LA Times Withholds Video of Obama Toasting Former PLO Operative at Jew Bashing Dinner By John Stephenson

Source: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/john-stephenson/2008/10/25/la-times-witholds-video-obama-toasting-former-plo-operative-jew-bas

October 25, 2008 - 16:37 ET

The mainstream media are willfully ignoring many questionable ties and friendships of Barack Obama.  The list does not end with the radical racist preacher Jeremiah Wright and unrepentant domestic terrorist William Ayers.  They have totally ignored Obama campaigning for the socialist revolutionary Raila Odinga in Kenya.  They have also ignored his ties with radical Islamic extremist Khalid Al Masour.

LA Times takes things to the next level.  They are going beyond the level of ignoring to the level of willfully witholding informative evidence from the public.  The associate of Barack Obama in question this time is Rashid Khalidi, a former PLO operative and best friend of William Ayers. The LA times has a video of Barack Obama toasting this friend of his while attending a Jew bashing dinner, and they are refusing to release the video to the public.

Gateway Pundit has the scoop and what I summarize here is lifted from him.

Here is a video that explains his history and ties with Obama. He is a long time friend of Obama and shares a mutual friend, Bill Ayers.

Barack Obama funnelled thousands of dollars of cash to Rashidi’s anti-Israel Foundation through his work on the Woods Fund.

In 2000, Rashid Khalidi, a former PLO operative who justified Palestinian terrorism as contributing to “political enlightenment,” threw a fundraiser for his friend Barack Obama.

LA Times writer Peter Wallsten wrote about Barack Obama’s close association with former Palestinian operative Rashid Khalidi back in April.

“During the dinner a young Palestinian American recited a poem accusing the Israeli government of terrorism in its treatment of Palestinians and sharply criticizing U.S. support of Israel. If Palestinians cannot secure their own land, she said, “then you will never see a day of peace.”

One speaker likened “Zionist settlers on the West Bank” to Osama bin Laden, saying both had been “blinded by ideology.”

….His many talks with the Khalidis, Obama said, had been “consistent reminders to me of my own blind spots and my own biases… 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.”

…The event was videotaped, and a copy of the tape was obtained by The Times.

Jim Hoft (Gateway Pundit) talked to Peter Wallsten from the Los Angeles Times about the article on Obama and Khalidi on Wednesday.

I asked him if he was planning on releasing this video of Obama toasting the radical Khalidi at this Jew-bash. He told me he was not releasing the video. He also would not comment on his source for the video. Wallston also said he did not know if Khalidi’s good friend Bill Ayers was at the event or not.

So, the LA Times has video of Obama attending a Jew bash and toasting a radical former PLO operative, and they are not sharing it with the public. I think we all know they would immediately release the tape if it were Sarah Palin making the toast.

If not for double standards the media would have no standards at all.

—John Stephenson is editor of Stop The ACLU.