Erik Skindrud

Sami Odeh holding a picture of his slain brother

Another year is passing, and still no arrests have been made in the October 11, 1985 terrorist bombing in Santa Ana that killed Alex Odeh. The late Southern California Regional Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) had opened the door to his office that fateful morning when a pipe bomb exploded killing him.

Sami Odeh, a tireless advocate in the name of justice for his deceased brother, died away a week ago today after suffering from a long-term illness. He had lived and worked in Orange as a real estate broker.

"We regret that Sami Odeh never lived to see justice served," the ADC said in a statement on his passing, "but we are hopeful that Alex's case will be solved in the near future and justice will prevail."

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Monteilh

Remember Craig Monteilh, the conman-turned-FBI mole Nick Schou and I have written about because he posed as a Muslim to infiltrate Orange County mosques, in an attempt to stir up jihad so would-be terrorists would be exposed?

Monteilh gets some coverage in a new book by an investigative journalist who speaks at the Islamic Institute of Orange County in Anaheim Friday night.

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Shehabi

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A Muslim woman wears the hijab

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California reached a settlement with the County of Orange yesterday allowing for Muslim women to keep their religious headscarves on while in custody.

That wasn't the case back in 2006 when Lebanese Arabheimer Souhair Khatib and her husband pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor welfare crime.

Ordered to perform hours of community service, Khatib later asked for an extension alongside her husband, but the judge revoked their probation and placed them in holding cells. It was there that a male deputy ordered the devout Muslim to remove her scarf.

Khatib reluctantly complied after trying to explain why doing so in the sight of men she didn't know would cause great distress. She sued in 2007 on the basis that her religious freedoms were violated. As a result of the just-reached agreement, observant Muslim women in similar situations won't have to suffer through the same ordeal.

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Hollywood's awards season has plopped onto red carpets many stars and players from films and television shows (think Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, Homeland) that glorify CIA agents, with director Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker follow-up drawing the most controversy for its scenes of American-endorsed torture.

Perhaps the documentary on torture survivors rolling Saturday at Cal State Fullerton is then cinematic karma.

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Maen Areikat

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FreedomHouse2/Flickr Creative Commons

As geopolitical gridlock stymies international aid in Syria, expatriates and Americans of Syrian descent are taking it upon themselves to travel to the region and medically assist refugees on border towns and residents inside Syria.

One of them is Omar Chamma, who resides in Fountain Valley with his wife and three children. He works a full-time job in house construction, but lately his brother helps with the business, as Chamma leaves almost twice a month now for Syria. In the conflict's beginning, Chamma had heard conflicting reports about the amount of international aid provided to Syria, so he decided to visit the border himself at the end of June. He traveled to a Syrian town bordering Turkey and what he saw there changed his life, he says. Since then, he has traveled five times to Syria via Turkey, delivering medical supplies, and he will leave for his sixth one this evening with two Syrian American doctors.

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Alex Odeh

Upon the 25th anniversary of the terrorist act that claimed the life of Alex Odeh in Santa Ana, the FBI announced that the investigation into the events surrounding the October 11, 1985 incident was still an active one. A million-dollar reward was reaffirmed for those with information that would lead to the arrest of the perpetrators.

Two years later, the bureau's pronouncements still have not led to any measure of justice in the case.

The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which Odeh served as Southern California Regional Director before his killing, called for a moment of silence at 12 p.m. noon EST today and is putting pressure anew on federal agencies.

"The unlawful killing of Alex Odeh is an injustice to his family, the Arab American community and to all Americans," says current ADC President Warren David in a press release. "After 27 years we are still outraged. We demand the DOJ and the FBI bring closure to this heinous act immediately."

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3ammo/Flickr Creative Commons

Local Syrian activists are planning a protest against the 17th annual Arab American Day Festival in Garden Grove because they claim its founder's Arabic-language newspaper supports Syrian ruler Bashar Al-Assad's regime, which has cracked down on pro-democracy protesters in a brutal conflict that has killed 30,000 people since the uprising began in March 2011. 

The So Cal Syrian Coordination Committee, an informal group of pro-opposition activists, writes that "Arab American Day Festival is made and sponsored by pro-Assad regime newspaper called Al-Alam Al-Arabi. They promote Assad's regime propaganda by justifying killing innocent people who called for freedom and democracy in Syria," on its Facebook event page for the protest. A lady who answered the phone at the festival's office said she wasn't aware of the protest and she didn't have time to respond to it.

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