Thursday, October 30, 2008
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
LA Times Refuses to Release Tape of Obama Praising Controversial Activist
Video of farewell party for alleged PLO worker shows Obama toasting 'friend and dinner companion' with questionable past.
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 to1982 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."
Click here to read the original LA Times story: 'Palestinians See a Friend in Barack Obama.'
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.
The LA Times told FOXNews.com that it won't reveal how it obtained the tape of Khalidi's farewell party, nor will the newspaper release it. Spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said the paper is not interested in revisiting the story. "As far as we're concerned, the story speaks for itself," she said.
The newspaper reported Tuesday evening in a story on its Web site that the tape was from a confidential source.
"The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it," the Times' editor, Russ Stanton, said. "The Times keeps its promises to sources."
In recent months Obama has distanced himself from the man the Times says he once called a friend. "He is not one of my advisers. He's not one of my foreign policy people," Obama said at a campaign event in May. "He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy."
But on the tape, according to the Times, Obama said in his toast that he hoped his relationship with Khalidi would continue even after the professor left Chicago. "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."
A number of Web sites have accused the Times of purposely suppressing the tape of the event -- which former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn reportedly attended.
Sullivan said she would not give details of what else may be on the tape, adding that anyone interested in the video should read the newspaper's report, which was its final account.
"This is a story that we reported on six months ago, so any suggestion that we're suppressing the tape is absurd -- we're the ones that brought the existence of the tape to light," Sullivan said.
The Los Angeles Times endorsed Obama for president on October 19.
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 to1982 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."
Click here to read the original LA Times story: 'Palestinians See a Friend in Barack Obama.'
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.
The LA Times told FOXNews.com that it won't reveal how it obtained the tape of Khalidi's farewell party, nor will the newspaper release it. Spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan said the paper is not interested in revisiting the story. "As far as we're concerned, the story speaks for itself," she said.
The newspaper reported Tuesday evening in a story on its Web site that the tape was from a confidential source.
"The Los Angeles Times did not publish the videotape because it was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it," the Times' editor, Russ Stanton, said. "The Times keeps its promises to sources."
In recent months Obama has distanced himself from the man the Times says he once called a friend. "He is not one of my advisers. He's not one of my foreign policy people," Obama said at a campaign event in May. "He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy."
But on the tape, according to the Times, Obama said in his toast that he hoped his relationship with Khalidi would continue even after the professor left Chicago. "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."
A number of Web sites have accused the Times of purposely suppressing the tape of the event -- which former Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn reportedly attended.
Sullivan said she would not give details of what else may be on the tape, adding that anyone interested in the video should read the newspaper's report, which was its final account.
"This is a story that we reported on six months ago, so any suggestion that we're suppressing the tape is absurd -- we're the ones that brought the existence of the tape to light," Sullivan said.
The Los Angeles Times endorsed Obama for president on October 19.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Friday, October 17, 2008
The Audacity of Lies
By: Mike Gallagher
I understand what it means to fight hard, but fight fair. After a lifetime of making my living offering opinions on the radio, I try and follow that philosophy each and every day.
Many of us wear our beliefs on our sleeve. You know where we stand on issues, ideology and politicians.
But we don’t lie.
We don’t make stuff up out of whole cloth in a desperate attempt to win the argument.
We find it repulsive to try and trick people into believing things that aren’t true.
And after this week’s third and final presidential debate, I was dumbfounded by the audacity of lies that came from the Democrat candidate on that Hofstra University stage.
I know that calling someone – anyone – a liar is a serious charge. But in just one brief period of time, Sen. Obama demonstrated his enthusiasm for outright falsehoods, over and over again.
The lies ranged from the silly to the intricate.
At one point, Sen. Obama insisted that John McCain’s campaign has produced “100% negative” campaign ads. When Sen. McCain tried to interrupt and say that wasn’t true, Obama said, “Absolutely it is.”
So Sen. McCain is guilty of negative campaign commercials “100 percent” of the time, Sen. Obama?
Really?
I have a transcript of the extraordinary campaign ad that the McCain campaign produced and aired nationally the day that Obama gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The spot was voiced by Sen. McCain himself.
Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. You know, too often, the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we’ll be back at it. But tonight, Senator: a job well done. I’m John McCain and I approved this message.
What a blistering, negative ad, huh?
Believe me, the Obama campaign hasn’t spent one dime on any kind of message that contained that kind of class and grace directed towards Sen. McCain. For Obama to suggest that a campaign capable of that kind of positive message in the middle of a hard-fought campaign has been “100 percent negative” is simply a downright lie.
When Obama’s vote for the Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act came up in the debate, Obama lied again. He claimed: “There was already a law on the books that required lifesaving treatment, which is why…I voted against it.”
At no point in history has Sen. Obama or his colleagues ever cited this 1975 law as a reason for voting against the bill in Illinois. More importantly, the law only protected “viable” infants – and left the meaning of “viable” up to the abortion doctor who just failed to kill the baby in the womb.
More lies.
And finally, one of the biggest lies of all, that Republicans failed to reign in wild, foaming-at-the-mouth supporters who screamed, “Kill him” when Obama’s name was mentioned.
