The Obama-Ayers Education Story: Funding Left-Wing Radicalism In Education

by: Dan McLaughlin

Today’s must-read: after months of investigation, in which he had to weather all manner of stonewalling and intimidation by the Obama camp, Stanley Kurtz finally has the story, in today’s Wall Street Journal, of Barack Obama’s involvement in unrepentant former terrorist Bill Ayers’ project to spread left-wing politics under the guise of ‘education’ in Chicago schools. Here’s a flavor of Ayers’ project:

CAC translated Mr. Ayers’s radicalism into practice. Instead of funding schools directly, it required schools to affiliate with "external partners," which actually got the money. Proposals from groups focused on math/science achievement were turned down. Instead CAC disbursed money through various far-left community organizers, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (or Acorn).

Mr. Obama once conducted "leadership training" seminars with Acorn, and Acorn members also served as volunteers in Mr. Obama’s early campaigns. External partners like the South Shore African Village Collaborative and the Dual Language Exchange focused more on political consciousness, Afrocentricity and bilingualism than traditional education. CAC’s in-house evaluators comprehensively studied the effects of its grants on the test scores of Chicago public-school students. They found no evidence of educational improvement.

CAC also funded programs designed to promote "leadership" among parents. Ostensibly this was to enable parents to advocate on behalf of their children’s education. In practice, it meant funding Mr. Obama’s alma mater, the Developing Communities Project, to recruit parents to its overall political agenda. CAC records show that board member Arnold Weber was concerned that parents "organized" by community groups might be viewed by school principals "as a political threat." Mr. Obama arranged meetings with the Collaborative to smooth out Mr. Weber’s objections.

And of Obama’s involvement in the activities of a group whose board he chaired:

Mr. Ayers founded CAC and was its guiding spirit….Mr. Ayers sat as an ex-officio member of the board Mr. Obama chaired through CAC’s first year. He also served on the board’s governance committee with Mr. Obama, and worked with him to craft CAC bylaws. Mr. Ayers made presentations to board meetings chaired by Mr. Obama. Mr. Ayers spoke for the Collaborative before the board. Likewise, Mr. Obama periodically spoke for the board at meetings of the Collaborative.

Kurtz’s conclusion:

The Obama campaign has cried foul when Bill Ayers comes up, claiming "guilt by association." Yet the issue here isn’t guilt by association; it’s guilt by participation. As CAC chairman, Mr. Obama was lending moral and financial support to Mr. Ayers and his radical circle.

Kurtz makes some references in the article to the Obama camp’s pushback, and discusses it (including reprinting the Obama campaign’s full response) here, including completing the connection of the dots in Obama’s involvement in setting up and funding Ayers’ activities:

In the first year, 1995, Obama headed the board, which made fiscal decisions, and Ayers co-chaired the Collaborative, which set education policy. During that first year, Obama’s formal responsibilities mandated close cooperation and coordination with the Collaborative. As board chair and president of the CAC corporation, Obama was authorized to "delegate to the Collaborative the development of collaborative projects and programs . . . to obtain assistance of the Collaborative in the development of requests for proposals . . . and to seek advice from the Collaborative regarding the programmatic aspects of grant proposals." All this clearly involves significant consultation between the board, headed by Obama, and the Collaborative, co-chaired by Ayers.     Read More..

Obama website lies about ACORN ties Campaign tries to distance senator from group convicted of voter fraud

By Aaron Klein

JERUSALEM – Sen. Barack Obama’s campaign is misleading the public regarding the presidential candidate’s ties to a radical leftist organization that has admitted to major financial improprieties and has been convicted in numerous, massive voter fraud scandals.

Senator John McCain’s presidential campaign on Friday stepped up its efforts to draw attention to Obama’s alleged relationship with ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, holding a conference call in which McCain spokesman Rick Davis accused Obama of making "very inconsistent remarks about what his relationship with this organization is."

In response to the increased focus on ACORN, the Obama campaign last week claimed on its "Fight the Smears" website the presidential candidate was "never an ACORN community organizer; ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee; ACORN was not part of Project Vote, the successful voter registration drive Barack ran in 1992."

But these blanket statements are false and misleading.

In 1992, Obama was director of Project Vote in Chicago, which helped register 150,000 voters on the city’s South Side. Obama’s successful work was credited in multiple media reports with helping to elect Democratic Senator Carol Moseley Braun.

