McCain and Palin blasted the LA Times today for their complete hypocrisy in not releasing the tape that shows Obama toasting PLO terrorist Rashid Khalidi:
John McCain slammed The Los Angeles Times Wednesday for refusing to release a videotape that the newspaper’s editors say shows Barack Obama praising a Chicago professor who served as a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization when it was a U.S.-designated terror group.
Speaking to two Florida radio stations, the Republican presidential candidate suggested a double standard in reporting by the newspaper and said if he were hanging out with neo-Nazis he’d bet the tape would be made public.
The Times says it is standing by its promise not to show the tape, which it got from an anonymous source. The newspaper also has not provided a transcript of the 2003 farewell party for University of Chicago professor Rashid Khalidi. Among others in attendance at the soiree were former Weather Underground founders William Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn.
“Apparently this is a tape with a dinner that Mr. Ayers … was at, and also … one of the leading spokespersons for the PLO. Now, why that should not be made public is beyond me,” McCain told La Kalle radio.
“I guarantee you, if there was a tape with me and Sarah Palin and some neo-Nazi or one of those, you think that that tape wouldn’t be made public? Of course, Americans need to know, particularly about Ayers, and also about the PLO. So hopefully there will be enough pressure on the L.A. Times that it’ll come out, but its really unfortunate that we have to go through this,” McCain continued.
Palin too lambasted the newspaper for its inaction.
“If there’s a Pulitzer Prize category for excelling in cow-towing, then the LA Times, you’re winning,” she said.
Not only have the refused to release the tape or even a transcript, they have made four…count them…four excuses for not releasing the thing. This latest one?
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.
This one may not be so far fetched according to Debbie Schlussel.
The Los Angeles Times has a copy of the tape, but won’t release it because they said the source–whom I believe is Arab American Action Network (AAAN) founder and anti-Israel Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada–required it not be released as a condition of sharing it. That’s because it likely shows Obama applauding an anti-Semitic, anti-Israel poem that was read at the dinner.
~~~I’m almost positive that the video Wallsten referenced in the story was obtained from Arab American Action Network founder Abunimah because my article–the one Wallsten ripped off from me–featured photos of Barack Obama and wife Michelle seated with PLO advisor Edward Said at another AAAN annual banquet and led Wallsten to contact Abunimah. I noted in my article–from which Wallsten got most of his info–that the pics were from Ali Abunimah’s Electronic Intifada site, in which he wrote about Obama’s 180 on Israel from those days of AAAN dinners and PLO confabs.
I believe that Wallsten contacted Abunimah about the photos and learned of the other AAAN annual banquet dinner (at which Abunimah, Obama, Ayers, Dohrn, and Khalidi were all in attendance), and that Abunimah is his source for the video.
No hard evidence but it makes sense.
Now why would the video be suppressed? Hell, they won’t even release a transcript….why not?
Saw a clip from the tape. Reason we can’t release it is because statements Obama said to rile audience up during toast. He congratulates Khalidi for his work saying “Israel has no God-given right to occupy Palestine” plus there’s been “genocide against the Palestinian people by Israelis.”
It would be really controversial if it got out. Tha’s why they will not even let a transcript get out.
That from a tipster to Doug Ross who has given him reliable information in the past.
Pretty damaging stuff and would make even more sense given the fact that the tape is being hid from the public. Why do it if it wasn’t damaging?
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