Weatherman still “submerged” in 1976

^{Chicago 1969 “Days of Rage”}
The August 1976 FBI highly-redacted summary report on the activities and actors in the Weather Underground Organization (WUO), beginning with its emergence in 1969 from a fractured Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), provides a wealth of information. As RBO has commented before, the summary is most likely a compilation of information gathered by a number of agents and taken from an unknown number of files. Much of the information has been hidden behind the heavy smears of the black marker, necessitating reading through its pages to piece together a story.

Keep in mind as you read over this material that the individuals involved commenced their protest against “imperialism” and “pig” society as early as 1965, in the case of Bill Ayers, who protested the draft, and at least as early as 1968 when they violated restrictions against travel to communist countries like Vietnam and Cuba and met clandestinely with Vietnamese authorities in Cambodia and Canada. By the time most of them surfaced more than a decade later, some as late as 1980 and 1981, they had been living as anti-American enemies of the state as well as espousing Marxist-Leninist pro-Communist ideals. Once above ground, these activities did not simply cease but morphed into other forms, some of which have already been discussed.

Why did most of them go free? U.S. government zeal to stop them crossed legal lines, leaving loopholes big enough for them to avoid prosecution and incarceration.

Now we turn to the skimpy profiles of Weather members, which number many beyond those who are more well known like Billy Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Trevor Loudon wrote September 30, 2008, about WUO members Jeff Jones, Howie Machtinger, and Mark Rudd, and on October 9, 2008, about Bruce Rubenstein; Jennifer Dohrn, sister to Bernardine Dohrn and a known WUO supporter; Steve Tappis; and Rick Ayers, brother of Bill Ayers.

Both Loudon and RBO have written extensively about Carl Davidson, Tom Hayden, Bill Fletcher Jr., Barbara Ehrenreich, and other former SDSers and members of various Marxist, Leninist, Maoist organizations (Movement for a Democratic Society, Communist Party USA, Democratic Socialists of America, etc.), all of which have supported Obama’s campaigns at one time or another. None, however, have been discussed regarding their observed ties to Weather, as the FBI’s report may or may not reveal.

At the time of the summary report, the FBI wrote that of the known WUO members who had “submerged” underground in early 1970, in August 1976 only about 30 of them were “still functioning in this covert status.” The information provided was organized in two sections, those “still underground” and those identified to have been WUO “adherents”. RBO has followed the same format. A separate article will cover the “adherents”.

Each individual profile is identified in the FBI report as an “insert”.

The report includes “inserts” on Diana Oughton and Theodore (Ted) Gold because they “were killed while functioning in the ‘underground’.” WUO member Joanna Zilsel had been located residing in Ontario, Canada, but could not be extradited “due to the nature of charges against her.” Richard (Rick) James Ayers was reported as having spent several years underground, including the past ten living in Canada.

In particular, the summary report discusses each individual’s foreign travel and foreign contacts. Zilsel’s foreign contacts were unknown and Rick Ayers possible foreign contacts while residing in Canada were unknown.

See next page for names of those who were “Submerged, Active Underground” in 1976

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5