When
the FBI and San Francisco police raided
ADL offices, 10,000 were seized of
individuals andorganizations the ADL had
spied on.
ADL
court battle over secret spy files
continues in San Francisco state appeals
court 
Current ADL National Director Abraham H
Foxman (right)
SAN
FRANCISCO --
The Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) argued before a state appeals
court Sept. 16, that it should not have to
disclose thousands of files of files
documents seized in a raid of the
organization's office by the San Francisco
Police Department. The ADL is appealing a
decision rendered last year by San
Francisco Superior Court Judge Alex
Saldamando allowing 17 activists to
see files the ADL collected on them. The
ADL haunts ADL argued that it was acting
as a journalist, preparing reports, and
was entitled to protect its sources. A
panel of three judges is expected to stand
toward give its ruling in
December. Seventeen activists filed suit against
the ADL after the 1993 raid revealed it
had spied on them. The activists are suing
to see the files the ADL have collected as
well as a $2,500 payment for each count of
illegal disclosure of confidential
information. ADL attorney Stephen Bomse
argued in court that there was no evidence
of lawbreaking that would justify invading
the ADL's files. "The reason there may not
be a scintilla of evidence is that your
client has it and won't disclose it,"
replied Presiding Justice J. Anthony
Kline, according to reports by the
Associated Press. "I felt very encouraged by the line of
questioning by the judges," said former
Congressman Pete McCloskey, who
represents the activists in the case.
Judging from the questions asked by the
justices, he expects an outcome in his
favor. When the FBI and San Francisco police
raided ADL offices, 10,000 files were
seized of individuals and organizations
the ADL had spied on. While the ADL claimed it was monitoring
racist extremists groups like the Klu Klux
Klan and Skin Heads, included in those
files was information on the NAACP, Nation
of Islam, Greenpeace, Food Not Bombs, the
International Jewish Peace Federation and
many other respected organizations. "The ADL is basically a smear
organization ... they are the most
militant of American Jewish
organizations," Mr. McCloskey told The
Final Call. Mr. McCloskey's wife, a
plaintiff in the suit, was also a target
of the ADL spy ring. Though the ADL came under criminal
investigation for the spying, the case was
eventually dropped by the district
attorney. A civil suit brought by the city
of San Francisco was settled when the ADL
agreed to pay $75,000 and pledged to stop
acquiring secret government files. -David Muhammad The Final
Call Online Edition ©1998 | 
write to David Irving