FBI Report Links ‘Elements’ of JDL to Bombing Death of Odeh

An FBI report released Wednesday said “elements� of the militant Jewish Defense League probably were responsible for the bomb blast that killed Arab rights leader Alex M. Odeh last October in Santa Ana as well as three other bombings in Northridge and on the East Coast.

The FBI “Analysis of Terrorist Incidents and Terrorist Related Activities in the United States� reiterated earlier FBI speculation regarding two East Coast bombings at the homes of accused Nazis Tscherim Soobzokov and Elmars Sprogis and, for the first time, included the bombing of the Northridge home of Holocaust skeptic George Ashley.

However, the report hedged on remarks made last November by FBI spokesman Lane Bonner that the bureau was “attributing� the bombings to the JDL. Instead of flatly blaming the militant Jewish organization for the bombings, the report states: “Although certain evidence leads to suspicion of elements of the JDL, final attribution to any one specific group must await further investigation.�

FBI spokesman Bill Carter declined to comment on the discrepancy between Bonner’s statements and the report. Bonner is on vacation and could not be reached for comment.

JDL National Chairman Irv Rubin has denied that his group was involved in the bombings, which killed Odeh and Soobzokov and injured nine others. He has also taken issue with FBI accusations against his group when the bureau has made no arrests in any of the bombings or disclosed what evidence it may have linking the militant organization to the terrorist acts.

The most recent bombing occurred Oct. 11, when Odeh, West Coast coordinator for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, entered the group’s headquarters on the second floor of a Santa Ana office building, triggering a bomb rigged to go off when the office door was opened. Odeh, 41, who had appeared on a television program the night before during which he called Palestine Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat “a man of peace,� died two hours after the 9:11 a.m. explosion. Seven others were injured.

Ashley escaped injury when a pipe bomb exploded before dawn on May 15, 1985, ripping off the double front doors to his home in Northridge. The 58-year-old director of the Institute for Historical Review--a Torrance-based group that claims the Holocaust never happened--was out of the country Wednesday and unavailable for comment.

Ashley said in an interview earlier this year that he had received telephone threats from people identifying themselves as members of the JDL before the bombing. The letters “JDL� were spray-painted in dark blue on the walkway leading to his house the morning of the blast.

Carter said the bureau uses various criteria in attributing terrorist incidents to a particular group, including the nature of the target and the methods used by various groups in the past. A major factor, he said, is the anonymous telephone calls that often follow bombings claiming responsibility for the incident on behalf of an organization.

Rubin said the method used by the bureau is faulty and noted that the report backed off from Bonner’s statements.

“They were 100% back in November,� Rubin said. “It was the JDL. They made no bones about it.

“What the FBI’s doing is simple. Some character calls up a news agency or whatever and uses the phrase ‘Never Again,’ which is JDL’s slogan, and on that assumption they can go and slander a whole group. That’s tragic.�

The FBI’s report lists seven terrorist incidents. The three not linked to the JDL were the Jan. 25 rocket attack on the San Juan Puerto Rican Mission, attributed to the Organization of Volunteers for the Puerto Rican Revolution; the Feb. 23 bombing of the Police Benevolent Assn. office in New York City, attributed to the Red Guerrilla Resistance; and the wounding of a U.S. serviceman last Nov. 6 in Puerto Rico, attributed to the Organization of Volunteers for the Puerto Rican Revolution. The serviceman was the only injury in the three incidents.

The second of the four bombings blamed on Jewish militants occurred last Aug. 15, when accused former Nazi SS officer Tscherim Soobzokov was fatally injured when he opened the front door to his Paterson, N.J., home after being awakened by a neighbor who discovered a burning car in front of the house.

Paterson Police Lt. John Ragucci said the bomb, which blew off a portion of Soobzokov’s right leg, was connected to the door by a “trip wire.� Soobzokov, who successfully fought U.S. government attempts to have him deported, died a month later of his injuries.

The third incident occurred last Sept. 6. A former Latvian policeman and accused Nazi war criminal Elmars Sprogis, 70, escaped injury when a bomb blast shattered the front door to his Long Island, N.Y., home, seriously injuring a passer-by who spotted flames at Sprogis’ house and pounded on the door to awaken him.

New York FBI spokesman Joseph Valiquette said “the door did appear to have been booby-trapped.� In two telephone calls to the Long Island newspaper Newsday, an apparently recorded male voice said, “Listen carefully. Jewish Defense League. Nazi war criminal. Never again.�

Director William Webster dropped the first hint that the FBI was backing away from its accusations against the JDL last November during a question-and-answer session with reporters at the National Press Club when he announced that Arab groups had entered a “zone of danger� in that they were being targeted by terrorists “yet to be fully identified and brought to justice.�

The terrorists, he said, were “focusing not specifically upon Arabs as such, but upon all of those who could be in the category of enemies of Israel, and that would include those who are believed (to be), or accused of being, neo-Nazis.�

Federal and police investigators, most of whom talked to The Times only on the condition that they remain unidentified, say they know of three or four young men living on the East Coast who are believed capable of committing the terrorist acts. But they declined to identify the individuals or disclose what, if any, evidence they have linking them to the bombings and arsons.