Fact Check: Obama’s Relationship with William Ayers
by Associated Press


SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Sen. Barack Obama is defending his relationship with a former radical whose provocative words were wrongly linked by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Facts were loose in both Democratic presidential campaigns Thursday as Clinton sought advantage from her rival’s association with William Ayers, a college professor who was once part of the violent Weather Underground group.

The dustup arose in their debate the night before when Obama was asked whether his connection to Ayers raised politically damaging questions about his patriotism.

Obama struck back by calling attention to Bill Clinton’s decision to grant clemency to two former Weather Underground members who — unlike Ayers — had been convicted of crimes from that era.

President Clinton’s actions freed women who had been serving sentences of 40 years and 58 years after convictions on weapons, explosives and related charges.

Members of the Weather Underground, known initially as the Weathermen, claimed responsibility for a series of bombings, including non-fatal but destructive ones at the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol.

In addition, three members died when their bomb-making session at a New York City town house went awry in 1970, and several members were convicted in a botched 1981 Brink’s truck ambush during which two police officers and a guard died.

Ayers was not implicated in the Brink’s deaths and the two former members cleared by Bill Clinton were not convicted of killings.

THE SPIN:

Obama said Ayers is “a guy who lives in my neighborhood” and not someone who has endorsed him or talked to him regularly.

“And 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,” Obama said.

Clinton said the relationship was deeper than that because both men served together on the board of a charity.

Ayers, she said, made comments “which were deeply hurtful to people in New York and, I would hope, to every American, because they were published on 9/11, and he said that he was just sorry they hadn’t done more.

“And what they did was set bombs,” she went on. “And in some instances, people died.”

THE FACTS:

Clinton’s implication that Ayers made hurtful comments connected with the terrorist attacks is wrong.

By coincidence, a story about Ayers and what he called his fictionalized memoirs appeared in The New York Times on the day of the attacks.

The story was based on an interview he had done earlier, in Chicago, in which he declared, “I don’t regret setting bombs,” and “I feel we didn’t do enough,” even while seeming to dissociate himself coyly from the group’s most destructive acts.

Clinton is correct that both men served together on the board of the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based charity that develops community groups to help the poor. Ayers joined the board in 1999 and is still on it. Obama left it in December 2002 after nine years.

Ayers was clearly more than someone Obama just ran into in the neighborhood on occasion. In the mid-1990s, when Obama was making his first run for the Illinois Senate, Ayers had Obama to his home to introduce him to others.

But a flub by Obama in the debate suggested he does not know him that well: He called Ayers an English professor. Ayers teaches education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and has been an education adviser to Mayor Richard Daley.

Ayers disappeared after the 1970 town house explosion, although he was not charged in that episode. He and his wife, Bernadine Dohrn, surfaced in 1980.

They both faced charges stemming from Chicago demonstrations in 1969 but his were dismissed for prosecutorial misconduct while she pleaded guilty to aggravated battery and bail-jumping.

THE SPIN:

Obama said Clinton was not one to talk about guilt by association because “President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me serving on a board with somebody for actions that he did 40 years ago.”

THE FACTS:

Obama correctly sketched out the details of Bill Clinton’s acts in the case. However, senior Obama strategist David Axelrod went too far Thursday when he said the two cleared by President Clinton had killed people. They were not convicted of that.

Bill Clinton created an uproar with New York lawmakers from both parties and with police when, on his last day in office, he granted clemency to Susan L. Rosenberg and Linda Sue Evans.

Rosenberg was sentenced to 58 years after being caught unloading 740 pounds of dynamite and weapons from a car in New Jersey in 1984. She was wanted on charges related to the deadly Brink’s ambush but never tried on them, and Clinton’s order released her after 16 years behind bars.

Evans was captured in 1985 along with one of the fugitives from the Brink’s robbery, whom she was accused of harboring. Evans was sentenced to 40 years on a variety of weapons and terrorism-related convictions, including the 1983 Capitol bombing plot.

Although Hillary Clinton publicly disputed her husband’s offer of clemency to Puerto Rican nationalists in 1999 because they had not sufficiently renounced violence, she is not known to have objected to his freeing of Rosenberg and Evans in 2001.


http://elections.foxnews.com/2008/04/17/fact-check-obamas-relationship-with-william-ayers/

Why we should not Trust Obama, or the Clintons......

McCain\Palin 08

7 October 1969 – Bombing of Haymarket Police Statue in Chicago, apparently as a "kickoff" for the "Days of Rage" riots in the city October 8-11, 1969. The Weathermen later claim credit for the bombing in their book, "Prairie Fire."

8 October-11, 1969 – The "Days of Rage" riots occur in Chicago in which 287 Weatherman members from throughout the country were arrested and a large amount of property damage was done.

6 December 1969 – Bombing of several Chicago Police cars parked in a precinct parking lot at 3600 North Halsted Street, Chicago. The WUO stated in their book "Prairie Fire" that they had did the explosion.

27 December-31, 1969 – Weathermen hold a "War Council" meeting in Flint, MI, where they finalize their plans to submerge into an underground status from which they plan to commit strategic acts of sabotage against the government. Thereafter they are called the "Weather Underground Organization" (WUO).

13 February 1970 - Bombing of several police vehicles of the Berkeley, California, Police Department .

16 February 1970 – Bombing of Golden Gate Park branch of the San Francisco Police Department, killing one officer and injuring a number of other policemen.

6 March 1970 – Bombing in the 13th Police District of the Detroit, Michigan. 34 sticks of dynamite are discovered. During February and early March, 1970, members of the WUO, led by Bill Ayers, are reported to be in Detroit, during that period, for the purpose of bombing a police facility.

