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Often the groups are led by women, partly because of the radicals' active support of the feminist movement. Their heroines are Bernardine Dohrn, a leader of the Weather Underground, and Joanne Chesimard, a highly visible member of the Black Liberation Army. Their martyrs include Diana Oughton, who accidentally blew herself up while making bombs for the Weather Underground, and Tamara Bunke, known as "Tania," the Argentine-born revolutionary who was killed while fighting with Che Guevara in Bolivia and from whom Patty Hearst took her own revolutionary name. Wrote Dohrn in Prairie Fire, the Weather Underground's heavily illustrated manifesto: "Women fighters are frightening apparitions to the enemy and an example for us."
The transformation of middle-class youngsters into terrorists baffles and unsettles many parents, who almost uniformly describe their children as having been wellrounded, industrious and studious until they went off to college and became captured by drugs and radicalism. Typically, Steve Soliah and his sisters were regarded by their father Martin, a high school English teacher in Palmdale, Calif., as "good right-wing Republicans who got up every morning and pledged allegiance to the flag." Steve was a crew-cut football hero in high school. Kathleen was a church youth leader and an energetic pep squad member. And Josephine once wanted to be a nurse. Martin Soliah believes that his mistake was sending them to college in California, where they were initiated into radical politics. Now his hopes are pinned on his one remaining son. Says Soliah: "We tried three kids in California schools, and they all went bad. So we sent this one to Iowa."
Federal and state law officials have compiled sketchy dossiers on several of the terrorist groups. Among them:
NEW WORLD LIBERATION FRONT. Composed of about 25 middle-class whites and possibly some black ex-convicts, the group has claimed responsibility for 23 terrorist bombings in the Bay Area and Sacramento since Sept. 3, 1974. Targets have included buildings occupied by General Motors, Pacific Gas & Electric and subsidiaries of ITT Corp. The front is believed to have close ties with the remnants of the S.L.A. After Patty repudiated the "army" in her affidavit last week, the front castigated her in a statement as having returned to the "ruling-class vipers."
THE RED GUERRILLA FAMILY.
Probably an offshoot of the New World Liberation Front, with a membership of unknown size, the "army" has claimed "credit" for three bombings since March of this year, including that of a building in Berkeley that houses FBI offices.
WEATHER UNDERGROUND.
Originally known as Weatherman, the all-white group changed its name partly because it is now made up almost entirely of women.
Highly mobile, the W.U. has hideouts across the nation. but about 50 members—one-fourth of the total—are believed to be in California, most in the San Francisco area. This year, police believe, the W.U. has been responsible for one bombing in California—of the Federal Building in Oakland.