CBNNews.com - The McCain campaign is asking the L.A.Times to hand over a video that reportedly shows Barack Obama praising a Palestinian activist.
But the paper is refusing to release the only known copy of that video.
In 2003, Obama spoke at a banquet for his friend Rashid Khalidi. Khalidi worked with a terrorist group from the 1970s and 1980s known as the Palestinian Liberation Organization.
CBN News Terror Analyst Erick Stakelbeck says Khalidi has a history of inflammatory comments against Israel and the United States.
“Rashid Khalidi was a former spokesman for the PLO and Yasser Arafat back when they were designated by the State Department as a terrorist organization,” Stakelbeck said. “He’s now gained some legitimacy in academic circles. He’s a professor, he’s actually the head of the Middle East studies Department at Columbia University in New York.”
“This is a very controversial department known for it’s anti-Israel and anti-American views and none more so than Khalidi himself,” he added. “He’s called Israel an apartheid system in creation in quote ‘a racist state.’”
“He’s also justified Palestinian suicide bombings against Israelis as a response to what he calls Israeli aggression,” he said.
The L.A. Times has reported on Obama’s relationship with Khalidi, but the newspaper is not releasing their video of Obama’s speech about Khalidi.
The newspaper’s editor says the tape “was provided to us by a confidential source who did so on the condition that we not release it.”
“The Times keeps its promises to sources,” they said.
But a mccain spokesperson responded, saying “it’s unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do it’s job: make information public.”
The L.A. Times editorial board has endorsed Obama for president.
