|
Fax broadcast of 19
October 1997 to embassies in Washington and missions to the UN in New York City and to US government officials concerning
the unsolved 1985 murder case of Arab-American Peace Advocate Alex Michel Odeh: STEPHEN M. ST. JOHN
POST OFFICE BOX 449
ROCKEFELLER CENTER
NEW YORK, NY 10185
TEL/FAX: 212 534 5024
(The contact information above is no longer current.)
19 October 1997
AN APPEAL TO THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY TO REDOUBLE EFFORTS TO COMBAT TERRORISM IN ALL OF ITS FORMS
Last week’s news reports about Mossad assassins posing as Canadian tourists in Amman, Jordan,
revive memories of journalist Steve K. Walz’s mysterious reference to some kind of connection between the 1988 murder
of Khalil Al Wazir in Tunis and a series of explosions at Jewish institutions in Argentina years later. If the Amman
incident is any indication of a regular modus operandi, then it is only fair to suggest the possibility that the Wazir “hit
team” took the guise of Argentineans on tour.
Mr. Walz, a friend and supporter of the
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, writes a regularly featured column, “Informed Sources,” for the Brooklyn-based
weekly newspaper, The Jewish Press. Other featured columnists include New York City Mayor Rudolf Guiliani, New York
State Governor George Pataki and Bar Ilan University Professor Paul Eidelberg, whose call for revolution, as justified by
Torah “when the laws of the state violate the laws of G-d,” was on the newsstands in the United States and Israel
three days before the Rabin assassination by a former Bar Ilan University student. The maximum sentence meted out in
this instance is a disclaimer: “Views expressed on this page are not necessarily those of the publisher.”
When such clearly expressed incitement to violence against a Prime Minister whose policies the
writer found objectionable not only goes unpunished but does not even elicit comment anywhere in the news media, it is unfortunate
indeed for democracy. One also wonders to what extent the news media encourages extremists.
Take for example the assassination of Alex Odeh on 11 October 1985 in Santa Ana, California. Alex was a displaced
Palestinian who became an outspoken advocate of his people’s cause. Circumstances led to his appearance on a local
Los Angeles TV station where he had the unenviable task of explaining what people did not want to hear: the PLO was
not behind the Achille Lauro hijacking but instead helped to end it. The next morning a bomb exploded as Alex opened
the door to his office; his secretary, a Syrian national named Hind Baki, was usually the first to arrive each morning, but
an errand saved her life. Strangely, only a week before, the name “Baki” appeared in an ominous and surreptitious
manner in the Hearst Corporation’s now defunct Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, in an editorial page cartoon whose provenance certainly deserves rigorous investigation. The proper authorities appear to be uninterested.
* * * Letters of 14 and 16 December 2001 sent to California Congressman Darrell Issa in
which I remind him of the unsolved 1985 Alex Odeh murder case after one of the suspects in the Odeh case was arrested in a
plot to bomb Issa's office:
STEPHEN M. ST. JOHN
POST OFFICE BOX 449
ROCKEFELLER CENTER
NEW YORK, NY 10185
TEL/FAX: 212 534 5024
MOBILE: 917 519
2905
(The contact information above is no longer current.)
14 December 2001
Representative Darrell Issa
United States Congress
1725 Longworth Building
Washington,
DC 20515 Dear Congressman Issa,
As a follow-up to my conversation today with
your courteous and attentive aide, Mr. Anthony Gostanian, I send to you in this fax transmission an item that relates directly
to the 11 October 1985 assassination of my friend and colleague on the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Alex Odeh,
which became part of the news story about the arrest of Jewish Defense League leader Irving David Rubin according to The New
York Times (13 December 2001, page 22). With reference to the Bill Schorr cartoon that appeared exactly one week before the assassination in the 4 October 1985 edition of the The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner,
I point to the letters B-A-K-I which are printed on the side panel of a truck that makes up part of the background of this
cartoon. This is the name of Hind Baki, the administrative assistant of the ADC’s southwest regional office headquarters
in Santa Ana, which Alex headed. As Mr. Gostanian said it best: “How weird!” What to me is even more
telling about this cartoon is the FBI’s apparent willingness to avoid this piece of evidence in the murder and conspiracy
investigation. As I said to Mr. Gostanian, a signal carried surreptitiously by a cartoon via the editorial offices of
a major daily newspaper suggests an intelligence operation. And in a deposition of G. Gordon Liddy in a case pertaining
to the JFK assassination, Liddy mentions CIA use of cartoonists in its repertoire of methods. Anyway, the story of Alex’s
death runs deep and there is more that I can say. I hope you are interested. I’d like to see justice done
to whomever was behind the assassination of Alex Odeh, directly or indirectly. STEPHEN M.
