The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which
describes itself as a civil rights organization, has been in the
forefront of an ongoing attempt to label legitimate American-Arab
and American-Muslim charitable, political, and informational
organizations as fronts for terrorism. This attempt is part of a
long-standing ADL policy of discrediting any individual or
organization opposed to Israel or supportive of Palestinian
rights. The ADL's strong political loyalty to Israel as well as
its acknowledged ties to Israel's external intelligence agency in
addition to its past practices of spreading disinformation and
intimidating those who have spoken out against Israeli policies
should however serve as a warning about the ADL and the nature of
its claims.
When the ADL was founded in 1913 it defined its
mission as opposing the defamation of the Jewish people. Over the
years, the organization won respect for its active support of
civil rights and its opposition to segregation and white
supremacist groups. However after the founding of the State of
Israel and the 1967 Middle East War, the ADL significantly altered
the way it defined its mission. In a 1974 ADL publication entitled
"The New Anti-Semitism", then-ADL National Director Benjamin
Epstein argued that any "criticism of Israel reflects
insensitivity to American Jews and constitutes a form of
anti-Semitism". This change in the way it defined its mission
meant that the ADL would no longer be engaged in merely civil
rights work but would rather take on a very strong political
stance in defense of Israel. The main goal of the ADL became to
counteract any criticism of Israel and to promote Israel's
interests regardless of other considerations. Throughout the
1970's and 1980's, for example, the ADL was in the forefront of an
effort to keep documents underscoring Israel's sinking of an
American naval ship confidential. Such efforts cannot be
understood in the context of the ADL's former civil rights agenda.
Similarly, in November, 1994, ADL's Executive Director Abraham
Foxman personally appealed to President Bill Clinton to commute
the prison sentence of Jonathan Pollard, an intelligence analyst
for the U.S. Navy who sold what the New York Times described as
"suitcases full of military intelligence" to Israel. Foxman's
appeal to President Clinton can only be understood in light of the
ADL's new mission of promoting Israeli interests.
The fact that the ADL has become a pro-Israel
interest group is, of course, not in itself problematic. The
entire United States political system is based on the freedom of
interest groups to compete with others in promoting their often
conflicting agendas. However the ADL has overstepped the bounds of
legitimacy on a number of levels. The organization has engaged in
illegal domestic spying activities, has worked with foreign
intelligence agencies to undermine the rights and endanger the
lives of American citizens, has undertaken disinformation
campaigns slandering and intimidating numerous academicians,
politicians, journalists, church officials, and
Arab-Americans.
ADL's transgressions were most notably exposed
in January 1993 when San Francisco newspapers broke the story of
ADL's extensive domestic spying network. The San Francisco Police
Department discovered that under the cover of fighting
anti-Semitism, the ADL had gathered and sold to intelligence
agents of the Israeli and South African governments information on
thousands of American individuals and groups. In addition to
nearly all Arab American organizations, those whom the ADL
targeted included House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ron
Dellums, former Congressman Pete McCloskey, Los Angeles Times
correspondent Scott Kraft, the board of directors of public
television station KQED, the Rainbow Coalition, a number of labor
unions, Greenpeace, as well as numerous other journalists,
professors, members of Congress, and activists who the ADL
suspected had "anti-Israel" leanings. The information which the
San Francisco police department confiscated from the ADL offices
included illegally obtained confidential police material. The
manner by which the ADL obtained such information as well as the
fact that they sold it to foreign governments are both
felonies.
The ADL's ties to the Mossad, Israel's external
intelligence agency, had been known even before the scandal broke
out in 1993. During the court proceedings concerning a 1970
lawsuit against the ADL, an internal letter was disclosed in which
ADL's Epstein bragged about the close intelligence relations
between the ADL and Israel. Furthermore, in his 1988
autobiography, ADL general counsel Arnold Forster described the
close connections between the ADL and the Mossad. The Mossad
connection is especially disturbing because of the Israeli
intelligence agency's long record of engaging in political
assassinations of opponents of Israel throughout the
world.
