United Freedom Front
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The United Freedom Front (UFF) was a radical U.S.-based left-wing organization which was responsible for a string of terrorist attacks, as well as purely criminal acts, in the late 1970s and 1980s. It went under the name of several aliases including the Armed Guerrilla Resistance Movement, Revolutionary Fighting Group, Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson group (its original name). During their trial, they were referred to as the "Ohio 7" by supporters.
The group was founded in 1974 by two Vietnam War veterans, Raymond Luc Levasseur and Tom Manning. The two first met in prison, where Levasseur was serving a sentence for drug dealing, and Manning for robbery. After their release, the two incorporated other members in to the UFF, mostly family members and close friends.
The UFF was a left-wing organization that strongly opposed US foreign policy in Central America, as well as South African apartheid. Self-defined as a “revolutionary group,” members of the UFF saw themselves as a fighting back against American imperialism.
From 1975 to 1984 the group committed several bank robberies and bombing attacks in the northeastern United States, including a November 1983 bombing of the United States Capitol building, and a September 1984 bombing at the South African Consulate in New York. In addition, the UFF attacked the offices of Union Carbide (the chemical company responsible for the Bhopal disaster) and several other corporate targets. In all of the bombing attacks, callers from the UFF gave warning, and casualties were avoided. However, Manning and Richard Williams, another UFF member, were responsible for the 1981 murder of a New Jersey State Trooper at a traffic stop, the group’s only known inflicted casualty.
On November 4th, 1984, FBI agents apprehended Levasseur and his common law wife, Patricia Gros, near Deerfield, Ohio. The remaining members of UFF were captured shortly after. In March 1986, seven members of the UFF, including Levasseur and Manning, were convicted on conspiracy charges related to the bombings, and sentenced to lengthy jail terms. Levasseur was released from prison in November, 2004, but other members, including Manning and Williams, remain in prison.
[edit] Legal Cases
USA v. Patricia Gros: 84-CR-0222 USA v. Raymond Luc Levasseur et al: 86-CR-180
[edit] Further Reference
- "Group Hit Other Targets, FBI Believes," Ronald Kessler, 11/09/1983, Washington Post
- "Case-Study of US Domestic Terrorism: United Freedom Front," Phillip Jenkins
- "After 13 Bombings, FBI Says Terrorists Remain a Mystery," Rick Hampson, 09/27/1984, AP
