Obama’s Ties to 1970′s Domestic Terrorist Bill Ayers: Disassociation and Little Condemnation

Bill Ayers, Chicago Magazine, August 2001

Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents.”
–Bill Ayers, summing up the ideology of the Weather Underground

Imagine a candidate running for President that had ties to a man and his wife who were former federal fugitives wanted for over 30 bombings during the 1970′s, some of whom they were personally responsible for: the New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972.

During an interview on the Bill O’Reilly Show, Barack Obama attempted to disassociate himself from Bill Ayers, a former member of the radical 60′s and 70′s domestic terrorist group, the Weather Underground.

Obama claimed that he “knew thousands of people” and then called his relationship with Ayers, “tangential”. DBKP took a look at just who Bill Ayers is, his past, and whether Obama was telling the truth about the “tangential” tango between himself and the former domestic terrorist, that Ayers was merely one of the “thousands” of people in Obama’s life.

We found the transcript of the show at the Chicgo Sun Times. Journalist Lynn Sweet’s “bio” on Ayers:

“Ayers spent 10 years as a fugitive–and now lives in Hyde Park with wife Bernardine Dohrn–also a Weather Underground fugitive. They faced federal charges when they surfaced, eventually dropped. Ayers and Dohrn–who runs a program at Northwestern’s law school–have become well regarded members of Chicago’s civic community. I wrote a column in April explaining how the past of Ayers—an urban education specialist embraced by Mayor Daley–did not bother anyone in Chicago by the time Obama showed up on the scene.”

Make note where Sweet states the federal charges against Ayers and Dohrn were “dropped” and that the two, Ayers and Dohrn, are now “well regarded members of Chicago’s civic community”.

“Guilty as sin, free as a bird, America is a great country.”
–Bill Ayers, Destructive Generation by David Horowitz and Peter Collier

The charges against Dohrn and Ayers were dropped, not due to insufficient evidence, but due to charges that the FBI used “improper surveillance”.

“You are wrong. Let’s start from scratch. Number one, I know thousands of people, right, and so, understandably, people will pick out folks who they think they can –”
–Barack Obama, Bill O’Reilly Show, 9-9-08

Partial Transcript from Bill O’Reilly Interview of Barack Obama, 9-9-08

MR. O’REILLY: I’m sitting there, and I’m an American. I’m sitting there in Bismarck, North Dakota, I’m sitting there in Coral Springs, Florida, and I’m seeing Reverend Wright, I’m seeing Father Pfleger, who think Louis Farrakhan’s a great guy, I’m seeing Bernadette Dohrm and Bill Ayers, Weather Underground radicals who don’t think they bombed enough, I’m seeing MoveOn.org, who says General Betray Us, and I’m seeing you go to a Daily Kos convention — and this week, Daily Kos came out and said that Sarah Palin’s Down syndrome baby was birthed by her 15-year old with no proof — they put that on there — and I’m going, gee, that Barack Obama, he’s got some pretty bad friends. Am I wrong?

Obama: Now, on this Ayers thing which, you know, you’ve been hyping, Bill, pretty good –

MR. O’REILLY: Not that much. You know, you were on the Woods Foundation board –

SEN. OBAMA: Here’s the bottom line. This guy did something despicable 40 years ago.

MR. O’REILLY: You know, (it was ?) despicable last week when he said he didn’t do enough bombings. That’s last week!

SEN. OBAMA: I haven’t seen the guy in a year and a half.

MR. O’REILLY: But you know who he was. He’s on the Woods Foundation board. You know he is there.

SEN. OBAMA: Let me finish my point, all right. Here’s a guy who does something despicable when I’m 8-years old.

MR. O’REILLY: Okay.

-snip-
SEN. OBAMA: All right. I come to Chicago, he’s working with Mayor Richard Daley, not known to be a radical. So he and I know each other as a consequence of work he’s doing on education. That is not an endorsement of his views. That’s not me –

-snip-

SEN. OBAMA: That’s pretty flimsy. Here’s the point, right. This guy is not part of my campaign. He’s not some adviser of mine. He is somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know. The problem that your viewers, your guys, your folks, the folks you champion, the problem you’re going through, the problems they’re going through with trying to pay their bills, trying to keep their job, trying to move up in this world, their problem isn’t Bill Ayers. It was Bill Ayers 40 years ago when he was blowing stuff up.

Was Ayers merely one of the “thousands” of people in Obama’s life as he stated to O’ Reilly?

During the interview Obama painted a very “slim” picture of Ayers, claiming that when Obama “met” Ayers, Ayers was “working with Mayor Daley” and “not known to be a radical” and that Ayers was “somebody who worked on education issues in Chicago that I know.”