Obama’s campaign claims ACORN was "not part of" Project Vote, but the organization’s incorporation papers, obtained by WND, show Project Vote is a trademark name whose parent company is registered at the same New Orleans address in which ACORN and multiple ACORN affiliates are housed.

Obama himself previously connected Project Vote to ACORN.

"I’ve been fighting alongside ACORN on issues you care about my entire career. Even before I was an elected official, when I ran Project Vote voter registration drives in Illinois, ACORN was smack dab in the middle of it, and we appreciate your work," Obama was quoted on his own campaign website as saying at an ACORN meeting, according to a post by official Obama website blogger Sam Graham-Felsen.

Clarifying the role of ACORN in Project Vote, Obama Spokesman Ben LaBolt told the New York Times this weekend Project Vote and ACORN were not as intertwined in 1992 as they are today, when a significant part of Project Vote’s revenues flow to ACORN and various of its affiliates as payment for services.

But LaBolt’s statement, which admits Project Vote and ACORN was intertwined on some level while Obama was director directly contradicts the Obama campaign’s "Fact Check" claim that ACORN was "not part" of Project Vote.

In a misleading statement, Obama’s site claims "ACORN never hired Obama as a trainer, organizer, or any type of employee," but it fails to mention Obama was an unpaid ACORN trainer, as WND first reported in August.    Read More..

Crush the Obamedia narrative: Look who’s “gripped by insane rage”

By Michelle Malkin

The Obamedia is attempting to set yet another false narrative: The narrative of the McCain “mob.” McCain-Palin rallies are out of control, they wheedle. Conservatives are mad! They’re yelling mean things about Obama and calling him names! It’ scaaaaary!

Paul Krugman is trembling: “Something very ugly is taking shape on the political scene: as McCain’s chances fade, the crowds at his rallies are, by all accounts, increasingly gripped by insane rage…What happens when Obama is elected? It will be even worse than it was in the Clinton years. For sure there will be crazy accusations, and I wouldn’t be surprised to see some violence.”

Frank Rich decries “Weimar-like rage” and the “violent escalation of rhetoric.”

Please.

Let’s talk about “insane rage” and “violent escalation.”

This is insane rage — Madonna bashing Sarah Palin and shrieking “I will kick her ass:”

 

Read More & See Video..

The Coming Obama Thugocracy

by  Michael Barone

"I need you to go out and talk to your friends and talk to your neighbors," Barack Obama told a crowd in Elko, Nev. "I want you to talk to them whether they are independent or whether they are Republican. I want you to argue with them and get in their face." Actually, Obama supporters are doing a lot more than getting into people’s faces. They seem determined to shut people up.
That’s what Obama supporters, alerted by campaign emails, did when conservative Stanley Kurtz appeared on Milt Rosenberg’s WGN radio program in Chicago. Kurtz had been researching Obama’s relationship with unrepentant Weather Underground terrorist William Ayers in Chicago Annenberg Challenge papers in the Richard J. Daley Library in Chicago — papers that were closed off to him for some days, apparently at the behest of Obama supporters.
Obama fans jammed WGN’s phone lines and sent in hundreds of protest emails. The message was clear to anyone who would follow Rosenberg’s example. We will make trouble for you if you let anyone make the case against The One.

Other Obama supporters have threatened critics with criminal prosecution. In September, St. Louis County Circuit Attorney Bob McCulloch and St. Louis City Circuit Attorney Jennifer Joyce warned citizens that they would bring criminal libel prosecutions against anyone who made statements against Obama that were "false." I had been under the impression that the Alien and Sedition Acts had gone out of existence in 1801-02. Not so, apparently, in metropolitan St. Louis. Similarly, the Obama campaign called for a criminal investigation of the American Issues Project when it ran ads highlighting Obama’s ties to Ayers.
These attempts to shut down political speech have become routine for liberals. Congressional Democrats sought to reimpose the "fairness doctrine" on broadcasters, which until it was repealed in the 1980s required equal time for different points of view. The motive was plain: to shut down the one conservative-leaning communications medium, talk radio. Liberal talk-show hosts have mostly failed to draw audiences, and many liberals can’t abide having citizens hear contrary views.

