Today the Israel Lobby Archive releases an additional 850 pages of FBI files about the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. The files cover the period 1942-1949. Key highlights:
1. FBI complains to the ADL in 1942 that it was circulating false reports that ADL had conducted 373 investigations on behalf of the FBI during a one-year period. (file ending in 4)
2. The FBI director expresses view “that private investigative agencies had no excuse for existence, that they only created hysteria and contributed to vigilantism and a mob spirit…the FBI had never asked the ADL to conduct an investigation…” The ADL offers to disband during the controversy. (file 4)
3. Luigi Crisculo reports ADL undercover investigators claim the ADL acts as “unofficial auxiliaries of the Department of Justice.” FBI internal analysis that the ADL and related groups are “interested only in their own material benefit and their work is directed more in the line of persecution and of framing their enemies than the exposing of Nazism and Facism…” (file 4)
4. Warner Brothers Studio contributes $60,000 to ADL. Report that a secret fund was used to spotlight Japanese Americans and draw attention away from Hollywood. (file 5)
5. The ADL requests permission to check FBI files in order to avoid “duplication” of investigatory efforts. The FBI internally reports “As the Bureau can see, under the procedure suggested by Gross, the Anti Defamation League would have an opportunity to learn of the informants being utilized by the Bureau and would also be in a position to learn of those under investigation.” (file 5)
6. Senator Rufus Holman complains the ADL has targeted both his business and reelection in a smear campaign. (file 5)
7. FBI does not investigate, the ADL operative, David Robinson, who is orchestrating the ultimately successful campaign against Holman, is FBI informant #7 of the Portland field office. (ADL gave the FBI a list of 1,600 representatives, including Robinson, to be of service to the FBI in 1940.) (file 5)
8. A 1945 joint ADL AJC fund-raising appeal lists a wide range of propaganda campaigns. “333,000 copies of important books carrying our message…9,000,000 pamphlets…40,000,000 comic books!” Fundraising letter claims, “Out of every 100 Americans, 25 are infected with Anti-Semitism!” (file 5)
9. ADL checks with the FBI whether anyone on the official ADL speakers list has an “unsavory” background. (file 5)
10. ADL June 1946 “The Facts” newsletter investigates the Institute for Arab-American Affairs, which has done successful public education “refuting the Jewish point of view on Palestine.” The ADL presents IAAA’s internal operations including confidential banking information, “The bank sources revealed that this organization solicits only membership dues of $10.00 from their mailing list of about 3,500, of which they receive only a small fraction of paying dues. As of last week, their bank balance was $9,000…”
The entire archive, “The FBI and the Anti-Defamation League” may be viewed online at: http://www.irmep.org/ila/adl
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