Obama tipped off about search of Annenberg Records

American Thinker ^ | September 8 2008 | Rick Moran

[Presbyterian Reporter]

As most observers predicted at the time, records from the Chicago Annenberg Challenge where Barack Obama served as President of the Board and terrorist William Ayers as head of the action arm of the organization were almost certainly scrubbed; the result of a tip from the University of Illinois to the Obama campaign:

The President of the University of Illinois, B. Joseph White, and the University Counsel of the University of Illinois, Thomas Bearrows, contacted Kenneth C. Rolling, the former Executive Director of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge (CAC) and a professional colleague of Barack Obama for many years, prior to the release of CAC records to the public late last month and offered Rolling an opportunity to recommend to the University which records of the CAC held at the University's Chicago campus (UIC) should be restricted from public access. In response to Rollings' detailed request to prevent public access to certain CAC records Bearrows replied "as promised, we will carefully consider the concerns that you identify..."

The request is described in documents released by the University last week pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by a third year law student in Chicago. The law student who initiated the FOIA request provided Global Labor with the documents.

Emails sent by Rolling to Mr. Bearrows, states:

“I’m writing to follow up on part of the discussion held yesterday re: my concern for protecting confidential information that may be in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge archive/files located at the library at the UIC. (The conversation included President White, Tom Hardy [Hardy is the University's Executive Director for University Relations], you and myself.)…I’m following up on the offer from Pres. White and you made during our discussion yesterday, for me to recommend pieces of information in the files that should be considered confidential and restricted for access by the public.”

Clearly, Rolling was being invited to scrub any records he felt was "confidential" - an open ended definition that Rolling almost certainly took advantage.

As Steve Diamond reports on his blog in this extraordinarily long and detailed post, this sort of thing is highly unusual:

It is, however, highly unusual to allow someone who once worked for a donor to change the terms of the gift such that the records originally deposited with the University for public review are no longer available. That amounts to a revocation of the original gift and re-gifting the now restricted set of documents to the University. However, for such an action to be valid the individual engaging in the revocation would need both the authority of the donor organization and the donee University. That would not have been possible with respect to the CAC because it had ceased operations and dissolved.

One wonders why the U of I felt it necessary to contact an Obama associate in the first place and then change the terms of the gift. If there is an innocent explanation, the University should give it. But it is very hard to see how this is anything except partisans at both the U of I and the Obama campaign working together to scrub records that may have had extremely damaging information about the relationship between Obama and William Ayers.

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky

[anonsquared]

If you take PUBLIC MONEY, nothing is “confidential”!

[Poincare]

The bottom line is that Obama DID have some executive experience running this project for the foundation, and he executed terribly. He wasted money and failed to have any positive effect.

[mojito]

This is the smoking gun:

“...Rolling wrote in his email to Bearrows that he was concerned that additional records should now be restricted from public access. He wrote:

“After reviewing what I believe to be the catalogue/listing of Chicago Annenberg Challenge files, I make the following recommendations. I make these recommendations without being allowed to see the actual contents of the folds. Folder #848 — titled “Executive Director Search Committee” — there may be items relating to personnel, possible personnel to be hired, etc. that should be held confidential, and restricted for public access.”

Rolling wanted this folder restricted for only one reason: It would show that Obama was hand-picked by Ayers to Chair the CAC.

[ETL]

titled “Executive Director Search Committee” — there may be items relating to personnel, possible personnel to be hired, etc. that should be held confidential, and restricted for public access.”

From The Gateway Pundit, June 26, 2008:

Obama Throws Maoist Hardliner and Weatherman Pal Under the Bus

Mike Klonsky, the Maoist Hardliner, Obama supporter and former best friend of the Weatherman terrorist group founders William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn, received a $175,000 grant from the William Ayers/Barack Obama-led Annenberg Challenge to run the Small Schools Workshop.

Klonsky belonged to the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and was best friends with William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn who later became famous for their acts of terrorism when the SDS broke up and the Weathermen terror group was formed.

Between 1979 and 1981, Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) (CPML) [not Communist Party USA] chairman and Obama supporter Mike Klonsky was repeatedly feted with state-dinner-level visits to Beijing.

Yesterday, Klonsky was posting a blog on the Obama website:

But, that was yesterday.

Today his blog was removed from the Obama website.
Comrade Klonsky is no longer with us.

Obama Throws Maoist Hardliner and Weatherman Pal Under the Bus:
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/06/obama-throws-maoist-hardliner-and.html

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Thanks to FreedomProtector, for the link

[dragonblustar]

ping