Fausta’s Blog

Erik has a new video, but before we get to that, the McCain campaign has finally insisted that the LA Times release a video where Obama, Ayers, and PLO supporters toast Edward Said’s successor, Rashid Khalidi — former mouthpiece for master terrorist Yasser Arafat - at a dinner sponsored by the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) in 2003.

Notice who unearthed this story, which the LA Times is holding back:

Gateway Pundit reports that the Times has the videotape but is suppressing it.

Back in April, the Times published a gentle story about the fete. Reporter Peter Wallsten avoided, for example, any mention of the inconvenient fact that the revelers included Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, Ayers’s wife and fellow Weatherman terrorist. These self-professed revolutionary Leftists are friendly with both Obama and Khalidi — indeed, researcher Stanley Kurtz has noted that Ayers and Khalidi were “best friends” (And — small world! — it turns out that the Obamas are extremely close to the Khalidis, who have reportedly babysat the Obama children.)

Nor did the Times report the party was thrown by AAAN. Wallsten does tell us that the AAAN received grants from the Leftist Woods Fund when Obama was on its board — but, besides understating the amount (it was $75,000, not $40,000), the Times mentions neither that Ayers was also on the Woods board at the time nor that AAAN is rabidly anti-Israel. (Though the organization regards Israel as illegitimate and has sought to justify Palestinian terrorism, Wallsten describes the AAAN as “a social service group.”)

Perhaps even more inconveniently, the Times also let slip that it had obtained a videotape of the party.

No videotape, no full transcript have been released of what was said at this event as of the writing of this post. Andy McCarthy asks,

Given Obama’s (preposterous) claims that he didn’t know Ayers that well and was unfamiliar with Ayers’s views, why didn’t the Times report that Ayers and Dohrn were at the bash? Was it not worth mentioning the remarkable coincidence that both Obama and Ayers — the “education reform” allies who barely know each other … except to the extent they together doled out tens of millions of dollars to Leftist agitators, attacked the criminal justice system, and raved about each others books — just happen to be intimate friends of the same anti-American Israel-basher?

But hey, Khalidi, like Ayers, lived down the street from Obama, too:

Khalidi later lived near Obama while teaching at the University of Chicago.

Well, yes, but according to the LA Times,

• Obama had taken an English class from Said as an undergraduate at Columbia University
• The Kalidis and the Obamas “became friends and dinner companions”
• In 2000, the Khalidis held a fundraiser for Obama’s unsuccessful congressional bid
• In 2001 a social service group whose board was headed by Mona Khalidi received a $40,000 grant from a local charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, when Obama served on the fund’s board of directors.
• Michelle Obama attended a party several months ago celebrating the marriage of the Khalidis’ daughter.

I list the above to make the point that Khalidi is not a simple casual acquaintance.

And then there’s the videotaped party which tape the LAT refuses to release:

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 LA Time’s excuse for not releasing the tape?

“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,” said the newspaper’s editor, Russ Stanton. “The Times keeps its promises to sources.”

I can see why the LAT won’t reveal the name of its source, but why not release the tape? Is it perhaps that the source fears for their safety? The LAT has had no compunction in revealing a classified counterterrorism program, so why demur now?

How damming can it be?

Let’s find out:

$25,000 reward for the tape

Or, as far as the LAT goes, Why not just say “the dog ate it?”

The media’s in the tank for Obama. It’s getting to the point that even the cat can understand it:

Ayers is also not simply a casual acquaintance of the Obamas: Dig it!

UPDATE
Via LGF, Zombietime reseached Barack Obama’s Close Encounter with the Weather Underground. Go read every word.

UPDATE 2
Via LGF

$150,000 REWARD for the tape

Previous posts on Ayers here

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 29th, 2008 at 8:08 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Democrats, Election2008, Fausta's blog, Israel, PLO, William Ayers, politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.