OBAMA AND AYERS: From TalkStraight.org

Obama and Ayers: Radical, Political Brothers
This was written by Glenn Chappell and the TalkStraight.org Staff contributing
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Barack Obama has a big secret. He has major ties to William Ayers.

Over the course of seven years, Ayers found his way into nearly every facet of Obama’s political and personal career. Yet, today, Obama doesn’t talk about it, the media doesn’t care about it, and most Americans don’t know about it.

Unfortunately for The Celebrity, the facts still remain.

To understand Bill Ayers is to understand the influences that shaped Obama’s early political career. The radicals and demagogues representing the Chicago establishment would make most Americans cringe. Yet, those very people constituted the voices and ideals that formed Obama’s own political education. The politics of the Chicago political establishment are a far cry from the politics of hope and change. Yet, as his associations with Ayers and other Chicago radicals show, Obama was a quick study in the ways of machine politics.

There is no better example of Obama’s political influences than Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. Therefore, a brief review of the facts concerning the Obama-Ayers relationship is in order.

The Life of William Ayers

William Ayers is currently a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago. [1] However, Ayers earned his place in history many years before he began his current job. During the Vietnam War, Ayers first became involved with a radical anti-war group known as the Students for a Democratic Society. During his involvement with this extremist faction, Ayers quickly became a leader among its ranks. Using his newfound power, he began to mobilize the SDS into a force for violent protest. [2]

In 1969, Ayers left the mostly-pacifist SDS to join the newly founded Weather Underground Organization. During the SDS convention of that year, Ayers was one of 11 SDS members to sign on to the foundation of the Weather Underground. This group was founded on the principle of immediate and total revolution against the government of the United States. [3] The Weather Underground, of which Ayers was a vital member, launched their first assault on October 8, 1969, in Ayers’ hometown. This event, entitled ‘Days of Rage,’ was a staged riot organized by Ayers and other Weathermen.

To begin their demonstration, the Weathermen detonated a bomb that destroyed a statue dedicated to fallen police officers. By placing the bomb between the statue’s legs, they ensured its destruction and caused pieces of the statue to be hurled in all directions. The blast blew out 100 windows and sent pieces of metal onto a nearby freeway. Not content to rest on their laurels, the Weathermen would again destory the rebuilt statue less then one year later. [3]

The ‘Days of Rage’ riot continued into that evening, with Weathermen ransacking countless buildings and assaulting dozens of police. Authorities were forced to eventually use tear gas and other weaponry to break up the demonstration. Following this event, the Weather Underground decided to ratchet up their radical attacks. They declared a ’state of war’ on the United States government, and planned another bombing on an Army officer’s club in New Jersey. Although the plot was foiled, the Weathermen made their intentions very clear. According to Brian Flanagan (one of Ayers’ close personal friends and fellow Weatherman leader), the plot was intended to be “the most horrific hit the United States government had ever suffered on its territory.” [4]

On February 16, 1970, Bill Ayers was directly involved in the detonation of a bomb that killed one San Francisco police officer and critically wounded another. According to an FBI informant within the Weather Underground organization, Ayers knew the precise location and contents of the fatal bomb, which was constructed of staples and lead bullets as shrapnel. According to the secret agent, Ayers’ wife, Bernardine Dohrn, actually constructed and detonated the bomb. The agent testified that Ayers’ was either present at the bombing or had at least helped in the planning of the attack, due to his extensive knowledge and familiarity with the specifics of the plot. [5] In fact, David Freddoso argued this year that Ayers only escaped prosecution as a result of FBI management of the case. [6]

Ayers did not end his Weather Underground career with his involvement in this horrific murder. As a member of the organization’s Central Committee, Ayers helped oversee a bombing in New York City at the home of a state Supreme Court Justice. This bombing was launched in response to the judge’s presiding over the trial of several Black Panther members accused of planning multiple bombings of New York City public landmarks. At the site of the bomb, Weathermen painted an ominous phrase on the judge’s home: “FREE THE PANTHER 21; THE VIET CONG HAVE WON; KILL THE PIGS.” Ayers also helped in planning several other bombings in New York, including an attack on a military recruiting facility and two police cars. [7]

A few months later, Ayers’ current girlfriend, along with two other Weather Underground members, were killed while constructing a massive bomb in New York. [8] This rose the Weathermen’s body count to four dead and one seriously wounded. However, the Weathermen did not stop after the death of their comrades.

