the defamation league the following was posted and no doubt retyped by yigal ahrens and considering the importance of the issue and the almost total blackout except in california i am reposting to other appropriates groups from la times friday april p a evidence of adl spy operation seized by police by richard c paddock times staff writer san francisco police on thursday served search warrants on the anti defamation league here and in los angeles seizing evidence of a nationwide intelligence network accused of keeping files on more than political groups newspapers and labor unions and as many as people describing the spy operation in great detail san francisco authorities simultaneously released voluminous documents telling how operatives of the anti defamation league searched through trash and infiltrated organizations to gather intelligence on arab american right wing and what they called pinko organizations representatives of the anti defamation league a well known organization in the u s jewish community dedicated to fighting anti semitism declined detailed comment thursday but denied breaking any laws police allege that the organization maintains undercover operatives to gather political intelligence in at least seven cities including los angeles and san francisco groups that were the focus of the spy operation span the political spectrum including such groups as the ku klux klan the white aryan resistance operation rescue greenpeace the national assn for the advancement of colored people the united farm workers and the jewish defense league also on the list were mills college the board of directors of san francisco public television station kqed and the san francisco bay guardian newspaper people who were subjects of the spy operation included former republican rep pete mccloskey jailed political extremist lyndon h larouche and los angeles times foreign correspondent scott kraft who is based in south africa authorities said much of the material collected by the groups was confidential information obtained illegally from law enforcement agencies they also alleged that data on some individuals and organizations was sold separately to the south african government in addition to allegations of obtaining confidential information from police the anti defamation league could face a total of felony counts for not properly reporting the employment of its chief west coast spy roy bullock according to the affidavit filed to justify the search warrant the anti defamation league disguised payments to bullock for more than years by funneling a week to beverly hills attorney bruce i hochman who then paid bullock according to the documents released in san francisco hochman a former president of the jewish federation council of greater los angeles and one of the state s leading tax attorneys will be out of the city until late next week and could not be reached for comment his office said until hochman a former u s prosecutor also was a member of a panel appointed by then sen pete wilson to secretly make initial recommendations on new federal judges in california hochman is a former regional president of the anti defamation league the league which initially cooperated with police has denied repeatedly that its intelligence gathering operation broke any laws league officials will not confirm or deny whether bullock was an employee and have said they simply traded information with police departments about people who might be involved in hate crimes but in an affidavit filed to obtain warrants for thursday s searches san francisco police alleged that adl employees were apparently less than truthful in providing information during an earlier search conducted without a warrant david lehrer executive director of the los angeles adl office said the organization has not violated the law there is nothing nefarious about how we operate or what we have done he said our record speaks for itself the police affidavit contends that lehrer had sole control of a secret fund used to pay for fact finding operations lehrer according to the documents signed checks from the account under the name l patterson an adl official said the account was used to pay for subscriptions to a wide variety of extremist publications that might balk at sending them directly to the anti defamation league bullock who has been collecting intelligence for the adl for nearly years defended his efforts during a lengthy interview with san francisco police he said that he gathered names from many sources and entered them into his computer under headings such as skins and pinkos but that did not necessarily mean that they were under surveillance i might never see or call up on of them again bullock said and it doesn t mean anything that they re in the files it s not a threat to anyone s civil rights that a name appears in my files under say pinko in recent years bullock worked closely with san francisco police officer tom gerard who fled to the phillippines last fall after he was questioned by the fbi in the case a former cia employee gerard supplied bullock with criminal records and department of motor vehicles information such as home addresses vehicle registration physical characteristics and drivers license photographs using files gathered for the anti defamation league gerard and bullock also provided information to the south african government receiving over four years the documents show the file on times staff writer kraft which was apparently sold to the south african government provides some insight into the hit and miss nature of the spy operation the file notes that kraft s articles appear frequently in the times and are well researched and written but little else about the file is accurate the brief entry confuses the times kraft with another scott kraft and provides the south african government with the wrong kraft s physical description photograph and other personal information nevertheless the documents provide illuminating details of how bullock for decades infiltrated all manner of organizations from skinheads to left wing radicals searching regularly through the trash of target groups using anti defamation league funds he also ran his own paid informants under code names such as scott and scumbag he worked closely with police officers up and down the coast exchanged information with the fbi and worked with federal agencies including the bureau of alcohol tobacco and firearms it was bullock s work as a paid informant for the fbi while spying on behalf of the anti defamation league and the south african government that proved his undoing the fbi learned that he was an agent of a foreign government and began investigating leading to the probe of the anti defamation league s intelligence network the anti defamation league employed undercover operatives to gather information in los angeles san francisco new york washington chicago st louis and atlanta according to the affidavit and investigators joining san francisco police in searching league offices and a los angeles bank were investigators from the office of san francisco dist atty arlo smith and the state franchise tax board the los angeles police department which earlier refused to cooperate with the investigation was informed of the searches in los angeles but not invited to participate investigators suspect that some confidential information in the anti defamation league files may have come from los angeles police officers from los angeles times saturday april p a adl vows to cooperate with spy investigation by richard c paddock times staff writer san francisco the anti defamation league defended its record as a civil rights group friday and said it will cooperate with authorities who are investigating whether the organization collected confidential police information on citizens and groups but san francisco dist atty arlo smith said that anti defamation league employees involved in intelligence gathering could face many felony counts of receiving confidential files eavesdropping tax violations and conspiracy police have accused the anti defamation league of not being truthful about its spying operations which collected information on more than individuals and political groups across the political spectrum hundreds of pages of documents released by prosecutors thursday show that the adl maintained a nationwide intelligence network and kept files on political figures even so smith suggested that if the anti defamation league shut down its spy operation prosecutors would take that into account when deciding what charges to file in a statement released in washington national director abraham h foxman described the adl as a jewish defense agency which has fought to protect all minorities from bigotry and discrimination for years foxman said the organization is regarded as a credible source on extremist groups and has a tradition of routinely providing information to police journalists academics government officials and the public it has never been the policy of the adl to obtain information illegally he said like other journalists in order to protect the confidentiality and physical safety of its sources adl will not comment on the nature or identity of any source of information foxman said the anti defamation league refused to acknowledge that one of its longtime employees roy bullock was anything more than a private individual who is alleged to be an adl informant among the documents released by prosecutors were detailed statements showing how the adl funneled weekly payments to bullock through beverly hills attorney bruce i hochman roy would penetrate organizations and needed this arrangement to be distanced from adl hochman told a san francisco police investigator hochman could not be reached friday at his home or office for comment despite the anti defamation league s assertion that it will cooperate with authorities san francisco police said the group did not turn over all pertinent documents during a voluntary search of the group s offices in los angeles and san francisco last fall a second round of searches thursday this time with search warrants produced a vast quantity of records primarily dealing with financial transactions smith said further searches may be necessary and it will be at least a month before any charges are filed he said the investigation of course will go wherever the facts lead us the district attorney said yigal arens usc isi tv made me do it arens isi edu js
