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New York Daily News, Tuesday, March 26, 2002

Victim Becomes Suspect In B'klyn Bombing

By MICHELE McPHEE
Daily News Police Bureau Chief

Detectives believe the Brooklyn electronics whiz whose lower leg was blown off by a bomb Sunday may have built the explosive himself, law enforcement sources said yesterday.

Israel Halberstam, 46, remained in critical condition at Bellevue Hospital yesterday as detectives obtained a search warrant to rifle through his Borough Park home.

"All fingers are being pointed that he might have had the bomb, and he wanted to take it somewhere," said one law enforcement official, noting investigators found possible bomb-making materials in Halberstam's toolbox.

"He is now being viewed as a suspect," the official added. "The question is, what was he doing with the bomb?"

David Irving comments: While our sympathy goes out to Mr Halberstam -- who is innocent until such time as proven guilty, except in the US Press apparently -- we must wonder where somebody would have been carrying a bomb on passover, and why? And who put him up to it? perhaps Deborah Lipstadt would like to investigate this phenomenon, next time round.

Cops also were taking a closer look at the unsolved torching last month of a car rented by Halberstam and were checking into a dispute he apparently had with an employee at the electronics store he owns, sources said.

Halberstam, a towering man nicknamed Sruly, had just left his 42nd St. house Sunday morning and was about to get into a rented minivan when the bomb detonated.

The explosion severed Halberstam's right lower leg below the knee, and left him with second- and third-degree burns over his entire body, officials at Bellevue Hospital said.

It also rocked the Hasidic community, as people shopping for Passover ran for cover.

A hospital spokeswoman said Halberstam remained in critical condition yesterday with burns to his face and hands. His family was in a "secluded and private" area of the hospital, and did not want to speak to the media, the spokeswoman said.

With Ralph R. Ortega

Man Hurt in Brooklyn Bombing

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