The State - News from Dec. 13, 1987

The FBI considered maimed protester Brian Willson a potential terrorist involved in a violent conspiracy against U.S. policy in Central America, a fired FBI agent said. Willson lost both legs Sept. 1 when a munitions train ran over him as he lay across tracks at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. Former FBI Agent John Ryan, quoted in the San Francisco Chronicle, said the agency began investigating Willson when he and three fellow veterans took part in the 1986 Veterans Fast for Life in Washington. Ryan, a 21-year FBI veteran, was fired for insubordination. Both his firing and the investigation have come to the attention of the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on civil and constitutional rights, which oversees some aspects of the FBI. “I don’t like the sound of it,” subcommittee member Rep. Don Edwards (D-San Jose) said. “In the Hoover days, they (FBI) were infamous for investigating ‘radicals’ like Martin Luther King Jr. We don’t want them investigating people with political or religious battles.”