lawsuit against adl it looks like yigal has been busy rtw jewish group sued for passing official information by adrian croft san francisco april reuter nineteen people including the son of former israeli defence minister moshe arens sued the anti defamation league adl on wednesday accusing the jewish group of disclosing confidential official information about them richard hirschhaut director of the san francisco branch of the adl art dealer roy bullock and former policeman tom gerard were also named as defendants in the suit filed in san francisco county superior court the accuse the adl of b nai b rith a group dedicated to fighting anti semitism and the other defendants of secretly gathering information on them including data from state and federal agencies the suit alleges they disclosed the information to others including the governments of israel and south africa in what it alleges was a a massive spying operation the action is a class action suit it was filed on behalf of about anti apartheid activists or opponents of israeli policies about whom the plaintiffs believe the adl bullock and gerard gathered information representatives of the adl in san francisco were not immediately available for comment on wednesday the civil suit is the first legal action arising out of allegations that gerard a former inspector in the san francisco police intelligence unit passed confidential police files on california political activists to a spy ring the fbi and san francisco police are investigating the adl bullock and gerard over the affair and last week searched the adl s offices in san francisco and los angeles the suit alleges invasion of privacy under the civil code of california which prohibits the publication of information obtained from official sources it seeks exemplary damages of at least per person as well as other unspecified damages lawyer pete mccloskey a former congresmen who is representing the plaintiffs said the plaintiffs included arab americans and jews and his wife helen who also had information gathered about her one of the plaintiffs is yigal arens a research scientist at the university of southern california who is a son of the former israeli defence minister arens told the san francisco examiner he had seen a file the adl kept on him in the s presumably because of his criticism of the treatment of palestinians and his position on the israeli occupied territories according to court documents released last week bullock and gerard both kept information on thousands of california political activists in the documents a police investigator said he believed the adl paid bullock for many years to provide information and that both the league and bullock received confidential information from the authorities no criminal charges have yet been filed in the case the adl bullock and gerard have all denied any wrongdoing reuter ac kg cm apn adl lawsuit copyright the associated press all rights reserved by catalina ortiz associated press writer san francisco ap arab americans and critics of israel sued the anti defamation league on wednesday saying it invaded their privacy by illegally gathering information about them through a nationwide spy network the adl a national group dedicated to fighting anti semitism intended to use the data to discredit them because of their political views according to the class action lawsuit filed in san francisco superior court none of us has been guilty of racism or nazism or anti semitism or hate crimes or any of the other isms that the adl claims to protect against none of us is violent or criminal in any way said carol el shaieb an education consultant who develops programs on arab culture the plaintiffs include yigal arens son of former israel defense minister moshe arens the younger arens a research scientist at the university of southern california said the adl kept a file on him in the s presumably because he has criticized israel s treatment of palestinians the adl believes that anyone who is an arab american or speaks politically against israel is at least a closet anti semite arens said the adl has denied any wrongdoing but couldn t comment on the lawsuit because it hasn t reviewed it said a spokesman at the adl s new york headquarters the fbi and local police and prosecutors are investigating allegations that the adl spied on thousands of individuals and hundreds of groups including white supremacist and anti semitic organizations arab americans greenpeace the national association for the advancement of colored people and san francisco public television station kqed some information allegedly came from confidential police and government records according to court documents filed in the probe and the civil lawsuit no charges have been filed in the criminal investigation the lawsuit accuses the adl of violating california s privacy law which forbids the intentional disclosure of personal information not otherwise public from state or federal records the lawsuit claims the adl disclosed the information to persons and entities who had no compelling need to receive it it didn t elaborate defendants include richard hirschhaut director of the adl s office in san francisco he did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment other defendants are san francisco art dealer roy bullock an alleged adl informant over the past four decades and former police officer tom gerard gerard allegedly tapped into law enforcement and government computers and passed information on to bullock gerard who has retired from the police force has moved to the philippines bullock s lawyer richard breakstone said he could not comment on the lawsuit because he had not yet studied it upwe adl sued for allegedly spying on u s residents san francisco upi a group of california residents filed suit wednesday charging the anti defamation league of b nai brith with violating their privacy by spying on them for the israeli and south african governments the class action suit filed in san francisco superior court charges the adl and its leadership conspired with a local police official to obtain information on outspoken opponents of israeli policies towards the occupied territories and south africa s apartheid policy the adl refused to comment on the suit the suit also took aim at two top local adl officials and retired san francicso police officer tom gerard claiming they violated privacy guarantees in the state constitution and violated state confidentiality laws according to the suit gerard helped the adl obtain access to confidential files in law enforcement and government computers information from these files were passed to the foreign governments the suit charges the whole concept of an organized collection of information based on political viewpoints and using government agencies as a source of information is absolutely repugnant said former rep pete mccloskey who is representing the plaintiffs the adl s information gathering network was revealed publicly last week when the san francisco district attorney s office released documents indicating the group had spied on people and political and ethnic groups for more than years my understanding is that they the adl consider all activity that is in some sense opposed to israel or israeli action to be part of their responsbility to investigate said arens a research scientist at the university of southern california the adl believes that anyone who is arab american or speaks politically against israel is at least a closet anti semite the fbi and the district attorney s office have been investigating the operation for four months the plaintiffs in the case include arens the son of former israeli defense minister moshe arens in a press release the plaintiffs said the alleged spying had damaged them psychologically and economically and accused the adl of trying to interfere with their freedom of speech
