"People keep trying to align himself [William Ayers] with Barack Obama, .. It's really unfortunate. They're friends. So what? People do make mistakes in the past. You move on. This is a new century, a new time. He reflects back and he's been making a strong contribution to our community." - Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. "They're friends. So What?" So, perhaps counting an anti-American terrorist amongst your list of friends and confidants might not be what Americans want in a President. William Ayers, co-founder of the militant leftist group, the Weathermen (later the Weather Underground Organization), is currently a professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago. He managed to avoid prosecution, but in the late '60's and 70's he was busy plotting the militant overthrow of the United States government - hoping to issue in a communist society.

The Weathermen did not believe in the non-violent peace protests often connected with the 60's era. They sought a violent resistance to the establishment. An organized campaign of riots, jailbreaks, and bombings was undertaken. Bombs were planted in various federal buildings, courthouses, banks, police departments, the US Capitol, the Pentagon, and the US State Dept. Ayers and his partner in crime (and future wife), Bernadette Dohrn, managed to escape prosecution as charges were dropped due to the use of improper FBI wiretaps. Prior to this, however, Ayers participated in some 30 bombings. 

While able to avoid jail time, Ayers remains unrepentant about his activities. "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough" said Ayers in a 2001 interview. Many Obama apologists suggest that no one was killed as a result of these bombings. This is patently untrue. In addition to three Weather Underground terrorists who died while constructing a bomb intended for an Officer's Dance at US Army base Fort Dix, a San Francisco Police Officer received fatal wounds in a separate WUO bombing. The Fort Dix bomb would likely have killed many innocents as the FBI reported that the group had enough explosives to "level .. both sides of the street." Only gross incompetence prevented Ayers and the Weather Underground from being guilty of mass murder.

In 1970 William Ayers planned a bombing against a Detroit Police Officer's Association building to inflict as much human damage as possible. The bombing was, fortunately, unsuccessful. 13 sticks of dynamite along with an M-80 firecracker and a burnt out cigarette were found at the scene. The plan was for the cigarette to ignite the fuse of the M-80, which would, in turn explode the dynamite. Luckily the cigarette was not sufficient to light the fuse and the explosion didn't go off. Ayers planned the detonation of the Detroit bomb, "to coincide with a time when there would be the most people in the building" according to Senate testimony of FBI Weather Underground infiltrator Larry Grathwohl. Clearly Ayers had hoped to injure and kill a significant number of innocent Detroit Police Officers.

Killing Police Officers is not uncharted territory for Ayers as he was involved in the planning of a similar bombing at a San Francisco Police station in February of 1970 which left one officer dead and two others wounded. Grathwohl testified that Ayers specifically named Bernadette Dohrn as the person who carried out the San Francisco bombing. Ayers stated it best himself when, in 1970, he said, "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." For her part, Dohrn added this reaction to the Manson Family murders, "Dig it. First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into a victim's stomach! Wild!" Model citizens, these.

Obama suggests that, "The notion that somehow as a consequence of me knowing somebody who engaged in detestable acts 40 years ago, when I was 8 years old, somehow reflects on me and my values doesn't make much sense to me." The inference is that Obama never knew Ayers the radical, yet Ayers is seen in a 2001 photograph (happily posed as a PR shot) defiantly disgracing the American flag - this when Ayers and Obama were close political allies, serving together on the Woods Fund board. William Ayers' positions were no secret to Obama when, in 1995, Barack launched his own political career in the Ayers/Dohrn living room. A meeting was held at the Ayers home to introduce Obama to prominent liberal activists in his district. Obama and Ayers were described as "friends" by those in attendance.

It is all too convenient for Obama to protest "guilt by association" in his relationship with Ayers. No one is suggesting that Obama explicitly or implicitly supported Ayers' activities, but the relationship does call into question the Democratic nominee's judgment. It also brings the question of Obama's veracity to bear. Several clearly misleading and outright untruths have been proffered by the Obama campaign in an effort to shake off the Ayers issue. Chief among these is the assertion that the only connection between the two was that, “Bill Ayers lives in his neighborhood. Their kids attend the same school.” The Obama-Ayers connection is becoming clearer by the day (as the Richard J Daley Library has only last week released some 132+ boxes of material containing records shedding light on the Ayers-Obama relationship) and it is well established that Obama and Ayers maintained a close working relationship and were friends - to the extent that Obama launched his political career from the Ayers home. In addition, while the Obama children are 10 and 7 years of age, the Ayers children are all adults - giving lie to the team Obama assertion of school ties being their only connection. A lax media fails to follow up on this, of course, as any stain on the Obama record is overlooked in hopes to see their man elected.

This is a monumental lapse in judgment for the man who would be our next President. In a time when the War on Terror is the most significant National Security issue facing the United States, a man who counts domestic terrorists amongst his friends cannot be allowed to become Commander in Chief. Ayers is a terrorist and a murderer (a cop killer, no less) and William Ayers is numbered among Barack Obama's friends. "So what?" says Richard Daley.

So what indeed!

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