11 30 2012 The U S Capitol Bombing of 1983 November 7 1983 The explosion tore a hole in the outside wall of the chambers damaged a number of paintings and knocked a door off its hinges No one was injured Prior to the bomb going off the Washington Post received a phone called from a member of a group calling its self the Armed Resistance Unit ARU The caller warned about the bomb and claimed it was because of U S military actions in Lebanon and Grenada o The U S invasion of the island of Grenada to rescue American citizens was believed to be the event that triggered the bombing ARU is a remnant faction of the Weather Underground o Origins in the political unrest that was rampant on college campuses in the 1960s o The ARU was comprised of a small group of individuals from the Weather Underground and Black Liberation Army two radical leftist organization ARU was known by several other names o Revolutionary Fighting Group o Red Guerilla Resistance Unit o May 19 Communist Order o May 19 Communist Coalition The ARU helped Assata Shakur escape from a correctional facility Shakur had been convicted for her part in a shootout with law enforcement that resulted in the death of a policeman The bombing at the U S Capital was the most visible and highly publicized bombing A major goal of the ARU was to confront what the group perceived to be the militaristic and imperialist goals of the U S government carried out by the ARU Who did it o Laura Whitehorn Entered a guilty plea for the Capital bombing Sentenced to 20 years o Linda Evans o Marilyn Buck Entered a guilty plea for the Capital bombing Sentenced to 20 years Entered a guilty plea for the Capital bombing Sentenced to 20 years o Susan Rosenburg of explosives o Timothy Blunk Charges dismissed o Alan Berkman Charges dismissed o Elizabeth Duke Charges dismissed Charges dismissed because she was in jail for 58 years for possession In the interest of expediency and the certainty of obtaining a conviction U S prosecutors agreed to plea bargain for Whitehorn Evans and Buck in the U S bombing case In 2001 Clinton commuted the sentences of Linda Evans and Susan Rosenburg to time served and allowed them to be released from prison o Both were extended offers to teach or speak on college campuses but the offered were later retracted by the universities America s First Modern Bioterrorist Attack Members of a religious cult tried to influence a local election in The Dalles Oregon in 1984 They used salmonella typhimirium which causes food poisoning o Contaminated water and restaurants Nearly a year passed after the attack occurred before officials realized the mass food poisoning was not an accident and instead the result of an international terrorist attack Rajneeshees o cult that originates with Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh also referred to as the Enlightened Master o Controversy surrounding the Rajneeshee cult made it difficult for it to continue operations in India so Bhagwan sought a new location Ma Anand Sheela one of his followers purchased a large piece of property for the cult in Oregon known as the Big Muddy Ranch o They changed their name to Rajneeshees o Their police force was called the Peace Force o Bhagwan was not directly involved with his people and Sheela was left in charge most of the time o The major source of conflict between the Rajneeshees and local residents was Oregon s strict laws placing limits on the amount of development allowed in rural areas In an effort to circumvent these laws the Rajneeshees manipulated the state s voter registration laws to take over the small town of Antelope Two pronged attack o Brought in a large number of homeless people from around the United States to Rajneeshpuram in a Share A Home program o Made a large number of Wasco Country voters ill so they would not be able to cast their ballot Ma Anand Puja primarily responsible for the development and deployment of the biological agent She choose to make people sick using salmonella typhimurium because it was difficult to detect easy to spread and something she could obtain through licensed clinical laboratories 751 people became ill as a result of eating from the salad bars of ten local restaurants The Rajneeshees ultimately withdrew their candidate from the ballot and thus the salmonella poisoning did not have any apparent impact of the election but the plot was successful in that such a large number of people did in fact get sick o They failed to achieve their ultimate goal and resulted in no fatalities Only a small number of Rajneeshees cult members had direct knowledge of the planning and implementation of the plot o This helped the attack to be carried out successfully and prevents authorities from figuring out the Rajneeshees were behind the contamination o Authorities figured it out when they investigated the cult for criminal activity at which people involved provided the necessary information This is an example of how a small cadre of leaders in a large cult could devise plan and carry out an act of bioterrorism without other cult members informing the authorities or law enforcement o Information was not communicated with a large number of people They kept the membership of planning committees to a minimum and confined only to the most trustworthy cult members o Authorities usually intercept forms of communication between members of groups providing them with enough information to prevent the attack This lead to the success of the attack and to the delay of apprehension of those guilty While individuals involved in the plot may have had other motives that were more personal EX sadism power revenge the primary motive was political and the goal was to influence and sicken an audience A Meeting of Terrorist Minds Federal Sentencing Guidelines o Limited the degree of discretion a judge could have o Made the sentencing process uniform and predictable for all defendants and across the federal districts o Declared unconstitutional after United States v Booker o The largest departure from the Federal Sentencing Guidelines in terms of both percentages and absolute time that ever occurred in the federal court was the case of Yu Kikumura o Used an alias of Masatoshi Kishizono o A police officer noticed that Kikumura looked out of place and that he began to act suspicious once there was police presence in the area The case of Yu Kikumura o The police officer pulled Kikumura over for speeding and then noticed a number of cardboard boxes that contained gunpowder
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