Communism in New York -- the Cuomo Connection

Communism in New York – the Cuomo Connection

By Cliff Kincaid

Zohran Mamdani isn’t the only candidate in the New York City mayoral race with a communism problem. On his way out the door of the New York governor’s office, Andrew Cuomo gave clemency to a communist terrorist, David Gilbert, an associate of Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. The Parole Board then freed him from prison.

Let me explain why this problem will persist, no matter what happens to Zohran Mamdani. His path was blazed by the former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, known as “Red Bill,” who had traveled to Cuba and Nicaragua, was involved in a communist “solidarity” movement, and embraced Islam as an emerging political force.

On October 24, 2013, my group, America’s Survival, Inc., held a press briefing in New York City on “Red Bill” de Blasio and documented how de Blasio was an Obama-backed “progressive” Candidate linked to international communism, terrorism, and global Islam.

My friend and associate, analyst Trevor Loudon, said at the time that “a perfect storm is brewing” for New York City. “People will die.”

Now we have Zohran Mamdani following in his footsteps.

We warned America.  Now the storm is here.

But former Governor Cuomo is not the alternative.

Cuomo gave clemency to Davd Gilbert, a communist terrorist who in 1981 took part in the robbery of a Brink's armored truck in Rockland County, New York, that left two Nyack police officers and a security guard dead. He also commuted the prison sentence of Judith Clark, a member of the Weather Underground and its May 19 Communist Organization spin-off who was arrested driving a getaway car after the Brink's robbery.

Today, Cuomo, running for New York City mayor as an independent, is viewed by some as a moderate alternative to Mamdani, and they claim Mamdani is the only communist sympathizer in the race. Nonsense.

The Clueless Ken Langone

Home Depot co-founder and Trump supporter Ken Langone declared on CNBC that the former Democrat governor has the best chance of defeating Mamdani. Cuomo was forced out of office for sexual harassment of his female subordinates and was never prosecuted for sending old people to their deaths in assisted living facilities infected with the China virus COVID-19.

In other words, Cuomo left the office not because of the uproar over the clemency for Gilbert or Clark. That demonstrates the problem in New York.

Political consultant Dick Morris insists that Mamdani is now suddenly vulnerable in his bid to become New York City’s first “overtly socialist mayor” because the latest polling from Harris X suggests a race essentially tied among Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Silwa, the Republican. That poll finds Mamdani with 26%, Cuomo with 23%, Sliwa with 22% and Adams at 13%. Some 15% of voters remain undecided.

However, in a head-to-head matchup, Mamdani topples Adams 43 percent to 36 percent, but trails Cuomo 35 percent to 50 percent, a 15-point advantage for Cuomo.

But is Cuomo a better alternative?

Terrorist Killers

David Gilbert was part of the joint Weather Underground and Black Liberation Army assault on the Brinks truck which killed three law enforcement officers in Rockland County, New York -- New York Police Sgt. Edward O’Grady, Patrolman Waverly Brown, and Brinks guard Peter Paige dead. A memorial and scholarship have been created in their honor.

Weather Underground members Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert went to prison, while their “comrades,” Ayers and Dohrn, raised their child, Chesa Boudin. Dohrn was jailed for seven months for refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury investigating the murders.

Ayers and Dohrn largely avoided responsibility for their crimes, primarily because the Carter Justice Department indicted FBI officials and charged them with violating the civil rights of terrorists and their associates. President Reagan would later pardon the FBI officials.

As we all know, Ayers and Dohrn went on to become academic activists and professors. Their association with Barack Obama when he was a community organizer and state senator from Illinois became a minor controversy for the media when Obama ran for and won the presidency in 2008.

Judith Clark had benefitted from a New York Times Magazine article advocating her release from prison. The Times story, “Judith Clark’s Radical Transformation,” was written by Tom Robbins, a former Village Voice writer then at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism who visited Clark in prison and apparently became smitten with her. Clark, he wrote, “is a model for what’s possible in prison.” Her attorney Sara Bennett insisted that Clark has shown “genuine remorse,” a theme of the New York Times Magazine story, which also emphasized her attendance at Jewish services in prison.

Evidence of Clark’s ideological change, if any, was lacking in the New York Times piece, which wondered, “Why three decades of exemplary behavior behind bars have not earned Judith Clark her freedom.” The fact is that she remained a militant lesbian who had a daughter through a “fellow militant” serving as the “surrogate father,” according to the article.

A Red Diaper Baby

Joel Gilbert and I recently discussed the phenomenon of “Red Diaper” babies on my Rumble program. We examined the cases of Mamdani and Barack Hussein Obama's "real father" and CPUSA member Frank Marshall Davis. (Click here for the program.)

Judith Clark was another red diaper baby. Her father, Joe Clark, was a prominent figure in the Communist Party USA. As a child, she lived with her family in the Soviet Union for three years. There was no indication that she renounced communism.