When Obama brought this allegation up during the debate, he repeated a charge that, according to the U.S. Secret Service, appears to be the fabrication of a small-town newspaper reporter named David Singleton.
When the agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton read the reporter’s claim, that a man was heard yelling, “Kill him” after a congressional candidate mentioned Obama, he was “baffled.” After all, Agent Bill Slavoski was at the rally along with an “undisclosed” number of additional Secret Service agents.
He told the Pennsylvania Times-Leader, “We have yet to find someone to back up the story.” The office actually conducted an investigation and interviewed countless witnesses. “We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it.”
In other words, the only person at that rally in Scranton with thousands of witnesses who claims he heard someone threaten Sen. Obama, Scranton Times-Tribune reporter Singleton, was the only person in a position to make that charge in a newspaper column, something he did with great enthusiasm. His bizarre (and apparently ridiculous) claim was dutifully reported by the Associated Press, ABC, the Washington Monthly, and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann
Lies, lies and more lies.
And Obama perpetuated the lie during the debate by chastising Gov. Sarah Palin for not doing anything about it!
I don’t know what is going to happen on November 4th. But I think it’s going to boil down to whether or not enough Americans have been fooled by this serial liar.
For the sake of our country, I sure hope not.
Many of us wear our beliefs on our sleeve. You know where we stand on issues, ideology and politicians.
But we don’t lie.
We don’t make stuff up out of whole cloth in a desperate attempt to win the argument.
We find it repulsive to try and trick people into believing things that aren’t true.
And after this week’s third and final presidential debate, I was dumbfounded by the audacity of lies that came from the Democrat candidate on that Hofstra University stage.
I know that calling someone – anyone – a liar is a serious charge. But in just one brief period of time, Sen. Obama demonstrated his enthusiasm for outright falsehoods, over and over again.
The lies ranged from the silly to the intricate.
At one point, Sen. Obama insisted that John McCain’s campaign has produced “100% negative” campaign ads. When Sen. McCain tried to interrupt and say that wasn’t true, Obama said, “Absolutely it is.”
So Sen. McCain is guilty of negative campaign commercials “100 percent” of the time, Sen. Obama?
Really?
I have a transcript of the extraordinary campaign ad that the McCain campaign produced and aired nationally the day that Obama gave his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. The spot was voiced by Sen. McCain himself.
Senator Obama, this is truly a good day for America. You know, too often, the achievements of our opponents go unnoticed. So I wanted to stop and say, congratulations. How perfect that your nomination would come on this historic day. Tomorrow, we’ll be back at it. But tonight, Senator: a job well done. I’m John McCain and I approved this message.
What a blistering, negative ad, huh?
Believe me, the Obama campaign hasn’t spent one dime on any kind of message that contained that kind of class and grace directed towards Sen. McCain. For Obama to suggest that a campaign capable of that kind of positive message in the middle of a hard-fought campaign has been “100 percent negative” is simply a downright lie.
When Obama’s vote for the Illinois version of the Born Alive Infant Protection Act came up in the debate, Obama lied again. He claimed: “There was already a law on the books that required lifesaving treatment, which is why…I voted against it.”
At no point in history has Sen. Obama or his colleagues ever cited this 1975 law as a reason for voting against the bill in Illinois. More importantly, the law only protected “viable” infants – and left the meaning of “viable” up to the abortion doctor who just failed to kill the baby in the womb.
More lies.
And finally, one of the biggest lies of all, that Republicans failed to reign in wild, foaming-at-the-mouth supporters who screamed, “Kill him” when Obama’s name was mentioned.
When Obama brought this allegation up during the debate, he repeated a charge that, according to the U.S. Secret Service, appears to be the fabrication of a small-town newspaper reporter named David Singleton.
When the agent in charge of the Secret Service field office in Scranton read the reporter’s claim, that a man was heard yelling, “Kill him” after a congressional candidate mentioned Obama, he was “baffled.” After all, Agent Bill Slavoski was at the rally along with an “undisclosed” number of additional Secret Service agents.
He told the Pennsylvania Times-Leader, “We have yet to find someone to back up the story.” The office actually conducted an investigation and interviewed countless witnesses. “We had people all over and we have yet to find anyone who said they heard it.”
In other words, the only person at that rally in Scranton with thousands of witnesses who claims he heard someone threaten Sen. Obama, Scranton Times-Tribune reporter Singleton, was the only person in a position to make that charge in a newspaper column, something he did with great enthusiasm. His bizarre (and apparently ridiculous) claim was dutifully reported by the Associated Press, ABC, the Washington Monthly, and MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann
Lies, lies and more lies.
And Obama perpetuated the lie during the debate by chastising Gov. Sarah Palin for not doing anything about it!
I don’t know what is going to happen on November 4th. But I think it’s going to boil down to whether or not enough Americans have been fooled by this serial liar.
For the sake of our country, I sure hope not.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Obama Coordinator Meets With Muslim Extremists
Obama Muslim Outreach Coordinator Under Fire for Meeting With Extremists
Barak Obama's Muslim outreach adviser is under fire for meeting with Islamic groups with extremist views, just months after her predecessor resigned for links to a radical cleric.