Like the Mossad, the ADL has not been content
with just gathering information on those who have spoken out
against Israel or in favor of Palestinian rights. The ADL has also
actively engaged in discrediting them through disinformation
campaigns which are aimed at both distorting the records and
intimidating those opposed to Israel. While in the 1970's and
1980's, the ADL often falsely labeled such individuals as being
connected to the PLO or in the pay of Arab Gulf states, since the
1990's, the ADL has begun labeling them as being connected to
Islamic terrorist organizations. The ADL's allegations, while
couched in a matter-of-fact style, nearly always falls far short
of providing any real evidence. However such allegations have had
far-reaching effects. After the ADL accused seven Palestinians and
a Kenyan woman in California with ties to a PLO terrorist group,
for example, the eight individuals were arrested and deportation
proceedings were begun. When it was later discovered that no real
evidence existed against the eight individuals except for the fact
that they had distributed anti-Israeli magazines, the media
sharply criticized the government.
One of its first salvos in the disinformation
war was its 1975 report entitled "Target U.S.A.: The Arab
Propaganda Offensive", in which the ADL distorted the images of
nearly all mainstream Arab-American groups. The ADL followed up
that report with its most controversial book of all: Pro-Arab
Propaganda: Vehicles and Voices, an enemies list of 31
organizations and 34 individuals which was published in 1983 and
was largely aimed at countering opposition to Israel from
University professors and student organizations. The publication
intentionally takes statements of those on the list out of
context, accuses them of Anti-Semitism, and falsely accuses a
number of academic scholars of being part of a PLO support network
or of having been paid by Gulf Arab countries. The report calls
upon Jewish leaders in Universities throughout the country to
boycott and intimidate those appearing on the list. Those who
appeared on the list later found themselves ostracized by the
academic community with some losing their jobs or denied
promotions. S.C. Whittaker, the former chairman of the Political
Science Department at Rutgers University admitted, for example,
that political reasons, rather than academic ones, prevented Dr.
Eqbal Ahmad from obtaining a regular teaching appointment after
his name appeared on the ADL list. Dr. Noam Chomsky, who also
appeared on the list, says that since the book was published,
protesters have appeared at every one of his speaking engagements
and have distributed distorted ADL reports containing fabricated
quotes that he was alleged to have made in an attempt to
intimidate him and his listeners. On Nov. 30, 1984, the Middle
East Studies Association passed a resolution protesting the
"creation, storage, or dissemination of blacklists, enemy lists"
or surveys that call for boycotting individuals or intimidating
scholars. Similar intimidation campaigns have been waged by the
ADL against reporters and journalists who have criticized
Israel.
Throughout the 1980's, the ADL also accused
liberal church officials, church groups, and religious
organizations which called for peace and justice for all in the
Middle East as being connected to the PLO. The Reverend Don Wagner
and the Presbyterian Church had especially been accused by the ADL
of having connections to the PLO, though no evidence was ever
presented backing up such contentions. On the other hand, after a
1994 report on the religious right, the ADL was accused by
religious conservatives of going after people for their political
views and of taking numerous quotes of religious leaders out of
context. Also on May 25, 1994, the ADL's Jerusalem office released
a sensationalist story which appeared the next day in the New York
Times and other newspapers which alleged that the Vatican had
admitted to being responsible for the Holocaust. The Vatican later
totally denied the story. The ADL's blatant misrepresentation of
facts was sharply criticized.
The ADL's credibility has been severely shaken
by its long record of disinformation. While the ADL has every
right to continue advocating pro-Israel policies, its real agenda
should be exposed and it must be made to end the illegal spying,
harassment, and intimidation of political opponents. More
importantly, U.S. law enforcement agencies, the media, and
political circles need to see the ADL for what it is: a pro-Israel
group more than ready to distort the truth to further the Israeli
agenda. While in retrospect, it now seems very clear that the
ADL's wild allegations against alleged PLO support networks in the
1980's were baseless, it must be remembered that at the time they
were seen as credible and led many people to lose their jobs and
others to be imprisoned. The ADL's current crusade against alleged
Islamic terrorist networks is almost identical to its earlier one
against so-called ties to the PLO. Both campaigns are based on
general stereotypes and fears and are devoid of evidence and fact.
