September 26, 2005
A member of the Jewish Defense League (JDL) has been sentenced to 20 years in prison two years after pleading guilty to his role in Los Angeles-area bomb plot.
Earl Krugel, 62, the JDL’s former West Coast Coordinator, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and weapons violations stemming from a 2001 plot to bomb the San Clemente office of Rep. Darrell Issa, Lebanese-American Republican congressman, and the King Fahd Mosque in Culver City.
Krugel’s co-defendant, JDL chief Irv Rubin, died in an apparent suicide while awaiting trial in 2002. Krugel and Rubin said they planned the bombings because they believed Arabs needed a “wake-up call,” according to court documents.
The Jewish Defense League was established in 1968 by the militant Jewish extremist Meir Kahane.