ACCESSION NUMBER:290745

FILE ID:NEA315

DATE:06/23/93

TITLE:ARAB-AMERICANS AND OTHERS DEMAND END TO ADL "SPYING" (06/23/93)

TEXT:*93062315.NEA 06/23/adc protests adl spying #mcj yb bg kf

*NEA315   06/23/93 *



ARAB-AMERICANS AND OTHERS DEMAND END TO ADL "SPYING"

(Jewish group says allegations "greatly distorted")  (520)

By M. C. Jaspersen

USIA Staff Writer

Washington -- Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) President

Albert Mokhiber has called on the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith

(ADL) to apologize for its "spying" on American citizens and to discontinue

the practice.



At a June 22 news conference in front of ADL's national headquarters in

Washington -- which followed a lengthy protest by some 45 picketers --

Mokhiber pointed to the recent case in California, where, according to

press reports, authorities are investigating allegations that the ADL

maintained a private intelligence network which illegally tapped into

police records to cull information on some 12,000 people.

1

ADL "agents" reportedly admitted selling information on anti-apartheid

activists to South African intelligence agents, Mokhiber said, thus

generating "fears that similar information on Palestinian, Central American

and Irish political activists in the United States may have been provided

to governments hostile to" their right to participate in political

activities, as guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution.



Joining Mokhiber in protesting the alleged ADL surveillance were

spokespersons of other ethnic organizations who said they have been the

targets of such ADL spying.



Asked to comment on the protest, ADL spokesman Michael Lieberman said, "This

demonstration is based on grossly distorted and groundless accusations

against the ADL.



"Many of the groups involved in this demonstration," he added, "have a long

record of hostility to ADL and important interests to the Jewish community

-- such as the security of the state of Israel."



And, Lieberman added, "Contrary to allegations, ADL has never targeted civil

rights groups for investigations and we have never targeted any individual

on the basis of his or her race, religion, ethnicity, or sexual

orientation."



Mokhiber said that "for years, ADL has attempted to discredit Arab-American

and other political activists who are critical of Israeli policy.  Roy

Bullock, the ADL paid spy, it has now been revealed, infiltrated our own

ADC chapters."



The ADC, he said, finds it "most disconcerting" that the ADL, "a civil

rights organization with a commendable history of work for American

minorities, has taken it upon itself to spy upon a whole range of other

civil rights and progressive organizations" which should be "allies,

sharing the same values."



Adjoa Aiyetoro, executive director of the National Conference of Black

Lawyers, called the monitoring "shameful" and condemned what she

characterized as "government collusion" in providing illegal materials to

the ADL.



Also joining in the news conference were Angela Sanbrano, executive director

of the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES);

Cynthia Johnson, co-director of the Women Strike for Peace; Betsy Swart,

representing the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission; Rita Mullan,

representative of the Irish National Caucus; and Benito Torres, of the

Washington Peace Center.



Mokhiber said the ADC and the other organizations plan to continue picketing

the ADL on a weekly basis, until the ADL responds positively to their

demands.



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