According to Capital Research.org, Obama may “know” Ayers a bit more than the current Obama campaign meme. In 1995, the two former Weather Underground domestic terrorists, Ayers and Dohrn, held a fundraiser for Obama’s Illinois state representative run in their own home. Not just “any” fundraiser, but the very first fundraiser for Obama, for his first run for public office.

Another source of the Ayers fundraiser is an article from Investors Business Daily:

According to Investors Business Daily, National Review writer Stanley Kurtz has been stonewalled in his investigation into the relationship between Ayers and Obama:

“We have written extensively on the socialist past of Barack Obama as expressed in his proposals and associations, both personal and organizational. One of those associations is between Obama and Ayers, a leader of the Weather Underground, a ’60s terrorist group.

It’s true Obama has condemned and disassociated himself from the terrorist actions of Ayers and the Underground. But Ayers has never repudiated or apologized for his past, and if there’s one word that should always precede his name, it would be “unrepentant.”

Obama claims Ayers was just a “guy in the neighborhood,” but clearly he was more than that. Obama misrepresents his relationship with the man in whose home his first fundraiser was held. Leading the expose of the true nature of that relationship has been National Review writer Stanley Kurtz.”

Not only did Ayers hold Obama’s first political fundraiser in his home in 1995, Obama and Ayers had later ties with their association with the Wood Foundation:

“In the mid-1990s, Obama developed a friendship with fellow Chicagoans Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn, university professors who hosted meetings at their home to introduce Obama to their neighbors during his first run for the Illinois state senate in 1996. Ayers (who contributed money to Obama’s 1996 campaign) and Dohrn had been leaders of the 1960s domestic terrorist group Weatherman, a Communist-driven splinter faction of Students for a Democratic Society. The pair had participated personally in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972. To this day, both have remained unrepentant about their former terrorist activities and their hatred of the United States.”

“Obama also had been a member of the Woods Fund of Chicago since 1993. In 1999 he was joined on this board by Bill Ayers, who would serve alongside Obama until the latter left the Fund in December 2002. (In 2002 — while Obama was still on the board — the Woods Fund made a grant to Northwestern University Law School’s Children and Family Justice Center, where Ayers’ wife, Bernardine Dohrn, was employed.)”
–Discoverthenetworks.org

During the interview Obama gave essentially the same meme about Ayers as what is posted on his Obama for President website. For a guy, William Ayers, whom Obama claims is just another of the “1000′s of people” he knows, and a “tangential” relationship to boot, the Obama campaign website saw fit to do a full page spread on Bill Ayers which was posted on April 17, 2008.

The Obama campaign begins its “fact check” with the fact that Obama was 8 years old when Ayers and his wife Bernadine Dohrn “participated” in the Days of Rage, a “series of demonstrations to ‘demonstrate’ their beliefs”. Obama reiterated the “I was only 8 years old” theme on O’Reilly.

“The AP reported, “In the autumn of 1969, the Weatherman, led by Bernardine Dohrn and Mark Rudd, converged on Chicago and planned a series of demonstrations to dramatize their beliefs.”

The Obama campaign paints Ayers and his wive’s participation as “demonstration planners” then continues to lay out what “happened” during the “Days of Rage”:

“The riots, which came to be known as the “Days of Rage,” caused thousands of dollars in damage in the downtown and Near North Side areas and resulted in injuries to several policemen. Rudd and Ms. Dohrn were named in federal riot indictments with ten others — William Ayers, Kathy Boudin, John Jacobs, Jeff Jones, Michael Spiegel, Howard Machtinger, Terry Robins, Lawrence Weiss, Linda Sue Evans and Judy Clark. Another prominent activist, Cathy Wilkerson, was arrested on state charges of mob action and resisting a police officer. Some surrendered years ago. Two — Ms. Dohrn and Ayers, son of the former chairman of Commonweath Edison Co. — surfaced Wednesday. Charges against Ayers had been dropped in 1978 but Ms. Dohrn still faces charges of aggravated battery and jumping bail.” [AP, 12/3/80]”

DBKP Fact: The Obama campaign never mentioned Ayers and his wife’s role in several bombings which Ayers has himself admitted to:

A substantial portion of Ayers’ book Fugitive Days discusses the author’s penchant for building and deploying explosives. Ayers boasts that he “participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, and the Pentagon in 1972.” Of the day he bombed the Pentagon, Ayers says, “Everything was absolutely ideal. … The sky was blue. The birds were singing. And the bastards were finally going to get what was coming to them.”

