid South Africa. The ADL, in constant contact with the Israeli consulate which frequently tasked it for help, was eager to pitch in.  The FBI discovered one of its own files possessed by ADL's Los Angeles division was "a summary of activities relating to the African National Congress (ANC)."  Read more in the full copyright-free report 

New Release: Declassified FBI files reveal how Israel quashed ADL espionage investigation 

Raids conducted under search warrants of the ADL's San Francisco and Los Angeles offices in 1993 turned up not only improperly obtained police files.  The ADL's possession of classified FBI files prompted an espionage investigation into how the ADL obtained such information and funneled to Israeli officials who frequently visited and tasked the organization's "fact finders." The FBI investigation is coded "65" for "espionage" (65X-LA-153918).  Many of the following secret files, reviewed under the Freedom of Information Act on March 26, 2013 were originally scheduled for declassification on March 26, 2038.  They were publicly released on November 20, 2013.  For the first time, interested members of the public can review in detail how the ADL espionage investigation--like other warranted investigations into Israel lobby spying--slowly fizzled.

Israel Lobby Archive:  http://IRmep.org/ila/ADL-FBI/

Freedom of Information Act release letter: http://irmep.org/ila/ADL-FBI/11202013adl.pdf 

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editor@aljazeerah.info & editor@ccun.org