JDL Leader Accused in Mosque Bomb Plot

[MosJan]

JDL Leader Accused in Mosque Bomb Plot

By GREG KRIKORIAN and RICHARD WINTON, Times Staff Writers

 

 

The volatile chairman of the militant Jewish Defense League and another of the group's top officials faced federal charges Wednesday of plotting to blow up a Los Angeles area mosque and an office of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista).

 

Irv Rubin, 56, the group's chairman, and Earl Krugel, 59, its West Coast coordinator, were arrested late Tuesday after explosive powder was delivered to Krugel's home in Reseda, authorities said.

 

Other weapons and bomb-making materials were seized during a raid at Krugel's home, authorities said.

 

Rubin, long seen as an isolated extremist by mainstream Jewish leaders, and Krugel were charged with conspiracy to destroy a building by means of an explosive, which carries a maximum five-year sentence, and possession of a destructive device related to a crime of violence, which carries a mandatory 30-year sentence.

 

Law enforcement authorities said the arrests followed one of the most significant investigations by the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism Task Force in its 16-year history.

 

"Not long after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, I announced my office's promise to vigorously prosecute hate crimes," John Gordon, U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said at a news conference. "Last night's arrests confirm that we meant what we said."

 

The alleged plot, according to an FBI affidavit, was revealed by a JDL member who was first contacted by Rubin and Krugel in October about participating in attacks on local Arab-related institutions. In a subsequent tape-recording of a meeting at Krugel's residence, the affidavit alleges, Krugel said Arabs needed "a wake-up call" and Rubin said the JDL needed to draw more attention to itself in a "militant way."

 

The final plans, authorities allege, were hatched Tuesday night at an Encino delicatessen when Rubin identified Issa's office and the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City as targets and the informant unloaded five pounds of explosive powder in Krugel's garage. Minutes later, dozens of law enforcement officers arrested both men without incident--Krugel at his home and Rubin in his car, not far from his residence in Monrovia.

 

At a bail hearing Wednesday afternoon, U.S. Magistrate Victor B. Kenton ordered both men held without bail pending arraignment Dec. 31. They were found to be flight risks and dangerous to the community. Outside the courtroom, relatives protested the arrests.

 

"My husband has been fighting terrorism all his life. This is a travesty," said Rubin's wife, Shelley. "He is a good, upstanding man who speaks his mind--and that has gotten him in trouble in the past."

 

After the ruling, Krugel's lawyer, Charles L. Kreindler, said the defendants may have been entrapped.

 

"In the aftermath of Sept. 11, the government decided to become more proactive," Kreindler said. "In this case, they became a little too proactive. They sent in a snitch who set them up."

 

But Muslim and Jewish community representatives said they were shocked only at the contemptible nature of the alleged plot. "Rubin has never shied away from violent rhetoric against Arabs and Muslims," said Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino.

 

David Lehrer, western regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said Rubin was viewed with "utter contempt" in the Jewish community. "They have no constituency to speak of," he said of the JDL.

 

The JDL claims several thousand members nationwide but many experts on political extremism say the group is much smaller.

 

The alleged plot also drew strong condemnation from the purported targets, who were not notified about the threats, authorities say, because they were identified only minutes before the arrests. "As you can imagine, this is shocking news to receive," said Issa, who is of Lebanese descent. "Like most Americans, my hope is for a peaceful resolution to the Middle East conflict. Unfortunately, there are extremists on both sides who oppose a peaceful resolution, and instead choose violence."

 

Usman Mahda, community liaison for King Fahd Mosque, said he was shocked by the alleged plot, which comes during Ramadan, the holiest time of the year for Muslims.

 

"There would have been hundreds and hundreds of people [there] . . . mostly American citizens," Mahda said. "It is scary. It's sad and it's disgusting. No Muslims, Jews or Christians should suffer like that."

 

Built in 1998, the mosque draws members from Los Angeles and Orange counties' growing Muslim community. In her affidavit, FBI Special Agent Mary P. Hogan said she was first contacted by the informant on Oct. 18 about an unsolved 1985 homicide, the bombing death of Alex Odeh, western director of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee in Santa Ana.

 

One year after Odeh's murder, an FBI analysis said "certain evidence" implicated former associates of Rubin's who have since emigrated to Israel. Although Rubin has always denied any involvement, he has said that Odeh "got exactly what he deserved."

