The following is an excerpt of a letter from Chip Berlet (who by no
stretch of the imagination can be called an anti-Semite or neo-Nazi!) in
response to a letter by Abraham Foxman.  I'll see if I can dig up the
December '95 issue which had the article which sparked the exchange - I
meant to type it in but never got around to it.  This should be added to
the orgs/american/adl/press archive. 



[...]

    I consider the ADL's relationship with law enforcement and intelligence 
agencies unethical, and have so stated publicly for more than ten years; my 
concern did not originate with the revelations of the ADL's significant role 
in a political spying network in San Francisco.

     For years, ADL has worked with a network of rightwing spies who have 
illegally obtained data on leftists from law enforcement, pilfered 
information from the offices of progressives, and then shared the 
information with public and private agencies.

     Sara Diamond reveals in her recent book, _Roads to Dominion_, that 
during the Reagan years, the ADL joined with conservative and Christian 
right groups and government intelligence agencies to covertly plan a 
propaganda campaign designed to bolster public support for Reagan's Central 
American policies.

     The ADL does not maintain a single archival research library or 
"repository of information" open to the general public.  Progressives are 
routinely denied access to the same private ADL archives opened to 
conservatives and government agents.

     Some critics of the ADL are indeed cranks and anti-Semites, but 
Foxman's use of this fact as a shield against criticism is shameful.

Chip Berlet
Cambridge, Massachusetts



Source: _the Progressive_, March 1996, pp. 6-7.

Home ·  Site Map ·  What's New? ·  Search Nizkor