S.F. police union accuses Ayers in 1970 bombing

SF Chron ^ | 3/11/09 | Demian Bulwa

[Drango]

Leaders of San Francisco's police officers union have accused Weather Underground co-founder Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, of taking part in the 1970 bombing of a city police station that killed a sergeant.

The union leveled the charge in a letter to a conservative organization lobbying for arrests in the case, but said it had not been in contact with investigators and had no new evidence related to the bombing, which killed Sgt. Brian McDonnell.

~snip

"There are irrefutable and compelling reasons to believe that Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn ... are largely responsible for the bombing of Park Police Station," the letter says.

~snip Martin said the union wanted to "bring this case to attention, especially because Bill Ayers has been on a speaking tour. His actions have elicited this type of response."

~snip

Grathwohl said Wednesday that he infiltrated the Weather Underground in late 1969, first at the urging of Cincinnati police and then at the direction of the FBI.

He said that in the early 1970, Ayers visited him and other operatives in Buffalo, N.Y., and said Dohrn had been forced to plant the bomb at Park Station because others weren't active enough in committing violence. Ayers also knew the composition of the bomb and where it had been set, Grathwohl said.

The Weather Underground took credit for bombing the Pentagon and other buildings in the 1970s. Ayers and Dohrn were indicted in 1970 after a bomb blast killed three members in a New York City townhouse. Charges were later dropped because of misconduct by investigators.

~snip

Kincaid said he was not going after Ayers to hurt Obama, but added, "We are concerned that we now have an attorney general who was involved in Clinton administration pardons of members of the Weather Underground."

[Drango]

Popcorn time.

[ETL]

Here's something I previously put together on this story...

From November 10, 2003:

30-Y.O. Unsolved SF Murders Reopen
[Weather Underground, Black Liberation Army, Ayers, Dohrn]

BAY AREA (KRON) -- The unsolved murder of two San Francisco police officers has languished as cold cases for 30 years until now. A federal grand jury has been looking into the murders. Many of the people now under investigation both as potential targets and witnesses in this case are scattered across the country. Many of them are now in their 50s and 60s. Investigators believe the crimes were politically motivated and committed by militant radical groups.

On August 29, 1971, sergeant John Young is killed in a barrage of gunfire when two men walk into the Ingleside police station and begin shooting at officers sitting behind the glass partition. It is the second unsolved police killing in 18 months.

On February 16, 1970, officer Brian McDonnell is killed when a bomb explodes at Park Police Station. Attorney Joe O'Sullivan, at the time was a young police officer. "It was just bedlam. I don't think we were able to get into the station. I think it was cordoned off. Nobody really knew the exact nature of the devastation," he says.

For three decades, the police murders remained unsolved. Evidence from the two crime scenes sat in the police property room.

KRON 4 News has learned that three years ago, San Francisco police secretly re-opened the case. Armed with new forensic technology and with State and Federal agencies helping, SFPD investigators began to work full-time on the murders.

And now, sources tell us, those investigators have identified potential suspects: former members of two militant groups in the '60s and '70s -- the Weather Underground and the Black Liberation Army, people who've been out of the spotlight for decades. The most prominent among them is Bernadine Dohrn, a former leader of the Weather Underground and now a law professor at Northwestern University in Illinois.

30-Y.O. Unsolved SF Murders Reopen [part 1 of 3]
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1519460

Patriot Act Used to Reopen Murder Case? [part 2 of 3]
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1521312

Survivor of Old Murder Case Speaks Out [part 3 of 3]
http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1523015&nav=5D7lJ5fb

______________________________________________________________________________

The following from wikipedia is well documented and sourced.

Sgt. Brian V. McDonnell

"In a bombing that took place on February 16, 1970, and that was credited to the Weathermen at the time,[19][20] a pipe bomb filled with heavy metal staples and lead bullet projectiles was set off on the ledge of a window at the Park Station of the San Francisco Police Department. In the blast, Brian V. McDonnell, a police sergeant, was fatally wounded while Robert Fogarty, another police officer, received severe wounds to his face and legs and was partially blinded.[21]

Weatherman leader Bernardine Dohrn has been suspected of involvement in the February 16, 1970, bombing of the Park Police Station in San Francisco. At the time, Dohrn was said to be living with a Weatherman cell in a houseboat in Sausalito, California, unnamed law enforcement sources later told KRON-TV.[22]

An investigation into the case was reopened in 1999,[23] and a San Francisco grand jury looked into the incident, but no indictments followed,[22] and no one was ever arrested for the bombing.[23]

An FBI informant, Larry Grathwohl, who successfully penetrated the organization from the late summer of 1969 until April 1970, later testified to a U.S. Senate subcommittee that Bill Ayers, then a high-ranking member of the organization and a member of its Central Committee (but not then Dohrn's husband), had said Dohrn constructed and planted the bomb. Grathwohl testified that Ayers had told him specifically where the bomb was placed (on a window ledge) and what kind of shrapnel was put in it. Grathwohl said Ayers was emphatic, leading Grathwohl to believe Ayers either was present at some point during the operation or had heard about it from someone who was there.[24]

