By Mark Wachtler
(ONN) Long time Whiteout Press readers have always appreciated one thing from this outlet they can’t get anywhere else – our first-hand experience fighting for the American people against an over-intrusive and often murderous shadow government. While most still believe they are far fetched conspiracy theories, our readers know better. Because this author lived it, survived and is here to tell the tale.
In 1993, your author was a 23 year-old newlywed with a one-year-old baby and another one on the way. I was also working full time, a full time parent, and still finding the time to publish informative information under the banner of the American Research Institute and The Liberty House, no different than Whiteout Press does today. And that’s the reason for this article – the following events can and will happen to you if you are speaking out against the government in any way. In fact, they most likely already are and you just don’t know it yet.
They’re spying on you
One hectic day in 1993, late for work and buried in bills and dirty diapers, the mailman delivered an ominous looking letter. The envelope contained legal documents that first put a bit of a scare into this author. But after reading the law firm’s notice, it was apparent that I was an acknowledged ‘victim’ and the crimes and damage had already been done. The letter explained that as a victim, I was automatically made part of a Class Action lawsuit against the San Francisco Police Department and the American-Israeli organization Anti-Defamation League.
What was their crime? According to the Los Angeles FBI office that investigated the case, there existed a public-private, American-Israeli spy ring made up of local US police officers, US federal agents, Israeli Mossad agents, the Anti-Defamation League and a host of individual US citizens paid to infiltrate civil rights organizations, anti-apartheid groups and anyone criticizing the US, South African or Israeli governments.
At the time, your author was terrified to say the least. With babies and a family, this was hitting too close to home. Wondering what I’d done to earn a spot on the list of American activists being spied on by a secret, global, multi-national espionage ring, only two possibilities came to mind. First, I published articles critical of institutionalized racism and apartheid in both South Africa and Palestine. And I repeatedly exposed the fact that at the time, the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) was the largest financial contributor to US Congressmen. In turn, Israel was repeatedly the largest recipient of US foreign aid each year.
I was also covering Gulf War Syndrome, the Federal Reserve, aliens, UFO’s, Nostradamus and a host of other topics rarely covered on American TV at the time. As if that weren’t enough, I had also just been elected as a Republican County Committeeman, my one and only run for public office. But it wasn’t any of those things that got this author in trouble with ruthless foreign governments. It was the occasional articles that criticized South Africa and Israel that did it.
Evidence against the shadow government
The spy ring was eventually busted in 1993 when San Francisco Police raided the California offices of the Anti-Defamation League on suspicion of espionage. What the SFPD found was a massive, underground spy network that had been monitoring and keeping files on over 600 American political and civil rights organizations, as well as over 10,000 individual American citizens. Your author was one of them.
A 20th anniversary report from CounterPunch.org summarizes the spying scandal in surprising detail. The authors were themselves on the list of spying victims and actually filed one of the two lawsuits that exposed the extent of the public-private espionage ring. In their report earlier this year, they describe how San Francisco Police inspector Ron Roth publicly estimated that as much as 75 percent of the ADL’s secret files were obtained illegally.
Unfortunately, the California District Attorney charged with prosecuting the spies was Arlo Smith, who himself was quietly running for California Attorney General. Smith declined to bring charges against anyone in the largest foreign criminal espionage ring in US history only hours before the defendants were scheduled to testify before a Grand Jury. The thousands of victims accused him of making a secret deal to protect the ADL in exchange for endorsements and campaign contributions from America’s wealthy Jewish community and even the Israeli Mossad itself.
Attempting to deflect the widespread criticism and accusations, Smith’s office released the following statement explaining why he chose to drop all charges against the spies caught stealing secret US government files and spying on thousands of American citizens. He announced, “The SFDA and Defendants agree that litigation concerning Defendant’s activities would involve disputed issues of fact and law and that such litigation would be expensive and time-consuming both to the SFDA and Defendants.”
The fight to see the files
With no charges being filed against the espionage ring, the volumes of information collected both legally and illegally by the ADL and Mossad in the US would be sealed and not made public. That outraged the thousands of victims who wanted to know what their own secret and illegal files said about them. Fortunately, one of the two class action lawsuits against the San Francisco Police Department and the ADL forced the 10,000-plus files to be made available to the victims.
It was revealed that the ADL had collected a massive database on thousands of American activists – most of whom fell on the just side of history – anti-apartheid and pro-civil rights organizations. Among the 647 groups targeted by the ADL were; the NAACP, ACLU, Asian Law Caucus, National Indian Treaty Council, Japanese American Citizens League, and 20 American labor unions. Not exactly an assortment of anti-American extremist groups.
Illustrating just how bizarre and overreaching the ADL and Mossad espionage was, among the 10,000 Americans being spied on were then-Congressman Gus Savage (D-IL), Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, current MSNBC anchor Rev. Al Sharpton, famed Black rights activist Stokely Carmichael, poet Amiri Baraka, and even rappers Public Enemy and the movie star Ice Cube. And of course, your humble author.
