The New York Times · 1 December 1985

CP-1985-033

Fire at Arab Group’s Offices Is Termed Suspicious

By REGINALD STUART

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Transcribed from the clipping

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 — Fire Department officials said today that they were investigating the cause of a fire Friday night that damaged the offices of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. The fire damaged two adjoining buildings in the northwest section of the city near Dupont Circle. The buildings housed several tenants, including the committee.

The two-alarm fire burned out of control for about 45 minutes before firefighters brought it under control about 9 P.M., officials said. No one was injured.

“There’s too much there for it to have been accidental but not enough to declare it arson, so we are classifying it at the present time as suspicious,” Ray Alfred, a Fire Department batallion chief, said today.

Chief Alfred said the fire appeared to have started in offices of Susan Davis & Associates, a public relations concern that occupies the second floor of the two buildings, one of which has four floors and the other five. The buildings are adjoining brownstones whose common walls removed on the upper floors.

The Arab committee’s offices occupy the fourth floor of both buildings and the fifth floor of one. James J. Zogby, executive director of the committee from 1980 until last year, said he thought it was unlikely that Friday night’s fire was accidental. “We’ve seen too many for it not to be a pattern,” he said.

“At this point, it’s too many times.” He said he suspected the fire might have been directed at the committee’s offices by an anti-Arab hate group. “I just think it fits a pattern,” said Mr. Zogby, referring to harassment to which Arab advocacy groups have been subjected in recent years.

The most recent incident, he said, was the bombing of the committee’s West Coast office in Santa Ana, Calif., Oct. 11. Alex Odeh, the organization’s regional director, was killed in the blast. The Federal Bureau of Investigation said earlier this month that the Jewish Defense League might have been responsible for the explosion, but no arrests have been made.

The day before his death, Mr. Odeh, 41 years old, appeared in a television interview program where he defended Yasir Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Mr. Odeh accused the news media of incorrectly linking Mr. Arafat to the hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro.

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