The Swiftboating of Obama Begins!

(Received today in my email from M. Sliwa Public Relations. I'm sure that M. Silwa would love to hear from you about your interest.)

Obama Worked with Terrorist
Senator helped fund organization that rejects 'racist' Isreal's existence
-Aaron Klein Reports from Jerusalem

The board of a nonprofit organization on which Sen. Barack Obama served as a paid director alongside a confessed domestic terrorist granted funding to a controversial Arab group that mourns the establishment of Israel as a "catastrophe" and supports intense immigration reform, including providing drivers licenses and education to illegal aliens.

The co-founder of the Arab group in question, Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, also has held a fundraiser for Obama. Khalidi is a harsh critic of Israel, has made statements supportive of Palestinian terror and reportedly has worked on behalf of the Palestine Liberation Organization while it was involved in anti-Western terrorism and was labeled by the State Department as a terror group.

The Obamas at an Arab fundraising dinner with Edward Said and his wife

In 2001, the Woods Fund, a Chicago-based nonprofit that describes itself as a group helping the disadvantaged, provided a $40,000 grant to the Arab American Action Network, or AAAN, for which Khalidi's wife, Mona, serves as president. The Fund provided a second grant to the AAAN for $35,000 in 2002.

Obama was a director of the Woods Fund board from 1999 to Dec. 11, 2002, according to the Fund's website. According to tax filings, Obama received compensation of $6,000 per year for his service in 1999 and 2001.

Obama served on the Wood's Fund board alongside William C. Ayers, a member of the Weathermen terrorist group which sought to overthrow of the U.S. government and took responsibility for bombing the U.S. Capitol in 1971 .

Mugshot of William C. Ayers

Ayers, who still serves on the Woods Fund board, contributed $200 to Obama's senatorial campaign fund and has served on panels with Obama at numerous public speaking engagements. Ayers admitted to involvement in the bombings of U.S. governmental buildings in the 1970s. He is a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

The $40,000 grant from Obama's Woods Fund to the AAAN constituted about a fifth of the Arab group's reported grants for 2001, according to tax filings obtained by WND. The $35,000 Woods Fund grant in 2002 also constituted about one-fifth of AAAN's reported grants for that year.

The AAAN, headquartered in the heart of Chicago's Palestinian immigrant community, describes itself as working to "empower Chicago-area Arab immigrants and Arab Americans through the combined strategies of community organizing, advocacy, education and social services, leadership development, and forging productive relationships with other communities."

It reportedly has worked on projects with the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which supports open boarders and education for illegal aliens.

The AAAN in 2005 sent a letter to New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in which it called a billboard opposing a North Carolina-New Mexico joint initiative to deny driver's licenses to illegal aliens a "bigoted attack on Arabs and Muslims."

Speakers at AAAN dinners and events routinely have taken an anti-Israel line.

The group co-sponsored a Palestinian art exhibit, titled, "The Subject of Palestine," that featured works related to what some Palestinians call the "Nakba" or "catastrophe" of Israel's founding in 1948.

According to the widely discredited Nakba narrative, Jews in 1948 forcibly expelled hundreds of thousands - some Palestinians claim over one million - Arabs from their homes and then took over the territory.

Historically, about 600,000 Arabs fled Israel after surrounding Arab countries warned they would destroy the Jewish state in 1948. Some Arabs also were driven out by Jewish forces while they were trying to push back invading Arab armies. At the same time, over 800,000 Jews were expelled or left Arab countries under threat after Israel was founded.

The theme of AAAN's Nakba art exhibit, held at DePaul University in 2005, was "the compelling and continuing tragedy of Palestinian life ... under [Israeli] occupation ... home demolition ... statelessness ... bereavement ... martyrdom, and ... the heroic struggle for life, for safety, and for freedom."

Another AAAN initiative, titled, "Al Nakba 1948 as experienced by Chicago Palestinians," seeks documents related to the "catastrophe" of Israel's founding.

A post on the AAAN site asked users: "Do you have photos, letters or other memories you could share about Al-Nakba-1948?"

That posting was recently removed. The AAAN website currently states the entire site is under construction.

Pro-PLO advocate held Obama fundraiser, describes Obama as 'sympathetic'

AAAN co-founder Rashid Khalidi was reportedly a director of the official PLO press agency WAFA in Beirut from 1976 to 1982, while the PLO committed scores of anti-Western attacks and was labeled by the U.S. as a terror group. Khalidi's wife, AAAN President Mona Khalidi, was reportedly WAFA's English translator during that period.

