Linda Gail Arrigo is still haunted by the terror of December 13, 1979. That was when more than a dozen heavily armed Kuomintang undercover agents swooped on her Taipei home at dawn, kicked down her front door and arrested her friends Annette Lu Hsiu-lian, Lin I-hsiung and Chen Chu.
Her husband, Shi Ming-te, escaped through the back porch while she telephoned foreign correspondents based in Taipei.
Although the world had yet to hear of Ms Arrigo, an American, her husband and their friends, it would soon learn of the arrest of more than 100 people throughout Taiwan in the 'Meilidao Incident'.
Ms Arrigo became famous as the foreign 'agitator' who helped to foment a revolution in the KMT-controlled Taiwan. 'That was me back then,' said Ms Arrigo, 55, pointing to news photographs of her arrest a quarter of a century ago. The 'rebels' had committed a crime by founding Taiwan's political opposition movement.
'I was the daughter-in-law of the opposition movement,' said Ms Arrigo. 'My house was often full of political prisoners and dissidents back then. There were people who sneaked in regularly to meet foreign reporters, and we were constantly under surveillance.'
They were also prosecuted for starting Meilidao (Beautiful Island), a magazine that advocated freedom of the press and free elections. Ms Arrigo was expelled three days after the dawn raid and her husband was caught later. He and more than 100 other people went on to serve jail sentences of 10 years or more.
