"A major news organization is intentionally suppressing information that could provide a clearer link between Barack Obama and Rashid Khalidi," said McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb. " . . . The election is one week away, and it's unfortunate that the press so obviously favors Barack Obama that this campaign must publicly request that the Los Angeles Times do its job -- make information public."
Umm... one little problem. The Times didn't suppress information - the paper made the information public. The only reason that the world knows about this existence of the tape... is because the L.A. Times wrote a story about it. Duh. If they had wanted to "suppress information" they'd have never mentioned the tape or written a story about Obama and Khalidi and nobody would've been the wiser. Does the McCain camp really think people are incapable of critical thought? That if they just constantly manufacture fake outrage about non-stories, that one of them will stick?
How about this, from the Huffington Post, as the icing to this absurd cake:
So let's just get this straight: the L.A. Times writes a story about Obama and Khalidi and is then accused of suppressing the information it publicly disclosed simply because it's protecting the source material it used to write the story... and McCain funded the same guy he's accusing Obama of having an association with. Oh, and throw in a little "Fear the guy with the scary Arab name" race baiting while you're at it.
McCain Funded Work Of Palestinian His Campaign Hopes To Tie To Obama
"During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.
A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS" on page 14 of this PDF.)
The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi's group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of "sociopolitical attitudes."
Nice try, guys. Better luck next time. Maybe if you hadn't been the Campaign Who Cried Wolf with all your Lipstick On A Pig/Obama's a Secret Muslim Marxist/Pals Around With Terrorists nonsense and phony anger, this might've been taken seriously. Although it still would've been easily refuted.
