Bogus bomb threat empties Congressman's Vista office
VISTA, Calif. -- A bogus bomb threat targeting a congressman's North County office prompted authorities to evacuate the building and close the frontage road for about three hours Thursday while determining that the area was safe, authorities reported.
One of the lawmaker's staffers received the threat by telephone shortly after 1 p.m., according to Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista.
"During this call, a staff member was told that something had been left outside that would explode,'' Issa said in a statement. "My district office staff immediately contacted the San Diego County Sheriff's (Department) and was thereafter evacuated from the office along with other occupants of the building.''
Deputies found a plastic bottle containing some kind of liquid outside the complex in the 1800 block of Thibodo Road, sheriff's Lt. Jim Nolan said.
Authorities cleared everyone out of the area, shut down a stretch of the street and called in a bomb squad, which searched the buildings and surrounding grounds with a service dog.
About 4:30 p.m., the ordnance team determined that the bottle posed no threat, according to Nolan. Investigators thought the liquid inside it might have been urine, the lieutenant said.
It was unclear who made the threat and left the container outside the congressman's office. Prior to the bomb scare, the complex had been the site of a demonstration by "individuals associated with MoveOn.org and Occupy North County, as well as individuals participating in a counter-protest,'' according to Issa.
It was unclear, however, if any of those people might have been involved in the bomb threat.
FBI says Issa office target of alleged bomb plot
MSNBC/December 13, 2001
The San Clemente office of Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, was among the targets of a bombing plot allegedly planned by two members of a militant Jewish organization as a "wake-up call" to Arabs, federal authorities said Wednesday. A Los Angeles mosque also was targeted.
Issa, a freshman lawmaker who is the grandson of a Lebanese immigrant, has traveled to the volatile Middle East region, both as a private citizen and a representative of Congress, to encourage the various factions to work for peace.
Issa said Wednesday that he was on his way to a committee meeting at the Capitol when he learned of the plot and the men's arrests. He said he was shocked by the news and could only speculate on the reasons why he was singled out.
"Your initial reaction is 'You've got to be kidding'," Issa said in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C., where some offices in the U.S. Capitol are still barricaded because of anthrax contamination. "Nothing should shock you anymore, but it still does."
FBI agents were alerted to the alleged plan by a government source who participated in several strategy meetings held by Jewish Defense League Chairman Irving David Rubin, 56, and JDL member Earl Leslie Krugel, 59.
The men were arrested Tuesday night after the last component of the bomb ---- explosive powder ---- was delivered to Krugel's home, authorities said. It was not immediately clear when the alleged plot began or what prompted it.
In one meeting, the men told the FBI source to gather information on Islamic institutions in San Diego for a possible attack, court papers state. Rubin and Krugel were arraigned in federal court Wednesday afternoon on two counts of possessing a destructive device with the intent to commit a crime of violence. Both men are being held without bail.
If convicted on both counts, each man faces up to 35 years in prison.
Issa said several safety measures have been taken to protect his San Clemente staff members, who were temporarily moved to his Vista office inside the courthouse where all visitors would be subject to a security screening by sheriff's deputies.
Staff members declined to comment on their reactions to the threat. Three people work full-time in the Vista office, two in San Clemente in Orange County and one in the Riverside County community of Temecula. Issa represents the 49th Congressional District.
Issa said his wife was with him in Washington, D.C., and his son has been alerted to take extra precautions. His chief of staff, Dale Neugebauer, said the Capitol police have been in touch with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department office in Vista about security for Issa's son.
In a statement released by the Anti-Defamation League, San Diego resident and regional director Morris Casuto said the league has been tracking the activities of the JDL for more than 25 years.
"For many years, the JDL has engaged in counterproductive tactics against those it perceives as a threat," the statement reads. "If the current allegations prove true, ADL abhors and condemns this potential terrorist plot to attack members of our community."
Originally formed by Meir Kahane to mount armed response to anti-Semitic acts in New York, the JDL gained notoriety when its members were linked to bombings in the United States, most of them aimed at Soviet targets in retaliation for the way that country treated its Jews. [That is a dodge on the part of the Jews. It is emphatically and massively documented that the Soviet Union and Russia before and since then has been and is massively run by the Haburah, the Jews' Kahal - and see Kahal. The Jews Haburah has a long history of False Flag Black Operations wherein they create terrorism and blame it on someone else in order to manipulate governments. 911 is the biggest example of that recently.]
Kahane left the JDL in the 1980s. A power struggle ensued, with Rubin among the contenders for its leadership. Kahane was assassinated in New York in 1990. The JDL claims to have 13,000 members, but experts say it may have only a few dozen active members.
Issa, 46, serves on the House Committee on International Relations and supports Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. He made two trips to the Middle East following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to broker support for the war against terrorism and promote talks between Palestinians and Israelis.
"All agree this was an unusual act by a small band" of individuals, Issa said in Washington, flanked by several Jewish lawmakers. "Perhaps in another country, we would be adversaries," he said. "We're not going to be divided by ethnic backgrounds."
Tajuddin Shuaib, director of the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City, which was also targeted, said no threats had been received by the mosque. He noted that the alleged plot came during the holy month of Ramadan, when as many as 1,000 people attend the mosque to pray.
