o'comrades - Wanted Poster from 1970: Weather Underground Leaders

Excerpts below from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground_(organization):


In July, 1969 30 members of Weatherman leadership traveled to Cuba and met with North Vietnamese representatives to gain from their revolutionary experience. The North Vietnameserequested armed political action in order to stop the US Government's war in Vietnam. Subsequently, they accepted funding, training, recommendations on tactics and slogans fromCuba, and perhaps explosives as well.<sup>[15]


Monogamy and other exclusive sexual relationships came under attack, bisexuality was encouraged. Martial arts were practiced and occasional direct actions were engaged in.[40] This formation continued during 1969 and 1970 until the group went underground and a more relaxed lifestyle was adopted as the group blended into the counterculture.[41]</sup>
A comment in the press:

Here we see a new breed of pro-black, pro-Viet Cong hooligan revolutionaries who not demanding this or that change, but are out to totally disrupt the very fabric of this society, out the smash this social order.^[58]

Major Activities and Suspected activities

Haymarket Police Memorial bombing October 7, 1969

"Days of Rage" October 9, 1969

Park Place Police Station bombing, February 1970

Main article: San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing

On February 16, 1970 a nail bomb placed on a window ledge of the Park Police substation in the Upper Haight neighborhood of San Francisco exploded at 10:45 p.m. The blast killed police Sergeant Brian McDonnell. Law enforcement suspected the Weather Underground but was unable to prove conclusively that the organization was involved.^[64] A second officer, Robert Fogarty was partially blinded by the bomb’s shrapnel.

New York City, Judge Murtagh arson attacks, February 1970

On February 21, 1970, gasoline-filled Molotov cocktails were thrown at the home of New York State Supreme Court Justice Murtagh, who was presiding over the trial of the so-called "Panther 21," members of the Black Panther Party over a plot to bomb New York landmarks and department stores.


Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, March 1970

On March 6, 1970, during preparations for the bombing of a Non-Commissioned Officers’ (NCO) dance at the Fort Dix U.S. Army base and for Butler Library at Columbia University,^[2]there was an explosion in a Greenwich Village safe house when the nail bomb being constructed prematurely detonated for unknown reasons. WUO members Diana Oughton, Ted Gold, and Terry Robbins died in the explosion. Cathy Wilkerson and Kathy Boudin escaped unharmed.

The bomb preparations have been pointed out by critics of the claim that the Weatherman group did not try to take lives with its bombings. Harvey Klehr, the Andrew W. Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University in Atlanta, said in 2003, "The only reason they were not guilty of mass murder is mere incompetence. I don't know what sort of defense that is."^[2]

Declaration of a State of War, May 1970

In response to the death of Black Panther member Fred Hampton's Murder as a Catalyst in December, 1969 during a police raid, on May 21, 1970 the Weather Underground issued a "Declaration of War against the United States government, using for the first time its new name, the "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO), adopting fake identities, and pursuingcovert activities only. These initially included preparations for a bombing of a U.S. military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey in what Brian Flanagan said had been intended to be "the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory".^[76]

Revolutionary violence is the only way. —Bernardine Dohrn^[77]

June 1970 NYC Police Bombing

On June 9, 1970, a bomb made with ten sticks of dynamite exploded in the NYC Police Headquarters. The explosion was preceded by a warning about six minutes prior to the detonation and subsequently by a WUO claim of responsibility.^[84]

Federal Grand Jury Indicts 13 Weathermen Leaders

On July 23, 1970, a Detroit grand jury indicted 13 Weathermen members on conspiracy to bomb and kill. Ten of the thirteen already had outstanding federal warrants.^[85]

[edit]Timothy Leary prison break, September 1970

FBI's Most Wanted List, October 1970

In October 1970, Bernardine Dohrn was put on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List ^[86]

[edit]Pentagon Bombing, 1972

On May 19, 1972, Ho Chi Minh’s birthday, The Weather Underground placed a bomb in the women’s bathroom in the Air Force wing of The Pentagon. The damage caused flooding that devastated classified information on computer tapes. Other radical groups worldwide applauded the bombing, illustrated by German youths protesting against American military systems in Frankfurt.^[17] This was "in retaliation for the U.S. bombing raid in Hanoi." [NYT, 5/19/72]^{[87]  (photo)} Investigators search for clues after the May 19, 1972 Weatherman bombing of the Pentagon.

[edit]Charges Dropped, 1973

In 1973 the government requested dropping charges against most of the WUO members. The requests cited a recent decision by the Supreme Court that barred electronic surveillance without a court order. This Supreme Court decision would hamper any prosecution of the WUO cases. In addition, the government did not want to reveal foreign intelligence secrets that a trial would require.^[88] Bernardine Dohrn was removed from the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.

Prairie Fire 1974

With the help from Clayton Van Lydegraf, the Weather Underground sought a more Marxist-Leninist ideological approach to the post-Vietnam reality.^[89] The leading members of the Weather Underground (Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, Jeff Jones, and Celia Sojourn) collaborated on ideas and published their manifesto: "Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism."^[17] The name came from a quote by Mao Zedong, "a single spark can set a prairie fire."

As the following quote demonstrates the manifesto called for the violent overthrow of the US government and the establishment of a socialist dictatorship.

