No real shocker here, but the Los Angeles Times is refusing to release a video they possess of a large sendoff for PLO spokesman Rashid Khalidi, Barack Obama’s colleague at the University of Chicago, before his departure for Columbia University in New York in 2003. The Times is saying they promised a “confidential source” not to release the tape. McCain is now demanding the release of the tape. If he had been at a KKK rally, or hanging out with terrorists, you can bet the tape would be running 24/7.
Obama was front and center at the banquet, fondly recounting his good times with the outspoken hater of Israel and his wife Mona. (Researchers into the matter have discovered that the Khalidis BABYSAT for Barack and Michelle’s girls.) Obama recounted the joy of the many meals he and Michelle had shared with the Khalidis in their home. Bill Ayers was there, with Weather Underground wife Bernadine Dohrn.
There is a thread that runs through many of Obama’s troubling close relationships, and it is the thread of corrupt Chicago politics. Tony Rezko- Chicago’s Tony Soprano, Ayers, Jeremiah Wright are just a few of the many far left players in Chicago’s political machine. The Palestinian cause and vote were very important for Obama’s election to the Illinois State Senate, as they are now for the radicals who are the high-level fuel for his Presidential campaign. Obama can talk, talk, talk about being a “friend” to Israel, but actions and close friendships speak a hell of a lot louder than words.
The Times did do a softball writeup on the banquet in April. They conveniently left OUT the Ayers’ attendance, abd the fact that the event was sponsored by the Arab American Action Network (AAAN), which had been founded by Khalidi and his wife, Mona, formerly a top English translator for Arafat’s press agency. The Times couldn’t cloud EVERYTHING in their story, however, as there would be nothing left to write about. Here’s an excerpt from Pete Wallsten’s LA Times article:
It was a celebration of Palestinian culture — a night of music, dancing and a dash of politics. Local Arab Americans were bidding farewell to Rashid Khalidi, an internationally known scholar, critic of Israel and advocate for Palestinian rights, who was leaving town for a job in New York.
A special tribute came from Khalidi’s friend and frequent dinner companion, the young state Sen. Barack Obama. Speaking to the crowd, Obama reminisced about meals prepared by Khalidi’s wife, Mona, and conversations that had challenged his thinking.
His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases. . . . It’s for that reason that I’m hoping that, for many years to come, we continue that conversation — a conversation that is necessary not just around Mona and Rashid’s dinner table,” but around “this entire world.”…
[T]he warm embrace Obama gave to Khalidi, and words like those at the professor’s going-away party, have left some Palestinian American leaders believing that Obama is more receptive to their viewpoint than he is willing to say.
Their belief is not drawn from Obama’s speeches or campaign literature, but from comments that some say Obama made in private and from his association with the Palestinian American community in his hometown of Chicago, including his presence at events where anger at Israeli and U.S. Middle East policy was freely expressed.
At Khalidi’s 2003 farewell party, for example, a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, “then you will never see a day of peace.”
One speaker likened “Zionist settlers on the West Bank” to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been “blinded by ideology.”
Obama adopted a different tone in his comments and called for finding common ground. But his presence at such events, as he worked to build a political base in Chicago, has led some Palestinian leaders to believe that he might deal differently with the Middle East than … his opponents for the White House….
At Khalidi’s going-away party in 2003, the scholar lavished praise on Obama, telling the mostly Palestinian American crowd that the state senator deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat. “You will not have a better senator under any circumstances,” Khalidi said.
The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times.
Though Khalidi has seen little of Sen. Obama in recent years, Michelle Obama attended a party several months ago celebrating the marriage of the Khalidis’ daughter.
In interviews with The Times, Khalidi declined to discuss specifics of private talks over the years with Obama. He did not begrudge his friend for being out of touch, or for focusing more these days on his support for Israel — a stance that Khalidi calls a requirement to win a national election in the U.S., just as wooing Chicago’s large Arab American community was important for winning local elections.
Yep, Pete let it slip that there’s a video. Now that the LA Times has given Obama their official endorsement, the paper is surely wishing it had ignored the event altogether. A very thorough report on the whole mess is here from the NRO. It is well worth your time to read; you may be about to vote for some “change” you NEVER bargained for.