Page 10 of Kurt's 1970 Senate Transcript
Senator GURNEY. I think you have a fair amount of
support here.
Mr. Sisco. Anyway, all you have to do is go out
in the boondocks and stake a claim for any kind of mineral. There you have
a legitimate use for dynamite. So, you buy a box of dynamite; you blow
holes in all your claim and you go back and buy another box of dynamite
or several boxes, and then you sell it to all your creep friends for, say,
$2 a stick. You pay $21.69 for 100 dynamite sticks and you sell them to
friends at $2 a stick and you turn over a tidy profit and you will be completely
legitimate. It will be just as hard for the Treasury men to find who it
was selling stuff like that as it is to find those who are pushing hard
heroin.
Senator GURNEY. Have you ever bought dynamite in San Francisco
?
Mr. Sisco. No; I am afraid of it.
Senator GURNEY. After starting at the age of 10 or 11,
did you put your knowledge to use at all ?
Mr. Sisco. No.
Senator PERCY. Have you ever blown anything up ?
Mr. Sisco. Just my hand.
Senator PERCY. Any physical object, any buildings, structure
?
Mr. Sisco. No.
Senator PERCY. Never exploded a piece of dynamite ?
Mr. Sisco. No.
Senator PERCY. Under any physical structure ?
Mr. Sisco. No; the only explosion was an accident.
I did not even know it would explode.
Senator GURNEY. What was the next interest you had in
bombing explosives ?
Mr. Sisco. I found several books when I got into
the right wing, when I passed this around.
Senator GURNEY. When was this ?
Mr. Sisco. About 1965.
Senator GURNEY. Is this when you belonged to the Minutemen?
Mr. Sisco. Well, I first joined the Birchers. I
was there about 2 years, bunch of old ladies, but that is beside the point.
Senator GURNEY. Did the Birchers have any interest in
bombing?
Mr. Sisco. No; no. They get some person and they
tell them all about the Communists and they get them real wide-eyed and
upset and he wants to go out and do something and they say, write another
letter.
Senator GURNEY. When did you have your next interest in
explosives ?
Mr. Sisco. That was about the time when things like
this were passed around. This is "150 Questions for a Guerrilla." It tells
all about how to make bombs and things like that.
Senator GURNEY. Where did vou get that publication? Do
you recall?
Mr. Sisco. No; I don't recall where I got it. I
know that it was put out originally by Panther publications but they don't
publish it any more because I think you dragged them before a committee
like this. I sent the individual one of my books in Panther publications.
He writes back.
DEAR MR. Sisco: Thanks for your note and form. Before
I went to NAM, we would have been happy to feature your publication. As
we have been investigated by the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security,
we are treading lightly. Sorry. But the book list you have requested is
enclosed.
Mr. Sisco. He stopped selling things like this.
What he is selling now is this one here which is basically like mine, and
the Army is putting it out and anyone can buy it. It wholesales for $1.
Senator GURNEY. What manual is that ?
Mr. Sisco. TM-31-200-1.
He has "Attention: Police bomb disposal squads."
He tells all about this.
He is charging $10 for it; would you imagine ?
It says:
Warning, restricted, union conventional warfare
devices and techniques and special forces demolition techniques. Sold only
to the law enforcement agencies, government agencies, firemen, or military
personnel. Order on your letterhead.
Yet you can get that book any place.
Senator GURNEY. I suppose you are referring to Robert
Brown who was before the committee yesterday.
Mr. Sisco. Yes; Robert Brown.
Senator GURNEY. Tell me, when did you develop an interest
in disseminating this material, yourself ?
Mr. Sisco. That was when I was pretty heavy on the
right. Then it just got to be an interest.
Senator GURNEY. Four or 5 years ago ?
Mr. Sisco. No; I would say about 1967, when I took
that book, "Explosives and Bomb Disposal Guide," when I first saw that.
Senator GURNEY. Exactly what motivated you to distribute
the information? You must have been highly motivated for some reason.
Mr. Sisco. Well, if he could get $10 for his, I
figured I could sell them to everyone I knew for $2 and make a modest living.
It was primarily profit. That is always a good motive.
Senator GTTRNEY. Did you have any other motive other than
profit ?
Mr. Sisco. Actually, no. I got pretty greedy about
that time.
Senator GURNEY. Did you ever have any training at all
in explosives ?
Mr. Sisco. No; no.
Senator GURNEY. Only what you have read in publications
that you managed to acquire?
Mr. Sisco. Yes.
Senator GURNEY. What useful purpose do you think the dissemination
of this information could have ?
Mr. Sisco. Well, when I finally give it to the authorities,
I think they can better understand what the leftists have in mind for them.
I don't think there is anything in my book now or the one that I have being
printed that the leftists don't have.
Senator GURNEY. Of course, wouldn't you think that the
police would have a pretty good idea of how bombs are made?
Mr. Sisco. Actually, they don't. I found that out.
They are very ignorant of the subject. Some of them are very good on it,
definitely, if they major in it. But the average—well, when I first started
getting investigated by all the different departments, I found that they
were phenomenonally ignorant of this whole thing. In fact, especially the
people in Eureka. They don't know the difference between the right wing
and the left wing.
When Governor Reagan made a trip to Eureka, the
district attorney's man came around and got me and drove me all around
the
