(Date: Fri Sep 18 00:23:41 1998)
ADL Spy Network
2nd Part
Question: "What was the purpose of keeping all those
names, Cal?
Answer: "What was the purpose? I was an investigator for
the ADL. I investigated any and all anti-democratic
movements.
Question: "And these investigations that you were doing,
were they all in behalf of the ADL?
Answer: "They were all in behalf of the ADL."
(From deposition of Roy "Cal" Bullock, interviewed by San
Francisco Police inspector Ron Roth, January 25. (Pp. 138
and 139)
ROY "CAL" BULLOCK has been on the "unofficial"
payroll of the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith for
nearly 40 years and as recently as July 19, 1992*, was
described by its New York-based chief spymaster, Irwin
Suall, as "our Number One investigator." Bullock, as of
1992, was receiving close to $25,000 annually for
monitoring what Bullock and the ADL apparently considered
to be "anti-democratic" organizations and individuals.
The numbers of the former stretched into the hundreds and
the names of individuals he had in his computer went well
beyond 10,000, according to 700 pages of documents
released in April by San Francisco District Attorney Arlo
Smith.
While Bullock monitored and at times infiltrated
neo-Nazi and skinhead groups, his and the ADL's main
concerns were organizations and individuals considered
threats or potential threats to Israel. These seemed to
include not only the more obvious targets, Palestinians
and Arab- Americans and their support groups, but
organizations representing virtually every segment of the
progressive social, legal and political spectrum, with a
special emphasis on those opposing apartheid.
Under a separate "Arab" category he kept 77 files on
58 Arab-American organizations; among 647 groups
described as "pinko," multiple files were maintained on
the African National Congress and 47 other anti-apartheid
organizations, both here and South Africa-based. His
surveillance of the latter reflected the ADL's desire, as
part of Israel's "unofficial" U.S. propaganda arm, to
neutralize critics of Israel's military and economic ties
to the apartheid state, an effort, which, the records
show, was largely successful.
This eventually led him to do similar spying for the
South African intelligence service together with his
buddy, now retired San Francisco police inspector Tom
Gerard who kept his own set of files (which is more than
just a departmental no-no and has him already indicted
and facing a possible conviction).
Among the hundreds of others groups spied upon were
such diverse organizations as the NAACP, the National
Indian Treaty Council, Greenpeace, the Japanese-Americans
Citizens League, the Centro Legal de La Raza, the
American Civil Liberties Union, the Earth Island
Institute and the Harvey Milk Gay and Lesbian Democratic
Club. A half dozen American Jewish and Israeli groups
also received his attention including the Jerusalem-based
Alternative Information Center, Americans for Peace Now,
Friends of Yesh G'vul, the International Jewish Peace
Union and Israelis Against Occupation.
There were also files on 20 Bay Area labor unions,
plus the San Francisco Central Labor Council, the
Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, the Boycott Shell
Committee, the Green Giant Frozen Food Workers Committee
and the San Francisco Chapter of the Committee for Labor
Union Women. In alphabetical order, files were maintained
on: AFSCME Local 3218, AFT 151, AFSCME Local 3506,
Carpenters Local 22, NABET Local 51, HERE Local 2, IAM
Local 565, ILWU, ILWU Local 6, NALC Local 214, OCAW, OCAW
8149, Plumbers & Fitters Local 93; SEIU Local 535, SEIU
Local 616; Teamster Local 921 (S.F. TDU), United Farm
Workers and UTU Local 1730.
In addition, records were kept on the Bay Area
Network on Central America, the Portland Labor Committee
on Central America, the Free South Africa Labor Committee
and the Labor Committee on the Middle East.
In Bullock's computer, all were labeled "pinko,"
(which in his interview with SFPD inspector Roth, he
equated with "left wing.")
Robert Carl Miller, writing in The Voice, (July/Aug.
'93) the publication of the spied-upon Letter Carriers
Local 214, asked:
"Why would the ADL, dedicated to 'translating the
country's democratic ideals into a way of life for all
Americans'," be wasting their time and resources (an
estimated 34 million dollars a year) investigating all of
the above-named groups?
Why was this spy network interested in rooting out
possible anti-Semitism in the Boycott Shell Committee but
had no interest in any anti-Semitism in the boardroom of
Standard Oil? Are the wealthy purer of heart than the
working class?
The history of oil companies is littered with
anti-Semitism. Henry Ford, not the UAW, was supporter of
Hitler. There were no files listed for corporations with
this spy network."
What information Bullock entered into in his files
will be secret, at least until September 10th, thanks to
an accommodating San Francisco judge, Henry Louie, who
accepted the ADL's version of reality Q that their files
and those of Bullock, who remains on the ADL payroll, are
their private property, as well as protected by the First
Amendment.
