By ANY definition, whether or not people's lives were at stake in the bombings, the Weather Underground WAS a domestic terrorist group. The whole point of blowing up buildings was to send a message, and yes, to create fear in a wrongheaded attempt to bring about change in Vietnam War policy. Unfortunately, the group's actions helped create a public backlash with still exists today.
It isn't entirely accurate to say nobody died as a result of their actions; after all, Bill Ayers' girlfriend at the time, Diana Oughton, and two other people (Ted Gold and Terry Robbins), were killed in the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion on March 6, 1970.
A recent article about is here. A snip of the details:
In February 1970, Ms. [Cathy] Wilkerson was ordered to go to New York, reuniting her with Terry Robbins, a leader of the group with whom she had defied the antimonogamy policy. They set about building pipe bombs, with Fort Dix the main target. She persuaded her father to let her stay in the town house on 11th Street while he was away, saying she had the flu. He reluctantly agreed. The rest of the group moved in.
On the day her father was to return, she was ironing bed linens. Revolutionaries they may have been, but Ms. Wilkerson did not want him to know they had been sleeping in his beds; it had never been her own home.
As she worked in the kitchen, the room exploded. The pipe bombs in the basement had gone off, detonating three cases of dynamite. Mr. Robbins, Diane Oughton and Ted Gold were killed.
Ms. Boudin had been taking a shower, Ms. Wilkerson writes, and together they crawled out of the wreckage. A neighbor brought them inside and gave them clothes. They found a single subway token, then walked to the subway on Sixth Avenue. They went through the turnstile together and did not look back.
Incidentially, Bill Ayers has a blog.