Corporate liberals have done their share in shutting down anti-liberal speech, too. "Saturday Night Live" ran a spoof of the financial crisis that skewered Democrats like House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank and liberal contributors Herbert and Marion Sandler, who sold toxic-waste-filled Golden West to Wachovia Bank for $24 billion. Kind of surprising, but not for long. The tape of the broadcast disappeared from NBC’s Website and was replaced with another that omitted the references to Frank and the Sandlers. Evidently NBC and its parent, General Electric, don’t want people to hear speech that attacks liberals.
Then there’s the Democrats’ "card check" legislation, which would abolish secret ballot elections in determining whether employees are represented by unions. The unions’ strategy is obvious: Send a few thugs over to employees’ homes — we know where you live — and get them to sign cards that will trigger a union victory without giving employers a chance to be heard.    Read More..

McCain Letter Demanded 2006 Action on Fannie and Freddie

by  Human Events

Sen. John McCain’s 2006 demand for regulatory action on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac could have prevented current financial crisis, as HUMAN EVENTS learned from the letter shown in full text below.
McCain’s letter — signed by nineteen other senators — said that it was "…vitally important that Congress take the necessary steps to ensure that [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac]…operate in a safe and sound manner.[and]..More importantly, Congress must ensure that the American taxpayer is protected in the event that either…should fail."
Sen. Obama did not sign the letter, nor did any other Democrat.

 

Read Letter In Full..

Pelosi, Dems can’t wait until January to start spending

By DAVID ESPO

WASHINGTON (AP) – After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday.

The bill’s total cost could reach $150 billion, these officials said.

The officials stressed that no final decisions have been made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement. House Democrats have announced plans for an economic forum on Monday "to help Congress develop an economic recovery plan that focuses on creating jobs and strengthening our economy."

Democrats said Obama’s campaign has been involved in discussions on a possible stimulus package. The party’s presidential candidate, running ahead in the polls, has outlined his own proposals for stimulating the economy.

Democrats are increasingly confident of capturing the White House and increasing their majorities in the House and Senate on Nov. 4.

If they are successful, a lame-duck session of Congress two weeks later would allow them to start work on a response to the credit crunch that has sent stock prices plummeting and also threatens to trigger a deep recession. It often takes two or three months for a new Congress to begin turning out legislation, particularly when a new president is settling into the White House.

On the other hand, by attempting to pass legislation next month, Democrats would have to negotiate with President Bush, whose term runs until Jan. 20, 2009. Additionally, Senate Republicans, with 49 seats, could block any measure they opposed.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters in Denver last Wednesday a $150 billion stimulus package is necessary and she may call the House back into session after the election. Her spokesman, Brendan Daly, added, "Congress just worked in a bipartisan way with the Administration to pass an economic rescue plan to help stabilize our financial markets, and we must now work together to pass a jobs creation and economic recovery stimulus package."

In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada has announced a post-election session beginning Nov. 17 to consider public lands legislation. His spokesman, Jim Manley, issued a written statement that said "recent developments only reinforce the need for additional action to reinvigorate the economy." He added, "no decisions have yet been made on how to proceed."

An Obama spokesman, Bill Burton, said the campaign is monitoring the situation.

The candidate has said previously he favors $25 billion to help states meet their own needs, another $25 billion for roads, bridges and other infrastructure, and $65 billion for tax rebates paid for by a windfall profits tax on oil.

Speaking in Ohio on Friday, the Illinois Democrat also said, "we should extend expiring unemployment benefits to those Americans who’ve lost their jobs and can’t find new ones."

The House passed a $61 billion economic stimulus bill before lawmakers adjourned for the elections, but it was largely symbolic since Senate Republicans had already thwarted efforts to pass a companion measure.

It called for up to 13 additional weeks of jobless benefits in states with the highest unemployment, at a cost of $6 billion. Another $14.7 billion was ticketed to help states cover Medicaid costs. Enrollment in the federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled often rises with unemployment.

The measure also included money for road and bridge construction, a relatively easy way to create jobs and pump money into the economy.

With that bill’s passage blocked, Pelosi then sought to have it added to the financial bailout legislation making its way to Bush’s desk, according to officials in both parties. They said the White House signaled it would accept an extension of unemployment benefits, but the speaker refused to allow the stimulus package to be broken up.

As a result, Congress adjourned without providing additional benefits for the unemployed as increasing numbers of people are losing their jobs.

Congress enacted an earlier stimulus legislation with unusual speed last winter. It provided tax rebate checks of $600 to individuals and $1,200 to couples and included tax breaks to businesses investing in new plants and equipment.

