Passing the terrorist torch. (Insider Report).

As the dumpy, balding, middle-aged man entered the Cape Town courtroom, one spectator cried, "Viva, John! Viva!" Scores of other voices joined the refrain praising the "labor activist" known as John Pape, who -- according to a news account -- responded "with smiles, thumbs up, and finally a clenched-fist salute." The Communist salute was fitting, since "John Pape" is actually James Kilgore, a fugitive terrorist bomber accused of murdering an innocent housewife nearly 30 years ago.

In 1973, Kilgore belonged to the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a Marxist terrorist cult that became notorious for kidnapping and brainwashing newspaper heiress Patricia Hearst. After the SLA's leadership died in a 1975 shootout with Los Angeles police, Kilgore and four of his comrades -- Michael Bortin, Bill Harris, Sara Jane Olson, and Emily Montague -- became fugitives.

Bortin, Harris, Olson, and Montague were arraigned in Sacramento shortly before Kilgore was taken into custody by South African police, acting in cooperation with Interpol and the FBI. Unlike the grim arraignment in Sacramento, during his Cape Town extradition hearing Kilgore "walked into the court almost as a celebrity, applauded by dozens of friends and relatives," reported the November 12th San Francisco Chronicle. Local media accounts described Kilgore as a "champion of the poor."

During the 1980s, Kilgore lived in Marxist Zimbabwe, moving to South Africa after that country fell prey to the African National Congress and its Communist Party allies in 1994. In South Africa, Kilgore became a researcher for the International Labour Information and Research Group (ILIRG), a Marxist "non-governmental organization" deeply involved in the international "anti-globalization movement" -- which promotes political globalization while fighting against free-market reforms around the world.