Kurt Nicklas
2008-10-23 21:43:01 UTC
Twisting History to Protect Bill Ayers
George Wallace may have encouraged violent attacks, but Obama's
political mentor carried them out himself.
October 23, 2008 - by Bob Owens
Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers
Last week, civil rights icon and Georgia Democrat John Lewis launched
an attack against Republicans.
He stated that when critics pointed out the long web of relationships
between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, it was “sowing the seeds of
hatred and division.” Lewis then took a step further, making the
incendiary comparison of John McCain to the segregationist governor of
Alabama, George Wallace.
During another period, in the not-too-distant past, there was a
governor of a state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a
presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never
fired a gun, but he created the climate and conditions that encouraged
vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to
exercise their Constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of
hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church
was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.
The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by Klansmen was a
horrible crime brought about by unreasoning hatred. This is not in
dispute. We must wonder, however, what Lewis would have thought about
the little girls and boys and mothers and fathers that would have died
in another hate-fueled bombing just seven years later in Detroit, had
a much larger attack not been foiled.
Several weeks ago, I wrote a post for Pajamas Media on what might have
happened the night of March 6, 1970, if a small group of left-wing
radicals had been a bit more competent in their bomb-building. If that
cell of the Weather Underground had been a little more lucky — or a
little less careless — many of us may have grown up referring to 3/6
the way we now refer to 9/11.
What I did not know at the time that I wrote that article was that
this was not the first attempt by the Weathermen to commit mass
murder.
A month prior, in February 1970, Barack Obama’s political mentor Bill
Ayers plotted multiple attacks against the officers of the Detroit
Police Department. He didn’t care that one of the bombs he was
planning to use would be placed in such a way that it “could easily
kill” the patrons of a nearby restaurant that catered to an African-
American clientele.
Such sentimentality was “unrevolutionary.” The 44 sticks of dynamite
would be used despite the fears of a military “expert” within the
group (FBI informant Larry Grathwohl) that collateral damage from the
massive blasts could kill the innocent diners nearby.
Recruited into the Weathermen, who valued his limited military
experience, the Cincinnati resident worked with Ayers. Grathwohl found
Ayers hard to love; he seemed self-important, a controller of
subordinates, the type who loved to give orders. Ayers was a key
leader. Grathwohl, a government informant, wrote that Ayers had helped
direct a pair of attempted police building bombings in Detroit in
February 1970. After doing his assigned job in reconnaissance,
Grathwohl disagreed with Mr. Ayers over the placement of one bomb,
which could easily kill black patrons who favored an adjacent
restaurant, but that Ayers dismissed such sentimentality as
unrevolutionary. The informant was glad to be dismissed from the
operation by Ayers. Forty-four sticks of dynamite were then formed
into two bombs and put into place, before Grathwohl’s information
allowed police to dismantle both. Ayers’ memoir — which freely admits
to incompleteness — says nothing of this episode, or Detroit, or the
month of February 1970.
Just 19 sticks of dynamite killed Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair,
Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley in Birmingham and injured 22
others. Those four little girls murdered by angry bombers in the 16th
Street Baptist Church became a rallying cry for the civil rights
movement in 1963.
{continued on http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/congressman-twists-history-to-protect-ayers/
}
George Wallace may have encouraged violent attacks, but Obama's
political mentor carried them out himself.
October 23, 2008 - by Bob Owens
Support Pajamas Media; Visit Our Advertisers
Last week, civil rights icon and Georgia Democrat John Lewis launched
an attack against Republicans.
He stated that when critics pointed out the long web of relationships
between Barack Obama and Bill Ayers, it was “sowing the seeds of
hatred and division.” Lewis then took a step further, making the
incendiary comparison of John McCain to the segregationist governor of
Alabama, George Wallace.
During another period, in the not-too-distant past, there was a
governor of a state of Alabama named George Wallace who also became a
presidential candidate. George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never
fired a gun, but he created the climate and conditions that encouraged
vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to
exercise their Constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of
hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church
was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama.
The bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church by Klansmen was a
horrible crime brought about by unreasoning hatred. This is not in
dispute. We must wonder, however, what Lewis would have thought about
the little girls and boys and mothers and fathers that would have died
in another hate-fueled bombing just seven years later in Detroit, had
a much larger attack not been foiled.
Several weeks ago, I wrote a post for Pajamas Media on what might have
happened the night of March 6, 1970, if a small group of left-wing
radicals had been a bit more competent in their bomb-building. If that
cell of the Weather Underground had been a little more lucky — or a
little less careless — many of us may have grown up referring to 3/6
the way we now refer to 9/11.
What I did not know at the time that I wrote that article was that
this was not the first attempt by the Weathermen to commit mass
murder.
A month prior, in February 1970, Barack Obama’s political mentor Bill
Ayers plotted multiple attacks against the officers of the Detroit
Police Department. He didn’t care that one of the bombs he was
planning to use would be placed in such a way that it “could easily
kill” the patrons of a nearby restaurant that catered to an African-
American clientele.
Such sentimentality was “unrevolutionary.” The 44 sticks of dynamite
would be used despite the fears of a military “expert” within the
group (FBI informant Larry Grathwohl) that collateral damage from the
massive blasts could kill the innocent diners nearby.
Recruited into the Weathermen, who valued his limited military
experience, the Cincinnati resident worked with Ayers. Grathwohl found
Ayers hard to love; he seemed self-important, a controller of
subordinates, the type who loved to give orders. Ayers was a key
leader. Grathwohl, a government informant, wrote that Ayers had helped
direct a pair of attempted police building bombings in Detroit in
February 1970. After doing his assigned job in reconnaissance,
Grathwohl disagreed with Mr. Ayers over the placement of one bomb,
which could easily kill black patrons who favored an adjacent
restaurant, but that Ayers dismissed such sentimentality as
unrevolutionary. The informant was glad to be dismissed from the
operation by Ayers. Forty-four sticks of dynamite were then formed
into two bombs and put into place, before Grathwohl’s information
allowed police to dismantle both. Ayers’ memoir — which freely admits
to incompleteness — says nothing of this episode, or Detroit, or the
month of February 1970.
Just 19 sticks of dynamite killed Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair,
Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley in Birmingham and injured 22
others. Those four little girls murdered by angry bombers in the 16th
Street Baptist Church became a rallying cry for the civil rights
movement in 1963.
{continued on http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/congressman-twists-history-to-protect-ayers/
}