Full Inquiry Urged in Office Bombings

Leaders of minority and civil liberties groups joined Arab-American spokesmen Monday in calling for a full investigation of recent suspected terrorist attacks on offices of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Santa Ana, Boston and Washington.

James Zogby, director of the Arab American Institute, also called on law enforcement agencies to provide additional security for Arab-American leaders, saying there is widespread fear about further attacks.

“I call for a full, swift and thorough investigation and urge all citizens of good will to join with me in this appeal,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson, head of the Rainbow Coalition, said in a statement read by Zogby at a news conference.

Similar pleas were made by Joseph Trevino, executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens; Morton Halperin, director of the Washington office of the American Civil Liberties Union; Walter Fauntroy, Democratic delegate from the District of Columbia to the House of Representatives; Patt Derien, former assistant secretary of state for human rights; David Sadd, head of the National Assn. of Arab Americans, and Jawed George, executive secretary of the Palestine Congress of North America.

The FBI already is investigating a bombing in Santa Ana on Oct. 11 that killed Alex Odeh, West Coast regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

FBI Director William Webster said Sunday that “if there’s any indication of terrorist activity,” the bureau also will investigate two other incidents. On Aug. 16, a police officer was injured when a bomb exploded outside the committee’s office in Boston. Last Friday, a fire of suspicious origin severely damaged the committee’s office in Washington.

Says Daughter Threatened

Zogby said the FBI had been investigating a long string of threats and fire-bombings for the last five years, but the inquiries “seem to go nowhere.” He said that, in the midst of escalating threats, his 9-year-old daughter had picked up the phone at home recently and was told, “We know who you are. You’re dead.”

Meanwhile, the Anti-Discrimination Committee said its Washington office received four threatening telegrams Monday, signed with the names of current and former Jewish Defense League officials.

However, former JDL national coordinator Fern Rosenblatt said in a telephone interview from New York that neither she nor JDL national director Irv Rubin was responsible for the messages. She said the telegrams were billed to an East Coast telephone number that the JDL had disconnected last summer.

One of the telegrams, signed F. Rosenblatt, said: “Sorry we missed you. Hope to be more precise next time.” The other messages were signed “I. Rubin” and “Fred Rosenblat.”

Rosenblatt said she did not know anyone in the organization named Fred Rosenblat.

“I didn’t send the AADC any telegrams. I assume they were sent by someone trying to set up the JDL as being responsible for the fire,” she said. “The Jewish Defense League did not have anything to do with this. Our organization does not engage in activities of this type.”