ST. JOHN
POST OFFICE BOX 449
ROCKEFELLER CENTER
NEW
YORK, NY 10185
TEL/FAX: 212 534 5024
MOBILE: 917 519 2905
(The contact information above is no longer current.)
16 December
2001
Representative Darrell Issa
United States Congress
1725 Longworth Building
Washington, DC 20515 Dear Congressman Issa, As a follow-up to my conversation last Friday with your
courteous and attentive aide, Anthony Gostanian, I again send to you in this fax transmission an item that relates directly
to the 11 October 1985 assassination of my friend and colleague on the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Alex Odeh,
which became part of the news story about the arrest of Jewish Defense League leader Irving David Rubin according to The New
York Times (13 December 2001, page 22).
With reference to the Bill Schorr cartoon that appeared exactly one week before the assassination on the editorial page of the 4 October 1985 edition of the Hearst
Corporation publication, The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, I point to the letters B-A-K-I which are printed on the side panel
of a truck that makes up part of the background of this cartoon. B-A-K-I is the surname of Hind Baki, the administrative
assistant of the ADC’s southwest regional office in Santa Ana, California, where Alex was killed. As Mr. Gostanian
said it best: “How weird!” I ask, how on earth can this cartoon be explained?
What
to me is even more telling about this cartoon is the FBI’s apparent willingness to avoid this piece of evidence in the
murder and conspiracy investigation. As I said to Mr. Gostanian, a signal carried surreptitiously by a cartoon via the
editorial offices of a major daily newspaper suggests an intelligence operation. And in a deposition of G. Gordon Liddy
for a January 1985 trial pertaining to the JFK assassination (80-1121-Civ-Hon. James W. Kehoe, Federal District Court, Miami,
FL 33128-7796), Liddy mentions CIA use of cartoonists in its repertoire of methods. However, investigators who value
their jobs and careers are not very likely to put 2 and 2 together here. Don’t forget: this was - and still is
- the FBI milieu of “Abscam” and not of “Jewscam”!
Anyway, the story
of Alex’s death runs deep and there is more that I can say. I hope you are interested in using your office to
prod the FBI to get to the bottom of this matter. I’d like to see justice done to whomever was behind the assassination
of Alex Odeh, directly or indirectly.
Again, how can this Bill Schorr cartoon be explained?
In 1989, I put this question to William Randolf Hearst, Jr.. He did not respond but within a week after my query he
had shut down the Herald-Examiner for good! So the question remains: how on earth can this Hearst cartoon be explained? Do you understand my rage? Inasmuch as your office, if not you yourself, was reportedly an intended
target of Mr. Rubin, I hope you do understand how I feel.
Our zeal for Zionism has caused us
to foresake international law and treaty obligations mandated by the Constitution of the USA. And here we have an instance
wherein the murder of a citizen of the USA of Palestinian Arab origin and an activist for the just cause of his people is
being covered up in a grotesque perversion of justice. Zionism has rotted our institutions from the inside out.
11 September does not compare! * * * Letter
of 20 February 2002 in which I seek legal representation from lawyer & Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz: STEPHEN M.
ST. JOHN
POST OFFICE BOX 449
ROCKEFELLER CENTER
NEW YORK, NY 10185
TEL/FAX: 212 534 5024
MOBILE: 917 519 2905
(The contact
information above is no longer current.)
20 February 2002
Mr.
Alan Dershowitz
1575 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138
I write to ask you to act as lawyer
on my behalf in a matter involving the 1985 assassination of my friend and colleague on the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, Alex Odeh, details of which are set forth in my 16 December 2001 letter to Congressman Darrell Issa (a copy of
this letter follows in this fax transmission).
