PrintApril 18, 2008
Obama's Terrorist Pal
William Ayers has been one of the many friends and supporters of Senator Barack Obama who have given Americans qualms about what Obama's ideology is and what policies he may put into practice as President. There is quite a cast of characters that surround Barack Obama. There is of course, Pastor Wright (his "moral compass" and "sounding board" in Barack Obama's own words), and a range of foreign policy advisers who have been criticized for views that all too often seem accommodating to terrorists and regimes that support terror.
Andrew McCarthy has highlighted these ties in "The Company He Keeps: Meet Obama's Circle: The Same Old America Left."
Obama also was involved in pro-Palestinian activities -- an involvement he has tried to obscure as he sought support from American Jews when he began his Senate and Presidential campaigns. He attended pro-Palestinian events where anti-Israel invective was par for the course. He served on the board of Directors of the Woods Foundation -- which gave grants to pro-Palestinian groups and helped sponsor propaganda events for the Palestinian cause. These events featured anti-Israel agitprop as a central focus.
He served on the board of the this foundation with William Ayers, a leader of the Weather Underground, a group that in the late 1960s carried out domestic terrorism against American targets such as police stations, the Pentagon, and other symbols of the establishment. Ayers lives in the same Hyde Park neighborhood as the Obamas and contributed to his Senate campaign.
Obama tried to dismiss the nature and duration of his relationship with Ayres during the debate with Hillary Clinton this week, but she brought him up short when she revealed the shared Woods Board membership.
He served on the board of the this foundation with William Ayers, a leader of the Weather Underground, a group that in the late 1960s carried out domestic terrorism against American targets such as police stations, the Pentagon, and other symbols of the establishment. Ayers lives in the same Hyde Park neighborhood as the Obamas and contributed to his Senate campaign.
Obama tried to dismiss the nature and duration of his relationship with Ayres during the debate with Hillary Clinton this week, but she brought him up short when she revealed the shared Woods Board membership.
Ayers notoriously expressed no regret for the domestic terrorism his group inflicted against America. He told a New York Times book reviewer, "I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough." The article appeared on the morning of September 11. 2001.
In the wake of the recent controversy involving his relationship with Barack Obama, Ayers again offers up a visions which might provoke concerns. On his blog he writes,
I'm often quoted saying that I have 'no regrets,'" he writes. "This is not true. For anyone paying attention--and I try to stay wide-awake to the world around me all/ways--life brings misgivings, doubts, uncertainty, loss, regret. I'm sometimes asked if I regret anything I did to oppose the war in Viet Nam, and I say 'no, I don't regret anything I did to try to stop the slaughter of millions of human beings by my own government.' Sometimes I add, 'I don't think I did enough.' This is then elided: he has no regrets for setting bombs and thinks there should be more bombings."
In fact, Ayers says, those who tried to stop the "illegal, murderous, imperial war against Viet Nam ... recognize that our efforts were inadequate: the war dragged on for a decade, thousands were slaughtered every week, and we couldn't stop it. In the end the U.S. military was defeated and the war ended, but we surely didn't do enough."Nor does Ayers believe his actions with the Weather Underground were terrorism. "I've never advocated terrorism, never participated in it, never defended it. The U.S. government, by contrast, does it routinely and defends the use of it in its own cause consistently," he wrote.Ayers defines terrorism as "the use or threat of random violence to intimidate, frighten, or coerce a population toward some political end," and he cites, as examples, "an Israeli assault on a neighborhood in Gaza," the Sept. 11 attacks, and "Sherman's March to the Sea" during the Civil War.Ayers concludes his self-defense with a brief against capitalism. "Capitalism," he writes, "played its role historically and is exhausted as a force for progress: built on exploitation, theft, conquest, war, and racism, capitalism and imperialism must be defeated and a world revolution -- a revolution against war and racism and materialism, a revolution based on human solidarity and love, cooperation and the common good -- must win.
Barack Obama has generated some concern among the millions of supporters of Israel in America (including millions of Christians). He has close ties to foreign policy advisers who are critical of the special relationship between America and Israel and who have made disparaging remarks about American Jews.
Now comes William Ayers -- an early supporter of Barack Obama, who has the gall not just to define away (and he is a Professor of Education) the reign of terror that the Weather Underground inflicted across America in the late 1960s and early 1970s as not "being terrorism" and not being actions that he "regrets," but defines terrorism in a way that links 911/ to actions Israel has taken to defend herself against the onslaught of thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip that have been terrorizing and murdering Israelis for years.
Now comes William Ayers -- an early supporter of Barack Obama, who has the gall not just to define away (and he is a Professor of Education) the reign of terror that the Weather Underground inflicted across America in the late 1960s and early 1970s as not "being terrorism" and not being actions that he "regrets," but defines terrorism in a way that links 911/ to actions Israel has taken to defend herself against the onslaught of thousands of rockets from the Gaza Strip that have been terrorizing and murdering Israelis for years.
He equates 9/11 and Israeli self-defense actions. This echoes remarks Pastor Wright has made that link 9/11 to America's support for Israel.
Yes, Barack Obama truly has quite the circle of friends. A man is known by the company he keeps - and we are learning more and more about Barack Obama.