On another occasion, Ayers stated: “There’s something about a good bomb … Night after night, day after day, each majestic scene I witnessed was so terrible and so unexpected that no city would ever again stand innocently fixed in my mind. Big buildings and wide streets, cement and steel were no longer permanent. They, too, were fragile and destructible. A torch, a bomb, a strong enough wind, and they, too, would come undone or get knocked down.”

All told, Ayers and Weatherman were responsible for 30 bombings aimed at destroying the defense and security infrastructures of the U.S. “I don’t regret setting bombs, said Ayers in 2001, “I feel we didn’t do enough.”
–discoverthenetworks.org

Obama’s “fact check” website Ayers page cites various MSM sources which claim the Ayers-Obama connection is “phony”, ‘tennous”, and a “stretch”.

DBKP FACT:

Barack Obama held his first fundraiser at Bill Ayers and his wife Bernadine’s home in 1995.

“Obama claims Ayers was just a “guy in the neighborhood,” but clearly he was more than that. Obama misrepresents his relationship with the man in whose home his first fundraiser was held.”
–Investors Business Daily

Far from “condemning” Ayers, the official Obama for President website vigorously downplays Ayers participation in a series of bombings–the Obama campaign refers to them as “demonstrations” and “riots” mentioning only the Days of Rage riots in Chicago while it omitted the more serious crimes of bombing the Pentagon, the Capitol Building, and the New York City Police Department Headquarters, plus 25+ other bombings.

Not only did Obama not “condemn” Ayers’ prior actions in the Obama “fact check” spread but he also used other sources’ quotes to further the “disassociation” from Ayers: the Chicago Sun Times, Washington Post, Noam Scheiber of The New Republic, and David Birdsell of the New York Sun.

Here’s some quotes straight from the Obama Campaign “fact-check” Ayers page:

“Ayers is nothing more than an aging lefty with a foolish past who is doing good.”
–Chicago Sun Times

“The president of the Woods Fund, Deborah Harrington, said he (Ayers) had been selected for the board because of his solid academic credentials and ‘passion for social justice.’”
–Washington Post

“Studs Terkel wrote, “William Ayers is as sensitive and gifted a chronicler as he is a teacher.”"

The Obama campaign purposely downplayed Ayers’ role in the bombings perpetrated by himself, his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, and the Weather Underground. In effect, no only did they “disassociate” Obama from his relationship with Ayers, but they also “disassociated” Ayers’ role in the multitude of bombings perpetuated upon the American public in the 1970′s.

The Woods Fund of Chicago Board, 2001, and The Fugitive Days

“Mr. Ayers is listed as a member of the nine-member board of the Woods Fund of Chicago, an offshoot of the Woods Charitable Fund, founded in 1941 by a prominent lawyer and telephone company executive. According to the fund’s Web site, it has focused in recent years on “issues that affected the area’s least advantaged, including welfare reform, affordable housing” and “tax policy as a tool in reducing poverty.””
–New York Times

“Obama also had been a member of the Woods Fund of Chicago since 1993. In 1999 he was joined on this board by Bill Ayers, who would serve alongside Obama until the latter left the Fund in December 2002. (In 2002 — while Obama was still on the board — the Woods Fund made a grant to Northwestern University Law School’s Children and Family Justice Center, where Ayers’ wife, Bernardine Dohrn, was employed.)”
–Discoverthenetworks.org

New York Times, September 11, 2001

”I don’t regret setting bombs,” Bill Ayers said. ”I feel we didn’t do enough.”
–New York Times, September 11, 2001

On one of the darkest days of American history, September 11, 2001, when 3000 plus innocent men, women, and children, were murdered by foriegn terrorists, the New York Times published the story about a domestic terrorist, Bill Ayers in “No Regrets for the Love of Explosives;In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen”. The article referred to Bill Ayers and his new tome, The Fugitive Days. During this period both Obama and Ayers were members of the Woods Fund of Chicago.

The article discussed Ayers new book, The Fugitive Days:

“Now he has written a book, ”Fugitive Days” (Beacon Press, September). Mr. Ayers, who is 56, calls it a memoir, somewhat coyly perhaps, since he also says some of it is fiction. He writes that he participated in the bombings of New York City Police Headquarters in 1970, of the Capitol building in 1971, the Pentagon in 1972. But Mr. Ayers also seems to want to have it both ways, taking responsibility for daring acts in his youth, then deflecting it.

”Is this, then, the truth?,” he writes. ”Not exactly. Although it feels entirely honest to me.””

Journalist Dinitia Smith wrote that “in his book Mr. Ayers describes the Weathermen descending into a ”whirlpool of violence.”

”Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon,” he writes. But then comes a disclaimer: ”Even though I didn’t actually bomb the Pentagon — we bombed it, in the sense that Weathermen organized it and claimed it.” He goes on to provide details about the manufacture of the bomb and how a woman he calls Anna placed the bomb in a restroom. No one was killed or injured, though damage was extensive.”

On the other hand, the Obama campaign website “fact checker” goes out of its way to paint Ayers, whom Obama claims is just one of the “thousands” of people he “knows”, as a well-respected member of the Chicago community: “AYERS IS A TENURED PROFESSOR AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO AND WAS A “RESPECTED ADVISOR” TO MAYOR DALEY ON SCHOOL REFORM, Ayers Is A Professor Of Education At UIC, Ayers Advised Chicago Mayor Richard Daley On School Reform Issues, Terkel: Ayers Is A “Sensitive And Gifted” Writer And Teacher. The site then “defends” Ayer’s past with these tidbits: CHARGES AGAINST AYERS WERE DROPPED AND HE SERVED NO TIME, 1979: Charges Against Ayers Were Dropped Because “The Government’s Case Was Based On Illegal Wiretaps”, and once again, Ayers “Served No Time.”

We were unable to find any instance of the official Obama campaign full page “fact-check” where Obama nor his campaign “condemned” Ayers’ past proclivities for bombing the New York Police Department, the Pentagon, or the Capital Building.

Obama, during the O’Reilly interview mentioned Ayers past as “Here’s a guy who does something despicable when I’m 8-years old”, and “The problem that your viewers, your guys, your folks, the folks you champion, the problem you’re going through, the problems they’re going through with trying to pay their bills, trying to keep their job, trying to move up in this world, their problem isn’t Bill Ayers. It was Bill Ayers 40 years ago when he was blowing stuff up.”

Actually the “problem” we voters are “going through” is sorting fact from fiction regarding Obama’s relationship with a former member of a terrorist group who admitted he was personally involved in bombing a police headquarters, the Pentagon, and the Capital Building. While Obama stated to O’Reilly that Ayer’s act was “despicable”, he put it into the context of “over 40 years ago”, yet Ayers, in 2001, while he and Obama were sitting on the same board, claimed his terrorist group “didn’t do enough”.

Stanley Fish, of the New York Times, wrote in an article on April 27, 2008, “Much Ado”, that he too had been to the Ayers-Dohrn “salon” dinner parties. Fish opined that during the times he spent chatting with the guests there was never any “talk” about politics, ideology, yes, politics, no. Fish claimed the attempt to connect Ayers and Obama was a “McCain smear job”. And yet, Fish, either by omission, or by lack of journalistic skills, can’t seem to connect Obama’s first fundraiser for Illinois State Senator held at Ayer’s home to politics, nor any conversation of “politics”.

While Obama claimed on O’Reilly that Ayers of “one of the 1000′s of people he knew, he had his campaign website put up a full page “fact-check” sheet where there was no “condemnation” from the Obama campaign of Ayers former activities as a bomber for the radical 70′s group, Weather Underground. Instead, a page chock full of accolades and misinformation about the true crimes committed by Ayers. Crimes for which he will never be punished for as the statute of limitations for Federal crimes is five years unless murder was committed or an indictment was issued.

Ayers isn’t the only radical in Obama’s past. Capital Research has put together Obama’s connections to radical agendas in Barack Obama: A Radical Leftist’s Journey From Community Organizing to Politics.

While it’s not a crime to be a radical, nor a leftist, it is unethical for a politician to hide this from the voting public, which may be the case of Barack Obama. Reporters and journalists have been dispatched to a little town in Alaska to find anything they can about McCain’s VP pick, Sarah Palin. The real truth about Barack Obama’s “not so distant” past and ideology, an essential piece of the Obama puzzle, remains to be thoroughly investigated by the “fair and balanced” MSM. Until then it’s up to the voting public to draw their own conclusions about whether Obama is telling the truth about his relationship with two former domestic terrorists, Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn.

By LBG

Source – Chicago Sun Times – Bill O’Reilly Transcript

Source – Chicago Sun Times – Bill O’Reilly Transcript

Source – New York Times – Much Ado
Source – New York Times – No Regrets for a Love Of Explosives; In a Memoir of Sorts, a War Protester Talks of Life With the Weathermen
Source – Chicago Sun Times – Bill O’Reilly Transcript
Source – New York Times – 60′s Radicals Becomes Issue in Campaign of 2008
Image – Bill Ayers

Tags: 1970's, 1995, 2008 Presidential Race, Barack Obama, Bernadine Dohrn, Bill Ayers, fundraiser, John McCain, Politics, rumors, Sarah Palin, smears, terrorists, Weather Underground, William Ayers