Tribune Covers for Obama’s Terrorist Friends
AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | May 7, 2008
The Weather Underground Communist terrorists have long peddled the line that their bombings didn’t kill anybody, except themselves.
The
Chicago Tribune, which once employed Barack Obama campaign strategist David
Axelrod, is refusing to publish the truth about a Weather Underground terrorist
bombing that killed a policeman. The paper apparently does not want to tarnish
the image of Obama friends Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn, who were allegedly
part of or had direct knowledge of the bombing plot that also injured several
other police officers. The Tribune considers Ayers an education expert and has
published various articles by him.
Please
help Accuracy in Media expose the Tribune’s cover-up.
I
sent a copy of the following email message to Tribune reporter Liam Ford on
April 27. He was the co-author of an article that consisted of a series of
questions and answers about Ayers, the communist terrorist who became a friend
of Obama’s and helped launch Obama’s political career. My message said:
“Liam
Ford and Mark Jacob:
“You state in your ‘Questions and Answers About Bill Ayers,’ April 24, page 4,
that ‘The only people known to be killed or hurt by Weather Underground bombs
were bombers themselves.’
“We ask for a correction of this false statement.
“The FBI report on the Weather Underground states, under the title of ‘WUO
Bombings and Attempted Bombings,’ that on February 16, 1970, ‘A bomb detonated
at the Golden Gate Park Branch of the San Francisco Police Department killing
one officer and injuring a number of other policemen.’
“The Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
authored a 1979 pamphlet on the WUO that reported, ‘On October 18, 1974, Larry
Grathwohl, a former member of the WUO, testified before a US Senate
Subcommittee that Bill Ayers, a WUO leader, had told him that Bernardine Dohrn,
another WUO leader, had to plan, develop and carry out the bombing of the
police station in San Francisco. Ayers told Grathwohl the bomb was placed on
the window ledge and he described the bomb that was used to the extent of
saying what kind of shrapnel was used in it.’
“Please tell us when and how you intend to correct the record so that we can
inform our readers and members.
“Cliff Kincaid, editor, Accuracy in Media.”
Reporter
Ford told me that he would look into the matter but later said that he didn’t
think the material I provided to him would be considered important enough. This
struck me as strange. The paper was taking the word of the terrorists
themselves that their bombings had never killed anybody else. The WUO had not
publicly claimed responsibility for the bombing of the police station in San Francisco.
So
the standard seems to be that if the terrorists themselves take “credit” for a
bombing, it will be assigned to them. But if they refuse to publicly take
credit, because they don’t want to be implicated in a murder, they will be
absolved of responsibility, no matter what the evidence shows. This is partisan
political journalism designed to benefit Obama.
The Bomb Blast
Newspaper
accounts at the time put the number of people wounded at nine. Riddled with
shrapnel, Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell died two days later at San Francisco General Hospital.
A memorial was
held for him in February 2007. He was a young man with his whole life ahead of
him. But to Ayers and Dohrn, he was a “pig.”
“Sergeant
McDonnell caught the full force of the flying shrapnel, which consisted of
heavy metal staples and lead bullets. As other officers tried rendering aid to
the fallen sergeant, they could see that he sustained a severed neck artery
wound and severe wounds to his eyes and neck,” the San Francisco Police
Officers Association Journal reports.
“Officers
[Ron] Martin and [Al] Arnaud, who were standing several feet from the window
ledge, were knocked to the ground and sustained injuries from the flying
glass,” it says. The blast caused them hearing impairment and shock. One
officer was knocked to the floor unconscious, while another “suffered multiple
severe wounds on his face, cheek and legs from the flying fragments of the
glass.”
The Facts
Tribune
reporter Ford seemed willing at first to correct the record. But he said he
would need more direct information. So I decided to go the extra mile. I
obtained Grathwohl’s actual congressional testimony and provided this material
to him.
The
testimony was given by Grathwohl to the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee
on October 18, 1974. He testified:
“When
he [Bill Ayers] returned, we had another meeting at which time―and this is the
only time that any Weathermen told me about something that someone else had
done―and Bill started off telling us about the need to raise the level of the
struggle and for stronger leadership inside the Weathermen ‘focals’ [i.e.,
cells] and inside the Weatherman organization as a whole. And he cited as one
of the real problems was that someone like Bernardine Dohrn had to plan,
develop and carry out the bombing of the police station in San Francisco, and he specifically named her
as the person that committed that act.”
Grathwohl
added that Ayers “said that the bomb was placed on the window ledge and he
described the kind of bomb that was used to the extent of saying what kind of
shrapnel was used in it.”
He
was asked, “Did he say who placed the bomb on the window ledge?” He replied,
“Bernardine Dohrn.”
Asked
if Ayers said that he had personally witnessed Dohrn placing the bomb,
Grathwohl responded, “Well, if he wasn’t there to see it, somebody who was
there told him about it, because he stated it very emphatically.”
This
testimony completely obliterates the notion, perpetuated by the Chicago Tribune
and other media, that the Weather Underground communist terrorist bombings only
killed the bombers themselves. Such propaganda is designed to play down the
serious nature of the terrorist crimes. It is also designed to make Obama’s
relationship with Ayers and Dohrn more palatable.
