The Dohrn Connection

Bernardine Dohrn has a history with the Justice Department. More specifically, in the early 1970s, she was one of the FBI’s most wanted fugitives because of her actions with the Weather Underground, a violent radical organization.

Times have changed. In 2010 and 2011, the Justice Department saw fit to give $400,000 in grants to an organization that lists Dohrn as a member of its board of directors: a $150,000 grant in September of 2010 and a $250,000 grant a year later.

The organization that received the grants is the W. Haywood Burns Institute, and the project that brought in the money is the Juvenile Detention Alternatives Initiative. JDAI aims to keep juvenile criminals out of “secure confinement” and to reduce racial disparities in the juvenile justice system.

As a prominent figure in the Weather Underground — which was initially known as simply “Weatherman” — Dohrn helped lead the “Days of Rage” Chicago riot, and during her tenure the group was responsible for numerous bombings of government buildings. Although Dohrn has never renounced her past, her various legal troubles are behind her: She served some probation, several charges were dismissed, and she spent some time in jail for refusing to cooperate with an investigation. She’s now a law professor at Northwestern University, and her husband, fellow Weather Underground co-founder William Ayers, is a retired education professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The Burns Institute’s name comes from a man who himself exemplified the blend of civil-rights activism, academic prestige, and radical politics that defines the group today. W. Haywood Burns worked with Martin Luther King Jr. during the civil-rights movement and eventually became the dean of the law school at Queens College. He also was married to Bernardine Dohrn’s sister, Jennifer, and he “represented the black radical Angela Davis against charges of kidnapping and murder, and coordinated the defense for inmates indicted in the Attica prison riot,” as the New York Times noted in his 1996 obituary.

The Institute’s biography of Burns refers to the 1971 Attica rioters as “people struggling for self-determination.” The rioters protested poor conditions by taking their guards hostage until police launched a full assault on the prison. One of the group’s leaders was Sam Melville, who had bombed numerous government and business buildings shortly before the Weather Underground began doing the same thing. After the horribly managed police assault left 39 dead — in addition to an officer who was killed by the rioters at the outset of the incident, as well as several inmates who were killed by other prisoners during the chaos — the Weather Underground bombed a New York Department of Corrections facility in retaliation. Virtually everyone involved in the Attica riots and their aftermath acted poorly, and yet, as Patrick Brennan has noted on NRO before, a certain group of aging radicals seems to see the incident as some kind of triumph.

Meanwhile, JDAI, the project that earned the Burns Institute its Justice grants, is spearheaded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. In 2010 the federal government agreed to help the Casey Foundation fund training and other consulting services while it expands the program to new sites, and it was through this agreement that the Burns Institute secured its grants. During the grant-application process, the Justice Department does not typically require groups to provide lists of their directors.

The Burns Institute’s primary goal is to reduce racial disparities in juvenile justice, a problem it attributes primarily to discrimination rather than disproportionate misbehavior. The Institute aims to get the U.N. to take a role in American juvenile justice, and it also works with local governments (for a fee) to address the issue. The organization’s process involves bringing together various stakeholders — police, parents, prosecutors, etc. — to discuss policy changes. The group says that this helps decrease juvenile confinement without sacrificing public safety.

If that’s true, it’s good. But there are plenty of charities that do good work without including Weather Underground co-founders on their boards of directors and openly praising prison rioters on their websites. Presidential administrations have considerable discretion when it comes to federal grants. But it is not too much to ask that the Justice Department avoid giving money to groups with ties to violent radicals.

The Burns Institute did not provide a comment in time for publication, Dohrn did not reply to several attempts to contact her, and the Office of Justice Programs declined to provide a quote for attribution.

— Robert VerBruggen is a deputy managing editor of National Review.

Speaking of the neighborhood: Dots connected last week on the Chicago Crime thread.

Michelle Robinson Obama’s ancestors are from the Friends-Plantation area in South Carolina.

Jesse Robinson Jackson's ancestors are from the same area. His biological father is Noah Robinson.

Noah Robinson was a professional boxer

Moochelle spent enough time in the JJ home during her youth that the JJ siblings refer to her as Sis.

Noah Robinson,JJ'a half brother is doing life. He was involved with a Chicago street gang specializing in drugs, murder for hire and prostitution. The gang changed their name to El Rukn when they converted to IZZZlam in mass.

BO Organized the community that would be considered the gang's territory.

Louis FerretCon gave Tony Rezko his first job in the US keeping the boxer Mohamed Ali “in line”.

Tony Rezko helped finance the Obama home in the hood.

BlankO wife had a real estate license but only worked for Rezko. She is also the daughter of one of the more powerful Aldermen in CHicago.

And so goes the hood.

Altogether now: WE ARE FAMILY...

IT’S A SMALL WORLD....

That’s the theme song for the group of people in Chicago from various countries who deal with real estate, banking, medical industry and BO.

Start out with any name(first or last) beginning with ‘A’ on this thread:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2151323/posts

Alexi G. (banking/state Treasurer/candidate

Amrish Mahajan (banking/ Mutual financed ?? Wife connected with medical business.

Antoni (Tony)Rezko Now doing time but Arranged BO’s house purchase

Auchi, Nadhmi (General Mediteranian Holding

Anita (spouse of ???non-bid state contracts

Ali Ati, (pizza shops were fronts for

Abdelhamid Chaib (director of ‘RezkoConcessions’

Aires Bill (activist long time friend of BO

Aires Thomas (father besides all his other connections there’s banking and real estate.

Abbinanti, Robert “Bobby the Boxer” (gave BlankO his first job running the numbers...CHeck out how Alexi’s bank got it’s start.

Ali,Muhammed, the boxer Revko -FerretCon connection to

Axelrod, what we all know about and think we know First job was________

AIHAM ALSAMMARAE is linked to_____________ and nuclear engineering.

Aldermen....Take your pick of any CHicago Aldermen, particularly Burke.

These are just the “A” names from the first one hundred posts of the thread.

Check out their national heritage of each first.
Then look out how and to whom each is connected both here and abroad.
International banking?
Money laundering?
Drugs?
Medical connections/ what IS in the bill?
Mexican Street gangs?
El Rukn ties to JJ?

Chicago is the United Nation of Thugs and Corruption.
There are so many dots to connect to know and then prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who is guilty of what. Hopefully
many indictments are coming down sooner rather then later.

BlankO is lucky to be alive....Look for BO to pardon him to keep him quiet. Also look to see who his wife’s father is.

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