They destroyed another police station in June 1970. [2] This attack served as a warm-up act for their greatest catastrophe. After two years of planning, the Weathermen (with Ayers heavily involved in the planning details) celebrated Communist leader Ho Chi Minh’s birthday by detonating a huge bomb in the ladies’ bathroom on the first floor of the Pentagon. This attack caused burn damage and flooding, and resulted in the destruction of sensitive equipment and a multitude of classified files. Following this direct assault on their command center, the United States government placed the Weather Underground Organization on their Top Ten Terrorist Organizations list. [9]

Following this brutal attack, the organization began to lose the last of its remaining members, and Ayers and Dorhn went into hiding. They would turn themselves in in 1980, but were never convicted of any crimes, despite the fact that their joint involvement resulted in the death of a police officer. [10]

Ayers: 30 Years Later

After several books, documentaries and commentaries on the Weather Underground, some might think that Ayers would have time to reconsider his actions during these turbulent times. While many former Weathermen have issued public apologies and expressed regret for their actions, Ayers remains defiant to this day. In his famed September 11, 2001 New York Times article, Ayers told his interviewer the following:

I don’t regret setting bombs…I feel we didn’t do enough…I don’t want to discount the possibility [of doing it again].” [11]

Ayers further explained his lack of regret on his own personal blog in 2006:

“I can’t think of a single action I took against the government and its murderous assault in Southeast Asia that I regret. Perhaps you can point to something in particular that you think I should regret, and then apologize for.” [12]

Ayers’ extremism is not confined to his days as a Weatherman. In 2006, he attended an education forum in Venezuela, in the presence of Hugo Chavez. He seemed to think rather highly of Mr. Chavez’s administration, and praised him directly during his speech:

“This is my fourth visit to Venezuela, each time at the invitation of my comrade and friend Luis Bonilla, a brilliant educator and inspiring fighter for justice. Luis has taught me a great deal about the Bolivarian Revolution and about the profound educational reforms underway here in Venezuela under the leadership of President Chavez.”

He concluded his oration by lavishing praise on the “beacon of the world” in a forceful manner:
“Viva Mission Sucre!
Viva Presidente Chavez!
Viva la Revolucion Bolivariana!
Hasta la Victoria Siempre!” [13]


In contrast, he has accused President Bush and John McCain of committing war crimes. He again shares his views concerning McCain on his own personal website: “the President and his Cabinet…and the reactionary front runner for the Republican presidential nomination…committed war crimes that they’ve refused to account for.” [13]

It appears that Ayers’ belief in President Chavez is much stronger than that of John McCain.

Of course, everyone knows what Ayers was doing while McCain sat in a prison cell in Hanoi. It is safe to say that the two shared radically different views of patriotism in America.
In summary, Bill Ayers’ life has been a narrative of violent, radical, extremist, socialist activism.

Ayers and Obama
After learning of Bill Ayers’ radical history, one might question Ayers’ relevance to the 2008 presidential campaign.

The answer is frightening.

Ayers has deep-seated and longstanding ties to the political and career aspirations of Barack Obama. While the mainstream media have refused to cover this major influence upon Obama’s politics, the facts are undeniable. Hugh Hewitt, a long time journalist and blogger, summed up this unsettling connection of Obama’s quite succintly:

”It is incredible that MSM has not covered or investigated this story or the related stories of Obama’s deep and long associations with Tony Rezko and Jeremiah Wright. Never has so little been written about so large a series of stories about a modern presidential candidate.” [14]

No one knows exactly when or how Obama met Ayers. However, records show that Ayers had a prominent role in Obama’s political career from the beginning. He was most likely introduced to Ayers and Dohrn during the early days of his 1995 campaign for Illinois state Senate. Alice Palmer, the incumbent senator, had announced that she would not be seeking re-election to her seat, and endorsed Obama as her successor. It was shortly thereafter that Obama’s carefully concealed relationship with Ayers began.

