Editing Weather Underground (section)

==Legacy==
Widely known members of the Weather Underground include [[Kathy Boudin]], [[Linda Sue Evans]], [[Brian Flanagan]], [[David Gilbert (activist)|David Gilbert]], [[Ted Gold]], [[Naomi Jaffe]], [[Jeff Jones (activist)|Jeff Jones]], Joe Kelly, [[Diana Oughton]], [[Eleanor Raskin]], [[Terry Robbins]], [[Mark Rudd]], [[Matthew Steen]], [[Susan Stern]], [[Laura Whitehorn]], [[Eric Mann]], [[Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson|Cathy Wilkerson]], and the married couple [[Bernardine Dohrn]] and [[Bill Ayers]].

The Weather Underground was referred to as a terrorist group by articles in ''The New York Times'', United Press International, and ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]''.<ref>No byline, UPI wire story, "Weathermen Got Name From Song: Groups Latest Designation Is Weather Underground", as published in ''The New York Times'', January 30, 1975; Montgomery, Paul L., "Guilty Plea Entered in 'Village' Bombing: Cathy Wilkerson Could Be Given Probation or Up to 7 Years", article, ''The New York Times'', July 19, 1980: "the terrorist Weather Underground"; Powers, Thomas, and Franks, Lucinda, "Diana: The Making of a Terrorist," UPI, news feature series and winner of the Pulitzer Prize; [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hgsLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=v1EDAAAAIBAJ&pg=953,4459764 September 23, 1970] [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ggsLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=v1EDAAAAIBAJ&pg=847,4160388 September 17, 1970] [https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=hQsLAAAAIBAJ&sjid=v1EDAAAAIBAJ&pg=898,4393226 September 21, 1970]; Ayers, Bill, [http://billayers.wordpress.com/2006/04/20/weather-underground-redux/ "Weather Underground Redux"], post April 20, 2006, "Bill Ayers" blog, retrieved September 21, 2008</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=FFtYAAAAMAAJ&q=Weatherman+terrorist The New Encyclopædia Britannica: in 32 Volumes by Encyclopædia Britannica Inc.], 1998, p 331</ref><ref>Mehnert, Klaus, "Twilight of the Young, The Radical Movements of the 1960s and Their Legacy," Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1977, page 47; Martin, Gus, [https://books.google.com/books?XdXpn6NH2GcC&pg=PA437&dq=Weatherman+terrorist&ei=QdjBSKylEIjcygS0yMSNDg&sig=ACfU3U3BaLaAHwZCo4EAK0J8mH5zCHVzcQ "Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues"]; Pruthi, R.K., [https://books.google.com/books?id=C3yDkKDbZ3YC&dq=Weatherman+terrorist&pg=PA182 ''An Encyclopaedic Survey of Global Terrorism in the 21st Century'']{{Dead link|date=February 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 2003, p. 182; [https://archive.org/details/terroristtrapame00simo/page/96 <!-- quote=Weatherman terrorist. --> "The Terrorist Trap"] by Jeffrey David Simon p 96</ref> The group fell under the jurisdiction of the FBI-New York City Police Anti-Terrorist Task Force, a forerunner of the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Forces. The FBI refers to the organization in a 2004 news story titled "Byte out of History" published on its website as having been a "domestic terrorist group" that is no longer an active concern.<ref>Web page titled, [https://www.fbi.gov/page2/jan04/weather012904.htm "Byte Out of History: 1975 Terrorism Flashback: State Department Bombing"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225063707/https://www2.fbi.gov/page2/jan04/weather012904.htm |date=December 25, 2016 }}, at F.B.I. website, dated January 29, 2004. Retrieved September 2, 2008.</ref> Some members have disputed the "terrorist" categorization and justified the group's actions as an appropriate response to what they described as the "terrorist activities" of the war in Vietnam, domestic racism, and the deaths of black leaders.<ref>''Sing a Battle Song: The Revolutionary Poetry, Statements, and Communiques of the Weather Underground, 1970–1974''; edited by Bernardine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, and Jeff Jones; Seven Stories Press; 2006; pp. 21–42, 121–129</ref>

