And assume that historians know would send us back in time. Is due book tonight that we bombed the capital the operations which culminated in november 1983. And the Court Records for had everything room affidavits and evidence to the various crime scene. And to be absolutely invaluable. And so this littleknown Domestic Terrorist Group that became violent the Senior Historian policy historian and expert and with those omissions with that political warfare. His books include acknowledging limits in International Security assistance. And was subversion and public order and a political scientist at the rand corporation. And office of the court for counterterrorism and an adjunct professor at the studies program at georgetown and a harvard a Teaching Fellow and for the National Security program. Please welcome. [applause] they give very much for that kind introduction. Thank you all for coming out today. I want to start off with this as the archivist to point out the Court Records of what i have access to thanks to the men and women of the natural archives in philadelphia and new york to delve deeply into this group one of the fascinating things that i uncovered of just how important the federal Court Records are with the Political Violence and with those prosecution and ive never gotten a solid answer to this but and then they tend to ignore the Court Records. But they go far beyond transcripts even the most valuable things is what was edited into evidence so internal documents its a resolute the professional backbone of this organization. And many other historians. If you havent had so if you will indulge me to read passages and to prompt the comments and questions of todays program. In 1981 president Ronald Reagan said a new morning in america the American Dream wasnt over but to achieve the dream the United States needed lower taxes to shrink the size of government some call it the reagan revolution. And the welleducated extremist working for a very different kind. They spend the entire adult lives protesting against the vietnam war. And with that us imperialism. Us aggression and domination many are involved in the late 19 sixties or seventies. And that generation 1868. To embrace drugs and sex in revolutionary politics with enthusiasm. And i quote in the 1970s the revolutionary those charcoal thats a substantial part of the american culture. And then to become a common mod mode. And then to operate on the far left fringes and with those dozens of bombings of targets. And by the late seventies the leadership exhausted from nearly a decade on the run surface underground and then they surrendered to the authorities. And i know that i am dating myself but these weather people and then they start to surface and that got me to think and is passing them. And then to hide in plain sight. Many other vietnam era radicals returned to graduate school to start careers for ordinary american life. In certain parts of new york and bay area of california and chicago. A revolutionary sensibility as one militant recalled. But these militants and a few others decided to continue the struggle by any means necessary. And that radical recalled and then a new organization. And amazed communist organization and with malcolm x. And unlike any other american terrorist group. It was created led by women. And selfdescribed lesbians. But will talk about that later on. And then to plant the bombs and with the new sisterhood. And those intellectuals but warriors and to usher in a world of justice and oppression. And what this will look like but one thing is certain nothing less than violent revolution. It is typical among terrace. And Bruce Hoffman argues i would quote, to be as varied as al qaeda. And then to chase after of what that future might entail. And then to be other ideological treatments in American History and the stalins last americans by to conclude the soviet agent to conclude the soviet agent one the dedication to his cause was as destructive as the isys recruits. And in 1979 and those talking heads. And to be inspired by the terrorist groups of the Red Army Faction and as the driving first person in chronicle of the unmanned figure. So i will be some of the lyrics. Loaded with weapons. Packed up and ready to go. Those were some great sites up on the highway. A place nobody knows. The sound of gunfire off in the distance. Im getting used to it now. Lived in a brownstone. Lived in the ghetto. Ive been all over the town. The state no disco or fooling around no time for dancing or loveydovey. I dont have time for that now. There may be for reasons and with that sheer audacity and those extremely locations and from 1979 through 1981 and then to go into the army with that separatist group. And that is about 3 million in todays dollars. And may 19th was one of the most infamous armed robberies in American History. I dont think im overstating that. October 20th brinks robbery in upstate new york left to Police Officers dead and one brinks guard was killed as well but in a bizarre turn of fate the wounded brinks guard was shot and his arm was nearly severed he wound up continuing to work for brinks and 20 years and one month later he was in Lower Manhattan supervising a delivery of 9 million of currency from wells fargo. He was in the basement of one of the twin towers and the Police Ordered him out. He called the dispatcher and said im told to get out and thats a last anyone heard of him. So perhaps not meaningful in any great sense but and the significant oriented into the 2h century. And so the first was in 1979. And the flm bomb maker and with the workshop and making bombs and it went off in his face and blew off half of his face and nine of his fingers. Somebody call the police. I dont know other than extreme revolutionary dedication. They found blood on one of the knobs on the gas stove the police concluded he dragged himself from being wounded to turn on the gas with his mouth hoping to fill the apartment to light a cigarette and set it off. That extremely formidable terrorist. And the fbi said they could find most of them. To keep them as evidence. And waiting for a pair of