Grand Jury Probing Alleged Anti-Arab Activities by Jewish Extremists, FBI Says

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles is investigating alleged criminal activities against “the Arab community by Jewish extremist groups,” Assistant FBI Director Oliver B. (Buck) Revell said Friday.

Although Revell refused to speak specifically about the 1985 bombing death of Arab-American rights leader Alex Odeh in Santa Ana, his comments, at the annual convention of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Washington, came in response to a question about grand jury activity concerning the death of Odeh, the ADC’s West Coast regional director.

Earlier in his address, Revell said: “I remain confident we will resolve the Alex Odeh case and bring those responsible to justice.

“Our patience and your patience is paying off,” he said at the luncheon in Washington. “I promise we will not rest until we have concluded our duties and the murder of Alex Odeh is solved and those individuals responsible pay the full penalty of the law.”

Arrest in New York

Revell’s comments came two days after the arrest of a New York man in what authorities said is an investigation of terrorist activities that includes the Odeh bombing.

The Odeh bombing already is under investigation by a Los Angeles-based anti-terrorist task force that includes investigators from the FBI, Los Angeles police, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the U.S. attorney’s office.

Odeh, a 41-year-old naturalized American who was born in what was then Palestine, was killed on Oct. 11, 1985, when a bomb tore through the front door of the ADC’s Santa Ana office as he arrived for work. The explosion came 12 hours after Odeh had appeared on a late-night television news program to condemn terrorism and defend PLO leader Yasser Arafat as “a man of peace.”

‘Extremist Elements’

At one point, the FBI attributed the bombing to the Jewish Defense League, a group originally formed to combat anti-Semitism. But the FBI later backed off, saying instead that “Jewish extremist elements” were suspected.

On Wednesday, the FBI arrested a 59-year-old New York man, believed to be a member of the JDL, in connection with an investigation of terrorist incidents directed at Soviet activities in the United States. However, the suspect, Murray Young, was booked only on possession of an illegal handgun silencer.

At Young’s East Meadow, N.Y., home, the FBI also confiscated evidence “of recent bombings and other terrorist acts which have previously been connected in this investigation to the JDL,” according to federal court documents in New York.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Charles Rose in New York said Thursday the Odeh case was “a subject of the investigation.”

However, spokesmen for the FBI and U.S. attorney’s offices in New York and Los Angeles stressed that they had “no physical evidence” to link Murray to the Odeh bombing.

They said an FBI crime lab analysis will be made of evidence confiscated at Young’s home, including explosive powder and what appear to be JDL documents. That material will be compared to evidence found at the scene of other terrorist bombings, including the Odeh bombing, FBI spokesman Joseph Valiquette said Friday.

Irv Rubin of Los Angeles, national chairman of the Jewish Defense League, said Thursday that Young is not a member of that organization.

Times staff writer Victor Hull in Washington contributed to this story.