Link to 2 East Coast Bombings, Southland Arab’s Death Sought

FBI agents are investigating similarities between two recent bombings at the East Coast homes of accused Nazi war criminals and a bomb blast in Santa Ana earlier this month that killed a pro-Arab group’s West Coast regional director.

Federal and local authorities on the East Coast say that in all three blasts the explosive devices were triggered to go off when a door was opened.

“We’re certainly aware of the similarities between the three bombings and as a matter of routine things like this are compared,” said Joseph Valiquette, a spokesman for the FBI in New York. “But we’re not saying we definitely believe the bombings were committed by the same group or person.”

Michael McDonnell, a spokesman for the FBI’s Newark, N.J., office, said: “There are similarities in the types of bombs . . . But to say there are similarities, we’re not necessarily saying the same group or individuals were involved.”

The first bombing occurred Aug. 15 at the Paterson, N.J., home of Tscherim Soobzokov, 61, who had successfully fought attempts to deport him because of a concealed Nazi past. He died a month after the explosion from his injuries.

The second bombing occurred Sept. 6 at the Long Island, N.Y., home of Elmars Sprogis, 70, a police chief in Nazi-occupied Latvia in World War II. Sprogis was not hurt, but the blast injured a passer-by.

On Oct. 11, Alex M. Odeh, 41, West Coast regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, died about two hours after a bomb blast destroyed the group’s office on the second floor of a building at 1905 E. 17th St. in Santa Ana. The explosion was triggered when Odeh opened the door to his office, investigators said.

On the night before his death, Odeh had appeared on television and defended Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, in connection with the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. He called Arafat “a man of peace.”

Valiquette said no individual or group has claimed responsibility for the attack on Soobzokov’s home and Southern California FBI officials say no one has taken responsibility for the blast that killed Odeh.

Hours after the explosion at Sprogis’ home, the Long Island newspaper Newsday received a telephone call in which a male voice was reported to have said: “Listen carefully. Jewish Defense League. Nazi war criminal. Bomb. Never again.”

Denied by JDL

The JDL has denied responsibility for all suspected terrorist bombings. JDL chief Irv Rubin said after Odeh’s death that his organization “does not do bombings.”

Investigators earlier this month said they were comparing evidence from the Santa Ana blast with that of an explosion Aug. 16 in front of a Boston building that housed the Massachusetts chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

In the Boston incident, a 12-inch pipe bomb equipped with an egg timer exploded while a police officer was trying to dismantle the device. The officer was seriously injured.

Became Citizen in ’61

Soobzokov, who died in the New Jersey bombing, entered the United States in 1955, became a U.S. citizen six years later and served as Passaic County’s chief purchasing agent. He was active in the local Democratic Party organization.

He fought a long and successful court battle to avoid deportation when the U.S. Justice Department in 1979 charged him with withholding information about his wartime membership in the Waffen SS.

Paterson Police Lt. John Ragucci said that at about 4:30 a.m. on the day of the bombing a man saw a car burning in front of Soobzokov’s home and alerted a neighbor who banged on Soobzokov’s door. The bomb was connected to the door by a “trip wire,” Ragucci said, and the device detonated as Soobzokov opened it, blasting away the lower portion of his right leg.

In New York, the FBI said a similar diversionary tactic was used at Sprogis’ home. A passer-by spotted flames leaping from the side of Sprogis’ house at about 4:30 a.m. and pounded on the elderly man’s door to awaken him. Sprogis went to the door, but the bomb did not go off until Sprogis left the doorway. Valiquette said “the door did appear to have been booby-trapped,” and must have exploded when the passer-by, Robert Seifried Jr., 23, attempted to enter the house.

Seifried was treated for severe burns to his right foot, leg and shoulder.

Sprogis, a retired construction worker, also successfully fought U.S. Justice Department attempts to have him deported.