On a more ominous note, an announcement by Smith in
April that indictments would be filed against Bullock
and/or the ADL by the middle of June, appears, at best,
to have been premature, and at worst, projects the
possibility that the massive pressure being applied to
stop the investigation by the city's Jewish establishment
Q not only on the D.A.'s office, but on the mayor and the
chief of police Q may result in a compromise that would
leave the ADL free of criminal charges (see accompanying
story on Page x).
A private class action suit has already been filed
by Attorney and former Congressman Paul "Pete" McCloskey,
himself a long-time victim of ADL surveillance and
disinformation, representing, initially, 19 individuals
who believe they were victimized by the ADL either for
their public opposition to Israeli policies and/or their
opposition to South African apartheid. The suit contends
that the ADL violated certain right to privacy laws that
are protected by the California civil code which are
designed to prevent private institutions, such as the
ADL, from receiving and disseminating personal
information that is not publicly available.
To refresh those who have not kept up with a
fast-breaking story that has now slowed down to a crawl:
in early December, a recently retired San Francisco
policeman and former CIA operative in El Salvador,
Afghanistan, Algeria and Honduras, the aforementioned
Gerard, was accused by the FBI (for whom he had also
previously worked) of being in possession of files on
anti-apartheid activists which he had illegally obtained
and was passing on to South Africa.
It was apparent, from an investigation of Gerard's
computer files,that he was also, illegally, providing
personal information on individuals to the ADL. He also
had turned over to Bullock, hundreds of San Francisco
Police Department files that the SFPD had been ordered to
be destroy following a previous investigation of local
police spying.
They also found in a search of Gerard's gym locker
in February, a black executioner's hood, photos of
blindfolded men, presumably El Salvadorans, 10 passports
in different names, a CIA cable marked "Secret," what
were apparently CIA interrogation manuals and over a 100
names and phone numbers under the title, "International
Activities Division-Special Activities Group," a who's
who of the CIA," Gerard told an L.A. Times reporter who
sought him out in the Philippines where he had initially
headed, one step ahead of the authorities, and from where
has since returned and been indicted.
All this was proof, Gerard told the Times, (April
27) that the CIA was directly involved in the training
and support of torturers and death squads operating in El
Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala in the mid-80s.
It turned out that Gerard had a partner, a beefy,
pathologically anti-communist (of the Joe McCarthy
stripe) dealer in Asian art named Roy Bullock, who had
been a paid agent of the ADL since 1954, and who, like
Gerard, had also been working for the South African
government as well as moonlighting for the FBI.( In
August, 1987, Bullock was revealed to be an ADL agent
after joining LCOME; see MELB 4/2.)
The ADL predictably pleaded innocent and attempted
to distance itself from both Gerard and Bullock,
referring to the latter as a "independent contractor." To
keep Bullock's undercover identity intact, the ADL paid
him through a "cut- out," Bruce Hochman, a Beverly Hills
attorney who serves on the organization's Southern
California Board.
The ADL's alleged lack of knowledge of Bullock's
activities failed to convince Yehuda Lev, associate
editor of Los Angeles's Jewish Journal (April 30). Lev
wrote:
"I also have enough common sense to know that a
40-year relationship with a client and agent should
result in some knowledge , each about the other. The
official explanation that Bullock was an "independent
contractor," holds no water. That may affect his Social
Security payments and tax deductibilty, but an employee
of a firm for more than four decades is more than a free
lance researcher."
Between 1985 and 1982, Hochman's checks to Bullock
totaled $169,375. His salary for 1992 was $24,400. The
ADL's failure to his pay social security taxes and
withhold income tax are among the possible felonies with
which ADL may be charged.
As late as February 25, the ADL was not even willing
to admit to many of its own senior employees that Bullock
was working for "the firm." In a memorandum sent to ADL
Regional Directors on that date, Jeffrey Sinensky, ADL's
Director of its Division on Civil Rights, and Ann Tourk,
its Director of Community Service refer to "information
[that] was found in the possession of an individual who
is alleged to have a relationship with ADL." The memo
also attacked reports "falsely implying that ADL worked
covertly with Tom Gerard to monitor Arab Americans."
Similar statements were included in a five-page booklet,
"Talking Points," which the directors were advised to use
in defusing criticism from ADL's "allies" in the civil
rights field.
In the memo and in statements to the press, ADL
officials denied any wrong doing and kept repeating that
they were "cooperating" with law enforcement agencies, It
was soon clear, at least to the San Francisco Police
Department, that they weren't.
