FoxNews reports:
The Los Angeles Times is refusing to release a videotape that it says shows Barack Obama praising a Chicago professor who was an alleged mouthpiece for the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was a designated terrorist group in the 1970s and '80s.
According an LA Times article written by Peter Wallsten in April, Obama was a "friend and frequent dinner companion" of Rashid Khalidi, who from 1976 to 1982 was reportedly a director of the official Palestinian press agency, WAFA, which was operating in exile from Beirut with the PLO.
In the article -- based on the videotape obtained by the Times -- Wallsten said Obama addressed an audience during a 2003 farewell dinner for Khalidi, who was Obama's colleague at the University of Chicago, before his departure for Columbia University in New York. Obama said his many talks with Khalidi and his wife Mona stood as "consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases."
On Wednesday, John McCain's campaign accused the newspaper of deliberately suppressing information that could establish the link between the Democratic presidential candidate and the former PLO spokesman.
"Khalidi was a frequent dinner guest at the Obama's home and at his farewell dinner in 2003 Obama joined the unrepentant terrorist William Ayers in giving testimonials on Khalidi's role in the community," McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb said in a written statement. "The election is one week away, and it's unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job -- make information public."
Khalidi is currently the Edward Said professor of Arab Studies at Columbia. A pro-Palestinian activist, he has been a fierce critic of American foreign policy and of Israel, which he has accused of establishing an "apartheid system" of government. The PLO advocate helped facilitate negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the early '90s, but he has denied he was ever an employee of the group, contradicting accounts in the New York Times and Washington Times.
If you want to see this video released, here's an email address to the Letters to the Editor for the Los Angeles Times: letters@latimes.com
If you want your letter to the Times published, include your address and phone number.
4 comments:
well, John McCain did give Rashid Khalidi half a million dollars from International Republican Institute (he was the chairman in the 90s) to the Center for Palestine Research and Studies (Khalidi co-founded it) in 1998. and 15 years ago they gave money to the group to study Palestinian attitudes.
hmm. gave him money. LOTS of money. if having dinner with someone makes 'em bad, what does giving them that kind of money do?
David
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Rashid Khalidi
JERUSALEM – Sen. John McCain chaired an organization that granted substantial funding to a Palestinian research group co-chaired by Mideast professor Rashid Khalidi, a harsh critic of Israel and apologist for Palestinian terror.
The report – first carried by the Huffington Post website – comes amid harsh criticism from McCain's campaign of Sen. Barack Obama for his personal and financial ties to Khalidi.
The website documented how in the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several documented grants, including one worth about half a million dollars, to the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, or CPRS, a West Bank organization associated with Khalidi.
Unreported by the Huffington Post is that the CPRS, with which Khalidi was for a time moderately involved, is pro-Western and can be characterized as pro-Israel.
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You could do much better than to rely on the Huffington Post for your information. - a.
hi Armand! actually, i didn't get it from Huffington, though i consider them just as credible as say, Michelle Malkin. still, i appreciate more knowledge about everything, right and left. just seems to me if you give money to the man (or his group), you should be careful of stones you throw.
peace!
David
I'm sure your source got it from Huffington.
Khalidi apparently a minor (and short-term) player for CPRS. That's not the issue. The issue is that a major news organization is suppressing a video of an event that may or may not have damaging info on Obama.
People have a right to know and make up their minds after viewing it. There may be something there, there may not be. - A.
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