Busted and out in the open
After reviewing the tens of thousands of ADL spy files, it was determined that a large portion of them were stolen files from the San Francisco Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Even though no criminal charges were filed, either for widespread theft of government property or espionage, the investigation did reveal the people, organizations and foreign governments perpetrating the criminal acts against the thousands of American citizens.
Even though the illegal spy ring was funded with large amounts of foreign money and protected by individuals in the highest levels of the US government, it was actually a quite simple and modest operation. The spying was mainly carried out by two men. One, Roy Bullock, was a paid member-employee of the ADL. The other, Tom Gerard, was a former CIA agent from El Salvador who was hired as a police officer for the San Francisco Police Department.
The confiscated ADL files revealed that much of the espionage ring was funded by two pro-apartheid governments – South Africa and Israel. And while it was never confirmed by those accused, the entire operation appeared to be for the sole purpose of preserving the South African apartheid government, destroying Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress, and securing long-term weapons contracts with the South African government for both Israel and the US. The documents also accuse the Israeli government of secretly trying to sell the apartheid regime in South Africa stolen US nuclear weapons technology.
One specific mission the ADL spy ring repeatedly carried out on behalf of apartheid South Africa was monitoring and providing detailed reports to the South African government detailing the anti-apartheid activities of civil rights activists in the San Francisco area. And it was that targeting of anti-apartheid activists that led to accusations of murder and assassination.
By Way of Deception
One of the more problematic issues for US officials who were desperately trying to protect the South African and Israeli spy ring in the US was the fact that some of the targets of the international espionage ring were being murdered. Most prominently was a South African anti-apartheid politician named Chris Hani who was believed to be second only to Nelson Mandela and thought to be a future South African President.
After a speaking tour in California by Hani, one in which the ADL’s Bullock spied on and followed him continuously, Hani was assassinated. The moment by moment observations by Bullock were among the files found when raided by the SFPD. Another victim was Alex Odeh, the local President of the civil rights group Arab American anti-Discrimination Committee. In 1985, Odeh was killed by a bomb that was detonated as he opened his Santa Ana office door. In Bullock’s possession, police found a key to that exact door and the floor plan to the office. Of course, no investigation or charges were ever made.
The class action lawyers suing the SFPD and the ADL showed they meant business when a very important witness came out of hiding in Canada and was brought to California to testify against the ADL, SFPD, the Mossad, and Israel. It was the famed former Mossad agent Victor Ostrovsky who wrote the explosive book ‘By Way of Deception.’ For those not familiar, you’d be wise to buy the book and see how the world really works as detailed by those on the inside.
The book detailed the anti-American, criminal, murderous and self-serving activity carried out by Israeli Mossad agents in the US every single day, including assassinations. The book revealed how Israel owns the entire American Congress through both secret and disclosed cash bribes, as well as extortion over drug abuse, marital infidelity and even secret homosexual double lives. The book also documents how Mossad agents repeatedly steal top secret US military and nuclear weapons intelligence, use it for their own advancement and then sell it to rogue nations like China, India, Pakistan, and then-apartheid South Africa.
Turning the American espionage investigation into an Israeli vendetta against the exiled former Mossad agent Ostrovsky, the attorneys for the ADL and SFPD ignored the Grand Jury questioning they were in the middle of and instead began intimidating Ostrovsky to turn over the stolen Mossad files Israel believed were still in his possession somewhere in Canada. Those Mossad files detailed much of the ADL and US espionage ring spying on the thousands of American citizens like the ACLU, NAACP, Al Sharpton, Ice Cube and your author. They even asked the US judge to force Ostrovsky to turn over the files, but having no authority, the California court refused. Readers can purchase their own copy of the book, ‘By Way of Deception’ via Amazon by clicking on the link in the right-hand column.
Lesson for today’s readers
If there’s one lesson for today’s Whiteout Press readers, it’s that all the wild, crazy conspiracy theories describing a secret shadow government playing puppet master with the US government and the American people – is completely true. These events occurred 20 years ago when agents from the FBI, Mossad, ADL and SFPD had to literally dig through garbage dumpsters, break into homes to plant cameras and microphones, and physically follow their subjects in cars and on foot.
Today, with the assistance of hundreds of spy satellites, the internet, your own cameras and computers, and US government programs that force technology and communications corporations to secretly spy on the American people for the government, there’s little doubt these US and foreign agents with ulterior motives are still spying on you and me today. And if you’re a grassroots activist, civil rights advocate, pro-Constitution, anti-spying, environmentalist, anti-bankster, Muslim, Christian, firearms advocate, or even a citizen-candidate running for office for the first time – you are being spied on every second of the day. Count on it.
In fact, we’ll leave readers with the same advice we’ve been giving all political and grassroots activists for 25 years – no matter where you are or what you’re doing, they’re always watching and they’re always listening, always. Guard your words and actions as if your life and freedom depend on it, because they do. If you do that, you’ll live to fight another day just like this author did.