What the San Francisco investigators found
remarkable was the refusal of the Los Angeles Police
Department, which evidently had been heavily infiltrated
by the ADL, to assist the SFPD in the investigation, a
decision that was shamelessly hailed by the B'nai B'rith
Messenger, the ADL mother organization's weekly paper in
Los Angeles. (The Messenger also applauded the New York
Times for not reporting the story.)
The story took a major leap when the SFPD and FBI
staged multiple raids on ADL offices in San Francisco and
Los Angeles, and found thousands of files on individuals
and organizations, some of which the ADL had apparently
"doctored" in the meantime.
Subsequently, some 718 pages of documents and police
and FBI interviews with Bullock, David Gurvitz, a former
ADL operative in Los Angeles, a and San Diego Police
Officer, who had collaborated with Bullock, were released
to the public by District Attorney Smith along with the
list of organizations spied upon. They appeared to
contain enough information to file multiple charges
against the ADL and, at the very least, seriously,
threaten its tax-exempt status.
"We are talking about the use of information from
DMV files, criminal files, and other confidential files,"
Smith told ABC News, "files from state and local agencies
that were being illegally furnished and illegally
received."
His opinion was corroborated by SFPD police
inspector Ron Roth. "Based on the evidence," Roth wrote
in summarizing his findings, "exhibits and facts in this
affidavit, I believe that Roy Bullock and the ADL had
numerous peace officers supplying them with confidential
criminal and DMV information." He was not just referring
to San Francisco.
Citing his interview with former ADL employee
Gurvitz, he learned of the existence of "other [ADL] code
named fact finders and field investigators. In Chicago
there is an ex- police officer named CHI-3 (there are
also references to CHI-1 and CHI-2 who apparently are not
policemen.QED.). In St. Louis there is IRONSIDES. In
Atlanta there is an Arab speaking man named FLIPPER."
Roth was unable to locate any files on the
American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) in
ADL's San Francisco office. Gurvitz explained that there
were many files on the ADC in the ADL's Los Angeles
office, along with the names of "any Arab American with
anti-Israel leanings or any Arab Americans that wrote
letters to the newspaper editors." He also volunteered
the information that Bullock's home computer was "the
repository of the fact finding information for the San
Francisco ADL office."
Roth estimated "after numerous interview and
analysis of the documents seized in eight searches," that
"inquiries were made to DMV vehicle registration and
driver's license numbers of members listed at a ration of
approximately 10- 15% of the total [ADC] membership." One
of Gerard's assignments with the police was to act as
liaison to the
Arab community, which "required" that he attend
community events, giving him the necessary cover to join
Bullock in recording the vehicle licenses of those
attending.
Some of Bullock's responses to inquiries by Roth and
the FBI were truly extraordinary. One of the individuals
he was keeping tabs on was Alex Odeh, the head of the ADC
office in Orange County, who was murdered in 1987 by a
bomb in his office, believed to have been planted by the
Jewish Defense League.
"I happened to know Alex Odeh, a very nice, decent,
humane guy," Bullock told Roth. "In fact, I missed going
to the office by one day: I might have been there to open
the door instead of him because he allowed me to go into
the office if I was down there; just by sheer coincidence
it wasn't me."
Bullock's expressed reason for spying on the
anti-apartheid movement appeared even more disingenuous:
"Because," read the FBI report of its interview with him,
"he wanted to help South Africa make a better assessment
of the anti-apartheid situation in the United States.
Bullock said he hoped that by doing this he would
encourage the Government of South Africa to bring it to
an end." It should be noted that Bullock made this
statement after learning that a document was found in his
computer, addressed to his South African contact, warning
him that he (Bullock) had been questioned by the FBI
concerning S.A. agents in the area.
A more honest reason for the ADL's snooping on the
movement was forthcoming from ADL's national director,
Abe Foxman, on a sweep through the Bay Area in May.
"People are very upset about the [files on the]
ANC," he agrees. "At the time we exposed the ANC, they
were communist. They were violent, they were antisemitic,
they were pro-PLO and they were anti-Israel. You're going
to tell me I don't have the legitimacy to find out who
they were consorting with, who their buddies are, who
supports them." (No. Ca. Jewish Bulletin, May 7).
In May, 1986, the ADL Bulletin featured a cover
story bashing the ANC. The article, co-authored by its
then national director, Nathan Perlmutter, suggested that
the organization "so frequently discussed as an
alternative to the Botha government, merits a close,
unsentimental look. The question can be fairly asked,
what has all this to do with Jews?"
After favorably quoting an author who reported that
"P.W. Botha has been dismantling apartheid by stealth,"
the article let loose with a litany of charges that
focused mainly on the ANC's siding with the Palestinians,
beginning with its support of "Soviet attempts to
undermine the legitimacy of Israel," its "strident"
support of the PLO; its denunciation of "Israel's
aggressive expansionism" supported by the U.S. and its
allies and its linkage of zionism with racism.