My initial attempt to request legal representation resulted in a letter of response from your colleague Johnnie Cochran,
who declined to take the case but gave strong and emphatic advice to find another attorney (a copy of his letter also follows
in this fax transmission). I’m turning to you, as I did to Mr. Cochran, because of the great renown both of you
have achieved in your profession. Also, news reports tell me that you have gained the confidence of an Arab government
in representing an Arab national in a terrorism case, which in my mind makes you uniquely qualified to take on a case revolving
around the killing of a citizen of the United States of Palestinian Arab origin.
I have long been an advocate of peace between the Arabs and the Israelis
and am the author of a peace proposal, An Eight Part Peace Proposal for Greater Jerusalem, which I firmly believe is the only
workable solution. You will read strong criticisms of Zionism in my letter to Congressman Issa; I ask that you do not
think I am an anti-Semite because of these comments or for any other reason. I am not an anti-Semite. I am quite
the opposite.
I hope
you find that you can take on this case. * * *
Letter of 16 October 2013 to the Executive Director of Jewish Voice for Peace, Rebecca Vilkomerson, with copies
designated to the Attorney General of the United States, Eric H. Holder; President of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee, Warren David; President and Chief Executive Officer of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People, Benjamin Todd Jealous, and Director of Advocacy for the Jewish Voice for Peace, Sydney Levy, after a conference on
the 28 year old unsolved Alex Odeh murder case and petition to Attorney General Holder to redouble USDoJ efforts to find and
prosecute the perpetrators: Rebecca Vilkomerson, Executive Director
Jewish Voice for Peace
1611 Telegraph Avenue,
Suite 550
Oakland, CA 94612
T: 510 465 1777
E: rebecca@jvp.org 16 October 2013 Thank you for your remembrance of the unfortunate death of
my friend Alex Odeh 28 years ago. It is good to know that there is a nationwide effort including Jews to
pursue justice in this assassination case of an Arab-American peace advocate. I have already signed the petition to the
US Attorney General Eric Holder on the ADC website, but did so with a reservation concerning the statement that “the
FBI identified the murderers almost immediately after the attack, and an FBI spokesman also named the Jewish Defense League
(JDL) as the organization behind Alex Odeh’s murder.” First, naming suspects is not definitive
proof of guilt. Second, I paid close attention to this matter and simply do not recall my hearing or reading
any such statement from the FBI so soon after the bombing. Third, within days of Alex’s 11 October
1985 murder I visited the New York Regional Office of the FBI and gave information concerning this crime but the FBI never
sought a follow-up interview for more information. To be frank with you, I believe there was a high-level conspiracy
to kill Alex which included a signal hidden in a cartoon on the editorial page of the 4 October 1985 issue of the now-defunct Hearst Corporation newspaper the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.
The FBI has thus far exhibited not only a clear lack of due diligence in addressing this matter, but also a troubling
wall of silence and of shunning. Please examine this cartoon and judge for yourself by going to my website at: http://www.show-the-house.com/id33.html & http://www.show-the-house.com/id34.html. At the time of the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, I had interactions with an individual
named Z. Gilbert Simmons III, whom I called “Gil” on numerous visits at his three “safe houses” all
within 100 yards of my mid-Wilshire apartment near the erstwhile Ambassador Hotel. Our contacts came to
an end after Gil advised me both orally and in writing that my advocacy on behalf of the USS Liberty survivors and my membership
in the ADC were not career-enhancing and potentially bad for my health. Mr. Simmons was a guns & ammo
oriented guy, and even spoke of explosives and demolitions of high-rise office buildings, but I did not share such enthusiasms.
So when I was hit with the news of Alex’s death, my thoughts and suspicions turned instantly to Gil.