Rashid Khalidi at times has denied working directly for the PLO but Palestinian diplomatic sources in Ramallah told WND he indeed directed WAFA. Khalidi also advised the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid Conference in 1991.

During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state.

He has multiple times expressed support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to "Israeli aggression." He dedicated his 1986 book, "Under Siege," to "those who gave their lives ... in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon." Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism.

While the Woods Fund's contribution to Khalidi's AAAN might be perceived as a one-time run in with Obama, the presidential hopeful and Khalidi evidence a deeper relationship.

According to a professor at the University of Chicago who said he has known Obama for 12 years, the Democratic presidential hopeful first befriended Khalidi when the two worked together at the university. The professor spoke on condition of anonymity. Khalidi lectured at the University of Chicago until 2003 while Obama taught law there from 1993 until his election to the Senate in 2004.

Khalidi in 2000 held what was described as a successful fundraiser for Obama's failed bid for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, a fact not denied by Khalidi.

Speaking in a joint interview with WND and the John Batchelor Show of New York's WABC Radio and Los Angeles' KFI Radio, Khalidi was asked about his 2000 fundraiser for Obama.

"I was just doing my duties as a Chicago resident to help my local politician," Khalidi stated.

Khalidi said he supports Obama for president "because he is the only candidate who has expressed sympathy for the Palestinian cause."

Khalidi also lauded Obama for "saying he supports talks with Iran. If the U.S. can talk with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, there is no reason it can't talk with the Iranians."

Asked about Obama's role funding the AAAN, Khalidi claimed he had "never heard of the Woods Fund until it popped up on a bunch of blogs a few months ago."

He terminated the call when petitioned further about his links with Obama.

Contacted by phone, Mona Khalidi refused to answer WND's questions about the AAAN's involvement with Obama.

Obama's campaign headquarters did not reply to a list of WND questions sent by e-mail to the senator's press office.

Obama, American terrorist in same circles

Obama served on the board with Ayers, who was a Weathermen leader and has written about his involvement with the group's bombings of the New York City Police headquarters in 1970, the Capitol in 1971 and the Pentagon in 1972.

"I don't regret setting bombs. I feel we didn't do enough," Ayers told the New York Times in an interview released on Sept. 11, 2001

"Everything was absolutely ideal on the day I bombed the Pentagon," Ayers wrote in his memoirs, titled "Fugitive Days." He continued with a disclaimer that he didn't personally set the bombs, but his group set the explosives and planned the attack.

A $200 campaign contribution is listed on April 2, 2001 by the "Friends of Barack Obama" campaign fund. The two taught appeared speaking together at several public events, including a 1997 University of Chicago panel entitled, "Should a child ever be called a 'super predator?'" and another panel for the University of Illinois in April 2002, entitled, "Intellectuals: Who Needs Them?"

The charges against Ayers were dropped in 1974 because of prosecutorial misconduct, including illegal surveillance.

Ayers is married to another notorious Weathermen terrorist, Bernadine Dohrn, who has also served on panels with Obama. Dohrn was once on the FBI's Top 10 Most Wanted List and was described by J. Edgar Hoover as the "most dangerous woman in America." Ayers and Dohrn raised the son of Weathermen terrorist Kathy Boudin, who was serving a sentence for participating in a 1981 murder and robbery that left 4 people dead.

Obama advisor wants talks with terrorists

The revelations about Obama's relationship with Khalidi follows a recent WND article quoting Israeli security officials who expressed "concern" about Robert Malley, an adviser to Obama who has advocated negotiations with Hamas and providing international assistance to the terrorist group.

Malley, a principal Obama foreign policy adviser, has penned numerous opinion articles, many of them co-written with a former adviser to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat , petitioning for dialogue with Hamas and blasting Israel for numerous policies he says harm the Palestinian cause.

Malley also previously penned a well-circulated New York Review of Books piece largely blaming Israel for the collapse of the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations at Camp David in 2000 when Arafat turned down a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and eastern sections of Jerusalem and instead returned to the Middle East to launch an intifada, or terrorist campaign, against the Jewish state.

Malley's contentions have been strongly refuted by key participants at Camp David, including President Bill Clinton, then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and primary U.S. envoy to the Middle East Dennis Ross , all of whom squarely blamed Arafat's refusal to make peace for the talks' failure.

