ZGram - 11/5/2002 - "Irv Rubin braindead"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Where Truth is Destiny

November 5, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

The big news today is that Irv Rubin of the Jewish Defense League - a 
criminal if ever there was one - supposedly botched a suicide by 
slicing his throat with a razor that only left him braindead.  His 
wife insists that he was murdered. 

What can I say?  That not even in jail are Jews safe any more?

Irv Rubin was as nasty as they come - and now he has reaped his reward. 

Michael Rivera of www.whatreallyhappened.com wrote this:

"I have a major problem with this story. Prisoners are given cheap 
disposable razors to use because they cannot be made into weapons. I 
just took one apart. The actual blades are attached to the plastic 
head to make them stiff. Without the plastic part, the blades have no 
rigidity at all. I just tried to use one to slice a piece of raw 
steak, using pliers to grip the blade at one end. The blade kept 
folding up. I have a hard time imagining Irv able to saw away at his 
own neck with one of these long enough to reach the Carotid. Second, 
once Irv's neck was cut deep enough to result in brain death, he 
would lose consciousness immediately, making a leap over the rails 
not only highly unlikely but unnecessary. Rubin, with his long record 
of suspected terror activity, had become a major embarrassment for 
Israel's "We're always the victims" public posture. He was due in 
court the morning of the "suicide". I wonder if he was planning to 
make a deal, a few inside secrets for leniency?

READ ON:

[START]

Jewish Leader Declared Brain Dead

By SANDRA MARQUEZ
The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Irv Rubin, the Jewish Defense League leader who was
jailed on charges of plotting to bomb a mosque and the office of an 
Arab-American
congressman, has been declared brain dead after what federal authorities
called a suicide attempt.

Rubin used a razor to slash his neck and throat and then fell or jumped from
a prison balcony at about 5:30 a.m. Monday as he and other inmates lined up
for breakfast, said U.S. Marshal's spokesman Bill Woolsey.

``We're told that he is brain-dead and on life support,'' said Rubin
attorney
Peter Morris. Rubin's wife and two sons were called to his bedside, he said.

Rubin fell as far as 18 feet at the federal Metropolitan Detention Center,
said Mark Werksman, an attorney representing Rubin's co-defendant.

The apparent suicide attempt occurred hours before Rubin had been scheduled
to appear in court for a hearing in his case. He and a second member of the
militant group were arrested last year and were awaiting trial.

Initially, hospital personnel told prosecutors and defense attorneys that
Rubin had died in surgery, said Bryan Altman, also a Rubin attorney. Lawyers
in turn told Rubin's family that he had died.

The FBI was investigating what it was calling a ``crime in a government
property,'' said spokeswoman Laura Bosley. She could not confirm that it was
a suicide attempt, but Woolsey said there was no evidence to indicate
otherwise.

Rubin's family alleged that Rubin had been attacked by someone.

``My husband would never kill himself. This was a hit, this was a hit,''
said
his wife, Shelley Rubin.

``I saw my husband yesterday. He was just the same as before. He didn't say
goodbye. He said I will see you in court tomorrow. He was fine,'' she said.

Werksman, however, said he and his client recognized that Rubin had been
deteriorating psychologically the past few months.

``He's been a physical and mental wreck since this case started,'' Werksman
said. ``He probably lost 40 pounds in recent months. And he was overwhelmed
by the pressure of this case and the prospect of facing life in prison.''

Rubin and associate Earl Krugel were arrested Dec. 11 on charges of plotting
to bomb the King Fahd mosque in suburban Culver City and an office of Rep.
Darrell E. Issa, R-Calif., who is the grandson of Lebanese immigrants.

Rubin and Krugel were arrested after an FBI informant delivered an explosive
powder that authorities believed was the last component in making pipe
bombs.  The charges carry up to 40 years in prison upon conviction.

Rubin, who by his own account has been arrested more than 40 times, joined
the JDL early in the 1970s and quickly moved up, becoming chairman in 1985.

In 1989, the leader of the rival Jewish Defense Organization was charged
with firing shots at Rubin and wounding three others in New York. 
Mordechai Levy
was convicted of assault.

According to his biography, Rubin learned to fight anti-Semitism while
growing up in Montreal, ``where some hotel owners and other business people
hung signs reading 'No Dogs or Jews Allowed' on their doors and where French
Canadian schoolchildren taunted him because he was Jewish.''

His family emigrated in 1961 and he became a U.S. citizen and joined the Air
Force in 1966, serving four years.

In 1973, he served in Israel's civil defense corps during the Yom Kippur
War.

The JDL, whose symbol is a raised fist inside a Star of David, has the motto
``Never Again,'' referring to the World War II murder of 6 million Jews. It
was founded in 1968 by Meir Kahane to mount an armed response to
anti-Semitic acts in New York City.

The group was suspected in a 1985 bombing in Santa Ana that killed Southern
California Arab anti-discrimination leader Alex Odeh, but no arrests were
ever made.

[END]