In late 1995, Palmer introduced Obama to her most liberal supporters during a fundraiser at the home of Ayers and Dohrn. It is clear from eyewitness testimony that the former Weathermen were already enthusiastic about this new face in the Chicago political scene. Maria Warren, a fellow Chicago liberal, was among those attending this meeting and summed it up in 2005:

“When I first met Barack Obama, he was giving a standard, innocuous little talk in the living room of those two legends-in-their-own-minds, Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn. They were launching him — introducing him to the Hyde Park community as the best thing since sliced bread.” [11]

There are many serious questions that remain about these early connections between Obama and the Weathermen. Why were Ayers and Dorhn so enthusiastic about Obama’s candidacy? How long had they known Obama before this meeting? Why did Obama choose to begin his candidacy at their home? The answers can be found in Obama’s only executive experience to date: as chairman of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge.

In 1995, shortly before Obama’s entrance into politics, Ayers apparently handpicked Obama to lead a foundation he founded, the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. The Challenge (known as the CAC), was created to provide grants to educational initiatives and community organizers. No one-save Ayers and Obama himself-knows why Ayers and the executive board selected Obama for this paid directorial position, or how long the two knew each other prior to Obama’s appointment.

At that time, Obama was an unproven, unknown, and inexperienced individual with no apparent qualifications to lead a major education initiative. While Obama’s campaign has denied Ayers’ influence in the CAC, Stanley Kurtz has shown that Ayers, as the foundation’s organizer, was in fact the most powerful member of the CAC’s executive board. [15]

Under Obama’s leadership, the CAC routinely and consistently funded those initiatives that were personally selected or led by Ayers. This resulted in multiple conflict-of-interest complaints against the CAC, due to Ayers’ influence within the organization. According to Kurtz, the CAC reflected Ayers’ views that children should be educated through the lens of political activism, and funded numerous extremist organizations dedicated to the furtherance of these viewpoints. He described CAC’s funding as follows:

“In works like “City Kids, City Teachers” and “Teaching the Personal and the Political,” Mr. Ayers wrote that teachers should be community organizers dedicated to provoking resistance to American racism and oppression…CAC translated Mr. Ayers’s radicalism into practice. Instead of funding schools directly, it required schools to affiliate with “external partners,” which actually got the money. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn).” [16]

According to the CAC’s organizational charter, Obama, as the organization’s president, worked closely with Ayers, who served as Director of Education. During their partnership, the CAC trafficked more than $100 million to various educational associations, many of which were favored by Ayers and Dorhn. Even after Ayers chose to reduce his own role within the CAC, Obama continued to chair the foundation through 1999. While the CAC would expand its funding to other organizations, many of Ayers’ pet projects received funding throughout Obama’s tenure as president of the Challenge. [15]

Some might be tempted to praise Obama’s leadership in heading up such a lucrative educational foundation. However, further review of his tenure shows that the CAC failed miserably to achieve its own goals. CAC-funded schools did not see any serious improvement in test scores, graduation rates, or other demonstrable metrics. In short, Obama’s only executive experience resulted in a multi-million dollar failure. [17]

Obama’s ties to Ayers did not end with their cooperation on the CAC. Obama and Ayers were both chosen to sit on the board of directors of the Woods Fund, a Chicago charitable organization. They served together for two years, while Obama spent a total of nine years on the board (Ayers is still a board member). It is important to note that the Woods Fund donated money to Trinity United Church-Obama’s and Reverend Wright’s home church-and ACORN during Obama’s membership. [18]

In addition to their service together on the Woods board, Obama and Ayers reunited periodically over the next several years, attending two education seminars together (in 1997 and 2002). [19] In 2001, Ayers contributed $200 to Obama’s state senate campaign. [20]

Obama’s Response
While Obama and Ayers spent more than seven years together in various capacities, Obama predictably denied his association with Ayers. At first, he downplayed Ayers’ terrorist activities, even calling him “mainstream” on his campaign website. [21] When this did not work, he simply denied the seriousness of his connections to Ayers. During a democratic debate last year, he made the following statement in regard to this Ayers association:

“This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago who I know and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He’s not somebody who I exchange ideas from on a regular basis. And the notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was eight years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense.” [19]

This excuse by Obama blatantly ignores his repeated collaborations with Ayers, and fails to explain why Ayers selected him to lead the organization he founded. It is important to note that Obama made this statement many months ago, prior to new discoveries which have only served to magnify his longstanding partnership with this terrorist. Today, he simply refuses to talk about his old friend.

