EXCLUSIVE: Ali Abunimah is Likely Source of Secreted Obama/Khalidi/Ayres Tape

debbieschlussel.com ^ | October 29, 2008 | Debbie Schlussel

[Free ThinkerNY]

**** UPDATE: Can Ali Abunimah be bought off for $175,000? Depends on what he's getting from greater Arabia, Islamia, and Obama. ****

There has been much discussion throughout the Net about a secreted video showing Barack Obama at a dinner with terrorists Bill Ayres and wife Bernadine Dohrn, and the anti-Semitic Arafat advisor, Rashid Khalidi.

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.

[Salamander]

They can do that now, ya know.

[nathanbedford]

If you are a secular Jew who seeks salvation not in heaven but here on Earth and you are historically aware of the horrors of the Holocaust as well as the horrors of the pogrom, your highest value is tolerance, if only from a well-deserved sense of self-preservation.

Many secular Jews distort the history of the pogrom and of Nazi Germany and blame Christianity for these horrors. Secularists, they blame religion and religionists and seek a secular solution to the threat of another Holocaust. That salvation is secular but no less compelling to them. Israel is a religious state.

In fact, if one risks the existence of Israel by virtue of holding out for the principle of tolerance, how much more worthy and noble! Obama has become the physical figure of the absolution of white guilt and the expression of tolerance for these people. They simply have no higher value.

[Jackson57]

There’s a big potential for a gotcha in this. First, if what’s in the tape isn’t damaging enough to get voters’ attention. Secondly, the McCain campaign might be wasting time pursuing it. Less than a week until the election.

[defal33]

Debbie Schlussel always has the true facts of a story months before the main stream media even has a clue. She covers stories that many news agencys don't even want to touch. She has a proven track record that is second to none!

[Jackson57]

Just like John Kerry releasing some of his military records to a single reporter on a single Boston newspaper. “Hey, I released ‘em.”

[Red Steel]

and anti-Israel Palestinian activist Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada--required it not be released as a condition of sharing it.

Why would someone release this video to a news organization and tell them not to publicize it?

[defal33]

Debbie started reporting on this at the beginning of the year, LA Time plagurized the story from her.

[nuconvert]

Debbie seems to have missed this...

03/23/08
Arab-American Activist Says Obama Hiding Anti-Israel Stance

(IsraelNN.com) Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama is currently hiding his anti-Israel views in order to get elected, according to a well-known anti-Israel activist. The activist, Ali Abunimah, claimed to know Obama well and to have met him on numerous occasions at pro-Palestinian events in Chicago.

In an article he penned for the anti-Israeli website Electronic Intifada, Abunimah wrote:

“The last time I spoke to Obama was in the winter of 2004 at a gathering in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood. He was in the midst of a primary campaign to secure the Democratic nomination for the United States Senate seat he now occupies. But at that time polls showed him trailing.

“As he came in from the cold and took off his coat, I went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, ‘Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race.
‘Hey, I’m sorry I haven’t said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race.’
I’m hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.’ He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy [and said:] ‘Keep up the good work!’”

Barack, Michelle, Edward and Mariam
Abunimah’s report included a photo of Obama with his wife Michelle seated at a table with virulently anti-Israeli Professor Edward Said and his wife Mariam, in what Abunimah said was a May 1998 Arab community event in Chicago at which Said gave the keynote speech.

In an interview earlier this year for the leftist radio show “Democracy Now!,” a daily TV and radio news program hosted by Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, Abunimah said he knew Obama for many years as his state senator “when he used to attend events in the Palestinian community in Chicago all the time.”

“I remember personally introducing him onstage in 1999, when we had a major community fundraiser for the community center in Deheisha refugee camp in the occupied West Bank,” he recounted. “And that’s just one example of how Barack Obama used to be very comfortable speaking up for and being associated with Palestinian rights and opposing the Israeli occupation.”

About Face to Get Elected

The Arab-American activist went on to say: “In 2000, when Obama unsuccessfully ran for Congress I heard him speak at a campaign fundraiser hosted by a University of Chicago professor. On that occasion and others Obama was forthright in his criticism of US policy and his call for an even-handed approach to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”

“Obama’s about-face is not surprising,” Abunimah wrote. “He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power.”

When Obama first ran for the Senate in 2004, the Chicago Jewish News interviewed him on his stance regarding Israel’s security fence. He accused the Bush administration of neglecting the “Israeli-Palestinian” situation and criticized the security fence built by Israel to prevent terror attacks: “The creation of a wall dividing the two nations is yet another example of the neglect of this Administration in brokering peace,” Obama was quoted as saying.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/125656

[thingumbob]

Welcome to Free Republic

[pnut22]

From reading his website, Ali Abunimah appears to have been involved in Obama’s early political education. Obama was very pro Palestine. When he needed the Jewish vote to help defeat Hilary he moved to the middle of the road. He told Ali Abunimah to be patient, it was only for political expediency. I think he is now using the tape like ransom until Obama is elected. Perhaps he gave it to the times so that they would print the story of the banquet with Khalidi. A sort of, we know you don’t mean what your saying about Israel, but we still have you by the short hairs.

[bronxville]

Here’s that Palestinian talking like a canary on youtube (I posted it earlier on another thread):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bz-LfANRu-4

[dforest]

Hey.If McCain was as you say, Why would he be calling for the LA times to release it?

None of you new people have answered this question yet.

You won’t either.

[defal33]

Debbie seems to have missed this...

I believe that Debbie has that picture at her web site, along with the story that goes with it. She was on it since Janary.

http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2008/01/obamas_nation_o.html

sorry don't know how to link yet

[pnut22]

She has it alright. If you actually read what she says it makes a lot of sense. Obama has already publicly denied telling Ali Abunimah that he was only supporting Israel to get elected. I guess he just isn’t the same guy that Obama knew.

[mmanager]

“Hey.If McCain was as you say, Why would he be calling for the LA times to release it?

None of you new people have answered this question yet.

You won’t either.”

The TROLLS have been coming out of the woodwork in the last two weeks. Time to clean house.

[EDINVA]

That’s been my concern (fear) that the story will be so hyped the LAT will release it over the weekend and it will prove to be nothing, much like the video of the Clinton deposition ... where, as I understand it, Clinton was totally unglued OFF tape but did fine while the tape was running.

[CENSEI]

Demand that Jamie Gold at the LA Times release the tape.

Jamie.Gold@latimes.com

[1035rep]

Don’t worry about it “Conservative FReepers” McCain has not been involved with any of Obama’s terrorist friends and family. McCain has nothing to hide or he wouldn’t be requesting the tape.

[1035rep]

Hey, we’re not DU’ers or KOS libtards! We can hit more than one issue at a time.

[1035rep]

No comparison between McCain and Hussein.

Note, four Democrats and one Republican? In doing so, however, we must also note that Robert Bennett, Chief Counsel to the Democrats during the investigation, said that McCain should not be included in the investigation and that their was not evidence of any wrongdoing by Senator McCain.