Regrets Only
Terrorism chic at the New York Times.

By John J. Miller & Ramesh Ponnuru
September 18, 2001 5:45 p.m.

n the very morning terrorists would take 5,000 lives in New York City and Washington, the New York Times printed a celebratory profile of 1970s terrorist Bill Ayers. "I don't regret setting bombs," said Ayers, in a Times interview whose purpose was to promote Ayers's new memoir, Fugitive Days. "I feel we didn't do enough."

Those comments would have drawn attention no matter when they were spoken — Ayers was in the Weathermen, a homegrown terrorist group that killed innocent Americans but nevertheless achieved chic status among left-wingers who admired its "ideals." But it's especially creepy to think that somebody in the World Trade Center was reading Dinitia Smith's fawning profile of him (headlined "Life With the Weathermen: No Regrets for a Love of Explosives") at precisely 8:45 am on September 11.

For a man of no regrets, Ayers did seem somewhat humbled after last week's carnage. The Times printed a letter of his on Sunday: "I'm filled with horror and grief for those murdered and harmed. . . . We are witnessing crimes against humanity." He didn't retract his words, as he should have done, but at least he implicitly acknowledged that they weren't wholly appropriate. Even a man of low morals can have a small sense of decency. The letter was short and to the point.

And it was edited. NR has obtained a copy of the original missive Ayers sent to the Times, which includes this line: "I fear that we might soon see innocent people in other parts of the world as well as in the U.S. dying and suffering in response." In other words, the American government's response to mass murder will be morally equivalent to what happened on September 11.

There's more: "My book . . . is an unambivalent criticism of the glorification of violence. It would be preposterous to use it now to suggest that any of the Vietnam-era protestors would endorse acts of terrorism such as those we witnessed in horror this week." Why would anyone come to such a preposterous view? Well, there is Ayers's comment in Fugitive Days that there is "a certain eloquence to bombs, a poetry and a pattern from a safe distance." The book begins with the words, "Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon" — a reference to a 1972 incident that caused extensive damage to the defense building.

The Times has not apologized for its toadying treatment of Ayers — it even ran another puff-piece on him in its Sunday magazine. The Times's front page did, however, note that the magazine had gone to press before Tuesday. (Was it inserted into the Sunday newspaper that early too? And why exactly were two puff pieces on Ayers a good idea beforehand?)

The Times is not the only party that has some explaining to do. The University of Illinois at Chicago made Ayers a "distinguished" professor of education, and Beacon Press published his book.

Will any of these institutions, in light of what happened last week, apologize for allowing this man to profit from violence — a man who says he doesn't think he set off enough bombs a generation ago? Probably not. It doesn't take a weatherman to know which way the wind is blowing.

D.C. Event
The America's Future Foundation is running a panel Wednesday night on "Ending Terrorism." Panelists include Gary Schmitt, executive director of the Project for a New American Century, and Christian Lowe of Defense Week. The discussion begins at 7:30 at the Fund for American Studies (1706 New Hampshire Ave NW); there will be drinks beforehand starting at 7, and probably afterward.

On the Site
Ramesh Ponnuru on Fr. Andrew Greeley.