Despite all of the information available concerning Obama’s ties to Ayers, one mystery that remains is the unflagging loyalty Ayers has shown to Obama’s political career. It is of consequence to note that Ayers, on his blog, repeatedly and harshly criticizes the Democratic Party. He calls them “cowardly” and labels them as “one of the two major pro-Imperialist parties in the U.S.” [22] The first question one might consider immediately is why Ayers is such an adamant supporter of Obama, especially given his disagreement with Obama’s own party. Only a few people know the answer to this question. Ayers and Obama are among them. But they are not talking.

During his nomination acceptance speech, Obama criticized John McCain for making patriotism the centerpiece of his campaign. He told McCain that “we all put country first.” Yet, in 2001, Obama’s friend posed for a photoshoot standing proudly on top of a crumpled American flag. Ironically, the article accompanying these pictures ran the week before the September 11 attacks.

That same week, Ayers responsed to a question about America being a fair and just country. On the notion that America is a great nation, Ayers responded by saying that the very idea “makes me want to puke.” [23] Bill Ayers was one of Barack Obama’s closest political allies in Chicago. Obama only denounced Ayers after being confronted with his friendship during his presidential campaign. That’s not putting country first. That’s putting Barack first.

Just like Reverend Wright, Tony Rezko, Emil Jones, Michael Pfleger, and other radicals, Obama’s link to Ayers shows that his closest political associations represent a violent radicalism far beyond mainstream American values. Ayers even describes himself as “a radical, Leftist, small ‘c’ communist.” [24]

While Obama campaigns as a great uniter and a transformational, post-political visionary, his own record shows that his political views were formed by an astounding array of extremist hatemongers. Obama’s associations show repeated and inseparable links to the corrupt, scandal-ridden, racially-driven politics of division. He wasn’t ready to lead the Annenberg Challenge, and he’s not ready to lead the United States. In short, the politics of Barack Obama is change we cannot afford.

Sources:
[1] http://billayers.wordpress.com/biography-history/
[2] Bill Ayers. Fugitive Days: A Memoir
[3] Avrich. The Haymarket Tragedy, p. 431.
[4] http://www.democracynow.org/2003/8/21/ex_weather_underground_member_kathy_boudin
[5] Grathwohl, Larry, “as told to Frank Reagan”, Bringing Down America: An FBI Informer with the Weathermen, Arlington House Publishers, New Rochelle, New York, 1976 pp 168, 169, ISBN 0870003350
[6] http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ODVlZTZlM2M5NTMxMzllMjJkODVkNzQ3YTFjMTY0NzE=
[7] Fire in the Night: The Weathermen tried to kill my family. City Journal April 30, 2008
[8] http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E14FF3C5A157493C5A91788D85F448785F9
[9] Jacobs, The Way the Wind Blew: A History of the Weather Underground, 1997.
[10] Terry, Don (Chicago Tribune staff reporter, “The calm after the storm”, Chicago Tribune Magazine, p 10, September 16, 2001, June 8, 2008.
[11] http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html
[12] http://billayers.wordpress.com/2006/09/
[13] http://billayers.wordpress.com/2006/11/
[14] http://townhall.com/blog/g/bca4e228-1411-45da-a8ec-8820cc8b305e
[15] http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=MTViMGRmMmYxZTgwZTFjYmFjODU5YzM4Y2MwM2ViMjY=&w=MA==
[16] http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122212856075765367.html
[17] http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=MDQ0MDBmMjQwZmYxYzhlZjc3ZGFkZjlkOWJlMTk2MWE=
18. http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/obama_and_the_woods_fund_of_ch.html
19. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/apr/18/nation/na-radicals18
20. http://www.nysun.com/national/leftist-with-obama-ties-speaks-at-suny/71716
21. http://factcheck.barackobama.com/factcheck/2008/04/17/fact_check_on_clinton_attacks.php
22. http://billayers.wordpress.com/2007/05/
23. http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=267
24. Chepesiuk, Ron, “Sixties Radicals, Then and Now: Candid Conversations With Those Who Shaped the Era”, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers: Jefferson, North Carolina, 1995, “Chapter 5: Bill Ayers: Radical Educator”, p. 102