Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

336 • JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUEanalyzing the unexploded devices that the Lashkar-e Tayyaba andJaish-e Muhammad groups believed to have been behind these attackshad learned how to use integrated circuit chips in assemblingtheir bombs, a technique perfected by the JI bombers, indicatingsome contact between the JI and these Indian groups. In October2008 police foiled a JI plot to bomb a major oil depot in Jakarta.On 8 November 2008 the three men convicted for the 2002 Balibombings, Imam Samudra, Ali Ghufron (also known as Mukhlas),and Amrozi, were executed by firing squad in the prison on NusakambanganIsland.JEWISH DEFENSE LEAGUE (JDL). The JDL was a Jewish selfdefensemovement that began with the limited goals of protectingorthodox Jewish neighborhoods in New York City from depredationsby young black and Puerto Rican hoodlums and to protest localinstances of anti-Semitism. Eventually the JDL embraced a universalprogram of fighting for Jewish interests worldwide. The group wasself-sustaining and lacked any support from mainstream Jewish organizationsin the United States or from the State of Israel.The JDL was founded in 1968 by Rabbi Meir Kahane, who beganto organize young Jewish men as vigilantes to protect Jews andJewish businesses in the Williamsburg and Crown Heights areasof Brooklyn, and elsewhere in the New York City area. Within ayear the group had graduated from vigilantism and demonstrationsagainst alleged anti-Semites to burglarizing the files of the PalestineLiberation Organization (PLO) UN Mission and launching attackson Soviet diplomatic, trade, and tourism offices and personnel. Accordingto the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the JDL wasresponsible for at least 37 terrorist acts in the United States in theperiod 1968–1983, while the International Terrorism: Attributesof Terrorist Events (ITERATE) database developed on behalf ofthe United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) by Edward F.Mickolus recorded 50 such incidents from 1968 to 1987, making theJDL second only to the Puerto Rican Armed Forces of NationalLiberation (FALN) as the major domestic terrorist group duringthat period. Nonetheless, the JDL was a legally incorporated politicalaction group and has officially disavowed responsibility for anyviolent actions carried out by its members. Bombings accounted for78 percent of all JDL terrorist activities; shootings accounted for 16