To interview Aaron Klein, Middle East correspondent and author of "Schmoozing with Terrorists ," contact M. Sliwa Public Relations by e-mail , or call 973-272-2861 or 212-202-4453.

Comments

[justrikke]

I wondered when all of this was going to finally come out. Obama's past is not a rosy one. That would really help explain the Nation of Islam connection. Did you notice how he was sweating and stuttering last night in the debate when asked about Louis Farrakhan? He was afraid that investigative journalist Tim Russert had uncovered his past and was about to hit him with it. The ignorant responses of Obama's sheep....e­r...suppor­ters amaze me. What other proof do you need? Divine visitation? Oh wait...you already think Obama is the second coming. Oops!

[grlpatriot]

The Politico ran a story on Friday about Obama's connection to Ayers.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0208/8630.html

This article adds a troubling level of complexity on the issue of terrorism. Ultimately, let's vet Obama now. If this is a non-story, let's air it, then move on. But I think we need to let the American people decide if Obama has the good judgment to be president that he says he has.

I personally think it's poor judgment for Obama to associate with a known terrorist, serve on the Woods Fund board for several years with a known terrorist, go to the home of a known terrorist, except a campaign contribution from a known terrorist. Makes me wonder how Obama will deal with the issue of global terrorism as president.

[TuffPosh]

Apparently Steve Young forgot the part of the post where he points out what, if anything, in the email is false. Is there anything there that's false?

I note also that the ICIRR is headed by someone linked to the Mexican government. With others linked to that government - and even with Mexican political parties - they also helped organize the May 1 2006 illegal immigration march that Obama spoke at:

http://nomoreblather.com/barack-obama-and-the-immigration-marches

Instead of investigating whether a foreign government used proxies to agitate their citizens to take to our streets, Obama in effect helped that government with their goals.

[lynnn]

So how did you reply to the lies? Did you let them slide. Swiftboating only works when good people stay silent. When good people turn away and ignore evil, they give it power.

So how did you respond?

[Dap]

Dear Steve,

Thanks for the alert, because I'm sure my cousin will be forwarding one of these emails soon, which then all of my cousins start emailing in turn.

Personally, having lived in Chicago all my life, and being a supporter of Senator Obama, I know he has good relations with the Jewish community in Chicago and supports the State of Israel.

If that was not the case, Senator Obama would never have received my support.

Yet, make *NO* mistake about it, the same type of crazies that killed Yitzhak Rabin, and on the Arab side killed Anwar Sadat are still out there, and they have a warped mindset. Peace for them is found in the after-life, not in this one.

Anyway, good looking out, thanks for your efforts. Agape.

[PLUMPLUM]

Are Jews going to say that these types of attacks were just the usual nastiness that goes on during political campaigns? Why do this now? What are they going to say or do after Obama wins? Ask him to blow this off? Eh, unyielding friend of Israel? They are all stuck on Hillary as if she can deliver them from the mess that has been the Middle East for thousands of years and for which they will not budge an inch. They preferred to kill their Prime Minister, rather than budge during her husband's tenure.

[argeec]

There is a lot of stuff in that article, including some false information about the camp david talks - which went the way the palestinian side said.

[hank48188]

Barack Obama and his wife Michelle are both America Haters and are supported by other America haters and belong to an America Hating Church. When your Church give Louis Farakhan an Award and you seek out Terrorists like Dohrn and Ayers for THEIR APPROVAL before running for office you better take a much closer look.

[Dap]

Hank, Please, from now on, allow for the meds to kick-in before booting up the computer and commenting. Thank you for your cooperation.

[Countess]

These are the fanatics representing Lieberman, Clinton and other disgusting promoters of war against Iran which Hillary will again be promoting should she win the nomination. This the stark alternative to Obama. Clinton is not republican lite she is republican heavy.

[lisakaz]

Is this like "Six Degrees of Separation" (or less) for pols? Hey, I can do that with Barak Obama, too; what does that mean?

BTW Here it is:

In college, I knew Ana Gasteyer
who worked on Lorne Michael's SNL
who had a guest appearance by Obama.

WooHoo: whaddya I win?

[locanicole]

I think you you mean six degrees of Kevin Bacon...Im sure we could find some way to link Mr Obama to Mr Osama and Kevin Bacon (a known subversive, I know, read it on RS)...dig deep!

[ThePhantom]

It is ONE degree of separation

Obama had his first fund-raiser at the home of Bernadine Dohrn and William Ayers. He did not know who they were?

Phantom
Bay Ridge Blog