Susan Rosenberg
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Susan Lisa Rosenberg (born 1955) is an Jewish-American radical who drove the getaway car in the Brinks robbery (1981) in which two police officers and an armored-car guard were killed.[1] After living as a fugitive for two years, she was arrested with an accomplice in 1984 while unloading 740 pounds of dynamite and weapons from a car into a New Jersey storage locker. She had also been sought as an accomplice in the 1979 prison escape of Joanne Chesimard.[2] Rosenberg was sentenced to 58 years in prison on the weapons and explosives charges, but was not tried for the Brinks robbery and deaths. She was pardoned by President Bill Clinton on January 20, 2001, his final day in office.[3]
Rosenberg was born in to a wealthy and privileged family in Manhattan, attending the prestigious Walden School and Barnard College.[4]
In the 1970s and early 1980s Rosenberg used her father's wealth and political influence to controversially push her way into the May 19 Communist Organization, a splinter from the Weather Underground, a violent leftist organization in the United States. [3]
New Jersey had sentenced her to 58 years on weapons and explosives charges. The state denied her parole because of involvement in the Brinks robbing. She was additionally convicted for her role in the 1983 bombing of the United States Capitol Building. (The bombing killed no one, however, it caused considerable damage.) The U.S. Naval War College, an Israeli company and a police benevolent associations were other targets of Rosenberg and her partners.[3][5]
A statement that her compatriots issued, on the occasion of the Capitol bombing, said, "We purposely aimed our attack at the institutions of imperialist rule rather than at individual members of the ruling class. We did not choose to kill any of them this time. But their lives are not sacred."[1]
She was apprehended with Timothy Blunk in 1984 Cherry Hill, New Jersey with 740 pounds of explosives and numerous firearms.
She explained her actions on the WBAI radio station, "I was totally and profoundly influenced by the revolutionary movement in the '60s and '70s."
Her pardon produced a wave of criticism by police and New York elected officials.[6]
In 2004 Hamilton College hired her to teach a for-credit month-long seminar, "Resistance Memoirs: Writing, Identity and Change." Professors, alumni and parents of students objected. Hamilton Professor Steven Goldberg (History), said that "there are nine children today who will never see their father . . . three women who are widowed" [in reference to the 1981 Brinks robbery]. [5]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b Nordlinger, Jay (2004-11-29). "Clinton’s Rosenberg Case", National Review. Retrieved on 2008-04-19.
- ^ Raab, Selwyn (1984-12-01). "RADICAL FUGITIVE IN BRINK'S ROBBERY ARRESTED", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-04-19. "A Weather Underground fugitive who had been sought for two years in the $1.6 million Brink's robbery and murder case has been arrested in New Jersey by a police officer who became suspicious of her ill-fitting wig."
- ^ a b c Tommy Christopher, "Clinton has Bigger Weather Underground Problem," "Political Machine," in "AOL News," April 16, 2008 http://news.aol.com/political-machine/2008/04/16/clinton-has-bigger-weather-underground-problem/
- ^ http://books.google.com/books?id=sfsI8a6N5e8C&pg=PA21&lpg=PA21&dq=%22susan+rosenberg%22+born+college+bombs&source=web&ots=MH9xukPO8d&sig=nqJurSzb7NS7jAaXcZebByi8igc&hl=en
- ^ a b Roger Kimball, "Meet the Newest Member of the Faculty Clinton pardons a terrorist, and now she's teaching in Clinton, N.Y.," "Wall Street Journal," December 3, 2004 http://www.opinionjournal.com/taste/?id=110005979
- ^ Eric Lipton, " Officials Criticize Clinton's Pardon of an Ex-Terrorist," "New York Times," January 22, 2001 http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D06EED7133CF931A15752C0A9679C8B63
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