"The only path to the final defeat of imperialism and the building of socialism is revolutionary war."... "Socialism is the violent overthrow of the bourgeoisie, the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and the eradication of the social system based on profit."... Revolutionary war will be complicated and protracted.... It includes mass struggle and clandestine struggle, peaceful and violent, political and economic, cultural and military, where all forms are developed in harmony with the armed struggle. Without mass struggle there can be no revolution. Without armed struggle there can be no victory."^[92]

COINTELPRO

Main article: COINTELPRO

In April 1971, The "Citizens' Commission to Investigate the FBI" broke into an FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania.^[94] The group stole files with several hundred pages. A majority of the files targeted radical left wing groups, and some individuals, for criminal or subversive activities. By the end of April, the FBI offices were to terminate all files dealing with leftist groups.^[95] The files were a part of an FBI program called COINTELPRO.^[96] However, after COINTELPRO was dissolved in 1971 by J. Edgar Hoover,^[97] the FBI continued its counterintelligence on groups like the Weather Underground. In 1973, the FBI established the "Special Target Information Development" program, where agents were sent undercover to penetrate the Weather Underground. Due to the illegal tactics of FBI agents involved with the program, government attorneys requested all weapons- and bomb-related charges be dropped against the Weather Underground. The most well-publicized of these tactics were the "black-bag jobs," referring to searches conducted in the homes of relatives and acquaintances of Weatherman.^[98] The Weather Underground was no longer a fugitive organization and could turn themselves in with minimal charges against them.^[98] Additionally, the illegal domestic spying conducted by the C.I.A. in collaboration with the F.B.I. also lessened the legal repercussions for Weatherman turning themselves in.^[99]

Dissolution 1977 - 1981

East coast members favored a commitment to violence and challenged commitments of old leaders, Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers and Jeff Jones. These older members found they were no longer liable for federal prosecution because of illegal wire taps and the government's unwillingness to reveal sources and methods favored a strategy of inversion where they would be above ground "revolutionary leaders". Jeremy Varon argues that by 1977 the WUO had disbanded.^[108] The federal government estimated that only 38 Weathermen had gone underground in 1970.^[109] An FBI estimate in 1976, or slightly later, of then current membership was of down to 30 or less.^[110]

[edit]Plot to Bomb Office of California State Senator John Briggs (1977)

In November, 1977 five WUO members were arrested on conspiracy to bomb the office of California State Senator John Briggs. It is later revealed that the Revolutionary Committee and PFOC had been infiltrated by the FBI for almost six years. FBI Agents Richard J. Gianotti, and Dick, Agent William D. Reagan, lost their cover in November when federal judges needed their testimony to issue warrants for the arrest of Clayton Van Lydegraf and four Weather people. The arrests were the results of the infiltration.^[111][112] Four WUO members plead guilty Judith Bissell, Thomas Justesen, Leslie Mullin, and Marc Curtis. Clayton Van Lydegraf, who helped write the 1974 Praire Fire Manifesto went to trial.^[113]

Within two years, many members turned themselves in after taking advantage of President Jimmy Carter's amnesty for draft dodgers.^[17] Mark Rudd turned himself in to authorities on January 20, 1978. Rudd was fined $4,000 and received two years probation.^[17] Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers turned themselves in on December 3, 1980, in New York, with substantial media coverage. Charges were dropped for Ayers. Dohrn received three years probation and a $15,000 fine.^[17]

[edit]Brinks robbery (1981)

Certain members remained underground, joined splinter radical groups, and formed alliances with other radical groups. Some authors argue that years after the dissolution of the WUO, former members Kathy Boudin, Judith Alice Clark, and David Gilbert formed the May 19 Communist Organization. Other authors and the US government state that WUO formed an alliance with the Black Liberation Army and called this alliance the May 19 Communist Organization. On October 20, 1981 in Nanuet, New York, the group robbed a Brinks armored truckcontaining $1.6 million. The robbery was violent, resulting in the murders of two police officers and a security guard.^[17] Boudin, Clark, and Gilbert were found guilty and sentenced to lengthy terms in prison. A number of media reports listed them as active Weatherman Underground members^[114] considered the “last gasps” of the Weather Underground.^[115] The PBS Movie on the Weatherman listed the Brinks Robbery as the "unofficial end" of the Weather Underground.^[116]

[edit]May 19th Communist Organization 1978 - 1985

The Weather Underground members involved in the May 19th Communist Organization alliance with the Black Liberation Army continued in a series of jail breaks, armed robberies and bombings until most members were finally arrested in 1985 and sentenced as part of the Brinks Robbery and the Resistance Conspiracy case.

Throughout the underground years, the Weather Underground members worked closely with their counterparts in other organizations, including Jane Alpert, to bring attention their further actions to the press. She helped Weatherman achieve their main goals of overthrowing the U.S. government through her writings.^[117]

Legacy:  Widely-known members of the Weather Underground include Kathy Boudin, Mark Rudd, Terry Robbins, Ted Gold, Naomi Jaffe, Cathy Wilkerson, Jeff Jones, Eleanor Raskin, David Gilbert, Susan Stern, Bob Tomashevsky, Sam Karp, Russell Neufeld, Joe Kelly, Laura Whitehorn and the still-married couple Bernardine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. Most former Weathermen have successfully re-integrated into mainstream society, without necessarily repudiating their original intent.

Weatherman was referred to in its own time and afterwards as "terrorist."^{[121][122][123]} The group fell under the auspices of FBI-New York City Police Anti Terrorist Task Force, a forerunner of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The FBI, on its website, describes the organization as having been a "domestic terrorist group," but no longer an active concern.^[124]

^{Bill Ayers, now a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was quoted in an interview to say "I don't regret setting bombs"[127] but has since claimed he was misquoted.[128]} 

 ^{(source Wikipedia)}

---