However, homosexuality was one of the causes for which she has dedicated her life. “Governor Cuomo,” Clark said in her letter for clemency, “I have watched in awe at all that you have accomplished in your first year, from marriage equity to the new and fairer tax code. I’ve witnessed your strength and willingness to do what you believe is right. I turn to you as my only hope for release.”

The reference to “marriage equity” is the homosexual marriage bill that Cuomo championed.

The late David Horowitz, the former communist turned conservative thinker, writer, and activist, argued that if Clark were a “truly remorseful terrorist” she would expose her former comrades “and who their networks are, and what they actually did—not just what they got caught doing.” He added, “This kind of truth-telling is an authentic form of atonement and would protect others—and particularly young radicals just starting out who may become involved in criminal ventures just as Clark did when she was young and the tragedies she caused were still in front of her.”

The Terrorist “Family”

Former FBI agent Rick Hahn noted the evidence that Clark was part of a larger terrorist conspiracy, traced to a communist group called The Family, which involving the Puerto Rican FALN terrorists. “The FALN, you may recall, placed a bomb in Fraunces Tavern on January 24, 1975, a Friday afternoon, while the restaurant was filled with patrons,” Hahn noted. “Four were killed and scores of people wounded. It is a crime that has never been solved. Likewise, no one has ever been held accountable for the FALN bombs on New Year’s Eve 1982 that injured three police officers, or for the FALN booby trap attack in December 1974 that left New York police officer Angel Poggi maimed and partially blind.”

He added at the time of clamoring for her freedom from prison that “if Clark is so filled with remorse for her life of crime, so aching to wash away her past sins, she could start by telling authorities everything she knows about the workings of The Family, its connection to the FALN, and exactly what she knows about who did what, when and where. If she was willing to do this, and submit to a polygraph examination regarding her statements to prove she is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, and agree to testify before Grand Juries and in court, then even the law enforcement community would endorse consideration for her release. But it seems Ms. Clark has chosen to remain silent regarding these matters, matters about which she may know little (but certainly must know something.)”

Hahn added, “In view of her silence in these matters, and the nature of the crimes that remain unsolved—murders of citizens and maiming of police—it’s my view that Clark should remain imprisoned. Despite her pleas for mercy and claims to have changed, she has not fulfilled the obligation of every citizen of this country—to assist in keeping the general peace and bringing those guilty of crimes to justice.”

But Cuomo met with Clark in prison and came away sympathetic. “I spent time speaking with her and she is impressive,” he said. “I don’t know who she was before --  I believe she was in her 20s when she committed the crime --  but she seemed to me a very sober-minded, community-oriented person. She was very concerned about not having time with her child, she has done great work when she’s in prison, she’s helped many, many people, she’s done a lot of generous acts.”

Outrage Over Cuomo

Lou Anemone, who had 34 years’ worth of experience in law enforcement and counter terrorism duties in the New York City Police Department, responded, “Remarkably, after a short visit and meeting with a terrorist who was convicted of participating in an armed robbery which resulted in the death of a security guard and later, separately, at another location, the cowardly ambush killing of two police officers, you used your uncanny abilities to determine that this terrorist was worthy of clemency. WOW. You are very good.”

He said that if the terrorist was doing such a good job in prison with all her activities, “shouldn't she remain there so she can continue this heartwarming work? If she is released, who will continue this work?” Then he asked, “Why didn't you meet with and speak to people who were directly involved with the results of this terrorist attack? Family members of those slain and law enforcement officers who were there and were either physically or mentally damaged by this terrorist attack?”

This is a glimpse into the nature of the terrorism problem in New York City. What is more, many terrorist fugitives remain at large.  

Celebrating a Dead Terrorist

Supporters of terrorism gather openly in New York City and they constitute a special interest pressure group.

I was in New York for the November 13, 2010, memorial service for the dead terrorist (and 1983 Capitol bomber) Marilyn Buck, released by the Obama Administration from prison. I learned important information about U.S. links to fugitives from justice. It was there that Buck’s attorney, Harvard’s Sofiyah Elijah, introduced an audio recording of Black Liberation Army (BLA) cop-killer Joanne Chesimard, now living in Cuba, talking about how her “sister” had obtained her freedom.

I also attended a 2014 Washington, D.C., “Five Days for the Cuban Five” event in honor of Cuban spies, where former Weather Underground terrorist Linda Evans (pardoned by President Clinton) spoke under the watchful eyes of José Ramón Cabañas, Chief of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C.

Evans and Rafael Cancel Miranda, who opened fire in the U.S. House of Representatives in 1954, calling for Puerto Rican independence, emphasized the opportunity to get their comrades released from prison -- most notably Oscar Lopez Rivera, a member of the Cuban-supported Puerto Rican FALN that claimed responsibility for over 140 bombings, including the infamous January 24, 1975, lunchtime attack on Fraunces Tavern in New York City which killed four innocent people.
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His sentence was commuted by President Obama.

• Cliff Kincaid is president of America’s Survival, Inc. www.usasurvival.org