Weather Underground Founder, Mark Rudd invited to speak at Community College

Weather Underground co-founder, Mark Rudd spoke to about 100 McLennan County College students in Waco, TX this week. He was invited by the college's History Club and a fraternity chapter.

h/t Lynn Woolley Via Waco Tribune:

One of the founders of a radical group that waged violent protests against the Vietnam War expressed regret about the organization's extreme actions, but urged Waco college students Thursday to be more purposeful in political activism.

Not far from Bill Ayers' position, is it? He still believes in the same agenda but prefers different means.

Rudd ended his relationship with the group in 1970 and now speaks out against violence-driven activism.

"I regretted the whole strategy," said Rudd, 64, now a retired community college instructor. "I think we should have been organized on college campuses, talking to people so that maybe we could prevent the next war from happening."

Rudd was invited to speak at the campus by MCC's History Club and Sigma Kappa Delta chapter.

Again, he regrets the means, not the ends. During his speech at MCC, Rudd engaged in a bit of revisionist history when he talked about the deaths of three Weather Underground members in 1970 named Dianne Oughton, Ted Gold, and Terry Robbins. The three were killed in a Greenwich Village town home when the bomb they were working on exploded. The destination for that bomb was Fort Dix army base. According to Larry Grathwohl, a man who infiltrated the Weather Underground for the FBI, Rudd approved the bombing; he didn't just know about it. Back to the Waco Tribune article:

He (Rudd) spoke about a failed attempt by a faction of Weather Underground members to bomb a military dance at an Army training center at Fort Dix in New Jersey in March 1970. Three group members were killed when the bomb prematurely detonated, but Rudd said no soldiers or other civilians were hurt.

"This is pure terrorism, the moment at which I moved toward that terrorism," Rudd said of the act, adding that he was not involved in planning it. "I knew about it. I could have stopped it. But my feeling at the time was nobody's innocent."

Conspicuously absent from the article is any mention of the Pine Street bomb factory in San Francisco. It was located a short distance from where San Francisco police officer Brian McDonnell was killed when a bomb just outside the window of the police station exploded on February 16, 1970. There is strong evidence that Bernadine Dohrn planted that bomb. Interestingly, Rudd's fingerprints were found inside the apartment-turned bomb factory on Pine Street.

One chapter of my forthcoming book, Unsung Davids: Ten Men who Battled Goliath without Glory, focuses on Larry Grathwohl and his time working inside the Weather Underground for the FBI. Rudd's words and deeds since coming forward in 2003 unequivocally demonstrate that regret is not a word that should be attributed to him when it comes to the Weather Underground. Details of Rudd's involvement in the group make both his appearance and feigned regret at MCC disgustingly laughable.

Besides, even according to the Waco Tribune, Rudd considers himself a liberal Democrat today and supports the Occupy Wall Street movement. So does Ayers. Regret? For what? Expediency?

Like Ayers, Rudd is not repentent. If he were, he'd reject the ends as well as the means.

Perhaps this is the most ridiculous excerpt from the Tribune article:

History Club  president Edward Love said Rudd's story sheds light on how many different types of people fought passionately for peace and equality in America.

By the way, Grathwohl testified that the Weather Underground had plans to "eliminate" 25 Million Americans who could not be "re-educated into the new way of thinking" after the group - to include Rudd - overthrew the U.S. Government.

Once again, here is a video excerpt of Grathwohl from 1982, in which he explains the goals of the Weather Underground. Remember, these goals were NOT rejected by Rudd at MCC.