Abourezk Says He Told FBI of Bomb Suspect

The chairman of the National American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee said Tuesday that he has sent the FBI evidence linking a person not associated with the Jewish Defense League to a suspected firebombing last week at the committee’s Washington office and to related bombings, including one in Santa Ana that killed the group’s West Coast director.

Former Sen. James G. Abourezk (D-S.D.) said at a news conference that his evidence points to an individual “who previously has not been mentioned or suspected in this case.”

On Monday, the organization said it had received telegrams claiming that the JDL was responsible for the Washington fire last Friday night, although Abourezk declared Tuesday: “I don’t think anybody in the JDL is that stupid to sign their name to a telegram taking credit for a torching.

‘I Don’t Exclude Anybody’

“What I found has pointed somewhere else beyond the JDL,” Abourezk said, cautioning that “I don’t exclude anybody at this point.” He would not elaborate, saying only that the evidence involves “somebody’s movements.”

“What I have is not enough to take anybody to court,” he said. Abourezk said he plans to discuss the evidence Friday with FBI Director William H. Webster.

Abourezk did reveal that private investigators have found similar components in the bomb that killed regional director Alex M. Odeh at his Santa Ana office Oct. 11 and a bomb found Aug. 16 at the committee’s Boston office. Both were pipe bombs containing short fuses and a 9-volt battery, he said.

But he said that despite these attacks, which he said “are without question designed to intimidate us into silence,” his organization remains in business. “It is inconceivable to me that anyone would think that such terrorism could succeed against a national institution such as this committee,” he said.