Much later, when President George W. Bush named Admiral Mike Mullen to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I
was struck by how much Mullen looked like Gil. I even faxed to Mullen at the Pentagon a letter in which
I made reference to my contact in Los Angeles, but never received a reply. To sum it all up, I believe my contact in
Los Angeles, whatever his name and true identity, was behind the assassination plot to kill Alex, which may have included
low-level operatives who now loom as “cased closed” likely usual suspects who cannot speak from the grave or the
Zionist state’s legal constraints. Let me conclude by saying there is a praxis of evil
inside the FBI which is more apt to frame Arabs in sting and false flag operations than to expose serious wrongdoing within
its own ranks or those of other federal agencies or private contractors. This is a national disgrace and a danger to our sovereignty
and national security. This is demoralizing to the vast majority of government employees who are honest
and law-abiding citizens of the USA. Chronic lack of credibility suddenly becomes irrevocable loss of legitimacy!
Very truly yours,
Stephen M. St. John Copies of this letter have been designated for: Eric
H. Holder, Attorney General of the United States
Warren David, President of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee
Benjamin Todd Jealous, President of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Sydney Levy, Jewish
Voice for Peace
et al. Stephen
M. St. John
Post Office Box 720274
San José, CA 95172
stephen@show-the-house.com
stephen.m.st.john@gmail.com Rebecca@jvp.org
AskDOJ@usdoj.gov
president@adc.org
washingtonbureau@naacpnet.org
Sydney@jvp.org * * *
United States Senator Richard J. Durbin
711 Hart Senate Building
Washington, D.C. 20510
https://www.durbin.senate.gov/contact/email Mr. Christopher A. Wray
Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
FBI Headquarters
935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C.
20535-0001
Christopher.wray@usdoj.gov; askdoj@usdoj.gov; criminal.division@usdoj.gov 11 January 2022 Dear Senator Durbin & Director
Wray, With regard to an ABC News report stating that you, Senator Durbin, sent a letter on 17 December
2021 to FBI Director Wray in which you asked for an update on the cold case investigation of the assassination of my friend
and colleague Alex Odeh, please let me take this opportunity to renew my 36-year quest to pursue truth and justice for this
quintessentially Semitic victim of a terrorist attack on United States soil. It appears to me that a cartoon
on the editorial page of the 04 October 1985 issue of the now-defunct Hearst Corporation newspaper, The Los Angeles Herald-Examiner,
carried a signal to execute an operation against Alex Odeh and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, including
yours truly, one week later on 11 October 1985. At the very least, this Bill Schorr cartoon posed a threat. Specifically, this Bill Schorr cartoon had the name of Alex’s administrative assistant, Hind Baki, surreptitiously
placed among the cartoon’s pen strokes. “BAKI” appears in a very, very ominous context. I would say a threatening
context. You can see for yourself on my private website at http://www.show-the-house.com/id34.html, where a scanned copy of the cartoon appears. This copy
is a reproduction of an image of the editorial page taken from microfiche at the research library of the University of California
at Los Angeles, in Westwood, a short walk from FBI Regional Headquarters in Los Angeles. The long
and short of my message to both of you, Senator Durbin and Director Wray, is that the FBI has consistently ignored my persistent
efforts to present this cartoon as a major piece of evidence in the investigation of Alex’s death. There have been impenetrable
walls of silence and of shunning. I’ll be up front with both of you with respect to a somewhat
complicating circumstance. I had a failed recruitment in 1984 in Los Angeles for a position in the CIA with an individual
who identified himself as Z. Gilbert Simmons III, the heir to the Simmons mattress fortune, which, he told me, was multiplied
to a stupendous scale by wise investments and a personal credo “to keep a proper distance” from his wealth. (My
heart would beat like an old-fashioned cash register at our meetings as I entertained the possibility of having found a patron
for my Eight Part Peace Proposal for Greater Jerusalem, even though the British Monarchy had always been, and still
is, my first choice.) Gil was quite a character, whom I really liked, but his warnings about my advocacy on behalf of the
USS Liberty survivors, and my interactions with Arabs in the Los Angeles area, that they were not career enhancing
and could be a danger to my health, made me conclude that any relationship with Gilbert or the CIA would be basically toxic.