6 March 1970 – "bomb factory" located in New York's Greenwich Village accidentally explodes. WUO members die . The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The bomb was packed with nails TO INFILICT MAXIMUM CASUALTIES UPON DETONATION.

30 March 1970 – Chicago Police discover a WUO "bomb factory" on Chicago’s north side. A subsequent discovery of a WUO "weapons cache" in a south side Chicago apartment several days later ends WUO activity in the city.

10 May 1970 – Bombing of The National Guard Association building in Washington, D.C..

21 May 1970 – The WUO under Bernardine Dohrn's name releases its "Declaration of a State of War" communique.

6 June 1970 – The WUO sends a letter claiming credit for bombing of the San Francisco Hall of Justice; however, no explosion actually took place. Months later, workmen in this building located an unexploded device which had apparently been dormant for some time.

9 June 1970 - Bombing of The New York City Police Headquarters .

27 July 1970 - Bombing of The Presidio army base in San Francisco. [NYT, 7/27/70]

12 September 1970 – The WUO helps Dr. Timothy Leary, break out and escape from the California Men's Colony prison.

8 October 1970 - Bombing of Marin County courthouse. [NYT, 8/10/70]

10 October 1970 - Bombing of Queens traffic-court building . [NYT, 10/10/70, p. 12]

14 October 1970 - Bombing of The Harvard Center for International Affairs [NYT, 10/14/70, p. 30]

1 March 1971 - Bombing of The United States Capitol . " [NYT, 3/2/71]

April, 1971 – abandoned WUO "bomb factory" discovered in San Francisco, California.

29 August, 1971 - Bombing of the Office of California Prisons . [LAT, 8/29/71]

17 September 1971 - Bombing of The New York Department of Corrections in Albany, NY [NYT, 9/18/71]

15 October 1971 - Bombing of William Bundy's office in the MIT research center. [NYT, 10/16/71]

19 May 1972 - Bombing of The Pentagon . [NYT, 5/19/72]

18 May 1973 - Bombing of the 103rd Police Precinct in New York

28 September 1973 - Bombing of ITT headquarters in New York and Rome, Italy . [NYT, 9/28/73]

6 March 1974 - Bombing of the Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare offices in San Francisco

31 May 1974 - Bombing of The Office of the California Attorney General.

17 June 1974 - Bombing of Gulf Oil's Pittsburgh headquarters .

11 September 1974 – Bombing of Anaconda Corporation (part of the Rockefeller Corporation).

29 January 1975 - Bombing of the State Department in (AP. "State Department Rattled by Blast," The Daily Times-News, January 29 1975, p.1)

16 June 1975 - Bombing of Banco de Ponce (a Puerto Rican bank) in New York .

September, 1975 – Bombing of the Kennecott Corporation .

October 20, 1981 - Brinks robbery in which several members of the Weather Underground stole over $1 million from a Brinks armored car near Nyack, New York. The robbers murdered 2 police officers and 1 Brinks guard. Several others were wounded.

1981 “Guilty as hel*. Free as a bird. America is a great country,” Ayers said when interviewed by David Horowitz.

September 11, 2001 “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Ayers is quoted in NYT article

Is there any proof Obama knew of Ayers past when they were associating?

Duh.......

1980's
1981 “Guilty as hel*. Free as a bird. America is a great country,” Ayers said when interviewed by David Horowitz.

1990's
Ayers was clearly more than someone Obama just ran into in the neighborhood on occasion. In the mid-1990s, when Obama was making his first run for the Illinois Senate, Ayers had Obama to his home to introduce him to others.

No, not "duh." Is there proof Ayers or anyone else told Obama of his Weather Underground past?

So you are saying that Obama didn't know about his past? No body told him.......

I don't know. I've not read of that being alleged, just that they were "associates." Do you know the past activities of everyone you associate with?

I would know their pasts if they made headlines.....

Maybe there's proof, but you don't have it.

So you want to take that chance and vote for someone that "Possibly" associates with a group that wanted to Harm America?

The Words of Obama's Friend

September 11, 2001 “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Ayers is quoted in NYT article

Still, no proof. Here's the whole quote, btw... 'Regrets. I"m often quoted saying that I have "no regrets." 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." '

btw, Ayers has never been convicted of anything.

If he did get convicted, I am sure Clinton would have pardoned him......

Obama's Friends.....
6 March 1970 – "bomb factory" located in New York's Greenwich Village accidentally explodes. WUO members die . The bomb was intended to be planted at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. The bomb was packed with nails TO INFILICT MAXIMUM CASUALTIES UPON DETONATION.

NOBAMADRAMA '08

McCain/Palin '08

No proof, although that's not needed for Faux and the wrong to smear Obama with it.

Obama trying to make himself look good....

Obama said Clinton was not one to talk about guilt by association because “President Clinton pardoned or commuted the sentences of two members of the Weather Underground, which I think is a slightly more significant act than me serving on a board with somebody for actions that he did 40 years ago.”

I guess Obama was happy that his Terrorist friends got out of Prison by his fellow Comrad Clinton


NOBAMADRAMA '08

McCain/Palin '08

You keep smearing. It's all you've got.

More propaganda.

What, the mighty obama cannot take being Smeared, That is all you all have been doing to Palin in these threads..... That is all the Dems have been doing to palin... Surely he can take it, He is sure good at giving it, just like every liberal out there.......

Your Obama is flawed worst than everyone else.... If your little Savior is innocent, then why doesn't he clear his name?


You dems are turning to someone you have no clue about....

like all that crap you all say about Palin?

So what is the Difference between what you all do in these threads.....

It is your precious Obama that is getting it now, and you cannot take it....