 

In her 15-page affidavit, the FBI's Hogan alleged the following account of events following her initial contact with the informant:

 

On Oct. 20, the informant made a tape-recording of a meeting with Krugel and Rubin where the two discussed various potential targets, including mosques.

 

During that discussion, "Rubin stated that it was his desire to blow up an entire building," the affidavit says, "but that the JDL did not have the technology to accomplish such a bombing (apparently alluding to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks).

 

"Rubin also said that the JDL should not go after a human target because they still had not heard the end of the Alex Odeh incident," the affidavit says, adding that Rubin referred to the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles as a "viable target."

 

On Oct. 29, at another meeting secretly recorded by the FBI informant, Krugel directed the informant to take photographs of the Muslim council's office.

 

And on Nov. 4, Krugel reviewed numerous photos of the building that houses the Muslim council's offices and said he and the informant could build a bomb to destroy the office. "Krugel also stated that they should plant the bomb at night because if they injured anyone it would bring 'heat' on the JDL," the affidavit says.

 

But at a Nov. 29 meeting, Krugel no longer seemed concerned about that prospect. During another discussion about bombing the Muslim council's offices, "the [informant] asked Krugel about the possibility of an Arab getting killed should a bomb explode at the office . . . Krugel replied, 'C'est la vie . . . ,' " the affidavit says. Hogan said the alleged plotting continued until Tuesday, when the informant met with Rubin and Krugel "to finalize plans for the bombing."

 

At that meeting, Rubin specifically identified Issa's office and the King Fahd Mosque as targets, and plans were made for the informant to drop off explosive powder at Krugel's garage so the bomb could be assembled. After the powder was delivered to Krugel's garage, FBI agents and Los Angeles police served a search warrant.

 

They recovered five pounds of explosive powder, fuses, pipes, end caps and a dozen rifles and handguns, some loaded, officials said.

 

At the news conference, authorities said that the bombs allegedly to be used in the attacks would not be sufficient to topple a building but would be powerful enough to kill or maim anyone within 50 feet.

 

Rubin succeeded JDL founder Rabbi Meir Kahane as chairman in 1985 after a decade as the group's West Coast coordinator. The league was formed by Kahane in 1968 in Brooklyn to protect Jewish residents but soon drew accusations of vigilantism. Rubin became known as a firebrand activist who was repeatedly arrested after various confrontations. He was arrested in 1992 on charges of conspiracy to commit murder for hire, but was released after prosecutors determined police had insufficient evidence.

 

 

_ _ _

 

Times staff writers Andrew Blankstein, Sue Fox, Nita Lelyveld, David Rosenzweig, Al Seib and Teresa Watanabe contributed to this report.

 

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[MosJan]

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2001-12/1396675.jpg

Irv Rubin with the JDL of Los Angeles shouts to white supremacists across the street as a Confederate flag burns in front of the federal courthouse in Reno, Nev.

 

Jul. 14, 2000

 

 

http://www.latimes.com/media/photo/2001-12/1395859.jpg

 

Irv Rubin, chairman of the Jewish Defense League in Los Angeles, seen here leading a protest in Orlando, Fla., in February.

(AP)

 

Dec. 12, 2001

[MosJan]

Jewish Activist Known for Tough Stance

 

 

Profile: Irv Rubin, volatile chairman of the Jewish Defense League has dozens of arrests for activities against anti-Semitism.

 

 

By ERIC MALNIC and RICHARD WINTON, Times Staff Writers

 

 

Irv Rubin says he has never forgotten that day in 1971 when he was a student at Cal State Northridge and Rabbi Meir Kahane, who had founded the militant Jewish Defense League three years before, stopped by to speak.

 

"He told us, 'If you see a Nazi, don't try to convince him you're a nice guy,' " Rubin recalled a few years later. "He told us to smash him."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rubin has done a fair amount of smashing in the years since then--he has been arrested, by his own estimate, more than 40 times. So he said it came as no surprise that when Kahane announced that he was stepping down in 1985, the rabbi named Rubin as the new chief of the JDL.

 

"Who would be more qualified than me?" Rubin asked a few days later without a trace of false modesty. "Next to him, I'm the world's best-known Jewish activist. Now, it's my show."

 

Rubin, who had served as West Coast coordinator for the JDL before his selection as Kahane's successor, said at the time of his promotion that he would press forward with the organization's original mandate "to eliminate any threat to Jewish people" with a forceful, two-pronged attack on anti-Semitism.

