DOV HIKIND’S STATEMENT BELOW Los Angeles, CA – John McCain’s campaign is demanding that the Los Angeles Times release a video of a party for a prominent Palestinian activist that Barack Obama attended in 2003.
The Times described the going-away party for former University of Chicago professor, and Obama friend, Rashid Khalidi, in a story in April. The story reported that Palestinians thought they might have a friend in Obama because of his friendships in that community, despite the fact that his positions have never been particularly pro-Palestinian.
“A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi,” said McCain spokesman Michael Goldfarb, citing Obama’s friendship with Khalidi, who is now a professor at Columbia University.
He said the video could, among other things, show how Obama responded to a poem recited at the party accusing Israel of “terrorism” and warning of consequences for U.S. support for Israel, which Goldfarb described as “hate speech.”
“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,” he said.
The campaign hadn’t previously demanded the video, though conservative bloggers have, and neither other reporters nor McCain’s researchers have been able to dig up a copy.
Khalidi is a controversial figure, reviled by pro-Israel activists, though not a marginal one. A former professor at the University of Chicago, he’s now Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies at Columbia, and respected by many in academia. He’s been criticized most for saying that Palestinians have a right to resist Israeli occupation and has been described as a former P.L.O. spokesman, a label he has denied.
The paper hasn’t explained its unwillingness to release the video, and Peter Wallsten, who found the tape and wrote about it, declined to discuss it with me last night. He forwarded an e-mail that the paper has sent readers who have complained as conservative blogs raise the issue.
“Over six months ago the Los Angeles Times published a detailed account of the events shown on the videotape. The Times is not suppressing anything. Just the opposite — the L.A. Times brought the matter to light,” wrote the readers’ representative, Jamie Gold.
L.A. Times spokeswoman Nancy Sullivan wouldn’t discuss the decision not to release the tape in detail.
“When we reported on the tape six months ago, that was our full report,” she said, and asked, “Does Politico release unpublished information?”
The answer to that question, of course, is yes — Politico and most news outlets constantly make available videos and documents, while after describing them in part, which is why the Times’ decision not to release the video is puzzling. My instinct, and many reporters’ at this point, is to share as much source material as possible.
Critics have suggested that the Times is witholding the video for political reasons, but there are other possibilities: competitive reasons, or out of tradition. In the internal mechanics of reporting, there’s another possibility as well. The video may have been given to the paper on the condition it not be released, or releasing it could compromise its source.
But the Times hasn’t explained the move, and the McCain campaign is turning up the heat on a story that, whether or not the tape is released, is a reminder that some of Obama’s Hyde Park friends stand well to the left of his stated positions.
UPDATE 5:30PM EST:
Assemblyman Dov Hikind (D-Brooklyn) today called upon Senator Barack Obama to request the release of a potentially controversial video in which he is featured praising Rashid Khalidi, former spokesman for the PLO and terrorist mastermind, Yasser Arafat. Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Arab Studies and the Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University, is a virulent anti-Semite known for his extremist views on Israel. He has called Israel an “apartheid system in creation” and a “racist state” that “brainwashed” Americans do not understand.
In 1995, Khalidi, together with his wife, co-founded the The Arab-American Action Network (AAAN), an anti-Israel organization that strongly supports the Palestinian terrorist movement. AAAN considers the creation of the state of Israel a “naqba,” or Arabic for “catastrophe.”
Yet, at a 2003 party in his home state of Chicago, Obama spoke effusively about Khalidi, and expressed the hope of continuing their relationship for “many years to come.” The L.A. Times later obtained a videotape of Obama’s remarks, but to date, has refused to share the video with other news outlets.
“As a leading media source, The L.A. Times owes a duty to its readers to provide unbiased and informative news coverage. Instead, the paper is failing to exhibit journalistic integrity,” Hikind said. “The American people are entitled to know all the facts regarding Obama, not just the ones his campaign, or those colluding with them, has filtered out.
Why is this video being kept from the voters?” Hikind demanded. “What, if anything, is the L.A. Times trying to hide? For the sake of the American people, Obama should immediately make this video public.”
(Yehuda Drudgestein – YWN / Ben Smith for CBS5)
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16 Responses
OBAMA IS A FAKE!!!
he is not a U.S. born citizen he was born in kenya so said his grandmother (before they closed her mouth)”i’m so proud of barak i was there by his birth in KENYA and now he’ll be president”
obama posted a birth cetificate online from hawaii but it was a phoney! it’s missing a needed seal it’s missing a sgniture, and regarding race it says african but the problem is at that time hawaii was writing negro not african there are a few more problems google it you’ll see
Philip J. Berg esq. of penn. filed a lawsuit against obama that he isn’t qualified to run for president when the judge ordered obama to show his papers being a lawer hiself he found a loophole in the law not to show them. BUT WHATS HE HIDING!!
help save us from this miserable liar!
