|
Suspected
Jewish Militant Bombers Indicted for Mosque Bomb Plot
 |
| Jewish
militants attempt to bomb LA mosque
|
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 12 (IslamOnline
& News Agencies) - Two members of the radical Jewish Defense League (JDL)
have been indicted on charges related to plot to blow up a mosque and the office
of an Arab-American Congressman.
JDL chairman Irving Rubin, 56, and member Earl Krugel, 59, have been indicted on
nine federal charges.
If convicted of planning to blow up the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, the
office of the Muslim Public Affairs Council and a field office of Republican
U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, the two could face life in jail.
The federal grand jury, convened Thursday, handed down the charges including
conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against a U.S. government office,
conspiracy, possession of a destructive device, attempted arson and possession
of illegal weapons.
Bombmaking equipment, including lengths of pipe and explosive powder, and a
number of guns were confiscated from Krugel's home in the federal anti-terror
swoop, prosecutors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said.
Officials said the men had said they wanted to send a "wake-up call"
to Arabs and to show that the JDL was "alive in a militant way."
But the JDL has denied the allegations, branding them "ludicrous" and
has launched a fund to defend the pair.
Mosque director Tajuddin Shuaib said he and the mosque's 1,500 worshippers have
received calls from Jewish-Americans nationwide, including one caller who said
"it was a shame that someone who claims to be a religious person would
commit such an act."
Federal authorities suspect the JDL, begun in 1968 to protect New York Jews but
increasingly radicalized, is responsible for several bombings, but no links have
ever been proven.
Rubin and Krugel are also considered suspects in the 1985 murder of Alex Odeh,
West Coast Regional Director of the Washington-based American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), who was killed when a package bomb was sent
to his office.
ADC also reiterated the group's history of violence saying, "the group was
linked to a series of violent attacks on various targets in the '70s and '80s,
including Arab-American organizations such as ADC."
The militant JDL, which was founded in 1968 in New York by controversial Rabbi
Meir Kahane as an "armed response group," has lobbied for the
punishment of Nazi war criminals and for the release of Jews from the former
Soviet Union.
The Kahane group is on the U.S. State Department's terrorist list.
Its members were linked to a number of bombings in the United States, some of
them aimed at Soviet targets.
The Jewish Defense League advocates use of "all necessary means - even
strength, force and violence" to defend the interests of Jews, as well as
the return of all Jews to Israel, according to its Web site. Its logo contains a
silhouette of a clenched fist over the Star of David, news agencies reported.
Kahane later left the group and moved to Israel. A power struggle ensued, with
Rubin among the contenders for its leadership.
Kahane founded an outlawed party in Israel called Kach, which advocated the
expulsion of Arabs from Israel and the Occupied Territories.
|