In a book about his experiences published in 1976, Grathwohl wrote that Ayers, who had recently attended a meeting of the group's Central Committee, said Dohrn had planned the operation, made the bomb and placed it herself.[25] In 2008, author David Freddoso commented that "Ayers and Dohrn escaped prosecution only because of government misconduct in collecting evidence against them", Freddoso wrote.[24][26]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weatherman_(organization)#Anti-personnel_bomb_set_on_window-ledge_in_San_Francisco

SOURCES:

[19] http://www.lapismagazine.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=110&Itemid=59

[20] Former Weatherman Larry Grathwohl's October 18, 1974 testimony to the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee

[21] http://www.sfpoa.org/journal/journals/20070201.pdf
(SAN FRANCISCO POLICE OFFICERS ASSOCIATION)

[22] http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=1519460

[23] http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/17/BAGPRO6J7J1.DTL&type=printable

[24] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_Against_Barack_Obama

[25] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0870003350

[26] http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=ODVlZTZlM2M5NTMxMzllMjJkODVkNzQ3YTFjMTY0NzE=

[Travis McGee]

ping

[Mr Ramsbotham]

This was the bombing mentioned by the Zodiac Killer in a 1970 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. Maybe the two were in cohoots with him?

[Travis McGee]

Whoops, I meant to ping you.

[TurtleUp]

...that killed a sergeant ... "There are irrefutable and compelling reasons to believe that Bill Ayers and his wife Bernardine Dohrn ... are largely responsible for the bombing of Park Police Station," the letter says.

But Obama says that Ayers is "mainstream". For once, I believe Obama: Ayers is as mainstream as our current White House resident.

[Travis McGee]

“Ayers and Dohrn escaped prosecution only because of government misconduct in collecting evidence against them”

Translation: a sympathetic leftist judge sprang them.

[Diogenesis]

Ayers is an education professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago.
Dohrn is a law professor at Northwestern University despite the fact
she has no licence to practice law

[fooman]

statute of limitations...

[ETL]

Thanks.

From the Wikipedia article...
(references 24, 25, 26 provided above)

“An FBI informant, Larry Grathwohl, who successfully penetrated the organization from the late summer of 1969 until April 1970, later testified to a U.S. Senate subcommittee that Bill Ayers, then a high-ranking member of the organization and a member of its Central Committee (but not then Dohrn’s husband), had said Dohrn constructed and planted the bomb. Grathwohl testified that Ayers had told him specifically where the bomb was placed (on a window ledge) and what kind of shrapnel was put in it. Grathwohl said Ayers was emphatic, leading Grathwohl to believe Ayers either was present at some point during the operation or had heard about it from someone who was there.[24]

In a book about his experiences published in 1976, Grathwohl wrote that Ayers, who had recently attended a meeting of the group’s Central Committee, said Dohrn had planned the operation, made the bomb and placed it herself.[25] In 2008, author David Freddoso commented that “Ayers and Dohrn escaped prosecution only because of government misconduct in collecting evidence against them”, Freddoso wrote.[24][26]”

[2ndClassCitizen]

You ever hear of the Hatfields and McCoys?

[tflabo]

Double indemnity perhaps? Or are these different potential charges?

[Reeses]

statute of limitations...

There is no statute of limitations for murder.

[Canedawg]

He said that in the early 1970, Ayers visited him and other operatives in Buffalo, N.Y.

That's interesting. I attended UB in the 70s and there were some VERY left wing professors teaching there at the time. I even remember one or two names, and recall that they were very "tuned in" to the leftist movement. The women's studies and counterculture courses at SUNY Buffalo were hotbeds of leftist thought.

[cgk]

Bump and ping... for anyone who missed WPtG's viral videos from the elections:

The Lowdown on the Weathermen

Barack 0bama, William Ayers & ACORN

and Larry Grathwohl from this article speaks out on what he witnessed while undercover in the Weather Underground:

Weathermen Plotted Re-Education Camps, Genocide

[nufsed]

Any member of the Weather Underground who is still alive is a symbol of injustice and lack of commitment we have to ridding ourselves of terrorists.

[Ev Reeman]

It would be nice if this was investigated fully and if evidence shows Ayers and Dorhn were responsible that they be prosecuted to the fullest extant of the law. If found guilty it would be a major embarrassment to the Obama administration but then this is what happens when liberals get involved with terrorists even domestic ones.

[nufsed]

And all the other useful idiots who hold this guy in high esteem and invite him to speak.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Ultimate irony= bill ayers calling the police to come to his luxury townhouse in Chicago after Fox news reporter wanted to talk to him as he got out of his car in front of his place after shopping. HA! calling the cops to complain and ask them to help him. Yeesh.

SCUM!!!

[nufsed]

LOL. Yes I saw that.

This guy has been on TV a lot since the election, but I can't watch or listen. His time was up 35 years ago.