Ambassadors Tell Concern Over Recent Violence in U.S. : Envoys, Meese Discuss Attacks on Arabs

Ambassadors from three Arab states have met with Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III to express concern about the safety of Arabs and Arab-Americans in the United States, citing recent bombings against Arab-American targets, it was learned Thursday.

At the unannounced 20-minute session, which took place at the Justice Department Wednesday, Meese assured the ambassadors that the United States “will do whatever it can to find, arrest and prosecute” those responsible for the violence, department spokesman Patrick S. Korten said.

Those meeting with Meese were Syrian Ambassador Rafic Jouejati, Mauritanian Ambassador Abdellah Ould Daddah and Yemeni Ambassador Muhsin Ahmad Alaini, according to Korten, who said that they were speaking for all of the Arab ambassadors to the United States. The three could not be reached for comment.

Korten noted that FBI Director William H. Webster--who warned last week that Arab-Americans were in a “zone of danger” from an unidentified group that is targeting persons it deems to be “enemies of Israel”--had met on the issue with former Sen. James G. Abourezk, head of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

After the meeting, Abourezk said he was satisfied that the FBI is devoting substantial resources to the investigation.

Santa Ana Killing

Last month, an FBI spokesman attributed the Oct. 11 bombing of the American-Arab committee’s Santa Ana, Calif., office, which killed Alex M. Odeh, the group’s West Coast director, to the Jewish Defense League. In addition, he cited the league, which has repeatedly denied responsibility for the violence, in two earlier bombings, in Paterson, N. J., and Brentwood, N. Y., aimed at persons suspected of being Nazis.

On Aug. 16, a pipe bomb exploded outside the Arab committee’s Boston office and injured two policemen.

In the latest incident involving the American-Arab group--a Nov. 29 fire in the Washington building that houses the organization’s national headquarters--investigators have questioned whether the group was the target of the “very suspicious” blaze. The fire is believed to have started two floors below the American-Arab headquarters, in the office of a public relations firm, Susan Davis & Associates.

The firm’s clients have included Egypt and the Turkish Republic of Cyprus, but Davis said Thursday that her organization had received no threats before or after the fire.

In a related development Thursday, the Arab American Institute said that the U.S. Civil Rights Commission has agreed to conduct hearings in February on civil rights concerns among Arab-Americans.