FACTS:
Bill Ayres:- Born to an affluent family on December 26, 1944.
- Bill grew up in the affluent Glen Ellyn community of Illinois.
- Bill's father was the Chairman and CEO of Commonwealth Edison. Commonwealth Edison is the largest electric utility in Illinois.
- Bill attended the private prep school Lake Forest Academy.
- Bill received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in American Studies in 1968.
- Currently he is a tenured professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
- He was a member of many radical Marxist groups and co-founded the radical left organization the Weather Underground in 1969.
- The Weather Underground was a radical left organization during the 1960's and 1970's.
- The Weather Underground conducted a bombing campaign of public buildings during the 1970's.
- In 1970 Weather Underground issued a Declaration of a State of War against the US government.
- Their founding document called for the formation of a “white fighting force” to ally with the “Black Liberation Movement”.
- They sought to achieve “the destruction of US imperialism and achieve a classless world: world communism.”
- They attempted to bomb a US military non-commissioned officers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Brian Flanagan, one of the leaders, said it was intended to be “the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory”.
- However, during preparations of these bombs they prematurely detonated. The three of the five bomb makers were killed. They had also intended to bomb the Butler Library at Columbia University. The bomb prematurely detonated in the well to do upper middle class neighborhood of Manhattan know as Greenwich Village. The FBI report stated, that there were enough explosives in the apartment to level buildings on both sides of the street.
- On February 16, 1970 a pipe bomb on the ledge of a window of the San Francisco Police Department detonated killing Brian V. McDonnel a police sergeant and severely wounding and partially blinding Robert Fogarty another police officer. It was never proven to be the work of the Weather Underground but strong evidence points to them being responsible.
- On February 21, 1970 several Molotov cocktails were thrown at the New York State Supreme Court Justice Murtagh's home, a police car in Manhattan, and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. Here as before no direction connection could be made to the Weather Underground. Though most historians state that the arson was carried out by Weather Underground and considered to be a failure. It is also important to note the Bernadine Dohrn, a leader of the group, wrote to the Associated Press in late November 1970 to expect more bombs.
- On March1, 1971 they bombed the United States Capitol stating it was in protest for the US invasion of Laos.
- On May 19, 1972 they bombed the Pentagon “in retaliation for the bombing raid in Hanoi”.
- On January 29, 1975 they bombed the Harry S Truman Building housing the US Dept. of State “in response to escalation in Vietnam”.
- Weather Underground claims responsibility for 25 bombings.
- No direct link was ever made to any bombing perpetrated by the Weather Underground injuring or killing anyone.
- After the breakup of the Weather Underground several members, not including Bill Ayres, formed a new group called the May 19 Communist Organization. They along with the Black Liberation Army were responsible for the Brinks Robbery in 1981. They killed one of the armored car guards and severely wounded the other. Later when trapped by a police road block a gun fight ensued killing two police officers and wounding two others.
- Apart from those that took part in the Brink Robbery none of the people responsible for the bombings were ever prosecuted. Primarily this was due to the COINTELPRO misconduct of the FBI and Justice Department and President Carter's pardoning of many radicals of the Vietnam ear.
- In 1985 Susan Rosenberg and Linda Evans, both members of the former Weather Underground, were apprehended while transporting 740 pounds of explosives which they both acknowledge were slated for use in additional bombings. Rosenberg was sentenced to 58 years in prison and Evans got 40 years. President Bill Clinton pardoned both women in January 2001 as he left office.
- Recently release FBI files under the Freedom of Information act detail a direct link between Weather Underground, Cuba, and the USSR. Mark Rudd, currently a professor of mathematics at a New Mexico community college, traveled illegally to Havana in 1968 and received terrorist training at camps set up by Soviet KGB Colonel Vadim Kotchergine. These camps were educating Westerners both in Marxist philosophy and urban warfare.
- The Weathermen as the members of the Weather Underground were called spelled America with 'kkk' instead of a 'c'. So it would be spelled Amerikkka. As a side note, Reverend Wright has also used similar language to describe the USA as the “US of KKK”.
- Bernardine Dohrn, Ayres wife and currently a law professor at Northwestern University and a Board member of the ACLU, once praised serial killer Manson. “Dig it.” she said “First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them. They even shoved a fork into the victim's stomach. Wild.”
- Weather Underground also helped psychedelic drug guru Timothy Leary break out of California prison and arranged for his transport to Algiers.
- The two of them met “at a luncheon meeting about school reform”.
- Bill Ayres with others formed a work group. Their goal was to win a grant from the Annenberg Challenge for Chicago. They won a $42.5 million grant over 5 years from the Annenberg Challenge on January 23, 1995.
