Kudos to the Washington Post for this op-ed that calls out Bill Ayers on his lies in the New York Times.
In a Dec. 6 New York Times op-ed — headlined “The Real Bill Ayers” — Ayers cast himself as the victim of a “profoundly dishonest drama” in which he was branded an “unrepentant terrorist.” He cops to “posturing” and “blind sectarianism” — but insists that he never killed or hurt anyone and never intended to. His Weather Underground committed “symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed against monuments to war and racism” — not terrorism. Its bombings were surgical strikes “meant to respect human life.”
Some people might buy this, but not if they know the actual history — as opposed to Ayers’s selective version. Ayers omits the 1969 “Days of Rage” riot in Chicago, spearheaded by his Weatherman faction of Students for a Democratic Society. He kicked it off by helping to blow up a downtown police monument the night of Oct. 6, 1969; the blast showered rubble on a nearby expressway and shattered more than 100 windows.
Charles Lane catches Ayers in even more recent lies.
Ayers told me this week that he did not know about the nail bomb in advance — and condemned it afterward. I take him at his word. So why obfuscate in the Times? Editors cut the article, he protested — before conceding that his original version left it out, too.
His refutation of the “terrorist” charge relies, ironically, on the U.S. government’s definition: “premeditated, politically motivated violence perpetrated against non-combatant targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents.” “We did not do that,” Ayers insisted.
To some, the U.S. Capitol, a Weather Underground target, might qualify as “non-combatant.” But Ayers said it was fair game: The U.S. invasion of Laos and Cambodia made it “a symbol of empire.”
Ayers has been singing this tune for years. In a 1976 tract, he called for “revolutionary violence,” as long as it was “humane.” By then the war was over, and his goal was “to build communist organization toward the stage where armed struggle becomes a mass phenomenon led by a Marxist-Leninist party: a revolutionary stage.” His crazy means were dictating even crazier ends.
Hardly the worst crimes of that turbulent era, the Weather Underground’s deeds were nevertheless immoral. They put innocents at risk and sowed fear. Ultimately, they achieved nothing except to undermine the peaceful antiwar movement. Bill Ayers should cut the sophistry and admit it.
But he won’t. Because in his narrative, he was just someone who used “humane” violence. Here’s hoping his 15 minutes are just about up.
Now if we can only get them to say the same thing regularly about our Islamic friends who just happen to find Jews a tempting target worldwide.
Well I can dream can’t I?
Ayers was a co-founder and -leader(together with Bernadine Dohrn) of the Weather Underground.
Ayers wasn’t some flunky who wasn’t aware of what everyone else in the terrorist group was involved in. He approved and/or ordered every terrorist act carried out by the Weathermen.
Under the laws of conspiracy, each member bears criminal responsibility for the acts of the entire group.
That means that even the deaths of those building the bomb meant for Fort Dix means that Ayers is guilty of their deaths. (Based on the construction of the planned bomb, Ayers certainly is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder.)
And let’s not forget the firebombing of a house occupied at the time by a federal judge AND HIS WIFE AND CHILDREN.
The idea that Ayers considers burning women and children to death ‘humane’ is beyond psychopathic.
Ayers is no different than a Nazi concentration camp officer who perpetrated horrible atrocities and spends the rest of his life trying to justify his evil deeds.
And just like that Sturmbannfuhrer, Ayers and his partners in evil should also spend the rest of their lives looking, always looking, over their shoulders.