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The “bomb guru” for the terrorist group the Weather Underground never served a day in jail — but he did spend decades teaching in New York City classrooms, a new book reveals.
Ronald Fliegelman built explosives for the Weather Underground, a far-left group that launched a domestic bombing campaign in the 1960s and ’70s, including one explosion inside NYPD headquarters.
“Ron is proud of what he did,” he told The Post.
The Weather Underground first organized in 1969 as a splinter of the Revolutionary Youth Movement within the ’60s protest group Students for a Democratic Society.
Their members were mostly white and middle class, advocating the complete overthrow of the US government.
With revolutionary positions characterized by black power and opposition to the Vietnam War,[2] the group conducted a campaign of bombings through the mid-1970s and took part in actions such as the jailbreak of Dr. Timothy Leary. The "Days of Rage", their first public demonstration on October 8, 1969, was a riot in Chicago timed to coincide with the trial of the Chicago Seven. In 1970 the group issued a "Declaration of a State of War" against the United States government, under the name "Weather Underground Organization".
originally posted by: ScientificRailgun
Very interesting. One could wonder whether or not he planted seeds of rebellion into the young minds he helped mold. Thanks for the captivating read!
“We believed Third World countries would rise up and cause crises that would bring down the industrialized West, and we believed it was going to happen tomorrow, or maybe the day after tomorrow,” a former Weatherman tells Burrough.
“The myth, and this is always Bill Ayers’ line, is that Weather never set out to kill people, and it’s not true — we did,” group member Howie Machtinger tells Burrough. “You know, policemen were fair game.”
“We must continue to make the Rockefellers, Oswalds, Reagans and Nixons pay for their crimes. We only wish we could do more to show the courageous prisoners at Attica, San Quentin and the other 20th-century slave ships that they are not alone in their fight for the right to live.”
“For me, it was really seamless,” he tells Burrough. “No one — the FBI, no one — ever came looking for me.”
Fliegelman was among 13 Weathermen indicted on charges of conspiring to commit bombings and assassinations, but the indictment was dropped in 1973 by the Justice Department in the wake of a Supreme Court decision that barred the use of electronic surveillance without a court order.
Approached by The Post, Fliegelman, who wears a neat ponytail, said: “What happened 40 years ago is different from what’s going on today. War was a big thing. It was on TV every night. You don’t know that with the Iraqi war, the Afghanistan war. There was the draft, as well.”
Asked whether he considered himself a terrorist, he said: “Did you ever notice how many people were hurt by our bombs? People were not hurt by our bombs.”
originally posted by: JIMC5499
Funny how nobody mentions that the KGB funded groups like the Weather Underground, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. Nobody mentions that two members of SDS were Bill and Hilary Clinton. Nobody mentions that in 1994, the US sent a team to the old Soviet Union to review the KGB archives. Last but not least, nobody mentions that then President Bill Clinton put a 75 year security classification on that team's findings.
Then of course there are President Obama's friends, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
originally posted by: JIMC5499
a reply to: Vasa Croe
I'd have to go to a library and go into the back issues of some magazines. This happened before everything was put on the internet. It would have been around 1995.
Some members remained underground and joined splinter radical groups. The US government states that three members of the Weather Underground, Kathy Boudin, Judith Alice Clark, and David Gilbert, joined the May 19 Communist Organization. On October 20, 1981 in Nanuet, New York, the group robbed a Brinks armored truck containing $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. Media reports listed them as former Weatherman Underground members[122] considered the “last gasps” of the Weather Underground.[123] The documentary The Weather Underground described the Brinks Robbery as the "unofficial end" of the Weather Underground.[124]
originally posted by: Greathouse
Towards the end they showed their true colors and robbed a armored car.
Some members remained underground and joined splinter radical groups. The US government states that three members of the Weather Underground, Kathy Boudin, Judith Alice Clark, and David Gilbert, joined the May 19 Communist Organization. On October 20, 1981 in Nanuet, New York, the group robbed a Brinks armored truck containing $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. Media reports listed them as former Weatherman Underground members[122] considered the “last gasps” of the Weather Underground.[123] The documentary The Weather Underground described the Brinks Robbery as the "unofficial end" of the Weather Underground.[124]
originally posted by: Greathouse
a reply to: Vasa Croe
Do you remember the Greenwich town house explosion? That along with the Brinks car robbery I believe were the only fatalities caused by the weathermen.
At least they were revolutionaries with a conscience most of the time.
originally posted by: JIMC5499
Funny how nobody mentions that the KGB funded groups like the Weather Underground, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), Greenpeace and the Sierra Club. Nobody mentions that two members of SDS were Bill and Hilary Clinton. Nobody mentions that in 1994, the US sent a team to the old Soviet Union to review the KGB archives. Last but not least, nobody mentions that then President Bill Clinton put a 75 year security classification on that team's findings.
Then of course there are President Obama's friends, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
originally posted by: Silcone Synapse
a reply to: Vasa Croe
The whole statute of limitations is baffling to me from a UK perspective.
Its like if you are a really skilled bad guy,who can evade the authorities for long enough,you basically get rewarded by not being able to be tried for your crimes.
That seems so unfair on those whose lives you may have ruined during your crimes..
The guy in your OP it seems to me,should be held accountable-but under the protection of US law,he has got away with it.
Where is the justice in that?
Barack Obama would have you believe that the bombings by the radical domestic terrorists known as The Weather Underground were something that happened "when I was eight years old" and with which he had absolutely no connection. And while it is true that their bombings started when Obama was eight years old, they actually continued until he was twenty years old. And, incredibly, the life of Barack Obama and the terror campaign of the Weather Underground nearly intersected on the evening of September 26, 1981 at an anti-Apartheid protest which turned violent at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York.