"I can't understand why people would do such a thing," he said. "We are not against Jews. We are not against anybody. We are like any church or synagogue or temple."
Federal authorities said the original target was the Muslim Public Affairs Council in Los Angeles, but that target was dropped during a meeting last weekend.
Rubin's attorney, Peter Morris, said his client had nothing to do with the explosives. "It seems to us that, given the timing ... the government's action is part of an overreaction to the Sept. 11 events," he said.
Rubin's wife, Shelley, said her husband and Krugel "are completely innocent of anything."
"They are law-abiding, good people," she said.
Rubin has made a career out of confrontation, challenging white supremacists to fistfights, or burning a Confederate flag outside a courthouse. By his own count he has been arrested more than 40 times. In 1980, he was tried and acquitted of soliciting the murders of Nazis in the United States.
Maher Hathout, a senior adviser for the Los Angeles chapter of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said the arrests sent an encouraging message to the Muslim community.
"We can easily develop an attitude that (federal authorities) are out to get us," he said. "But it seems they are out to get anyone who breaks the law."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Ex-JDL Member Gets 20 Years in Prison - Los Angeles Times
Ex-JDL Member Gets 20 Years in Prison
Judge orders maximum penalty for Earl Krugel, who admitted to plot to bomb a Culver City mosque and the field office of Rep. Issa.
A former Jewish Defense League member who admitted plotting to bomb a Culver City mosque and the field office of Arab American Rep. Darrell E. Issa (R-Vista) was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in federal prison.
Earl Krugel, a 62-year-old dental technician from Reseda, apologized for his actions, telling the court they were "dangerous, wrong and illegal and for that I am sorry."
But U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew said he did not believe Krugel's claim that he was a changed man. Lew assailed him for "promoting hatred in the most vile way" and sentenced him to the maximum provided under federal guidelines.
Krugel was charged in the plot in 2001 along with JDL leader Irv Rubin, 57, who later committed suicide while in custody.
Before Krugel's sentencing, lawyers for both sides argued over whether the defendant had lived up to the terms of a plea agreement in which he promised to cooperate with federal officials in investigating the long-unsolved slaying of Arab American leader Alex Odeh. Odeh, western regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, was killed in 1985 by a bomb that was triggered to explode when he opened the door to his Santa Ana office.
Over the years, the FBI has investigated several onetime JDL members in connection with the slaying. No charges have ever been brought, and the JDL has denied involvement.
Defense attorney Jay Lichtman said Krugel had provided the FBI with the names of four persons mentioned by Rubin, the late JDL leader, as involved in the 1985 killing. The names were not revealed in court; however, one source close to the probe confirmed that three of them were former JDL members Keith Fuchs, Andy Green and Robert Manning. The trio had been publicly identified as possible suspects as early as 1988.
Fuchs and Green are believed to be living in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Manning is serving a life prison term in California for sending a letter bomb that killed a Los Angeles secretary in 1980. The bombing was contracted by a fellow JDL member who had a business dispute with the owner of a firm where the secretary worked.
Lichtman acknowledged that Krugel had stalled for five months before revealing the names, three of which, he said, were already known to the FBI.
Assistant U.S. Atty. Gregory Jessner declined to comment on Lichtman's disclosure, saying it involved matters under investigation. Mary Hogan, the FBI agent in charge of the Odeh case, attended Thursday's hearing and also declined to comment.
Reached at his business in Orange County, Odeh's brother, Sami, said he remains "hopeful that whoever committed the crime will eventually pay for it."
Krugel and Rubin were arrested by FBI agents Dec. 11, 2001, as they were mapping plans to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and Issa's field office in San Diego County.
After Rubin's death, Krugel negotiated a deal with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to conspiring to bomb Issa's office, an offense that carried a mandatory 10-year prison term, and violating the civil rights of worshipers at the King Fahd Mosque, punishable by up to 10 years.
In his plea agreement, Krugel acknowledged that Rubin selected the targets to be bombed while he supervised a young JDL member, Danny Gillis, who was to plant the explosives. Gillis, however, tipped off the FBI and wore a concealed tape recorder during numerous meetings with the two senior JDL members.
Although explosive powder and pipes were seized from Krugel's home, Lichtman said Thursday that the plotters were a long way from planting any bombs.
Moreover, he said, the tape recordings show that Rubin and Krugel contemplated setting off the bombs in the dead of night "because they didn't want to hurt any innocent people."
Jessner called that argument absurd, saying the conspirators could have caused many deaths and serious injuries. The judge agreed.
Lew also heard Thursday from Salam Al-Marayati, executive director of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, who urged the judge to treat Krugel "like any other terrorist" and give him the maximum punishment possible.
At one point, the JDL plotters had considered planting an explosive device outside the council's Los Angeles office. According to court documents, Rubin vetoed the idea because it might cause collateral damage to other offices in the building.
Al-Marayati said the Muslim community has been living under a lingering threat because of Krugel's actions and because Odeh's killers remain at large.
The Muslim leader said the bombing plot has had one unintended consequence: It has brought the Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities together in their opposition to all forms of racial, religious and ethnic hatred.
In Washington, Issa issued a statement thanking the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office for foiling the plot and bringing Krugel to justice.
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