FBI Denies Having Suspended Investigation of Odeh Death

The FBI denied claims of a New York publication Tuesday that the investigation into the bombing murder of an Arab-American official in Santa Ana has been quietly suspended for lack of suspects.

Spokesman Ray McElhaney said the bureau is “vigorously” investigating the Oct. 11, 1985, slaying of Alex Odeh, western regional director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Odeh, 41, died in surgery about two hours after a bomb exploded when he opened the door of his Santa Ana office. There have been no arrests, and no groups given any credibility by authorities have claimed responsibility for the incident.

Jacqueline Salit, editor of the National Alliance, told reporters that her newspaper had turned up evidence that the FBI had run out of leads in the slaying and discontinued its investigation.

Salit produced copies of a Secret Service memo dated last Jan. 7, which said the investigation into the Odeh murder by the FBI and another agency, whose name was deleted, had “met with negative results” and the case was being closed in Los Angeles.

It said the probe “has failed to identify the perpetrators.”

The memo was from the Secret Service’s Los Angeles office to the Intelligence Division in Washington. The National Alliance obtained it June 13 through the Freedom of Information Act, but parts were deleted before its release, as is customary.

Salit said the memo appeared to indicate that the FBI investigation was suspended, which she said was “shocking in view of what appears to be a pattern of right-wing Jewish extremist attacks on prominent Arab-American and progressive organizations and leaders throughout the country.”

McElhaney said the FBI is actively investigating the Odeh slaying under its terrorism program, one of four activities the bureau is giving priority.

“I assure you it is pending and ongoing,” McElhaney said. He declined to say when the investigation might lead to arrests.

William Hawthorne, a Secret Service spokesman in Washington, said his agency’s only involvement in the Odeh case was to monitor the FBI investigation in order to gather any information that might be useful in carrying out Secret Service duties.

Hawthorne confirmed the memo’s authenticity but declined to elaborate on its contents.