-Caveat Lector- From http://www.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4243175,00.html }}>Begin Urban guerrilla fights for her own freedom Kathy Boudin, one of the best-known figures of the American urban guerrilla movements, is seeking her freedom today after 20 years in jail Duncan Campbell in Los Angeles Wednesday August 22, 2001 The Guardian Kathy Boudin, 58, a former member of the Weather Underground, who was convicted in 1982 for taking part in an armed robbery in which a security guard and two police officers were shot dead, is seeking parole. The application has provoked a bitter row between relatives of the three dead men and Boudin's supporters, who now include one of the prosecution's chief witnesses at her trial, Norma Hill, who befriended Boudin while doing voluntary work at the prison where she was held. Boudin's application comes a month before another alleged urban guerrilla, Sarah Olsen, appears in court charged with conspiring to murder police officers in Los Angeles in 1975. Mrs Olsen, 54, allegedly a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the group responsible for kidnapping the heiress Patricia Hearst, is charged under her former name, Kathleen Soliah. Boudin was convicted of robbing $1.6m (£1.1m) from a Brink's truck in Nanuet, New York, in 1981. Members of the Black Liberation Army, a splinter group from the Black Panthers, held up the truck, killed a guard, and trans ferred the money to a van in which Boudin and David Gilbert were waiting. The couple left their year-old child Chesa with a babysitter while carrying out the armed robbery. When the police stopped the van, Boudin surrendered but the men opened fire, killing the two policemen. She was sentenced to a jail term of 20 years to life. Boudin is the daughter of the late Leonard Boudin, a leading radical lawyer who defended many of those accused before the House unamerican activities committee, including Paul Robeson and Jessica Mitford. Militant offshoot After growing up in Manhattan and graduating from the radical college Bryn Mawr, she became involved in leftwing politics with Students for a Democratic Society and later its militant offshoot the Weather Underground, whi ch famously denounced its forerunner as "a liberal mass of nothingness". The group took its name from the line in the Bob Dylan song Subterranean Homesick Blues: "You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows." The name was changed from Weatherman to the Weather Men and then the Weather Underground during its brief history, in which it carried out about 24 bomb attacks in pursuit of "an inter-racial movement for the poor". It also sprang the LSD advocate Timothy Leary from jail in 1970. Its grandiose manifesto, published in 1969, ran to 16,000 words. Boudin went on the run in 1970 after a bomb exploded in the group's safe house in Greenwich Village, killing three members. The group disbanded in 1975. Boudin fled to Mexico, but later returned to the US and took a series of menial jobs before linking up with the Black Liberation Army. During her time in prison she has been described as a model prisoner, helping create a number of programmes for Aids sufferers. She has also become friends with one of the chief prosecution witnesses at her trial, Norma Hill, who coincidentally worked as a volunteer at the prison. Ms Hill believes Boudin qualifies for parole. In an interview with the New York Times at the Bedford Hills prison in Westchester county, Boudin said: "I was committed to a belief in changing the system as a way of helping people, but my view of how to do that was so divorced from people and so abstract - I wasn't dealing with people on a day-to-day level." She said she felt shame and regret for her role in the robbery. "I went out that day with a lot of denial, I didn't think anything would happen." Last month she told the New Yorker that she was "responsible for not being responsible". Relatives of the victims and police groups are strongly opposed to her parole. Some suggest that her surrender after the robbery was a ruse to get the officers to put their weapons away, although she was not charged with their murder. 'Where she belongs' The New York state governor, George Pataki, has voiced his opposition. There was also a rally last month near the scene of the murders, attended by hundreds of police officers and others opposed to her release. "She's where she belongs," said Diane O'Grady, the widow of one of the murdered officers. "When Boudin was sentenced, I knew I would have to fight to keep her in." The New York city police commissioner, Bernard Kerik, said the prospect of Boudin's release "sickens my stomach". Among those hoping for her release are her son Chesa, now 20 and a Yale history student. He was brought up by two leading members of the Weather Underground, Bernadine Dohrn and Bill Ayers. The Weather Underground has largely been forgotten. When the Village Voice in New York carried out a vox pop on whether or not Boudin should be released from prison, they could not find any young person who had ever heard of it. Where are they now? Bernadine Dohrn 59, a leading Weather Underground member who was once placed on the 10 most-wanted list. Served only seven months of her sentence for refusing to cooperate with the police. J Edgar Hoover once described her as the "La Pasionaria of the Lunatic Left". Lives in Chicago and teaches at the Northwestern University. Married to another leading member, Bill Ayers. They have two children and brought up Boudin's son, Chesa Bill Ayers Jailed briefly. 56, a professor at the University of Illinois, he has recently published his memoirs, Fugitive Days, which is being publicised with stick-on tattoos of the Weatherman logo David Gilbert Serving two life sentences. Not due for parole until at least 2056. Has written about the movement from Attica prison Jeff Jones Sentenced to probation for the illegal possession of explosives. Now an environmental lobbyist Susan Rosenberg Imprisoned for federal weapons' offences but freed in January after a presidential pardon by Bill Clinton Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001 End<{{ <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/";>www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! 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