As a follow up to my post earlier describing recent espionage on Americans by the ADL, here is a description from Douglas Reed's book Controversy of Zion, completed in 1953, that shows that domestic spying by the ADL is nothing new... In case you're wondering what the ADL has to do with 9/11, I've pasted after the text from COZ an excerpt from the ADL's screed against 9/11 truth. Of course, as an agency determined to fight defamation, you would think the ADL might be concerned about Arabs being wrongly blamed for the attacks, but of course that is not the case...

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The bid to capture the civil service in America was made in 1943, the fourth year of the Second War, and was partially exposed (by chance) in 1947, when the fog was clearing. The aim was to interpose between the American people and their public services a secret, defamationist black-list which would prevent men of patriotic duty from entering them, and open them wide to approved agents of the conspiracy. The lists then compiled were at one period being so rapidly extended that they would soon have included every person in the United States whose employment in public office was not desired by the secret arbiters. The defamatory dossiers of the A.D.L. were being incorporated in the official files of the American Civil Service. This could have provided the basis for secret police action at a later stage ("political opponents" were rounded up on the strength of such lists by Goering's new secret police on the night of the Reichstag fire). All unknown to the American people, then and now, a coup of the first order was far advanced in preparation.

Mr. Martin Dies once described the A.D.L., which supplied these lists, as "a terrorist organization, using its resources, not to defend the good name of Jews, but to force and compel compliance with the objectives of their organization by terrorist methods; it is a league of defamation". The description was borne out by the disclosures of the Subcommittee to Investigate the Civil Service Commission set up by the Committee on Expenditures of the American House of Representatives, which met on October 3, 6 and 7, 1947 under the chairmanship of Representative Clare E. Hoffman of Michigan.

This investigation also was brought about solely by the efforts of individuals; the whole effort of government was bent on averting it. Some loyal civil servant saw what was secretly being done and informed certain Congressmen that black lists were being inserted in the Civil Service files. Even that might not have led to any action, had not these Congressmen learned that they themselves were among the blacklisted! Under the restraints bequeathed by the long Roosevelt administration investigation, even then, could only be set in motion on grounds that "funds voted by Congress were being misused" (hence the intervention of the Committee on Expenditures).

About a hundred American Senators and Congressmen then learned that they (and some of their wives) were shown as "Nazis" on cards in the Civil Service files. They succeeded in securing copies of these cards, which bore a note saying that the defamationist information on them was "copied from the subversive files" of a private firm of Zionist lawyers. These files, the note continued, "were made up in co-operation with the American Jewish Committee and the Anti-Defamation League; the sources of this information must not be disclosed under any circumstances; however, further information concerning above may be obtained . . ." (from the Zionist attorneys).

The senior officer of that department of the United States Civil Service Commission which was charged with investigating applicants for employment appeared before the sub-committee on subpoena. As the official directly responsible, he said the fi1es were secret ones, the existence of which had only just become known to him (presumably, when he received the subpoena). The only files theretofore known to him were those normally kept by his department; they recorded persons investigated who for various reasons were to be rejected if they sought employment. He had ascertained that the secret files contained "750,000 cards" and had been prepared in the Commission's New York office (his own headquarters office was in Washington), and that copies of the cards had been sent to and incorporated in the files of every branch office of the Civil Service Commission throughout the United States. He said he had no power to produce the secret files; power to do this lay solely with the three Civil Service Commissioners (the very heads, under the president, of the Civil Service).

These Commissioners (a Mr. Mitchell, Mr. Flemming and Miss Perkins), then subpoenaed, refused to produce the files, stating that the president had forbidden this (the secret fi1es had been introduced under President Roosevelt; this order not to divulge came from President Truman). Thereon Mr. Hoffmann said, "This is the first time I have ever heard the acknowledgement that we have in this country a Gestapo".

The Commissioners made no protest. Mr. Hoffmann then asked if persons who had no intention even of applying for a Civil Service post were black-listed. The senior Commissioner, Mr. Mitchell, confirmed that this was the case, thus explicitly admitting that the black list was of unlimited range. Mr. Hoffmann said, "Then it has nothing to do with the immediate case of a person applying for a job?", and Mr. Mitchell agreed. Mr. Hoffmann continued, "You claim the right to list in your files the names of anyone and everyone in this country? Is that not correct?" and the three Commissioners silently assented.

The investigators discovered that in June and July of 1943 alone (that is, in the confusion-period of a great war) 487,033 cards had been added to the secret files, this work having occupied scores of clerks. A Congressman reminded the Commissioners that in the very year (1943) when these secret cards were incorporated the Civil Service Commission had specifically forbidden its investigators even to ask questions about any applicant's Communist associations (the policy generally introduced by President Roosevelt). The Commissioners showed great anxiety to avoid discussing the part played by the Anti-Defamation League in this affair and repeatedly evaded questions on that point.

The official report, so astonishing by earlier standards, shows that the A.D.L. was in a position secretly to introduce into official records defamatory dossiers, quickly extensible into secret police files covering the entire country. This was recognizably an attempt to gain control of the American Civil Service and to make loyalty, by the earlier standards, a disqualification. As no assurance of remedial action was obtained, the result of this public investigation may be compared with a surgical examination by doctors who, having opened the patient and found a malignant growth near a vital organ, declare that they have order not to remove it and sew up the incision. Thus the unhealthy condition remained.

