The original Ft. Dix terrorist

“guilty as hell, free as a bird, America is a great country.”

The Weather Underground crossed lines of legality, of propriety, and perhaps even of common sense. Our effectiveness can be — and still is being — debated. We did carry out symbolic acts of extreme vandalism directed at monuments to war and racism, and the attacks on property, never on people, were meant to respect human life and convey outrage and determination to end the Vietnam war.

Peaceful protests had failed to stop the war. So we issued a screaming response. But it was not terrorism; we were not engaged in a campaign to kill and injure people indiscriminately, spreading fear and suffering for political ends.

That, from home-grown terrorist, Bill Ayers, in his New York Times Op-Ed piece that you can go look for yourself, if you’re so inclined. Of course, Ayers’ attempt to rehabilitate his image is a big lie as the central tenet of his argument is, leaving behind his torturous bending of definitions (making bomb containing roofing nails has but one purpose - killing and maiming people), that he was just swept up in the passion of the times.

Unfortunately, one man who is best suited to shed some light into Ayers’ black hole of history has been denied. Larry Grathwohl, the only FBI informant to successfully infiltrate the Weather Underground twice submitted a rebuttal to Ayers’ work of fiction and was twice denied.

I must conclude by acknowledging that in one respect Bill is probably being absolutely truthful. When he says that “I never killed or injured anyone,” he is most likely being totally honest. Bill, like Charles Manson, never exposed himself to any kind of danger. He always gave orders and then left it to his then-girlfriend, Diane Oughton, and others to implement his plan. If you listen closely you can even hear the similarities in the arguments Manson and Billy use today to justify what they did: the 60s made me do it.

Pajamas Media has Grathwohl’s rebuttal in its entirety, here.

No amount of inspired fantasy, however, can omit the simple truth that there is only one significant difference between Bill Ayers and Timothy McVeigh. Competence.