artificial hands. And then to involve his lawyer and the main women so this man could take some bolt cutters. And somehow to snip the screen that is covering the window. And then is able to lower himself out the building several stories with improvised rope made out of ace bandages. Hes hit an airconditioner and bounced off landed on the ground got scooped up somehow. He made his way to mexico. Things were good for a few years. The fbi tipped off the mexican authorities at one point and then there was a shoot out. He went to prison for six years he was sprung and then they wanted him extradited back into the United States and they said no and then he was left there where he lives to this day and has been granted political asylum. So the second big prison break involved in a woman named joann and a member of the black Liberation Army and a terrorist group worthy of the own of the black Panther Party and they assassinated 15 policeman from the early seventies. So a rather patronizing description the us attorney your local prosecutor to be the mother hen she was involved in a shoot out on the jersey turnpike she or her cohorts shot the state trooper with his own revolver at pointblank range convicted 1973. By 1979 there was a plan to break her out. So again with those logistics and the estate houses and with fake ids and basically to smuggle a gun into the prison when there were no metal detectors and then to take some guards hostages and then they escorted them out but then they got her to the bahamas and in 1984 she wound up in cuba and was granted asylum but then the castro regime she still wanted by the fbi with a 2 milliondollar reward on her head from the federal governmen government. From the new jersey authorities. So that was one piece of may 19. The second piece of the Campaign Began in 1983 and of course with the title of my book suggest what happened november 7th 1983 outside of the majority leaders office. They also bomb day Fbi Field Office in new york and if navy yard twice and the israeli Aircraft Association the african consulate in new york and the Patrolmens Benevolent Association and with the us invasion of grenada apartheid in south africa and gaza and us backing for the contras and the regime in el salvador. So thats the first thing that threw me with that range of violent and audacious terrorist activities. The second thing were the personal stories of the participants and the women themselves. There were a couple of men in the inner circle. So i will just mention three of them. That i found particularly compelling. And then decided to go to berkeley and then came back to the university of texas and through that route back to the west coast, she became what was described as the only white member of black Liberation Army. She was buying guns, a nice white episcopal gal from texas less likely to raise suspicions so she could buy weapons in multiple states. She was picked up in 1973 for buying 1000 rounds of ammunition which was a federal offense and then she is sent to womens federal prison in West Virginia and this is in a more innocent time federal prisoners at that time were allowed a furlough she was given that to visit her parents in galveston and came back and then in 1877 got a second one to visit her lawyer in new york. The same lawyer who sent both letters to help her escape. She gets her furlough and never comes back. She was not captured until 1985. So eight years on the run. The second person daughter of a dentist a graduate of a private school in new york attended barnard. A fascinating character in her own right she has some memoirs that came out a few years ago of former terrace light on the operational details that we tend to be interested in bed interestingly she was pardoned in 2001 on the last day of president Clintons Administration the same day he pardoned notorious fugitive rich. She got a pardon and due in part to be a staunch advocate for someone who has been in the news many times Alan Dershowitz but also jerry nadler just a strange coincidence at of it means much of anything but thats fascinating to go through the documents to see the letters written on her behalf to the white house counsel. And then the third person is the most fascinating of all for me was judy clark. A classic red diaper baby high level functionaries in the communist party in the United States. Growing up in the warm embrace of the party which had a lot of sexual activities and summer camps to go to the hootenanny in connecticut. And led the party and then spent the last one the first few years of her life in moscow where her father was employed as a daily worker correspondent with the communist Party Newspaper the parents came back from moscow looking into the yelloweyed pockmarked face of stalinism and decided they were done with the party but judy was extremely bitter toward her parents so her father became a democratic socialist and was very involved and when judy was kicked out of the university of chicago for rioting in 1968, he was able to persuade the great literary critic to intervene with the great novel that was a presence at the university of chicago to get him to intervene with the president of chicago and future attorney general and so then he says can you resend this or undercut that . And says no she is a bad one. So she spent more than 35 years in prison in connection with a bridge robbery and sentenced to 25 year two life sentences for Second Degree murder. Basically not eligible for parole through 2016 when the governor of new york, andrew cuomo spent an hour with her and decided to commute her sentence which means she became eligible for parole the first time she did not but then was from april of this year. After 37 years, judy is out she is a free woman. So just to wrap things up, to talk about the third thing in the story. There were many other things but the fact the sexuality of the women involved they saw as one member of the group said to be a lesbian is better as an anti imperialist. Points wiln cspan2. [background sounds]. Please welcome. [applause]. Are you guys. [applause]. Hi how are you. Good morning. I will die of here