A few months ago a friend and Obama supporter asked me if I thought Barrack Obama loved his country, I said, "No." Bill Ayers is a big reason why I believe that.
Who is Bill Ayers?
Bill Ayers grew up in a life of privilege. His father was Thomas Ayers was President (1964-1980) and CEO (1973-1980) of Commonwealth Edison. He served as the Chairman of several the Boards, most notably at Northwestern and the Chicago Symphony, and sat on the Boards of a number of other successful businesses including Sears, Zenith and the Chicago Cubs.
His son Bill attended public school until High School when he transferred to the prestigious Lake Forest Academy. He went on to earn his B.A. in American studies from his mother, father & older brother's alma mater, the University of Michigan. Upon graduation he took a job teaching at a small, private, primary school that subscribed to the Summerhill method of teaching, a method that encouraged cooperation over competition and did not believe in issuing report cards or grades. Ayers became the director of the school at the age of twenty-one. Shortly after that he spent his first ten days in jail for participating in a sit-in at a local draft board.
In 1968 Ayers became involved with the New Left and the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). When the SDS collapsed in 1969, Ayers and several former SDS members founded a group known as the Weathermen or the Weather Underground. By his own admission in his book "Fugitive Days" Ayers notes that he was responsible for the Weathermen's move toward militancy which first manifested itself in the form of riots known as the "Days of Rage" which took place in 1969 in coordination with the trial of the Chicago Eight, the alleged masterminds behind the 1968 riots held in coordination with the Democrats' National Convention.
In 1969 Ayers planted and detonated his very first bomb, destroying a statue dedicated to police officers killed in the line of duty. According to an FBI informant operating within the Underground, reported that Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, "probably had the most authority within the Weathermen."
In 1970, while assembling a crude anti-personnel device in the basement of a townhouse in Greenwich Village, an accidental detonation killed three members of the Weather Underground including Ayers' girlfriend Diana Oughton and his roommate Terry Robbins. The device they were building was made of dynamite and roofing nails and, according to Mark Rudd, a leading activist in the SDS, was destined for Fort Dix, where it was to be detonated in the midst of a dance for troops headed to Vietnam and their dates.
Following the explosion, Ayers and Dohrn went underground along with several other associates. While living as a fugitive, Ayers continued his terror campaign. His highest profile bombings took place at New York City Police Headquarters, the United States Capitol and the Pentagon. Other actions by the Weathermen included but are not limited to:
December, 1969 - Bombing of Chicago police cars
March, 1970 - Breaking Timothy Leary out of jail
May, 1970 - Bombing National Guard HQ in Washington, D.C.
July, 1970 - Bombing MP Headquarters at Presidio Army Base
August, 1971 - Bombing several California prisons and Department of Corrections offices
March, 1974 - Bombing the San Francisco Federal Office of Health, Education & Welfare
January, 1975 - Bombing the United States State Department
September, 1975 - Bombing the Kennecott Corporation in Salt Lake City
Miraculously no one was killed in these attacks. The Weather Underground did the people in the buildings they bombed the "favor" of calling ahead before they detonated their devices.
The FBI put Ayers and Dohrn on their Most Wanted List (#2 & #1 respectively) but according to CNN, "Riot and bomb conspiracy charges against Ayers were dropped in 1974, and he is now a professor of education at the University of Illinois in Chicago."
The end. Right? Not exactly.
The reason that the charges were dropped was not because Ayers was innocent, quite the contrary. The charges were dropped because the FBI obtained the evidence against Dohrn and Ayers through illegal wiretaps.
They resurfaced in 1980, cleared of all charges. Since then they have lived in Chicago - Ayers is a wealthy college professor and author.
In 2001, before the September 11 attacks, Ayers published his memoirs: Fugitive Days. While publicizing the book he was asked numerous times if he was sorry for his actions. The New York Times quoted him as saying, "I don't regret setting bombs" and "I don't feel we did enough."
In an article in the Chicago Tribune Magazine Dohrn bragged, "I was at the top of my field. I was on the FBI's 10 most wanted list."
Later in the same interview Ayers is quoted as saying, "The truth is, we weren't extreme enough in fighting against the war, and we weren't extreme enough in fighting racism, which is still a stain on America."
The Obama Connection
So what does any of this have to do with Barrack Obama? After all, Obama, when asked about Ayers responded, "This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood."
As a young lawyer and professor seeking the approval of his Chicago community and running for state office Obama, like many young, aspiring politicians, crafted a number of key alliances and placed himself at the forefront of as many charitable organizations as possible. Chief among these charitable organization was the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC). The founders of The CAC were Warren Chapman, Anne Hallett and Bill Ayers. The three were responsible for getting the organization off the ground and hand picked its initial board including its first chairman, Barrack Obama.
What took place in those initial meetings? No one is saying and those who are looking aren't getting very far. In August, Stanley Kurtz, a conservative journalist who writes for National Review, sought to access the CAC records held at the University of Illinois at Chicago library. He made the request, was granted access, arranged for the day and time of the meeting, then, the day he was to leave for Chicago, received a call from the library telling him that a "donor" had asked that the records not be opened.
Obama and Ayers met regularly in regard to the CAC between 1997 and 1999 and dozens of times more as board members of the Chicago Woods Fund between 1999 and 2002. During that time, they appeared together on at least two academic panels in 1997 and 2002. Obama even reviewed one of Ayers' books for the Chicago Tribune.
But let's go back to the CAC - how did he get to be chairman of the board at such a young age and with so little experience?
In 1995, Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn held a political meeting in their home. The purpose of this meeting was reportedly so that Obama's predecessor, Alice Palmer, could introduce her chosen successor. The only problem is that Palmer later decided that she didn't want to step down and when she tried to reenter the race, Obama and his campaign contested the signatures on her petition to run and had her disqualified. For good measure, he had all of the other candidates thrown out of the race as well. In the end, he ran unopposed.
Palmer's not commenting on the meeting or the Ayers/Dohrn/Obama connection. She's not commenting on much of anything relating to Barrack Obama any more. This campaign cycle, Palmer actively campaigned for Hillary Clinton.
Obama's "Explanation?"
According to Reuters, "Obama has called Ayers, now a professor of education at a university in Chicago, "a guy in my neighborhood" and said he and Ayers are not close. McCain is trying to score "cheap political points" by bringing up Ayers, Obama told ABC News on Wednesday."
He calls Ayers' acts "detestable" then mentions that he was eight years old when they took place.
Actually, in 1975 Obama was 15. Funny. I was about the same age when they caught the Unabomber...
Post-Script
The best reporting on this issue came from, beleive it or not, CNN - Anderson Cooper 360, just the other night. Check it out:
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