Grathwohl
includes this conversation with Ayers in his 1976 book, Bringing Down America:
An FBI Informer with the Weathermen. The park police station bombing in San Francisco was “a
success,” Ayers is quoted as saying, “but it’s a shame when someone like
Bernardine Dohrn has to make all the plans, make the bomb, and then place it
herself. She should have to do only the planning.”
What
a shame that Dohrn had to do all the dirty work. But it’s probably safe to
assume that Ayers either helped her or knew about it in advance.
Grathwohl
reveals that Ayers himself knew how to make bombs and didn’t care about people
being killed. At one point, he says, Ayers displayed a diagram of a bomb, with
dynamite and a fuse. The plan was to bomb a police station but an objection was
raised that it would also destroy a nearby restaurant. “We’ll blow out the Red
Barn restaurant,” Grathwohl said. “Maybe even kill a few innocent customers―and
most of them are black.”
“We
can’t protect all the innocent people in the world,” Ayers replied. “Some will
get killed. Some of us will get killed. We have to accept that fact.”
Grathwohl
says the Weather Underground also considered using kidnappings and
assassinations in order to bring about their communist revolution in the U.S.
Possible kidnapping targets were Vice President Spiro Agnew and presidential
aide Henry Kissinger.
Time Will
Tell
For more than a week I have gone back and forth with
reporter Ford and the office of the Tribune ombudsman, or consumer advocate.
His name is Timothy McNulty. I talked to his assistant and left messages on his
telephone answering machine. Ford told me at one time that McNulty was on jury
duty, which had left the issue unresolved. Eventually, the public editor’s
office told me that they are under no obligation to disclose when or if they
will correct anything.
Yet, the paper insists that “Publishing information
quickly and accurately is a central part of the Chicago Tribune’s news
responsibility and a value shared in all our publications…We take our readers’
concerns about accuracy seriously and will promptly investigate when we are
alerted to possible errors.”
The
reluctance to correct the record may have something to do with an April
18 Chicago Tribune editorial, “Guilt by Association,” which said that while
Ayers and Dohrn should be repentant about their terrorist activities, “they
have done good work in Chicago” and that Chicago Mayor Richard Daley was
correct when he said that linking them to Obama was “playing guilt by
association.”
Why
should Obama be harshly judged because he hangs around with criminal
terrorists? The paper advised people to get back to the “real campaign.”
But
has the Tribune become part of the Obama campaign? It turns out that Obama
campaign strategist Axelrod worked for the Tribune for eight years as a
reporter. It also turns out that Ayers has been a contributor of columns to the
Tribune. He has written for the paper on at least five occasions about
educational matters.
So
perhaps the paper is reluctant to spill the beans about someone whose work it
has published and now regards as a respected member of the Chicago establishment.
The Big Lie
The
Weather Underground Communist terrorists have long peddled the line that their
bombings didn’t kill anybody, except themselves. The book flap for Ayers book, Fugitive Days, insists that the
organization carried out “strategic, bloodless bombings, including one inside
the Pentagon.”
Bloodless?
Tell that to the family of the San
Francisco policeman and those who were injured. The
book flap goes on to say that “Ayers and his comrades” became “America’s other Viet Nam vets.”
Ayers
was part of a communist movement, with controllers in such places as Hanoi and
Havana, that resulted in a communist takeover of South Vietnam and the ultimate
sacrifice of the lives of more than 58,000 American soldiers in vain. If he was
a Vietnam
vet, he was on the communist side.
Perhaps
the paper can ask Ayers and Dohrn about their alleged involvement in or
knowledge of the San Francisco
bombing. Perhaps the paper already has this information and is sitting on it.
There is a report that a grand jury is currently investigating the 1970
bombing.
If
Ayers and Dohrn have refused to talk about this to the Tribune, could their
silence have something to do with the fact that there is no statute of
limitations on murder?
Which
raises a question that the media should put to Senator Obama: do you think, in
view of the evidence, that either of your friends, Bill Ayers or Bernardine
Dohrn, should be indicted and prosecuted for murder?
·
If
you would like to ask the paper to correct the record on this matter, please
contact Mr. McNulty at 312-222-3348. His email address is (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
·
The
editor of the paper is Ann Marie Lipinski. Her email address is: (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) She can also be
reached through 312-222-3550. Please ask that she
publish the truth about Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
15 Comments
Thank you for this update and please keep working at it until the truth is out. If is is possible, could you give me the email addresses of the two men you mentioned at the paper. I would like to let my readers know about this situation and give them the opportunity to ask the paper to rectify and clarify this matter once and for all - quickly. Plus, I definitely want to send my own letter.
Thank you again.
Keep up the good work, I posted a comment on the tribunes blog regarding a correction.
Thanks for your timely and very significant reporting. It’s about time the U.S. citizenry finally heard the TRUTH about Obama’s connections. I agree that he is a dangerous character and should in no way be elected to the White House.