 

"Priority 1 will be to teach every Jew or sympathetic Gentile self-defense," Rubin said. "Priority No. 2 is that wherever the neo-Nazis rear their heads, we will be there to confront them, eyeball to eyeball. The day of the submissive Jew must be eliminated."

 

Rubin has taken a similarly tough line against Arabs and Muslims.

 

Born in Montreal in 1945, Rubin moved to the San Fernando Valley in 1960 and later served four years in the Air Force.

 

He said he was "a nice Jewish boy who obeyed every law" until he heard Kahane speak at Northridge. But when he heard Kahane talk of meeting violent anti-Semitism with force, "it struck a sympathetic chord," Rubin said. "Afterward, I went up and introduced myself."

 

Rubin promptly joined the JDL and was soon named a regional coordinator. About a month later, Rubin said, he joined a JDL action at a department store in the Fairfax district, protesting the store's sale of goods made in the Soviet Union.

 

"We had several nice, orderly demonstrations--you know, people screaming, 'Let my people go!' Things like that," he said. "But it didn't seem to faze them. We decided a more dramatic approach was needed.

 

"Myself and about a dozen others went up to the executive offices and had a sit-in. The security guards came in to kick us out. The desks went over, the chairs started flying, the lamps started hitting the wall. It was a good, vibrant sit-in."

 

In 1972, Rubin was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after someone fired three shots at an American Nazi Party leader in El Monte. The charges against the JDL activist were dismissed.

 

More incidents followed, including arrests during demonstrations against Arabs, the Soviet Union and the French Consulate.

 

One of the most controversial incidents involved the bounty Rubin announced at a Los Angeles news conference on March 16, 1978. "We are offering $500, that I have in my hand, to any member of the community . . . who kills, maims or seriously injures a member of the American Nazi Party," Rubin said. "We are deadly serious."

 

The case made Rubin a familiar name, enough so that he sought, but failed to win, a Republican Assembly nomination on the Westside in 1982. For several years, his hulking figure was a familiar one on the evening news, throwing fists at neo-Nazis, threatening Arab activists and being dragged off to jail.

 

In October 1985, a few months after Rubin was named leader of the JDL, a powerful pipe bomb exploded at the West Coast headquarters of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee in Santa Ana, killing its Palestinian American regional director, Alex Odeh, and injuring seven others.

 

Rubin declared: "I have no tears for Mr. Odeh. He got exactly what he deserves."

 

No arrests were made, but the FBI questioned several people connected with the JDL. Rubin has said his group had nothing to do with the explosion and later said he regretted his comment about Odeh.

 

As leader of the JDL, Rubin eventually tried to strike a more moderate pose, donning three-piece suits and offering his services as a security consultant to local businesses, including an Arab-owned Middle Eastern restaurant.

 

He said that some of his earlier stances--applauding violent acts and teaching children to use guns--had been a mistake and a public relations disaster.

 

"Not only did it give Gentiles the idea that we were violent, it turned off many Jews and closed tens of thousands of doors to us," he said. "We became the black sheep of the family. . . . Militancy, in people's minds, is one step removed from terrorism."

 

But his carefully crafted image of moderation eroded in 1992, when he was arrested again, this time on conspiracy to commit murder for hire.

 

According to prosecutors, Rubin had been moonlighting as a private detective, applying his trademark in-your-face political tactics to a far less ideological task: collecting money for creditors.

 

Police said he hired an associate to terrorize an unidentified man who owed money to one of Rubin's business clients. Detectives said the associate fired bullets through the man's windows and threatened to kill him.

 

Four days later, the charges against Rubin were dropped when police admitted they lacked the evidence to hold him. Rubin's attorney, Steve Goldberg, said his client had been vindicated. Prosecutors said they just didn't have enough evidence to put Rubin on trial. For the next several years, Rubin kept a relatively low profile, last making news in 1998, when his plans to stage a concurrent protest march prompted the Aryan Nations to cancel its parade in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.

 

Jewish leaders have long worked hard to distance themselves from both Rubin and the JDL.

 

David Lehrer, Western regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, described JDL's members Wednesday as "thugs and hooligans."

 

"Everyone has their crazies, including us Jews," Rabbi Jacob Izakson of Temple Beth Shalom in Spokane said in 1998.

 

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