1973 : DELLUMS GIVEN SEAT ON HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE) Ron Dellums was granted a seat on the House Armed Services Committee, placing him on a track that would lead to the chairmanship of that committee in 1993. At first, he was turned down in a secret ballot of the 18-member Democratic Committee on Committees. But with help from a few well-placed friends, he was eventually seated. (* My note: Who were these friends?)
Sen. Christopher Dodd, (D-Conn.), for instance, was susected by the Bureau of having clandestine ties to some Sandinista leaders. . .Rep. Barnes was generally despised in the Bureau. . .Moreover, Barnes, along with Conyers, Dodd, Dellums and Solarz, sponsored a number of rallies against the Reagan Administration which were orchestrated by groups strongly suspected by the FBI of being part of the terror network.
[Source: Ross Gelbspan, Break-Ins, Death Threats and the FBI, 1991, 151]
Another book I have links Dellums to IPS, the pro-Castro lobby, and the Sandinistas. From what I'm reading, it sounds like he was most closely associated with John Conyers during the 1980s, which I'd guess would've networked him with Conyers' friends among the Watergate-era antiwar element in the House and Senate (people associated with Senators Fulbright, Mansfield, Church, etc.). Here are some others Dellums was known to associate with in the 1980s:
On April 5, 1983, IPS threw a large twentieth-anniversary celebration to raise funds. On the committee were fourteen present and two former members of the House of Representatives and three present and six former senators. Among the representatives then in office: Lee Aspin. . .(as of Ninety-ninth Congress, chairman of the Armed Services Committee). . .Ronald V. Dellums. . .Don Edwards. . .Richard L. Ottinger. . .Leon E. Panetta. . .Ted Weiss. . .George E. Brown. ..Philip Burton. . .George Crockett. . .George Crockett. ..Tom Harkin. . .Robert Kastenmeier. . .George Miller. . .Patricia Schroeder. . .John Seiberling. . .Also. . .Henry Reuss. ..Among the senators then in office. . .Christopher Dodd. . .Gary Hart. . .Mark O. Hatfield. . .Congressmen Dellums and Kastenmeier and former Sen. George McGovern had the honor of "roasting" IPS cofounders Barnet and Raskin, and Congressman Conyers paid formal tribute to the institute.
[Source: S. Stephen Powell, Covert Cadre: Inside the Institute for Policy Studies, 1987, 249-250]
There's some more on Dellums' career allies here (which has one of the same quotes you cite, so you're probably aware of this already, but I'll quote and link it anyway for discussion and reference):
Congressman Ron Dellums: National Security Risk
Some highlights:
On February 17, 1968, Dellums delivered the keynote address at a birthday party for Black Panther Minister of Defense Huey Newton, who had been convicted of killing a policeman. The next year, 348 Panthers were arrested for such serious crimes as murder, armed robbery, rape, bank robbery, and burglary. Party leaders openly called for the assassination of President Richard Nixon, and the FBI determined the Panthers to be "the most notorious and dangerous of current militant groups." But the Panthers’ appalling record of violence did not cause Dellums to turn his back on them. During his 1970 campaign for Congress Dellums openly endorsed the Panthers. . . .During his election campaign of 1970, Dellums held on to his regular supporters and also acquired new ones, including Communist Jessica Milford, Sargent Shriver of the Kennedy dynasty, and the AFL-CIO’s hatchet-crew, the Committee on Political Education (COPE). . .Dellums has been affiliated with the ultra-leftist Soledad Brothers Defense Committee; the ultra-leftist National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam; the ultra-leftist Community for New Politics in Berkeley; the ultra-leftist National Peace Action Coalition. He endorsed the Hanoi-inspired People’s Peace Treaty. Dellums was a founding member, along with labor-agitator Cesar Chavez, of the Tom Hayden and "Hanoi Jane" Fonda Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED). CED was funded with taxpayer money via VISTA grants to train "community" organizers, the New Left’s expansionist vehicle emanating from the teachings of Saul Alinsky, fund raiser for the Communists’ International Brigade in the Spanish Civil War. . .In August 1977 the liberal publication Mother Jones reported that for "the first time in more than a century, a dues-paying socialist is also a member of the U.S. Congress. Congress member Ron Dellums, a California Democrat, has joined the Democratic Socialist Organizing Committee (DSOC), the organization of socialists in the Democratic Party..."
Also on Dellums and Shakur:
Assata Shakur. . .was a leader in the Black Liberation movement in the United States. . .both as a member of the Black Panther Party and in other organizations. . .In 1998, the United States Congress unanimously passed a resolution asking Cuba for the extradition of Joanne Chesimard. Many members of the Congressional Black Caucus later explained that they were against her extradition, but they had not recognized her name when the bill was proposed.
For more details on that:
In Castro's Corner.(African Americans' alleged affinity for Cuba)
In 1998, Shakur was the subject of an amazing note that Maxine Waters sent to Castro--a note of apology and explanation. The congresswoman had mistakenly voted for a measure calling for the extradition of "Joanne Chesimard," unaware that the woman was the beloved Shakur. The "Republican leadership," Waters wrote to Castro, had been guilty of "deceptive intent" in using the outmoded name. Hence, her error. . .The prototype of the Castroite congressman was, of course, Ron Dellums, of Oakland, California. His seat is now held by Barbara Lee, who for many years served the old lion as his top aide.
Finally, one last note: I recall reading in a book on declassified Soviet archives--I think maybe Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield--that Soviet intelligence made contact with certain California Democrats during the era of the 1972-1976 campaigns. I forget the names of the contacts, but I have the note somewhere--I'm pretty sure they were people close to Jerry Brown, and I can see a possible connection with Dellums there.
Very interesting info--I will look into this some more, thanks.