The uses which could conceivably be made of such secret, nation wide black-lists were illustrated by some strange episodes of 1951 and 1952, when bodies of troops suddenly swooped on small towns in California, New York State and Texas and "occupied" them in the name of "the United Nations" or of "Military Government". City halls, police headquarters and telephone exchanges were taken over; mayors, officials and private individuals were arrested; bands of the "enemy" (garbed by some costumier in "Fascist" uniforms) were paraded around; trials were held by military courts and concentration camps were set up; proclamations were made threatening "resisters" and "conspirators" with dire penalties, and so on.

These proceedings look very much like a rehearsal of the kind of thing the
world might well see, in the confusion-period of any third war, if "the league to enforce peace" were making its third bid for world-authority. on this occasion, too, indignant private investigators were quite unable to discover what authority ordered these affairs. The official military spokesman, a colonel at the Pentagon, when hard pressed by an inquirer, was only allowed to say that the question was "one of local and political significance, over which the military exercises no control"! That pointed to the president, government and State Department, but all these authorities remained as silent as the Civil Service Commissioners had been uninformative.
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From the ADL (ask yourself who is defaming whom in this case:)

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I. Anti-Semitic Basis of 9/11 Conspiracy Theories

• Anti-Semitic conspiracists claim that the 9/11 attacks were actually carried out by Israeli agents, who they allege are the only ones with enough cunning and wickedness to commit such an act.

• Their theories bring the Protocols of the Elders of Zion into the 21st century, updating a familiar theme: that Jews are inherently evil and have a "master plan" to rule the world.

II. Far-right extremists exploit 9/11 theories

• White supremacist and neo-Nazi groups adopted anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories because the theories confirm their belief in the inherent evil of Jews.

• Those who didn't blame Israel and the Jews directly for the attacks adopted conspiracy theories claiming that Israel knew about the attacks in advance because of spying operations in this country and did nothing to stop them, thus pointing to what they said was Israel's — and the Jews' — betrayal of the United States.

• These groups promoted the theories to convince the American public that hatred of Jews is justified, and to strengthen their membership and galvanize potential recruits to take action.

III. Categories of Anti-Semitic 9/11 Conspiracy Theories
The exchange of ideas between far-right extremists and certain Arab/Muslim circles has led to a proliferation of anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories, which are constantly recycled and redefined to place blame on Israel and the Jews. Some of these theories purportedly explain how the attacks were planned and carried out. Others provide corroborating “evidence” that the Mossad or Israelis/Jews planned the attacks or knew about them in advance.

Conspiracy Theories 'Proving' Israelis/Jews Planned the Attack

A number of theories imply that Israel would allow thousands of innocent people to die rather than compromise its intelligence operations in the U.S., a notion that reinforces stereotypes of the disdain they feel for non-Jews and the perception that Israel uses the U.S. as a tool for its own agenda.

• Blaming the Mossad. The biggest "villain" in anti-Semitic 9/11 conspiracy theories is the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, portrayed as the only organization able to carry out such devastating acts. This perverse respect for the Mossad derives in part from anti-Semitic notions that only Jews are sufficiently cunning, resourceful, and wicked to have carried out the attacks and blamed them on their enemies.

• "Israeli Art Student" Spy Ring. The theory that received the most attention in far-right publications and the Arab press, as well in the mainstream media, claims that an Israeli spy ring, allegedly made up of young Israelis claiming to be art students, had been tracking the 9/11 hijackers but did nothing to stop their attack.

• Israeli Companies Spying on the U.S. The "Israeli art student onspiracy" theory created speculation about another conspiracy theory — that Israeli spies used telecommunications systems set up by Israeli high-tech companies in the U.S. to spy on American law enforcement and military installments, and avoid detection about their pursuit of the hijackers.

• "Jewish Ownership" of the World Trade Center. Conspiracists focused not only on Israeli owned companies’ alleged involvement in the 9/11 attacks but also on what the "Jewish owners" of the World Trade Center stood to gain from its destruction. According to this theory, Jewish businessmen, in an effort to obtain millions of dollars in insurance money, plotted to destroy the World Trade Center. This conspiracy theory goes to the heart of the myth of the greedy Jew.

Corroborating Conspiracy Theories 'Proving' Israeli/Jewish Involvement in the Attacks

• Four Thousand Israelis Told to Stay Home. Of the many conspiracy theories about Jewish/Israeli involvement in the 9/11 attacks, none has received more attention than the "4,000 Israelis" who allegedly worked at the World Trade Center and were warned by Israeli intelligence to stay home on 9/11, thus implying that Israel had foreknowledge of
the attacks.

• Five Israeli "Spies" Found Taping the WTC Attacks. Another conspiracy theory involves five so-called Israeli "spies" caught videotaping and celebrating the destruction of the WTC. The accounts are partially factual: five men, who later turned out to be Israelis, were arrested after the attack, and one of them had photographed the burning Twin Towers. For conspiracy theorists, the story became yet more "proof" of Israel's involvement in the events of 9/11, despite the FBI's statement that it had found no connection between the five men and the attacks.

IV. Anti-Government Conspiracy Theories
Anti-Semitic conspiracy theories are not the only conspiracy theories advanced to explain 9/11. Fringe anti-government activists from both the far right and the far left are circulating conspiracy theories that implicate the U.S. government. Most theories focus on the government’s alleged desire to create a war in the Middle East in order to seize or control oil supplies there; others allege that the government had foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks but permitted them so that it would be able to suspend or curtail civil liberties in their wake.

V. Conclusion
The 9/11 conspiracy theories show no sign of losing their momentum or unifying power in the near future. In an unprecedented way, white supremacists, far-right extremists and Muslim and Arab propagandists are exchanging and echoing information, ideas and conspiracy theories regarding the attacks, particularly through the Internet.