Oh, well then, no harm, no foul...
The AP is a joke. They are trying to downplay the terrorist angle to mitigate any possible tarnish to Obama from hanging around with such people. Can anybody imagine an AP story about a hypothetical non-Obama politician with pals who were Ex-KKK 'nonfatal' cross burners or 'nonfatal' black church burners?
Also notice the AP's deceptive-on-its-face construct of "took credit for", intended to leave readers with some doubt that they actually "committed" those acts.
After all, Bill Clinton "took credit for" things that took place during his presidency over which he had little or no responsibility or control...
Anybody want to guess whether the AP referred to the Unabomber or Charles Manson et al as merely 'taking credit for' their acts?
“... nonfatal explosions at the Pentagon”
and the terrorist on United 93 were just out for a joyride gone bad, I suppose. Eh, MSM?
Compare, for example McCain. Much more realistic scenario: McCain is Pro-life, anti-abortion. Suppose he had a long association with an abortion clinic bomber who while admitting the bombings, got off because of government bungling of the case. Suppose the bomber said in a newspaper article "we didn't do enough." Think the press would ignore it? Not in a minute.