Hierophant
10-05-2001, 01:02 PM
Kathleen Soliah was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, a counter-culture, anti-war protest/terrorist group in the Vietnam era and through about 1975 or 1976.
They're the ones who kidnapped Patty Hearst, and converted her to a bankrobber as well.
Soliah hid for almost 25 years and was captured in the middle of Monica Lewinsky scandal. She had been on the FBI watch list for all those years for suspicion of planting a bomb under a police car. The bomb blew up, I believe, but the officers were not killed.
Other SLA actions include assassinating a school superintendent or principal. A mother or a child was killed during one of the bank robberies. They went beyond "making trouble" to doing harm.
Her legal case has been dragged out for over two years now, and has recently gone to trial or is about to go to trial.
The recent news is this: Her lawyers have the nerve to suggest that she can't get a fair trial now because of public reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks! Never mind that she never intended to be brought to justice in the first place, or that she could have stood trial anytime in the past 25 years prior to the terrorist atacks in NYC!
A year ago, a jury might have bought the argument that she was just a misguided youth, the Vietnam war was unjust, America is unjust (the trial is in Los Angeles), etc, etc. Now, however, they are likely to see her actions as an act of terrorism, and to see that such acts can't be excused, but must be punished. (Prosecution still has to prove its case.)
They're the ones who kidnapped Patty Hearst, and converted her to a bankrobber as well.
Soliah hid for almost 25 years and was captured in the middle of Monica Lewinsky scandal. She had been on the FBI watch list for all those years for suspicion of planting a bomb under a police car. The bomb blew up, I believe, but the officers were not killed.
Other SLA actions include assassinating a school superintendent or principal. A mother or a child was killed during one of the bank robberies. They went beyond "making trouble" to doing harm.
Her legal case has been dragged out for over two years now, and has recently gone to trial or is about to go to trial.
The recent news is this: Her lawyers have the nerve to suggest that she can't get a fair trial now because of public reaction to the 9/11 terrorist attacks! Never mind that she never intended to be brought to justice in the first place, or that she could have stood trial anytime in the past 25 years prior to the terrorist atacks in NYC!
A year ago, a jury might have bought the argument that she was just a misguided youth, the Vietnam war was unjust, America is unjust (the trial is in Los Angeles), etc, etc. Now, however, they are likely to see her actions as an act of terrorism, and to see that such acts can't be excused, but must be punished. (Prosecution still has to prove its case.)