- On June 22, 1995 the Board of Directors of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge were announced. Their job was to approve how the grant was to be spent. Barrack Obama was the chairman of the board.
- Barrack Obama resigned his chairmanship in September 1999 to run in the Democratic primary for the 1st Congressional District of Illinois.
- Bill Ayres hosted “a coffee” at his house for “Mr. Obama's first run for office” in 1995.
- December 21, 1997 Barrack Obama wrote a short review of a book written by Bill Ayers. The book titled “A Kind and Just Parent: The Children of Juvenile Court” was reviewed by Obama as “A searing and timely account of the juvenile courts system, and the courageous individuals who rescue hope from despair.”
- Obama and Ayres both servered on the board of the anti-poverty group Wood's Fund of Chicago. Between 2000 and 2002 the board met 12 times.
- In April 2001 Bill Ayres donated $200.00 to Obama's re-election to the Illinois State Senate campaign.
ANALYSIS:
Bill Ayres is directly linked to some deplorable acts of violence. Although he claims he never intended to hurt anyone this only changed after the bombs detonated taking the life of his girlfriend and two other friends in the Greenwich Village apartment. Let's not forget that they intended to bomb a dance filled with NCO's and other innocent people. They intended to bomb a library full of students at Columbia University prior to the Greenwich Village accident. Many historians and critics state that the only reason the members of the Weather Underground weren't mass murders was because their incompetence. The bomb that detonated in the Pentagon was underneath the womans bathroom. The bomb burst water lines and destroyed sensitive information. How many soldiers lives were lost as a result of that information loss? Several of the Weather Underground members have regrets for their actions. Mark Rudd said:
“These are things I am not proud of, and I find it hard to speak publicly about them and to tease out what was right from what was wrong. I think that part of the Weatherman phenomenon that was right was our understanding of what the position of the United States is in the world. It was this knowledge that we just couldn't handle; it was too big. We didn't know what to do. In a way I still don't know what to do with this knowledge. I don't know what needs to be done now, and it's still eating away at me just as it did 30 years ago.”Brian Flanagan compares his actions while in the Weather Underground and the groups actions as being terrorism. “When you feel that you have right on your side, you can do some pretty horrific things.” Flanagan states. Bill Ayres on the other hand is quoted as saying “I don't regret setting bombs” and “I feel we didn't do enough”. When he was asked if he would do it all again he said “I don't want to discount the possibility.” These comments were published in the “Chicago Magazine” on September 11, 2001. The same day other terrorists were attacking the US. In fairness Ayres claims that those comments have been deliberately distorted. However, consider his comments during a recent interview taken in January 2004. The interviewer asks “How do you fell about what you did? Would you do it again under similar circumstances?”. Bill Ayres replies “I've thought about this a lot. Being almost 60, it's impossible to not have lots and lots of regrets about lots and lots of things but the question of did we do something that was horrendous, awful?...I don't think so. I think what we did was to respond to a situation that was unconscionable.”. This is not the comment of a man with any regrets or remorse. In a 1995 interview he said, “I am a radical, Leftist, small 'c' communist....Maybe I'm the last communist who is willing to admit it. We have always been small 'c' communists in the sense that we were never in the Communist party and never Stalinists. The ethics of Communism still appeal to me. I don't like Lenin as much as the early Marx. I also like Henry David Thoreau, Mother Jones, and Jane Addams...”. Bill Ayres has been on the covers of magazines proudly, defiantly stepping on the American flag.
CONCLUSION:
There is no clear, concise evidence that shows Obama and Ayres as being well known with one another but it's also clear they knew each other. They had worked together. Obama reviewed his book. There are some items that suggest that they were well acquainted after all it's not like you just invite complete strangers over to your house for coffee. Then considering that the “coffee” wasn't something casual but an event to launch Barrack Obama's run for the Illinois Senate to help him gather support. Considering that Ayres labels himself as a communist,that he helped launch Obama's political career from his living room, and supported him with a $200 donation, what does that say about Obama's true politics? Do you support and vote for some that is like minded or someone that has contradictory views to yours? I personally support people that I feel have like or at least similar views as me. I don't think it's a stretch to say Ayres feels that Obama has like or similar views to his. At a minimum you must ask yourself why would Obama sit on a board with a terrorist? Why would he give a review of a terrorists book probably boosting sales of that book? A famous quote by Ayres is “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, kill your parents, that's where it's really at.” Remembering, by any definition of the word, that Ayres grew up rich and is currently rich today. Obama himself would be defined as rich. I wonder what either of them think of such a quote today? I wonder if Obama thinks his children should “kill your parents”? Based on the evidence I think it's a fair to state that as a minimum Obama and Ayres knew each other and likely share similar ideals about what America is and where it should be taken.
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