OBAMA IS A MUSLIM, IT WILL BE TERIBLE IF HE GETS ELECTED.
bacci40 your either working for the obama camp or your just a self hating Jew youv been posting the most left wing ridiculous posts, these are proven facts but keep drinking the cool aid
100% right!!
Can you just imagine the outrage of the Liberal media, if they would find out that someone has a video tape of John Mccain in the same room with any other contoversial figure…
The whole media would go haywire, screaming on the top of their lungs that the tape has to be released.
And now, because the issue is with Barrak Hussein Obama, they are all Missing In Action!!!
Shame on them!!!
Use your brain…
Vote Mccain…
The left wingers and the left wing media hate America they hate the American constitution they hate American love of freedom, they hate capitalism. In short they hate everything American. I hope Americans wake up in time and realize the very real threat to the American way of life supported, and promoted, and not so secretly persued by Obama and his hate mongering left wing Marxist supporters.
Please contact the LA Times and request them to release the video!!
you can email them at: [email protected] or [email protected]
or call them at: (877) 554-4000
or fax them at: (213) 237-3535
DON’T LET THEM SHOVE IT UNDER THE RUG!!!
Why not see the source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6_k3NtXZs
No, you’re right, Dov and the YWN commenters, let’s get McCain in there so Sarah Palin can be the president in two years. That’s the outcome we should be rooting for. And until then, you know the guy who thinks the entire credit crisis can be solved if he fights budgetary earmarks? Let’s make the him the president. There’s no downside there.
By the way, 1996 called, it said, “Find a new issue.” For those who haven’t noticed (a lot of you), there’s no longer any difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to the Palestinian issue. Every politican you can think of wants a two-state solution. What do you think, McCain’s going to tell Abbas to stick it? Please.
“this is again, guilt by association”
Well, you can shuv away 1 or 2 associations, but how do you explain a guy which in his short carrier associated with all the bad guys???
See THIS?
bacii40 and dan doust, you people are insane. obama will raise taxes like crazy, negotiate with iran, not drill for american oil, put super liberal judges in supreme court, and generaly send this country (and the rest of the world) down the tubes.
And by the way, dan, obama’s advisers are all anti-israel. if you deny this, look up:
http://jewishinfonews.wordpress.com/2008/06/06/obamas-anti-israel-advisors/
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2310
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=49037§ionid=3510203
Al Qaeda has endorsed John McCain. Please see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/26/opinion/26kristof.html?_r=1&em&oref=slogin
But bacci40, you still are a spacieme and a gagazote!
bacci40 that was a nice answer without any facts can you state exactly what your talking about with palin which rally was it and when i’d like to look it up. also do you have das torah telling you to vote for obama so far every godol i heard from said you should vote for mccain and that obama would be bad for the jews?
and bacci40, look who you choose to align with:
Palestinian Ibrahim Abu Jayab, 24, is seen next to his computer, in his family house in Nusayrat refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008. A young Palestinian in a Gaza refugee camp is doing his part to get out the vote for Barack Obama. With a little help from the Internet, 24-year-old Ibrahim Abu Jayab is cold calling random American families from his parent’s home imploring them to vote Obama.
(AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)
On the eve of a planned meeting with former President Jimmy Carter, the isolated Hamas terrorist organization has expressed “hope” Sen. Barack Obama will win the presidential elections and “change” America’s foreign policy. “We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections,” Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas’ top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, said in an exclusive interview with WND and with the John Batchelor Show on WABC Radio in New York.
Obama’s anti-Israel advisors
By Alan Simons
Ask many American Jews what they think about Zbigniew Brzezinski, a former national security advisor who served under President Carter, and you’ll receive a multitude of comments of which the vast majority aren’t particularly favourable. These comments can perhaps best be summed up in one sentence. “He’s no friend of Israel.”
Brzezinski is one in a list of advisors that have recently joined the Obama campaign. David Bonior is another member of Obama’s team. As a Congressman, Bonior was known for his strong opposition to pro-Israel policies, being called by some “the biggest supporter of the anti-Israel Arab lobby in Congress.” (Jonathan Tobin, Jewish World Review,7/12/99).
General Tony McPeak is also part of Obama’s team, and Robert Malley, who according to Daniel Pipes, is a sympathizer of the PLO, recently had to resign ‘after it was emerged that he was talking to Hamas.’ Malley is the Director of the Middle East/North Africa Program at the International Crisis Group (ICG). Brzezinski, sits as a member on ICGs Board.