To repeat such allegations without further investigating them, as
some in the media have done, is unprofessional and unethical. To
act upon them, as some law-makers and law-enforcement agencies
have done, is dangerous and threatens the freedoms and civil
liberties Americans have grown to expect.
|
Some
other chosen topics:
|
The
moral and political
Legitimacy
of
Criticizing
Jewry
|
|
Caricatures
The
Jewish "Peace Talks"
Jewish
Grip
on
American Film and
Television Promotes
Bias
Against
Muslims
By
Abdullah
Mohammad Sindi
Jewish
medias
The
Jewish Lies:
Jewish
Propaganda
|
|
|
|
Our
weakness
We must
know that our weakness is Israel's strength.The regimes that
are in power in our countries are like dead bodies, our
"leaders" are politically finished. Instead of stepping down
in honor, they cling bitterly to power and try to drag their
peoples along into the precipice.
In the
first place, we must conquer tyranny, decadence and
corruption in our own hearts and in our countries! Instead
of giving up, we must work seriously to create the economic,
political, military and social conditions for the future
victory of the Justice.
The
future belongs to the forces of Islam. The Hezbullah, Hamas
and the Jihad are the Islamic response to the Zionist
challenge. The Islam began in the 6th century as a cultural,
and spiritual movement against the superpowers of that
time.
The
military strength of the Islam grew as a consequence of its
spiritual strength. Today, capitulating before the jewish
arrogance is not a solution; it is betraying the future
generations.
If we
can not create victory today, we muste not create defeat
ourselves. The least We can do is to capitulate without
resisting. Any "solution" violently extorted, any unjust
"peace" (capitulation) will be rejected by the future
generations. The only real solution of the Palestinian
question lies in the return of the Palestinian people to
their fatherland.
|
Ahmed
Rami
Writer, journalist and Founder of the radio station
Radio Islam,Phone: +46-708121240
Email
|
|
Nos
voleurs!
Il y
a des problèmes extrêmes où nous nous
debattons et que nous avons trop tardé à
regarder en face. A la différence des pays
occidentaux, nos "pays musulmans" ne connaissent que peu de
hold-up de banques.
C'est
que les voleurs d'envergure savent qu'aujourd'hui, dans nos
pays, la source d'enrichissement la plus sûre, la plus
rapide, la seule à vrai dire, est le pouvoir.
À titre d´exemple : le systeme féodal
(makhzen) - qui n´a rien à voir avec
l´Islam - que Hassan II a pérpétué
anachroniquement au Maroc en plein XXe siècle - fait
de la corruption généralisée un
systhème de gouvernement. Le régime de Hassan
II constitue, pour notre pays, pour notre peuple et pour
notre avenir un danger mortel
réel.
Face
à ce danger et à son défi, il n y a,
devant nous, qu´une seule alternative et une seule
réponse: une révolution islamique radicale,
éclairée, intelligente, tolérante et
liberatrce! En Islam, la liberté est
la
régle.
L´interdit est l´exception. Il s´impose,
AUJOURD´HUI, urgence et nécessité vitale
de créer un FRONT ISLAMIQUE
UNI
POUR
LA
LIBERATION
DU MAROC.
Les
grands ne sont grands que parce que nous sommes à
genoux. Levons-nous!
|
Ahmed
Rami
Écrivain, journaliste et fondateur de la
staion radio Radio Islam,Tel:
+46-708121240 Email
|
|
ACT
NOW!
Tomorrow it will be too late
Donations to help Ahmed
Rami work may be
sent
(in cheques or in notes) to his address:
Ahmed Rami - Box 316 - 10126 Stockholm, Sweden.
Phone: +46 - 708 - 121240
Email
Compose your letter online: Write
to Radio Islam
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No Copyright. - All
texts and files in this Site may be republished and
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they are located is mentioned.
"Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
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without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers."
Article 19. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted
by the United Nations General Assembly on December 10, 1948,
"War
is ugly, but to be dominated is still
uglier"
(A.
Khomeini)
French
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