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CNN Live At Daybreak

In U.S., Authorities Have Arrested Two Leaders of Jewish Defense League and Accused Them with Terrorism

Aired December 13, 2001 - 05:18   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And back in the U.S., authorities have arrested two leaders of the Jewish Defense League and accused them with terrorism. They're charged with conspiring to blow up a Los Angeles mosque and the offices of an Arab-American congressman from southern California.

CNN's Charles Feldman first broke this story and has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLES FELDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Federal agents under cover of darkness moved in late Tuesday night, tipped off by a source, and allegedly found all the makings for a bomb in the home of a high ranking official of the militant Jewish Defense League.

The source, a member of the JDL himself who turned government snitch, told authorities the plan was to bomb the King Fahd mosque in Culver City, as well as the offices of Arab-American Congressman Darrell Issa, a first term Republican from southern California.

RONALD IDEN, FBI: When extremists plan and then take steps to carry out criminal acts of violence and hate, those criminals have exceeded their rights.

FELDMAN: Busted are JDL head Irving Rubin and JDL official Earl Krugel. It was Krugel who said, according to a federal complaint, that Arabs needed a wake-up call and that the JDL needed to do something to one of their, and we quote here, ``filthy mosques.''

A telephone answering tape at JDL headquarters in Los Angeles makes clear why Congressman Issa was allegedly targeted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Another guy we're going to have to watch is apparently Congressman Darrell Issa, who went to the Middle East this past October to sing the praises of Hezbollah and Hamas, and to try and remove those two groups from the State Department lists of terrorist organizations.

REP. DARRELL ISSA (R), CALIFORNIA: In America we're trying to find a peaceful solution in the Middle East and we're not going to be divided along any lines. FELDMAN: Mainstream Jewish organizations were quick to condemn the alleged JDL plot. One Arab group says the arrests prove the U.S. is acting to protect the rights of Arab-Americans in the wake of 9-11.

ASLAM ALAM ABDULLAH, MUSLIM PUBLIC AFFAIRS COUNCIL: The Jewish terrorism is as wrong as the terrorists who belong to the Muslim or any other community. And this is the precise point that was made last night by that arrest.

PETER MORRIS, RUBIN ATTORNEY: This case is being used to try to appease the Arab world that the United States is taking action to protect the Arab world.

FELDMAN: A federal judge refused to release the JDL chairman on bail, saying he was a danger to the community and nation.

Charles Feldman, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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