Way Worse Than Jan. 6: The Time Leftists Blew 15' Crater in US Capitol, Breached with Literal Bomb
On the night of Nov. 7, 1983, the U.S. Capitol switchboard received an ominous call warning authorities to evacuate the building.
Roughly five minutes later, at 10:58 p.m., a bomb detonated in the Capitol’s north wing, hurting no one but creating a 15-foot hole in the wall and causing upward of $1 million in damage.
Soon after, National Public Radio received an anonymous call from an organization named the Armed Resistance Unit saying, “Tonight we bombed the U.S. Capitol,” according to Politico magazine.
“We purposely aimed our attack at the institutions of imperialist rule rather than at individual members of the ruling class and government,” the caller said.
“We did not choose to kill any of them at this time. But their lives are not sacred.”
This abhorrent and terrifying act was not, however, the work of right-wing extremists such as Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols or the Branch Davidians, whose views are universally rejected by Americans.
This violent attempt to effectuate change in the U.S. government arose from the nefarious ideals of the radical left-wing May 19th Communist Organization.
Formed in 1978 and named for the shared birthday of communist North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh and radical civil rights leader Malcolm X, M19 was a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization uniquely led by female radicals who identified as “revolutionary anti-imperialists,” according to Smithsonian magazine.
With connections to the Weather Underground, the Black Liberation Army and the Black Panther Party, this “anti-imperialist” organization executed a number of attacks well into the mid-1980s, inspired by the revolutionary left-wing tradition of pursuing “peace” through violent means.
Between 1979 and 1981, M19 militants aided members of the Republic of New Afrika, a black nationalist and separatist movement, in armed attacks, according to Politico magazine.
M19 also participated directly in aiding and abetting the escape of two American radicals from prison — Willie Morales, a bomb maker for the Puerto Rican revolutionary group FALN, and convicted cop-killer Assata Shakur.
After an attempted robbery killed two police officers and an armored truck guard in 1981, M19 severed ties with the RNA and refocused its revolutionary agenda on violently protesting the U.S. government.
What followed was a string of attacks that should make M19 one of the most notorious domestic terrorist organizations in American history.
Between 1983 and 1985, M19 detonated bombs at the U.S. Capitol, an FBI office on Staten Island in New York, the National War College at Fort McNair in D.C., two facilities at the Washington Navy Shipyard and, in New York, the South African consulate, the Israeli Aircraft Industries Building and the headquarters of the nation’s largest police union.
No one was killed in these bombings, but M19 had considered using deadly force.
“Towards the tail end of their life cycle as a group, they really at least debated amongst themselves quite intensely the assassination of police officers, of prosecutors, of military officers,” historian William Rosenau told Smithsonian.
A statement circulating among the group’s inner circle argued for the need to “transform ourselves from target shooters to combat shooters,” claiming that “investigative work showed the possibility of doing an action that could possibly eradicate several high ranking officers,” according to Politico magazine.
The statement concluded chillingly, “We believe that selective assassination of very clear targets is on the agenda now.”
M19 reportedly considered assassinating targets ranging from lawyers and judges to former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger.
Federal authorities caught and arrested most of M19’s inner circle in 1984 and 1985. Upon their capture, authorities found multiple semiautomatic and automatic firearms, hundreds of pounds of explosives and detonation cords at multiple safe houses and storage sites. M19 was allegedly prepared to launch more attacks.
In the wake of M19’s terrorism, one may be surprised to hear that none of its members is serving time in prison.
While some members have died, former President Bill Clinton pardoned Susan Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans, two prominent figures in the group, on his last day in office in 2001.
Fifteen years later, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo commuted the sentence of Judy Clark, who was then released in 2019.
This ought to provoke one to ask — why have I not heard of this?
While the establishment media identify right-wing extremism as the sole threat to the American people, particularly now on the one-year anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, incursion into the Capitol, the insidious nature of violent radical leftism is swept under the rug, concealing this threat from the eyes and ears of America.
The attempt to diminish the destructive threat of radical American leftism has empowered contemporary extremists to act brashly, violently pursuing their goals with little backlash from establishment Democrats.
When asked to disavow antifa violence in Portland, Oregon, this past summer, Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York said, simply, “That’s a myth,” according to The Washington Times.
For roughly the past year in Portland and other cities, the “antifa myth” launched attacks against residents of the city, defaced public monuments, attacked government buildings and destroyed private businesses.
On Jan. 20, the day Democrat Joe Biden was inaugurated as president, “anti-fascist” leftists marched under a banner that read, “We don’t want Biden. We want revenge for police murders, imperialist wars, and fascist massacres,” and caused destruction in Portland and Seattle, according to Reuters.
Make no mistake: America’s radical left still embraces the same violent ideology it did decades ago.
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