So, when I first heard news of Alex’s assassination, I immediately thought of Gil’s statement, which was made
both orally and in writing, that my associations with Arabs could be a danger to my health. I then took the first opportunity
to alert the FBI about him at the New York Regional Office on the Monday after the Friday when Alex was killed. Anyway, in
2007, when President George W. Bush appointed Mike Mullen to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I immediately recognized
my old friend, Z. Gilbert Simmons III, although I have not been able to confirm his identity as one and the same person whom
I met and have known in Los Angeles in 1984. Also, confusion of face and name from newspaper photos had previously thrown
me off the trail. But for the present moment, and holding for 36 years, Mullen is now my prime suspect in the Odeh assassination.
Add the creators of the cartoon. Finally, as I recall my 1984 meetings with “Gilbert Simmons” in his
three “safe houses,” all within 100 yards of my mid-Wilshire apartment in Los Angeles, near the erstwhile Ambassador
Hotel, his talk about how he could take down with explosives the Equitable Building on Wilshire Boulevard between Mariposa
and Alexandria Avenues left me cold. Decades later, after having seen Bush elevate this “desk Admiral” to Chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2007, I automatically had a candidate for mastermind or director of the “inside job”
of 9/11, wherein three buildings fell as fast as an apple dropped from the roof as a result of controlled demolitions. Unlike
“Gil,” Osama bin Laden could not possibly have wired the buildings! From diddling
with the JFK autopsy record by Gerald Ford and Arlen Specter to Bill Schorr’s cowardly cartoon threat to Arab Americans
and their supporters to Donald Trump’s work inside Robert S. Mueller III’s 9/11 Ground Zero crime scene
investigation (see http://www.show-the-house.com/id137.html), I find that the FBI has been covering up for the very
worst sort of criminals. These are just a few cases that I myself have looked into; presumably there are more such cases,
perhaps many more. So, what can we do about it? For starters, lets get real and talk about the cartoon and all its implications.
Does Alex’s wife and three daughters even know about this cartoon? How about Hind Baki? How about the Hearst Corporation?
I personally penetrated Hearst headquarters on 8th Avenue in New York and put a letter about Alex and the Bill
Schorr cartoon on William Randolph Hearst Jr.’s desk, but, like the FBI, the Hearst Corporation maintains walls of silence
and of shunning around this matter. A week after my delivery to Mr. Hearst, he finally shut down the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner
for good. Well, Senator Durbin, maybe you will get a business-as-usual reply to your request
for an update from the FBI on its Alex Odeh Assassination Investigation. I certainly hope that will not be the case, and that
you, Director Wray, will shine a light leading all concerned, including me, to truth and justice for Alex. Alex was a peacemaker.
I am a peacemaker. Behold the loyalty of one peacemaker to another! Back in early 1988, my then-Congressman
Bill Green went to bat for me after I laid on him my complaint about the FBI’s conduct with respect to the Alex Odeh
Assassination and the very telling Bill Schorr cartoon. Decades later, I found on the Internet a file containing a slew of
correspondence with the FBI about the Alex Odeh Assassination, including my correspondence with Bill Green and his on my behalf
with the FBI (see PDF file attached; our letters appear on pages 145 to 154 of 176). I noticed that nearly all the letters
except mine and Green’s were stamped “outside source.” Does this mean I’m an inside source? Well,
if I’m an inside source, how about back pay for 37 years since the time I first met “Gilbert” in 1984? Money
has never been a prime motivator for me, but as a 71-year-old person who has been homeless for 10 years and is now a ward
of the state of California under the kind and generous auspices of Santa Clara County and the City of San José, I am obligated to find an income sufficient to keep me in my new abode. So, I ask, can I have a nice
payout as an “inside source” for 37 years? I copy this letter to my HomeFirst Case Manager, XXXXXXXX XXXXXX (xxxxxxx@homefirstscc.org), to demonstrate my effort to secure an income. All
reward money, if it comes my way, must go to Alex’s wife and daughters and, if they allow, to Hind Baki. The poison
ink of the Hearst Corporation should be exposed for all to see, and an example made by suitable punishment. Truth and justice
are the sure foundations of a sovereign state. Fraud and force and fear-mongering and war-mongering are wickedness that is
damnable and must be condemned! Stephen M. St. John * * * * * * *
|