FOXNews.com
Friday, October 10, 2008
Barack Obama's newly appointed Muslim outreach adviser is coming under fire for meeting with Islamic groups with extremist views, just two months after her predecessor resigned over links to a radical cleric.
Minha Husaini met with members of several Islamic organizations in Virginia on September 15 -- including some that terrorism experts say have ties to Hamas and the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
Among the attendees were senior members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was listed by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-related trial.
Several people connected to CAIR have been convicted of felonies -- including on terrorism-related charges.
CAIR bills itself as the nation's largest Muslim civil-rights advocacy group. As recently as last year, it advised the Transportation Security Administration on sensitivity training regarding Muslim air travelers. Nihad Awad, a CAIR co-founder and executive director, met with President Bush in the aftermath of 9/11.
But critics say CAIR has a long history of masquerading as a moderate Islamic group.
"These groups, even if they themselves are not active terrorist organizations, do subscribe to large amounts of the ideology that fuels the terrorism that we are being confronted with," said Andrew McCarthy, former Assistant U.S. Attorney.
CAIR did not return repeated calls for comment.
Awad, who was at the September meeting with Husaini, recently attended a dinner with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Also present at the Sept. 15 meeting was Mahdi Bray, who has publicly announced his support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, raised his fist in the air during a rally in Washington in October 2000 to demonstrate his support for the terror groups.
Bray refused to comment on the recent gathering. "It was a closed meeting," he told FOX News.
Johari Abdul Malik, imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Va., also participated in the meeting. During a conference in Chicago in 2001, he told attendees, "You can blow up bridges, but you cannot kill people who are innocent on their way to work." In November 2004 he told followers, "You will see Islam move from being the second largest religion in America -- to being the first religion in America."
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the campaign would not have sent a representative to the meeting had it known the list of participants.
"This meeting was not organized by the campaign -- our outreach staff attends many meetings in the course of each day and they accepted an invitation from community leaders to attend," LaBolt told FOX News in a written statement.
The Obama campaign's previous Muslim outreach advisor, Mazen Asbahi -- who stepped down in August following reports he was linked to a radical imam -- also attended the meeting.
In a brief telephone conversation, Asbahi refused to discuss why he was at the meeting or whom he was representing.
According to LaBolt, "[Asbahi] is not an employee of the campaign and does not speak on behalf of the campaign."
Barak Obama's Muslim outreach adviser is under fire for meeting with Islamic groups with extremist views, just months after her predecessor resigned for links to a radical cleric.
FOXNews.com
Friday, October 10, 2008
Barack Obama's newly appointed Muslim outreach adviser is coming under fire for meeting with Islamic groups with extremist views, just two months after her predecessor resigned over links to a radical cleric.
Minha Husaini met with members of several Islamic organizations in Virginia on September 15 -- including some that terrorism experts say have ties to Hamas and the radical Muslim Brotherhood.
Among the attendees were senior members of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, which was listed by federal prosecutors as an unindicted co-conspirator in a terror-related trial.
Several people connected to CAIR have been convicted of felonies -- including on terrorism-related charges.
CAIR bills itself as the nation's largest Muslim civil-rights advocacy group. As recently as last year, it advised the Transportation Security Administration on sensitivity training regarding Muslim air travelers. Nihad Awad, a CAIR co-founder and executive director, met with President Bush in the aftermath of 9/11.
But critics say CAIR has a long history of masquerading as a moderate Islamic group.
"These groups, even if they themselves are not active terrorist organizations, do subscribe to large amounts of the ideology that fuels the terrorism that we are being confronted with," said Andrew McCarthy, former Assistant U.S. Attorney.
CAIR did not return repeated calls for comment.
Awad, who was at the September meeting with Husaini, recently attended a dinner with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Also present at the Sept. 15 meeting was Mahdi Bray, who has publicly announced his support for the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Bray, the executive director of the Muslim American Society Freedom Foundation, raised his fist in the air during a rally in Washington in October 2000 to demonstrate his support for the terror groups.
Bray refused to comment on the recent gathering. "It was a closed meeting," he told FOX News.
Johari Abdul Malik, imam of the Dar Al-Hijrah Mosque in Falls Church, Va., also participated in the meeting. During a conference in Chicago in 2001, he told attendees, "You can blow up bridges, but you cannot kill people who are innocent on their way to work." In November 2004 he told followers, "You will see Islam move from being the second largest religion in America -- to being the first religion in America."
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt said the campaign would not have sent a representative to the meeting had it known the list of participants.
"This meeting was not organized by the campaign -- our outreach staff attends many meetings in the course of each day and they accepted an invitation from community leaders to attend," LaBolt told FOX News in a written statement.
The Obama campaign's previous Muslim outreach advisor, Mazen Asbahi -- who stepped down in August following reports he was linked to a radical imam -- also attended the meeting.
In a brief telephone conversation, Asbahi refused to discuss why he was at the meeting or whom he was representing.
According to LaBolt, "[Asbahi] is not an employee of the campaign and does not speak on behalf of the campaign."
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