President Is Urged to Meet With Widow : Reagan ‘Silence’ on Odeh Death Called Insult

Family members and leaders of Arab-American groups expressed strong disappointment Friday at the Reagan Administration’s “dreadful silence” after the Oct. 11 bombing in Santa Ana that killed pro-Arab activist Alex M. Odeh.

Odeh, 41, West Coast regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was killed when a bomb blast ripped through the second floor of a three-story office building at 1905 East 17th St.

The day after the Odeh bombing, White House Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes issued a press statement saying that Reagan “extends his sincere condolences to Mr. Odeh’s widow Norma and his three small daughters, as well as to other members of the family.”

But Odeh’s family said the message wasn’t delivered to them and that they read it first in the newspapers.

The victim’s brother, Sami M. Odeh, said, “I honestly believe the President owed my sister-in-law a personal phone call. There’s been a dreadful silence. Not a visit, not a phone call, nothing.”

O Friday, Reagan met with Marilyn Klinghoffer, widow of the New Yorker killed in the terrorist hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

Dr. M.T. Mehdi, president of the American Arab Relations Committee, mailed a telegram to the White House on Friday calling on the President to meet with Mrs. Odeh.

A White House spokesman said Friday that the president was aware of Mehdi’s telegram but had no plans to respond publicly to the request to contact Odeh’s family.

Sami Odeh said his brother’s widow--the mother of three daughters aged 2, 5 and 7--is “hurt” by the apparent snub from the White House. He added that it was “insulting” for the President to visit the Klinghoffer family while ignoring the family of the slain Arab-American civil rights leader.

Officials at the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee’s headquarters in Washington said they would lodge an official protest with the White House after a customary 40-day period of mourning.

“Come the 21st (of November) we are going to come out of the chute,” Omar Kader, executive director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said Friday. “We are not going to let this thing go. I think Reagan is a warm-hearted guy, but he relies very much on his staff for advice and guidance. We want to know if there are Jewish-Americans in the White House who are suppressing this. Somebody ought to lose their head over this issue.”

Kader complained that the U.S. State Department has offered $250,000 in reward money for information leading to the conviction of terrorists responsible for recent plane hijackings, yet has offered no reward in the Odeh slaying.

It was publicity surrounding the Achille Lauro hijacking and the murder of Leon Klinghoffer that prompted Reagan to visit and telephone Klinghoffer’s widow, Kader said. He said there has been very little coverage of Odeh’s death on the East Coast.

No suspects have been arrested in the Odeh bombing and no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, FBI officials said Friday.

Local and federal authorities say they have no suspects in the Odeh bombing. The FBI is investigating possible links to three East Coast bombings.

Sami Odeh said his brother had received threats to his life over the telephone from people who did not give their names but identified themselves as being members of “the JDL or JDO”--referring to the Jewish Defense League and the Jewish Defense Organization.

Leaders of both organizations deny responsibility for the bombing.

Odeh said he “has confidence in the Santa Ana Police Department” which is investigating his brother’s death. “But we have gigantic question marks about the FBI,” he added.

Officials of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee have complained that the FBI ignored threats made to Alex Odeh and other members of the organization throughout the country. FBI officials declined to comment except to say that most threats are turned over to local authorities.

Related story in Part I, Page 13.