Ayers objected to the description of the WUO as a terrorist organization in his 2001 book ''Fugitive Days''. "Terrorists terrorize," he argues, "they kill innocent civilians, while we organized and agitated. Terrorists destroy randomly, while our actions bore, we hoped, the precise stamp of a cut diamond. Terrorists intimidate, while we aimed only to educate."{{sfn|Ayers|2008|p=263}} Dan Berger asserts in ''Outlaws of America'' that the group "purposefully and successfully avoided injuring anyone" as an argument that their actions were not terrorism. "Its war against property by definition means that the WUO was not a terrorist organization."{{sfn|Berger|2006|pp=268–287}}

Others, however, have suggested that these arguments are specious. Former Weather Underground member [[Mark Rudd]] admitted that the group intended to target people prior to the accidental explosion in the town house. "On the morning of March 6, 1970, three of my comrades were building pipe bombs packed with dynamite and nails, destined for a dance of non-commissioned officers and their dates at Fort Dix, New Jersey, that night."<ref name="name">{{cite web
 |url          = http://www.markrudd.com/?organizing-and-activism-now/the-kids-are-all-right-2005.html
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090403171308/http://www.markrudd.com/?organizing-and-activism-now%2Fthe-kids-are-all-right-2005.html
 |archive-date = April 3, 2009
 |title        = The Kids are All Right
 |last         = Rudd
 |first        = Mark
 |author-link   = Mark Rudd
 |access-date  = May 18, 2009
 |df           = mdy-all
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-police-union-accuses-Ayers-in-1970-bombing-3248056.php|title=S.F. police union accuses Ayers in 1970 bombing|work=SFGate|date=March 12, 2009|access-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref> Grand juries were convened in 2001 and 2009 to investigate whether Weather Underground was responsible for the [[San Francisco Police Department Park Station bombing]], in which one officer was killed, one was maimed, and eight more were wounded by shrapnel from a pipe bomb. They ultimately concluded that members of the Black Liberation Army were responsible, with whom WUO members were affiliated. They were also responsible for the bombing of another police precinct in San Francisco, as well as bombing the Catholic Church funeral services of the police officer killed in the Park Precinct bombing in the early summer of 1970.<ref name="Jamison">{{cite news |author=Peter Jamison |url=http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2009-09-16/news/blown-to-peaces-weather-underground-leaders-claimed-bombings-devised-to-avoid-bloodshed-fbi-agents-suspect-radical-70s-group-killed-cop-in-name-of-revolution/1/ |title=Blown to Peaces: Weather Underground leaders claimed their bombings were devised to avoid bloodshed. But FBI agents suspect the radical '70s group killed a cop in the name of revolution. |newspaper=Riverfront Times |date=2009-09-16 |access-date=2015-01-30 |archive-date=July 17, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120717225509/http://www.riverfronttimes.com/2009-09-16/news/blown-to-peaces-weather-underground-leaders-claimed-bombings-devised-to-avoid-bloodshed-fbi-agents-suspect-radical-70s-group-killed-cop-in-name-of-revolution/1/ }}</ref><ref>''Allegiance to Liberty: The Changing Face of Patriots, Militias, and Political Violence in America''; Barry J. Balleck; ABC-CLIO; 2014; p. 89</ref> Ayers said in a 2001 ''New York Times'' interview, "I don't regret setting bombs".<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/11/books/no-regrets-for-love-explosives-memoir-sorts-war-protester-talks-life-with.html|title=No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives – In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen|date=September 11, 2001|publisher=Query.nytimes.com|access-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref> He has since claimed that he was misquoted.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://billayers.wordpress.com/2008/04/06/episodic-notoriety-fact-and-fantasy/|title=Episodic Notoriety – Fact and Fantasy |work=Bill Ayers|date=April 6, 2008|access-date=February 15, 2015}}</ref> Mark Rudd teaches mathematics at [[Central New Mexico Community College]], and he has said that he doesn't speak publicly about his experiences because he has "mixed feelings, guilt and shame". "These are things I am not proud of, and I find it hard to speak publicly about them and to tease out what was right from what was wrong."<ref name="The Weather Underground"/>