Arab-Americans protest FBI handling of Alex Odeh bombing murder case

By Stephanie Siewka

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WASHINGTON — The investigation into the murder last October of Alex Odeh, director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee in Southern California, remains a top FBI priority, Oliver Revell, director of FBI investigations, told a congressional committee yesterday.

Reiterating previous statements by FBI officials, Revell blamed the bombing on “very few individuals” in Jewish extremist groups, which he linked to other terrorist attacks on the East Coast. But he would not say where the groups were located or when arrests might be made. “We have suspects in this case,” he said.

“The Alex Odeh murder has the highest priority within our domestic terrorist program. This case will not be terminated. It will be solved.” Odeh’s widow, Norma, who also testified at the House hearing focusing on attacks against Arab-Americans, said the FBI keeps her late husband’s brother, Sami, informed of its investigation. But Mrs.

Odeh criticized President Reagan for offering his condolences to the family of Leon Klinghoffer, who was murdered during the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro in October, but not to Odeh’s relatives.

“How is it that an American citizen, brutally murdered by terrorists on our own soil, has not received full recognition and support from our government, as did the victims of international terrorism during the Achille Lauro incident?” she asked. Odeh, a Palestinian who became a U.S. citizen in 1977, died Oct. 11 when a bomb in his Santa Ana office exploded.

He had appeared the previous evening on a local television show to deplore the Achille Lauro hijacking. He said he believed the Palestine Liberation Organization and its leader Yassar Arafat were not involved. He also called Arafat “a man of peace.”

Arab-American activists have cited Secret Service documents as proof the FBI has dropped its investigation of the case, which is officially classified as a domestic act of terrorism. Revell yesterday said a Secret Service memorandum sent from Los Angeles to Washington in early January stating that the FBI had suspended investigation into the Odeh case was inaccurate.

The investigators are “learning new facts every day,” he said. He said a Secret Service agent “probably” heard that the FBI had insufficient evidence to prosecute suspects, which was true, and jumped to the conclusion that the case was closed, which was false.

After testifying, Revell was asked by reporters whether the Jewish Defense League (JDL) was involved. He said he would not pinpoint any group. Other witnesses at the committee hearing testified that Arab-Americans have been negatively stereotyped as either rich oil sheiks or terrorists.

Rema Simon, a 23-year-old American of Irish and Lebanese descent, said that she recently was taken off a Delta Airlines flight by a Delta official and told to put away a book she was reading, titled “Palestine Is, But Not in Jordan,” before boarding the plane again. California Rep. Mervyn Dymally, D-Compton, former South Dakota Sen.

James Abourezk and David Sadd, director of the National Association of Arab-Americans, said Arab-Americans have become the main targets of domestic American terrorism. Dymally, quoting FBI records, said no Arab-American had committed a terrorist act against an American in more than a decade, but predicted that violence against Arab-Americans would continue.

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"Arab-Americans protest FBI handling of Alex Odeh bombing murder case," Los Angeles Herald Examiner, 17 July 1986. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1986-022. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1986-022

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Two Americans killed in one week, and the papers that said so