Tuesday, August 08, 2006

We Need Answers

"Earl had tremendous inner strength. His words are a reminder that Earl was locked up physically but not mentally. He maintained his dignity and pride until the very end. "Rich Miller



"At Earl's sentencing, a Muslim cleric requested that Earl be given the maximum sentence. Why? Because the cleric believed that Earl was a serious threat to all Muslims. As events have unfolded, it was Earl who was in serious threat of receiving bodily harm. There is no doubt that Earl was murdered. However, there are doubts in regards to the investigation surrounding Earl's death. " Rich Miller

The American people have the right to know who sanctioned this martyrdom

As Tzemach Atlas of Mental Blog.com wrote:
First there was a post 9/11 FBI sting against JDL (see Irv Rubin - Wiki). They were eager to find a phantom threat while they (the FBI) missed the biggest terrorist plot in the worldĂ‚’s history. FBI "uncovered" a plan to bomb a mosque and a Lebanese-American congressman offices in LA. Earl Krugel and Irv Rubin were arrested after an FBI operative (Danny Gillis, who allegedly struck a deal with FBI to lighten his own criminal sentence) delivered explosives to Krugel's home in L.A. Three years ago Irv Rubin died in prison under mysterious circumstances, 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 LA. Irv's friends called it a murder. See JDL: Today We Lost a True Hero. In September of this year IrvĂ‚’s codefendant Earl Krugel was sentenced to 20 years. Past Friday Earl Krugel was murdered in a federal prison in Arizona. ABC News: JDL Member Imprisoned in Bomb Plot Killed. ABC reports that 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. Why government secrecy in the case? Two Jews, defendants in the case engineered by the FBI were allegedly murdered in the federal custody. Are therAryanlim or Arian Brotherhood gangs targeting Jews in the federal prisons? There should be a full investigation. P.S. Will this story again fly under the radar of the official Jewish establishment?
posted by Tzemach Atlas at 7:24 AM

The Jewish Journal's Jim Crogan, wrote:

http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16204

Almost nine months after the brutal prison-yard slaying of Earl Krugel, the longtime No. 2 man in the Jewish Defense League (JDL), federal authorities have indicted an inmate with no apparent ties to Krugel.
The suspect, David Frank Jennings, 30, allegedly attacked Krugel from behind with a piece of concrete hidden in a bag while Krugel was using an exercise machine at a federal prison in Phoenix.
The indictment, issued by a federal grand jury on July 19, offers neither details nor motive, asserting that Jennings "with premeditation and malice aforethought willfully kill[ed] and murder[ed] Earl Leslie Krugel."
Jennings is the only person charged in the killing, which took place in plain view. Authorities contend that Jennings acted alone.
"He was the only one charged. There was no conspiracy," said Ann Harwood, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's office in Phoenix, Authorities would say little else, including anything about the motive of the alleged killer, a small-time repeat offender with nothing in his rap sheet to suggest either this level of violence or any particular animosity toward the 62-year-old Krugel.
Krugel had been transferred to the Federal Corrections Institute (FCI) Phoenix, a medium security prison, just three days before the assault. To date, there is no indication that Krugel and Jennings knew each other. "My husband was brutally murdered just a few days after he was sent to that prison," Lola Krugel said. "He wasn't there long enough to make any deadly enemies."
At the time of the attack on Krugel, Jennings was serving a 70-month sentence at FCI Phoenix for a 2003 bank robbery in Las Vegas, which netted him $1,040. Because Jennings had threatened the teller during the robbery, authorities eventually extended his plea bargain sentence from 63 months to 70 months.
Jennings, who lived in Oregon before moving to Nevada, has multiple convictions, but court records reviewed by The Journal did not indicate any association with racist or anti-Semitic groups in or out of prison.
In 1993,Jennings was convicted in Oregon on an Assault III charge; a "class C" state felony, which resulted in an 18-month state prison sentence. In 1994 he was arrested and convicted for unauthorized use of a vehicle and sentenced to six months in jail. In 1995, a probation violation cost him another six months.
He had apparently moved to Nevada by 1996. That same year he was arrested and pleaded guilty to state charges of grand larceny and unlawful possession of a credit card, for which he received a sentence of 16 to 72 months in state prison.
Krugel was transferred to the Phoenix facility to serve out the balance of a 20-year sentence, following his negotiated guilty plea to conspiracy, weapons and explosives charges. The high-profile case against Krugel and the JDL involved an abortive bombing plot against possible targets that included a Culver City mosque and the field office of Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Vista), an Arab-American of Lebanese descent.
A fitness fanatic, Krugel was using exercise equipment when he was blind-sided between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2005. Details of the assault did not emerge in previous reports; a review of the autopsy depicts a vicious attack.
His main injury was the initial blow to the back of his head, which crushed the left side of his skull and severely damaged his brain and brain stem. But his attacker also delivered multiple blows to Krugel's skull, face and neck, according to the autopsy, which was performed by the Maricopa County medical examiner and obtained by The Journal. Krugel suffered multiple skull fractures, internal bleeding and multiple lacerations to his head, face and brain. The beating knocked out teeth and also fractured one of his eye sockets. Krugel was pronounced dead at the scene.
His death marked the violent end, in prison, for both local leaders of an organization that advocated the use of violence, as necessary, in defending the interests of Jews. JDL head Irv Rubin died in 2002, at 57, from injuries he suffered after jumping or falling from a railing inside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles. Authorities ruled Rubin's death a suicide, though family members contested that finding. Krugel, a dental technician by trade, was Rubin's longtime close friend and second-in-command.
Krugel and Rubin were arrested in late 2001. They were accused, in the months following the Sept. 11 terrorist strikes, of plotting violent revenge against Muslims and Arabs. No attack was carried out. Krugel spent four years in federal lock-up in Los Angeles. It was the resolution of his case, with the guilty plea to reduced charges, that landed him in Phoenix.
Lola Krugel said she's relieved that someone has finally been charged in her husband's murder. But she and Krugel's sister, Linda, both expressed frustration and anger over the time it took to make an arrest, as well as the FBI's unwillingness to share information with the family.
"He did it right there in the open," said Lola Krugel, referring to the attacker. "There had to be witnesses and cameras. So why did it take so long for them to charge this man?"
The delay was not foot-dragging but a desire to get it right, said Patrick Snyder, assistant U.S. Attorney in charge of the criminal division in the Phoenix office: "Since the murder occurred in prison, we know the assailant is already in custody. So we're not under the same kind of time pressure to make an arrest that we are when a killer is still at large."
Lola Krugel filed a wrongful-death claim against the federal government in February, which has since been denied. The family says it's now preparing to file a civil lawsuit. The rejected claim had asked for $10 million for personal injury and $10 million for Krugel's wrongful death.
"It's an 'outrage figure,'" said family attorney Benjamin Schonbrun, a partner in the Venice-area firm of Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris and Hoffman. "A figure to illustrate the outrage Lola Krugel feels over the murder of her husband, plus the anger she felt over her inability to get any information from the government."




The staff of Earl Krugel Chai share this outrage.

Earl once said, "What happens to me is of little importance. What is important to me is that all people, including the Jewish people, have the right to life and freedom from persecution.
Jews were beaten on the campus of UCLA, no arrests, no investigation, no hate-mongers were imprisoned.
I say to all with ears to hear, Never Again."
This Mensch, this latter day David, will not be forgotten, and his battle is ultimately the battle we all must wage in our own way.

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Irv Rubin and Earl Krugel