The Los Angeles based Jewish Defense League and its CEO Shelley Rubin, the widow of former JDL chairman Irv Rubin, has responded to TER and its exclusive story concerning never-before-seen FBI documents.
Shelley Rubin, now chairman of JDL, sent this comment late Tuesday (3/17/09), that was later followed by a response from Ari Rubin, Vice President of JDL and Shelley and Irv Rubin's son.
TER is publishing both responses without editing of any kind.
(Response #1 from Shelly Rubin)
From: Jewish Defense League
To: newstips@theenterprisereport.com
Subject: JDL's Response to Article
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 4:36:40 PM
The article you have posted on your website regarding my late husband,
Irv Rubin, is utter garbage. And it is no "revelation." A similar
story appeared a couple years ago in a Jewish publication, the
Forward. My husband was not offered any deal prior to his death. He
would never have said, "I am a bad Jew" or "I have sinned," as that
previous article claimed. He never claimed to have destroyed our
family and would not have talked about his personal feelings to some
random inmate -- an inmate, by the way, in a prison that Irv said was
filled with liars and thieves. He said many times during our regular
visits that he felt like a fish out of water in there.
The FBI is the guilty party in the death of my husband. The FBI
promised the Arab community in the United States to put my husband
away because of the 1985 death of Arab activist and terrorist white-
washer Alex Odeh in Santa Ana. Neither my husband nor anyone involved
in the Jewish Defense League had any knowledge of this event. My
husband was a paragon of kindness and virtue. He always spoke out
against terrorism. His only mistake in his life was befriending those
who had no friends -- and believing in the idealized vision of
American justice.
Shelley Rubin
Chairman and CEO
Jewish Defense League, Inc
http://www.jdl.org/
(Response #2 from Ari Rubin)
From: Jewish Defense League <jdl@jdl.org
To: newstips@theenterprisereport.com
Subject: Re: JDL's Response to Article
Date: Tuesday, March 17, 2009 5:31:09 PM
I wanted to point out some additional facts in response to your article about my father. The content of your article is essentially the same as the aforementioned Forward article that predates it, with only superficial changes, so I have reason to suspect that your article and its supposed source document were lifted from that previous article. It would be trivially easy for anyone to fabricate a document like the one you posted that simply embellishes on claims that were published previously. But for the sake of argument, if one wishes to assume that this is a new document that came from an actual inmate who was in prison with my father (huge assumptions indeed), the individual in question obviously couldn't get the falsified details of his story straight.
My father would not have made any of the statements falsely attributed to him about being remorseful because he was innocent of the charges against him. Anyone familiar with the legitimate facts knows it is absurd to claim that he would have participated in any conspiracy to target Congressman Issa's office in view of the fact that just weeks before his arrest my father had spoken out publicly against Issa's response to 9/11. My father did not harbor lifelong anger toward Arabs or Muslims. And he certainly would not have made the ridiculous statements this supposed witness attributes to him - my father never even spoke in that fashion.
My father did not trust or confide in anyone at the Metropolitan Detention Center - not Earl Krugel, the person who, aside from the FBI and its agent provocateur, was most responsible for my father's predicament - and not some random inmate, as my mother stated. My father trusted only his family and his attorneys. Lamentably, his lawyers let him down in a huge way.
I will tell you that one former inmate of the MDC wrote to us a while ago to tell us his experience in meeting my father there. He said that while they were both in line, this person did not get a utensil to eat his meal with, so my father gave him his instead. My father's generosity made a lasting impact on this individual. The greatness of my father's spirit was displayed even in the horrific circumstances in which he found himself. That was a true manifestation of his character and regard for other human beings.
My father gave his life for the sanctification of our people and our G-d. He lived and died an innocent man who was denied his Constitutional rights, a man who died in American captivity at the hands of a federal government that most likely never meant to grant him a trial. We will most likely never know close to the full truth surrounding the suspicious circumstances of his last days on earth, but we know more of the truth than anyone not personally connected to him; we assure you that your report serves to spread only more falsehoods.
Ari Rubin
Vice President
Jewish Defense League, Inc
http://www.jdl.org/
[ Editor's note: The FBI documents obtained by TER were obtained directly from the U.S Government and the Department of Justice. The authenticity of the records has been verified and confirmed. ]