Saturday, November 5, 2005

JDL Activist Imprisoned for Role in Plot to Bomb California Mosque Killed in Arizona Prison

JDL Member Imprisoned in Bomb Plot Killed

By ALEX VEIGA
Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES Nov 5, 2005 - A Jewish Defense League activist imprisoned for his role in a plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix, an FBI spokesman said Saturday.

Earl Krugel, 62, was killed in an assault Friday evening at the Federal Correctional Institution, said FBI agent Richard Murray.

Murray wouldn't release further details but said federal authorities had opened a homicide investigation.

Krugel's wife, Lola, of Los Angeles said FBI investigators told her an inmate had struck her husband on the head from behind with a cement block.

David Irving comments: THE mysterious prison deaths of both Irv Rubin and his associate Earl Krugel need to be independently investigated and explained, in our view.    We already expressed the belief that the "suicide" of Rubin seemed to flout the available evidence. US prisons are a violent place, but for lightning to strike effectively twice in the same place, at the leadershiup of the JDL (which US authorities havee formally branded a terrorist organisation) seems to defy belief.    Whatever we may think of Rubin and Krugel, and what they were up to that led to their arrest -- and I well recall Rubin and his fellow thugs threatening me with death, screaming "I will come back and kill you" in front of witnesses at a Los Angeles exhibition a few years back -- it may well be that political prisoners will in future feel safer in Guantánamo than in the federal prisons of the United States.

"Earl never saw it happening," she said. "He was exercising."

He had been at the medium-security prison for three days, according to his sister Linda Krugel of Los Angeles.

Krugel, a former dental assistant from Reseda, and late JDL leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Republican Rep. Darrell E. Issa, who is Lebanese-American.

Krugel pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States.

He was sentenced in September to 20 years in prison.

The Jewish Defense League was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane advocated the forcible removal of Arabs from Israel. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York.

[Fuller version:]

LOS ANGELES - A Jewish Defense League activist imprisoned for his role in a plot to bomb a California mosque and the office of a Lebanese-American congressman was killed at a federal prison in Phoenix, an FBI spokesman said Saturday.

Earl Krugel, 62, was killed in an assault Friday evening at the Federal Correctional Institution, said FBI agent Richard Murray.

Murray wouldn't release further details but said federal authorities had opened a homicide investigation.

Krugel's wife, Lola, said FBI investigators told her an inmate had struck her husband on the head from behind with a cement block.

"Earl never saw it happening," she said. "He was exercising."

He had been at the medium-security prison for three days, according to his sister Linda Krugel, also of Los Angeles.

Earl Krugel, a former dental assistant from Los Angeles, and late JDL leader Irv Rubin were arrested in 2001 and charged with conspiring to bomb the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City and a field office of Republican Rep. Darrell E. Issa, who is Lebanese-American.

Krugel pleaded guilty in 2003 to one count of conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshippers at the mosque and one count of carrying an explosive device in connection with a conspiracy to impede or injure an office of the United States.

Despite the plea, he was sentenced in September to 20 years in prison. The reasons for the collapse of an initial plea agreement were sealed, despite a lawsuit by news organizations, including The Associated Press, to make the details public.

During the case, Krugel's lawyers said prosecutors were angered that his client withheld for several months the names of four people allegedly connected to the 1985 murder case of Alex Odeh, a regional director of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Several former JDL members were suspected in the case, but no one was ever charged.

"Earl did not deserve what he got," Krugel's wife said Saturday. "It was all political. It was all about Alex Odeh and my husband did not know anything about Alex Odeh. I'm devastated and I'm shocked that the system allowed this to happen."

She said she last spoke with her husband Thursday and he was still adjusting to prison life.

"He was supposed to call me on Friday morning," she said. "When I didn't hear from him, I felt something was not right."

The Jewish Defense League was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane. Kahane advocated the forcible removal of Arabs from Israel. He was assassinated in 1990 in New York.

JDL spokesman Brett Stone said he was stunned by Krugel's death. He noted it came exactly three years after authorities say Rubin slashed his neck with a prison-issued razor blade and jumped 18 feet over a railing at a federal detention center in Los Angeles. Rubin died nine days later.

"I'm really sad," said Stone, who believes Rubin's death was not a suicide. "It's shocking that's the second member of the Jewish Defense League in three years who has died in federal prison." .

Also: JDL Member Imprisoned in Bomb Plot Killed - Yahoo! News

Flashback:

June 14, 2004

U.S. court voids plea deal with Kahane activist

By Reuters LOS ANGELES - A militant Jewish activist must stand trial after all over a 2001 plot to bomb a Los Angeles area mosque and other Muslim targets after a judge on Monday voided a plea deal. Earl Krugel, 61, a member of the Jewish Defense League, had previously agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to violate the civil rights of worshipers at the mosque and to a weapons charge linked to explosives that prosecutors said were meant for the Los Angeles office of Lebanese-American Congressman Darrell Issa. The bomb plot was never carried out.

Krugel (far right in courtroom sketch) and the Jewish Defense League chairman Irv Rubin were charged in December 2001 with conspiracy to destroy the mosque but Rubin committed suicide in jail a year later while awaiting trial. Krugel later agreed to plead guilty and was expecting to be sentenced on Monday to 10-20 years in prison. But a federal court judge in Los Angeles said Krugel had breached the plea agreement. The judge did not give details.

The judge set a November trial date for Krugel, saying he would now be tried as well on counts of attempted arson, possessing a destructive device and soliciting someone to commit a crime - charges which effectively carry a life sentence. According to court documents, Krugel and Rubin said they targeted Issa because he is an Arab-American and they believed Arabs needed a "wake-up call".

The Jewish Defense League was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, who before his assassination in New York in 1990 advocated the expulsion of all Arabs from Israel and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

on this website:

Jewish Terrorist [Krugel] Gets Prison: Plotted with other Jews to bomb congressman's office, mosque; suspected in torching of revisionist office

Torrance Fire Tied To JDL Member

The estate of Jewish Defense League leader Irv Rubin filed a $5 million wrongful death claim against the U.S. government in connection with his apparent suicide at a federal detention center.

Irv Rubin in Suicide Attempt

David Irving: A Radical's Diary

JDL leader's attorneys want separate trials for defendants

Defense attorney wants racist remarks thrown out

Trying to Blow up a Mosque? Meet the JDL fanatics | Los Angeles Times softens the profile of JDL terrorist Irv Rubin | LA grand jury indicts JDL members Rubin, Krugel in bomb plan | The Irv Rubin story: Never say never again | FBI spells Finis to Thug's Career: Militant JDL Chief Irv Rubin Arrested after Gunpowder Plot | Australia reports | Full text of charges | IHR recalls JDL's record | David Irving, Radical's Diary on Rubin: "He seems to have enjoyed a life inspired by hatred of others whom he regards as inferior -- the very archetype of a nazi. | "From the Irv Rubin bust to the Stern Gang: The Rich History of Jewish Terrorism"