It is time that someone made this persons hatered and communistic and socialist activities known. If elected there will be no free America. Help the American People see him for what he really is a liar…..
As a “seasoned citizen”, I remember the Weather Underground very well. The very fact that Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn are walking free and are “respected” persons of influence appalls me. It disgusts me that they have no remorse for their past and that they apparently still promote their poisonous beliefs. That Obama would even consider them as friends or mentors, along with his racist pastor, is chilling. The worst of all is that so many Americans are so clueless and are clamoring for him to be their messiah Black president!
The socialists have always had a candidate in the election, but everyone’s perception has been that they were extremist kooks. But this year, for the first time, there will be a viable presidential candidate with obvious ties to communism. This is starting to give me nightmares and it reminds me of the phrase: “No way,this can’t happen here”, a phrase I heard many times as a child in Cuba back in 1959 -that was 50 years ago, and it’s still happening.
The chances are, if the matter is damaging enough, the Clintons will see that it is highly publicized before the convention. Oh, they won’t do it openly, of course, less they run into problems with the “black community”, but their operatives will slowly “leak” just about anything that compromises Obama’s candidacy or makes the party big-whigs concerned that he cannot carry the election.
Of course, Obama’s own words as well as those of his wife (both written and spoken) and his association with his former and present openly racist “pastors” (not to mention Louis Farrakhan who thinks he is Jesus Christ) should have put Obama’s candidacy in the toilet months ago. However, as he has not only survived but has become the beau ideal of the Democrat Party, it’s hard to think what “magic bullet” the Clinton “Dirty Tricks” squad will be able to find that bring down Obama.
It’s going to be an interesting election and if the American public is so ignorant and mindless as to actually ELECT this prevaricating “mystery man”, it may be an even MORE interesting next four years.
Another excellent article. There is not doubt that the Tribune should be held accountable.
But one must be mindful of the fact that is was with the assistance of the Chicago Tribune that Obama won the senate seat from Illinois. The Tribune was the thrust behind a smear campaign of Obama’s original opponent, and Republican candidate named Ryan. Alan Keyes became the sacrifical lamb in an 11th hour attempt retain the position.
To expect anything more than an apology piece from the Tribune is to only say that one is not from Chicago.
THANK GOD FOR THE INTERNET! And may the Tribune follow the Grey Lady down the path to oblivion for intentionally falsifying information and tampering with America’s political process. One can only wonder who they are in bed with.
I feel that Barack Hussein Obama can have all
the personal fiends he wants.
Charles
Not in politics, you can’t!
Just imagine a white politician being “friends” with an avowed racist, say, a member of the KKK. Just how long do you think he’d be allowed to “enjoy” that friendship before he found himself on a plane home, driven from office for his “racist” affiliations? Well, what’s sauce for the goose, is sauce for the gander.
If a white politician cannot have racist contacts without forfeiting his career, the same should hold true for a black politician - or any color in between. Double standards are what got us in this mess in the first place as blacks have complained for years about there being one standard for whites and one for blacks. I agree. There should be ONE standard for everybody and since no one can imagine a white politician being permitted racist “friends” without a backlash, then I do not agree that Senator Obama should be given a pass for his “personal friends” either.
We will do what we have done to the NYTs and the Chicago Sun, both are at an all time low and stocks are down, the Sun is looking for help in keeping the paper alive, no luck so far and are looking for a Government Bail Out.
We will start on the Tribune as being associated with Communism ans not vetting their biased stories. As if McCain does not already know about all this, he will very shortly and can use it in the General Election, along with his [Barack] and Michelle’s racism.
Obama frightened me from the first.
The night he made his national ‘debut’ at the Democratic convention, the pundits instantly dubbed him ‘presidential material’.
They have championed him, coddled him, covered for him for years.
If they had been investigating and reporting all along, he might not have made it to the finals. Now people are pretty much locked into their choice and I’m not sure if anything would make them change at this point. We needed the facts back when there was actually some choices to be made.
Yes, Mr. Barack can have all the personal ‘fiends’ he wants, but people are judged by their ‘fiends’ as well as their friends.
Michelle Obama said in her North Carolina stump speech - that you can tell the real make of a man by what he does in the shadows.
I wish more people would pick up on this and start listing all the things Barack has done in the shadows. There is more to the story about his relationship to these terrorists.
Michelle also said that our children are watching us, and look to us to lead them. Why is it ok for her children to hang out with peers whose parents are obviously against our country.
The answer is that Michelle and Barack see no real problems with their views, or views of Rev Wright.
Michelle is outwardly militant. Barack has a smooth veneer. Will someone please crack it?
May 7 at 6:38 pm | #1 | Link
Thanks for bringing this to the attention of the American Public. When you add the “patterns” of association that OB has with people such as his minister, Ayres and Dohrn, and the communist OB read as a boy shows a clear pattern of thinking that is dangerous to the U.S. Also given his bitter wife and her denunciation of all that is good in the U.S. tells me that they are NOT a couple that should hold the Presidency.
Keep up the good work and great reporting!! I send your articles to Sean Hannity on Fox News as he is doing a show on Ayres!