US court blocks release of Chinese Muslims into USA from Guantanamo

 

WASHINGTON, (AFP) – A US appeals court has temporarily blocked the release of 17 Chinese Muslim Uighurs from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp as President George W. Bush’s administration scrambles to appeal it.

Under a lower court order, the men were to be brought to Washington as soon as Friday, but a three-judge panel at the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia halted the process "pending further order of the court."

"The purpose of this administrative stay is to give the court sufficient opportunity to consider the merits of the motion for stay pending appeal and should not be construed in any way as a ruling on the merits of that motion," read an order issued Wednesday.

A US federal judge Tuesday had ordered the group to be released in the United States in a major blow to the US administration, which swiftly said it planned to appeal.

Judge Ricardo Urbina ordered the 17 men, held at Guantanamo for nearly seven years, brought before him in Washington on Friday to be introduced to some Uighur families who would take them in.

It was the first time a court had ordered that "war on terror" prisoners detained at the US base should be released onto US soil. Read More..

Russia test-fires ballistic missile to mid-Pacific

Reuters

MURMANSK, Russia (Reuters) – Russia for the first time test-launched a strategic missile to the equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean on Saturday, a navy spokesman said.

The spokesman said a Sineva missile had been launched from the nuclear-powered submarine Tula in the Arctic Barents Sea in the course of military exercises observed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

"For the first time in the history of the Russian navy, the target of the missile was in an equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean rather than the Kura testing ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula," he said.

(Writing by Oleg Shchedrov; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

The walls come down in Baghdad

by Ed Morrissey

In 2007, part of the new security plan for Baghdad involved building blast walls between neighborhoods.  This created a lot of controversy at the time, both here and in Baghdad, for dividing the city and cutting into trade.  Critics of the war accused the US of committing “ethnic cleansing”, but in fact the walls contributed to the rapid decrease in violence in the Iraqi capital.

Now, with the city pacified and life returning to normal, the time has come to take down the walls:

 

Market by market, square by square, the walls are beginning to come down. The miles of hulking blast walls, ugly but effective, were installed as a central feature of the surge of American troops to stop neighbors from killing one another.

“They protected against car bombs and drive-by attacks,” said Adnan, 39, a vegetable seller in the once violent neighborhood of Dora, who argues that the walls now block the markets and the commerce that Baghdad needs to thrive. “Now it is safe.”

The slow dismantling of the concrete walls is the most visible sign of a fundamental change here in the Iraqi capital. The American surge strategy, which increased the number of United States troops and contributed to stability here, is drawing to a close. And a transition is under way to the almost inevitable American drawdown in 2009.

Not all of the walls will come down soon.  Blast walls still protect the Green Zone, for instance, and will for the foreseeable future.  One or more Sunni neighborhoods still have blast walls isolating them.  Many people have grown used to the security they have provided, and some of the people interviewed by the Times advise against removing them at all.

China stiffing America for $100 billion in debt Yet U.S. taxpayers helping Beijing as part of trillion-$ credit bailout

By Bob Unruh

While Chinese companies are in line to benefit directly from U.S. taxpayers’ $700 billion-plus bailout of Wall Street, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other financial institutions, Beijing is stiffing the U.S. for $100 billion or more in unpaid debt.

The status of the Chinese economy, including its repudiated debt, has prompted one analyst to warn of an "ominous threat" involving China’s finances and suggest the possibility of "a dramatic reversal" for the "so-called Chinese Miracle."

"One of the greatest problems facing China is the government’s failure to acknowledge and effectively address the true extent of state institutions’ bad debt," Kevin O’Brien writes in an article titled, "Reassessing China’s Sovereign Risk: Emerging Global and Domestic Trends Threaten the ‘Chinese Miracle."

O’Brien’s report was published at a website for the Global Association of Risk Professionals, a not-for-profit independent trade association of risk management practitioners around the world. It has 77,000 members from fields such as banking, investment management and academics.

One problem that should be addressed, he writes, is the $260 billion in sovereign debt owed U.S. and other investors which China has said it simply won’t repay.

"The repayment obligation was inherited by the People’s Republic of China, when the communists took control in 1949. The successor government doctrine of settled international law affirms continuity of obligations among international recognized successive governments," O’Brien said .  Read More..

