Fact Check: McCain and Khalidi

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Registered: 01-02-2005
Fact Check: McCain and Khalidi
11
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 9:46pm

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/30/fact-check-does-group-mccain-chairs-have-link-to-columbia-professor-khalidi/#more-27376


The Statement
The campaign of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama, on Wednesday, October 29, responded to Republican opponent Sen. John McCain criticism of Obama's relationship with Rashid Khalidi, an Arab studies professor at Columbia University, by suggesting that McCain also had a link to Khalidi. It said, "John McCain should answer why, under his own chairmanship, the International Republican Institute repeatedly funded an organization Khalidi founded, the Center for Palestine Research and Studies, over the course of many years."


Get the facts!



The Facts
McCain and vice presidential candidate Gov. Sarah Palin have raised the issue of Barack Obama's relationship with Khalidi, a scholar who has been critical of Israel and U.S. foreign policy. Palin, on October 29 in Ohio, described him as a "radical professor from the neighborhood who spent a lot of time with Barack Obama going back several years." She also called him a "political ally" of Obama.


Obama knows Khalidi from their days in Chicago, but his campaign says he "has been clear and consistent on his support for Israel, and has been clear that Rashid Khalidi is not an adviser to him or his campaign and that he does not share Khalidi's views."


Since 1993, McCain has been chairman of the International Republican Institute — a nonprofit and nonpartisan group that helps promote democratic practices and institutions across the globe.


The IRI, in an October 29 press release, said it "gave grants" to the Center for Palestinian Research and Studies for polling in the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza. The IRI said its "relationship with CPRS ended in 2000, and we understand that it no longer exists."


"We understand that Rashid Khalidi was one of the many founders of CPRS, and we understand that he was for some (unclear) amount of time a board member," the IRI said.


A defunct CPRS Web site lists Khalidi was one of the seven people who founded the group in March 1993. CPRS described itself as "an independent academic research and policy analysis institution."


"Because CPRS is independent of political factions, it is in a unique position of being able to serve as a forum for meetings of Palestinian and international researchers from various political backgrounds and ideologies in a free academic and professional atmosphere," the group said.


Michael Goldfarb, a McCain spokesman, told CNN on October 29 that "John McCain has never met Rashid Khalidi, while Barack Obama has acknowledged a close friendship with him."


The Verdict: True. There was a relationship in the 1990s between the IRI, chaired by McCain, and the CPRS, co-founded by Khalidi, which received IRI funding.

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-02-2005
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 9:47pm

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/10/29/is-columbia-professor-khalidi-a-political-ally-of-barack-obama/


The Statement: Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, speaking on Oct. 29 in Bowling Green, Ohio, said Barack Obama "spent a lot of time with" Rashid Khalidi. "Rashid Khalidi, he, in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he's a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization," she said.


Get the facts!



The Facts: Rashid Khalidi is Arab studies professor at Columbia University in New York.


His university profile says he specializes "in the history of Syria, Palestine, Lebanon and Egypt; the growth of nation-state; nationalism in the Arab World; problems of modern Middle East historiography" and is an expert on Palestinian issues.


He has authored scholarly works on Palestinian issues, has been an activist for Palestinian causes, and has been a critic of U.S. foreign policy toward Israel.


In a 2004 Washington Times story, he denied ever being a spokesman for the Palestine Liberation Organization.


Sen. Obama, on his Web site, described Khalidi as "a former neighbor and university colleague." But their relationship has sparked questions about Obama's stance on Israel and what Obama calls "ugly insinuations." Obama has said he has been a "clear and consistent" supporter of Israel and doesn't share Khalidi's views.


ABC News on May 22 aired comments Obama made at a Boca Raton, Florida, synagogue, where Obama faced questions from Jewish voters and addressed the issue. He said he knew Khalidi and had conversations with him in Chicago, where both men taught at the University of Chicago. And, he said, their children went to the same school.


"He is not one of my advisers; he's not one of my foreign policy people," Obama said. "He is a respected scholar, although he vehemently disagrees with a lot of Israel's policy."


"To pluck out one person who I know and who I've had a conversation with who has very different views than 900 of my friends and then to suggest that somehow that shows that maybe I'm not sufficiently pro-Israel, I think, is a very problematic stand to take," Obama said. "So we gotta be careful about guilt by association."


An April 10 Los Angeles Times story that explored the Khalidi-Obama relationship said Khalidi and his wife lived near the Obamas in Chicago and "the families became friends and dinner companions."


"In 2000, the Khalidis held a fund-raiser for Obama's unsuccessful congressional bid. The next year, a social service group whose board was headed by Mona Khalidi (Khalidi's wife), received a $40,000 grant from a local charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, when Obama served on the fund's board of directors. At Khalidi's going-away party in 2003, the scholar lavished praise on Obama, telling the mostly Palestinian-American crowd that the state senator deserved their help in winning a U.S. Senate seat," the Times reported.


When asked about these details, the Obama campaign pointed to the May 22 comments aired by ABC News. Khalidi, asked by CNN to respond to Palin's assertions, declined to comment.


In a New York Daily News story published March 6, 2007, Khalidi said he hosted the fund-raiser because he had been friends with Obama in Chicago. "He never came to us and said he would do anything in terms of Palestinians," Khalidi is quoted as saying.


The Los Angeles Times report said, "though Khalidi has seen little of Sen. Obama in recent years, Michelle Obama attended a party several months ago celebrating the marriage of the Khalidis' daughter."


The Verdict: Misleading. While Khalidi eight years ago hosted a political fund-raiser for Obama, the two men strongly disagree over the Israeli-Palestinian issue and there's no evidence of a continuing political relationship.

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-02-2005
Sat, 11-01-2008 - 10:11pm

any thoughts anyone?

 

Greatly Missed, Never Ever Forgotten

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-02-2005
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 6:11pm
bump

 

Greatly Missed, Never Ever Forgotten

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-02-2005
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 7:44pm

was this already talked about...


I brought it up since others like to bring this new guy up....


Seems like they should also chastise McCain and his 'good' judgement for funding a terrorist.

 

Greatly Missed, Never Ever Forgotten

iVillage Member
Registered: 10-23-2008
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 7:47pm

I have a feeling Khalidi was drummed up out of the bottom of the GOP's oppo-research barrel because they started getting sustained polling numbers indicating the whole "Ayers thing" wasn't working real well; someone said "we need someone more foreign-sounding, more Arab-sounding, to REALLY gin up the fear."

And they did every bit as much fact-checking and vetting as they did for the Palin pick, LOL.





Konichiwa, Bitches!
McCain LOST???

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 8:24pm
No one wants to think that McCain is soooo foolish as to try and connect Obama to a man that he helped fund as well. That's classic. lol.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-02-2005
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 9:51pm

I guess all the "obama palls around with terrorist" thumpers don't want to touch this one.

 

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iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 10:14pm

((((

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2008
Sun, 11-02-2008 - 10:35pm
Tarred??? Cue the feathers....that he claims he will ruffle...on himself? lol.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-02-2005
Tue, 11-04-2008 - 6:54pm
I am tickled pink that not ONE conservative/McCain supporter has entered this thread to say anything about this.

 

Greatly Missed, Never Ever Forgotten

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