Since Bullock was already spying on the domestic
anti- apartheid movement for the ADL, taking on the task
for the South Africans meant little extra work, since, as
he acknowledged to Roth, much of the information they
wanted he and the ADL already possessed. One of the items
found in his computer files was a report on a meeting in
Los Angeles in 1991 that anti-apartheid activists staged
for ANC leader Chris Hani. (Hani was assassinated in S.A.
this Spring by a gunman who allegedly was hired by J.
Darby Grace, the new president of the World
Anti-Communist League, an organization formerly headed by
Gen. John Singlaub, which curiously enough, was not on
Bullock's or the ADL's list of right-wing organizations.)
Bullock acknowledged receiving $16,000 from the
South Africans, some of which he shared with Gerard, who
supposedly had help set up the connection.
The reaction of the Jewish establishment to ADL's
predicament has been supportive, accepting, with but a
handful of exceptions, the ADL denials of wrongdoing as
statements of fact. On a national level this has come
from the Conference of Presidents of the Major American
Jewish Organizations, the National Jewish Community
Relations Advisory Council, the World Jewish Congress ,
AIPAC and the American Zionist Movement. Locally, the
city's leading Jewish political players whose wealth and
influence is considerable Q as is their philanthropy Q
are apparently doing what they can to get the ADL off the
hook, although few have been as public as the mayor's
chief of protocol, Robert Goldman.
Goldman, who owns one of the city's largest
insurance brokerages and who is extremely active in
Jewish community circles, contacted police chief Tony
Ribera to let him know that the investigation of the ADL
had caused the Jewish community a great deal of
"anxiety." He claimed his call was a personal call, and
"I wasn't trying to influence anybody or anything of the
kind" (SF Examiner, April 25).
An apparent lone voice within the organized Jewish
community who has the courage to criticize and ask hard
questions of the ADL is Leonard Fein, former editor of
Moment magazine, and now a columnist for the New
York-based Jewish weekly, Forward.
Fein has devoted two columns to the ADL case. the
first, "Circling the Wagons," (June 25) suggested that
the organization has a responsibility to the Jewish
community to do more than issue a blanket denial of
wrongdoing and "accuse the accusers of the 'big lie.'"
Wrote Fein: "One wants to believe that the 'sinister'
files others have accused it of maintaining Q files not
only on extremist organizations but on utterly
respectable organizations (e.g., NAACP) Q "are, as the
ADL claims they are, merely benign background files,
newspaper clippings and such, and whatever crimes the
ADL's principal mole [Bullock] may have been guilty of
were not in the course of his duties or at the behest of
the ADL.
"Given the source of the accusations and their
apparent gravity, wanting to believe doesn't quite make
it. Nor, for that matter, do the enthusiastic
endorsements of the ADL's probity by a variety of Jewish
organizations and leaders who know only the details that
the ADL has shared with them. The ADL has sought to quiet
our legitimate concerns by claiming that behind all the
smoke, there's no fire, just a smoke- machine."
Declaring that "no organization can be taken
seriously as it own judge and jury," Fein suggested that
an independent investigation of the ADL's activities take
place within the organized Jewish community. "One might
have hoped that the ADL board would itself have invited
such an examination.
Apparently, it has not." Fein concluded his column
with the question, asking "why, in any case, should an
organization that has done no wrong not welcome such a
proposal?" As would be expected, the ADL's Foxman, fired
off a letter in rebuttal,(July 16) attacking Fein for not
"seeing this episode for what it is Q not only an attack
on ADL, but an attack on the whole community and its
efforts to protect Jewish security and rights."
Fein's response on July 30, is worth quoting: "Over
and over again, all we have heard from ADL is an
ever-more strident denial of any and all wrongdoing, In
its earliest response to the matter, ADL asserted that if
its procedures had in any respect been faulty, it would
correct them.
"Yet if there has since been information offered to
either the public or even the ADL board regarding the
faulty procedures, I am not aware of it. Evidently,
somewhere along the line there was a policy decision that
the best defense would be simply to stonewall.
"That style of haughty dismissal ill-becomes an
organization opposed to defamation. there is distress and
even anger among ADL's undoubted friends that they have
given no thorough or even adequate explanation of the
alleged felonies. I believe the community is entitled to
more than verbal reassurance.
"ADL linen, which he [Foxman] and I both agree is
Jewish communal linen, is hanging out there in public for
all to see, and the question of whether that linen is
clean or dirty is a real question that deserves a real
answer, both for the ADL's sake and those who depend on
ADL for their own protection."
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