TV ad features Obama mocking Bible Candidate’s ‘Fight the Smears’ site tries to bury video documentation

By Drew Zahn

A television commercial showing clips of Sen. Barack Obama mocking the Bible has prompted backlash from the candidate’s "Fight the Smears" website, which falsely accuses the ad’s creator of trying to scam Christians out of their money by promising to air a spot that will never be broadcast.

Under the heading "Scamming the faithful," Obama’s official website says of the man who made the commercial, "The trickster’s claims about Barack’s faith are every bit as false as his claims that this amateurish video is really a TV ad."

WND has confirmed, however, that – true to his word – the ad’s creator purchased air time for the commercial on television stations in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. Sources at WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh and a cable company servicing Erie told WND that the ad had been aired on several occasions.

Nonetheless, in an Oct. 3 update to "Scamming the Faithful," the Obama website maintains its attack of the commercial’s creator, Stephen Marks of the organization pH for America.

"Nothing has changed here," reads the Oct. 3 update, "The scammer is still untrustworthy. … Making scams seem plausible is what tricksters like him are known for. In the end, he’s even less credible now than he was when he first started taking people’s money."

"It is ironic indeed," responded Marks in a statement, "that this so-called ‘Fight the Smears’ website (is) not fighting smears but creating them."

Read More..

Experts: 64 Percent of Russian Pregnancies End in Abortion

By Galina Stolyarova

The number of infertile women in Russia is growing by 200,000 to 250,000 each year, with the main cause being complications from abortions, Marina Tarasova, deputy head of the St. Petersburg Reseach Institute For Gynecology and Obstetrics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said on Monday.

Speaking at an international conference highlighting new methods of oral contraception, Tarasova warned that by the end of 2007 there were already more than 5.5 million infertile couples in Russia.

The low birth rate remains one of the key reasons behind Russia’s ongoing demographic crisis. According to official statistics, every fourth teenage girl in Russia has some form of gynecological ailment or reproductive health disorder.

Each year in Russia, more than 64 percent of all pregnancies end in abortion, while in Western European countries the level is below 25 percent. By comparison, there are 10 to 15 abortions per 100 pregnancies in the U.K. and 5 or 6 per 100 in the Netherlands.

One in ten women who undergo an abortion in Russia is below 18 years of age, doctors say. Gynecological disease rates for teenage girls in 15-17 age group, have jumped by an alarming 30 percent in the last five years.

Olga Kurbatova, a researcher at the Institute of General Genetics, said that two major reasons contribute to the high abortion rate: Russians’ traditional risk-taking attitude to their own health and the unavailability of effective birth-control pills to most Russian women due to their relatively high price. Birth control remains traditionally a task for women in Russia, she added.

The best way to reduce the number of abortions and children living without parental care in the country is to develop a culture of family planning, and particularly to instill the habit of using contraceptives.

Doctors admit, however, that most Russian women avoid using contraception, especially birth-control pills, because of widespread prejudice and fear of side effects. In the meantime, abortion remains a common method of birth control.   Read More..

The Russian government has been struggling to advertise family values and has campaigned for citizens to have more children. This year was officially designated “The Year of the Family.”

According to official statistics, only 40 percent of pregnancies are planned. However, one in ten planned pregnancies ends up in a miscarriage.

“Over the past five years, female infertility in Russia has increased by 14 percent, and over 1.5 million Russians need advanced medical technology to become pregnant and maintain a healthy pregnancy,” Tarasova said.

Moderate Muslims urge action against extremists

Claude Salhani 

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia stated in a recent speech that Muslims cannot keep on remaining silent while other Muslims continue to cause harm to Islam.

Abu Dhabi’s Al-Ittihad newspaper followed up Monday with an opinion piece expanding on the king’s speech in an article titled "Who Is Harming Islam?"

The Emirates’ newspaper described Abdullah’s speech as a "scream" for action.

The Saudi monarch said it was no longer acceptable to "simply complain or condemn." The time had come for action.

The king’s initiative is a welcome development, particularly coming from a monarch with the status and privilege Abdullah carries in the Muslim world.

Aside from his royal title, the Saudi king also holds the title of "custodian of the two holy mosques," in reference to Islam’s first- and second-holiest sites, Mecca and Medina respectively. The third is the al-Haram al-Sharif, or the Noble Sanctuary, in Jerusalem where the al-Aqsa Mosque and the renowned golden Dome of the Rock are located.

