Final_Judgment

324 They Dare Not Speak Out [263]
THE ADL & AMERICAN INTELLIGENCE
Writing in American Jewish Organizations and Israel, Lee O'Brien
provides an informative capsule study of the ADL's method of operation:
"In its early decades, the ADL would approach persons or institutions
considered to be anti-Semitic and privately attempt to persuade or reason
them into retracting abusive statements and correcting offensive behavior.
"In later years, ADL has turned to more public and aggressive measures,
which it classifies as "Educational," "Vigilance Work," and "Legislation." In
fact, "Vigilance Work" has become outright surveillance of individuals and
groups, the results of which are fed into both the Israeli intelligencegathering
apparatus, via their consulates and embassy, and American
domestic intelligence, via the FBI. To ADL officials have admitted the use
of clandestine surveillance techniques." 711
THE ADL AND THE MEDIA
O'Brien's summary of the ADL's method of operation is quite
interesting in that it pinpoints the ADL's influence on the media and on
public debate over the role of Israel vis-à-vis American Middle East policy
making:
"Today the ADL is much more active than other community relations
organizations in the use of its regional offices and constituency for
information gathering, and dissemination.
"The central headquarters in New York City provides regional offices
with analysis sheets, sample letters to the editor to be placed in local media,
biographies of Israeli leaders and anti-Zionist speakers, and directives on
how to deal with topical issues.
"The regional offices in turn monitor all Israel-related or Middle Eastrelated
activities in their areas, such as the media, campus speakers, and
films. By bringing the local events to the attention of the central
headquarters, they play a pivotal role in ADL's overall supervision of the
national scene." 712
OPERATING AGAINST ISRAEL'S CRITICS
O'Brien describes one instance which is typical of the ADL's activities
in defense of Israel: "One Jewish activist critical of Israeli policies
discovered in 1983 that the ADL maintained a file on him going back to
1970; it included information on the subject gathered from local newspapers,
talks on campuses, interoffice memos (from the institution where the
subject teaches), business meetings, talk on radio and TV, and press and
other miscellaneous materials.
"As the file revealed, specific individuals had been assigned to monitor
this person's lectures, either by tape recordings and verbatim transcriptions,
or by detailed summaries of what the subject spoke about, the context of the