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A DOSSIER on the Anti-Defamation League’s penetration of US and San Francisco police agencies and its illegal use of police databases. ADL officials were prosecuted for this felony, and subsequently reached an out of court settlement with the District Attorney under which they paid a substantial penalty — to be used for combatting racist groups.

Website visitors are encouraged to submit authentic materials, information, correspondence, press clippings, etc., to this dossier.

Summary: The “Anti-Defamation League” (ADL) was found to be spying on Arab Americans and Progressive Organizations, and sharing the information with Israeli and South African Intelligence agencies.

In early 1993, an employee of the (so-called) Anti-Defamation League of B’nai Brith was found to be spying on Arab Americans and a large number of progressive organizations. He had collected files on over 10,000 individuals and 600 organizations – everyone from the Arab Amercian Antidiscrimination Committee and the ACLU to the African National Congress and the Centro Legal de La Raza, to the Earth Island Institute and Greenpeace, including even twenty San Francisco area labor unions and a large number of Central America solidarity organizations. Information on anti-apartheid activists was passed on to South African intelligence agents.

At the time, a number of articles was written covering this spy scandal. Most appeared in west coast newspapers. The case was also covered by progressive magazines such as The Nation. Related articles which are not reproduced on this website are referenced in the list below. 

• Phil Bronstein, Suspect in Cop Spy Case Tells his Story, San Francisco Examiner, January 22, 1993.
• Richard Paddock, San Francisco Probes Private Spy Network, Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1993, Page 1.
• Dennis Opatrny, Scott Winokur, Police Said to Help Spy on Political Groups – Anti-Defamation League Seeks Info Nationwide, San Francisco Examiner, March 9, 1993, Page A-1.
• Robert Friedman, in the May 11, 1993 issue of The Village Voice.
• Chip Berlet and Dennis King in Tikkun magazine, July/August 1993.
• Alexander Cockburn in his bi-weekly Beat the Devil column, published in The Nation. [Cockburn predicts (correctly) that the case will be dropped due to political pressure on the district attorney and mayor’s office.]
• San Francisco Examiner, May 11, 1993.

• The story breaks, May 3, 1993: ADL is target of probe, may have broken records laws
• David Irving writes to San Francisco police for his ADL dossier, January 7, 1994
• The ADL’S illegal penetration of US and San Francisco police agencies
• ADL in San Francisco Court, resists Demand to Disclose its Files
• November 11, 1998: The Court says ADL must come clean, disclose files
• November 17, 1998: Court allows Action to go Forward
• COUNTERPUNCH 1999 exposé: ADL’s main fact-finder was also spy for South African regime; buddy was San Francisco cop who tutored El Salvadoran death squads
• ADL in San Francisco Court, resists Demand to Disclose its Files
• COUNTERPUNCH exposé: ADL’s main fact-finder was also spy for South African regime; buddy was San Francisco cop who tutored El Salvadoran death squads
• Middle East Labor Bulletin, Spring 1993 reports: ADL U.S. Spy networks exposed in San Francisco
• May 31, 1993: The ADL Spy Probe, by Alexander Cockburn: in Beat the Devil, his bi-weekly column in The Nation
• Middle East Labor Bulletin, spring 1993: The ADL’s info helped the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC) in its 1947 Witch-Hunts
• Middle East Labor Bulletin, Fall 1993: ADL not only acts as propaganda arm of Israel but also provides secret intelligence on Palestinians and Arab-Americans to the Mossad
• Middle East Labor Bulletin, Fall 1993: Unions were among hundreds of groups spied on by ADL informant
• Sept 28, 1998: ADL court battle over secret spy files continues in San Francisco state appeals court