The author of the article suggested establishing a central global "fatwa institute" to combat the trend of independent fatwas, or religious edicts, that currently plague the Muslim world.

"Fatwa shops" is how the author of the article described it. Sunni Islam allows for almost anyone to issue a fatwa, which at times has had the unfortunate result of producing the most inane edicts.

The Sunni branch of Islam does not have a central figurehead. There is no equivalent to say, the Catholic Church’s pope, or grand ayatollahs found in Shi’ite Islam.    Read More..

Obama Campaign Met with Hamas and Hezbollah Supporters

 

The Obama campaign is trying to minimize the damage from a meeting attended by their “Muslim outreach director,” at which several notorious Hamas and Hezbollah supporters were present: Obama concedes mistake over Muslim outreach meeting.

The Obama campaign’s Muslim outreach director participated in a meeting in mid September that was attended by several controversial Muslim activists, NBC News has learned. The Obama campaign now concedes that was a misjudgment, and that its top Muslim staffer would not have attended the meeting if she had known the full participant list beforehand. “Would a campaign staffer have attended if they were aware of the complete list of attendees? No,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt in an email statement to NBC.

On September 15, newly named Muslim outreach director Minha Husaini spoke to a small group of Muslim leaders and potential Obama supporters at a hotel in Springfield, Virginia, several meeting participants and the campaign said. Two other Obama-affiliated Democratic Party workers joined Husaini and also spoke to the crowd. …

One meeting attendee was Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society, several of the participants said. The MAS website describes Bray as an imam and “long time civil and human rights activist.” Bray’s critics say he has a history of defending terrorists. They point to a video of Bray at a rally in 2000, for example, in which he can be seen pumping his fist in the air in support of the terrorist groups Hamas and Hezbollah. In a 2004 interview, he called the Israeli assassination of a Hamas spiritual leader an “unlawful, cowardly and dangerous act of state-sponsored terrorism.” Bray did not return a call requesting comment.

Also attending the meeting was Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. CAIR is a Muslim-American civil rights group that has, as its website states, “consistently and persistently condemned terrorism and the killing of innocent civilians.” Nonetheless, the group has many critics, especially in law-enforcement circles, and is an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terrorism financing case.

In an interview on Thursday, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper said that CAIR has consistently condemned “every act of terrorism” by groups including Hamas and Hezbollah. But he would not answer whether CAIR condemns those designated terrorist groups themselves. “I’ve already answered your questions,” he said, and abruptly ended the interview. Nihad Awad, the executive director, did not return a call seeking comment.

And that’s not all. Also attending the meeting was the Obama campaign’s previous “Muslim outreach director,” who abruptly resigned in August when the Wall Street Journal exposed his ties to extremists.

Read More..

All Three Morning Shows Skip Charge: Obama Attempted Delay of Iraq Deal

By Scott Whitlock

All three morning shows on Friday skipped an exclusive Washington Times report which asserted that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama attempted to delay an agreement by the Bush administration to maintain a military presence in Iraq.

Writing in the October 10 edition of the Times, Barbara Slavin explained, "Iraqi leaders purported to The Times that Mr. Obama urged Baghdad to delay an agreement with Mr. Bush until next year when a new president will be in office – a charge the Democratic campaign denies." ABC’s "Good Morning America," NBC’s "Today" and CBS’s "Early Show" all skipped any mention of this story.

Slavin, who is the paper’s assistant managing editor for world and national security, goes on to write:

Mr. Obama spoke June 16 to Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari when he was in Washington, according to both the Iraqi Embassy in Washington and the Obama campaign. Both said the conversation was at Mr. Zebari’s request and took place on the phone because Mr. Obama was traveling.

However, the two sides differ over what Mr. Obama said.

"In the conversation, the senator urged Iraq to delay the [memorandum of understanding] between Iraq and the United States until the new administration was in place," said Samir Sumaidaie, Iraq’s ambassador to the United States.

[Emphasis added.] Considering the intense scrutiny over the so-called October Surprise allegations that the 1980 Ronald Reagan campaign attempted to delay the release of American hostages in Iran in order to help boost the candidate’s chances in the presidential election, it will be interesting to see how the mainstream media react to serious charges against a Democrat. (Those allegations against Reagan were thoroughly discredited in two separate congressional investigations.)

See the Washington Times article for more on the subject.