Posted on 04/10/2009 12:03:38 PM PDT by nickcarraway
President Barack Obama signed a waiver Thursday that will allow the Palestinian Liberation Organization to retain its office in Washington, D.C.
A law passed in 1987 barred the operation of such an office, but legislation has permitted presidents to waive the requirement for six months at a time. President Bill Clinton allowed the PLO mission to open in 1994, and presidential waivers have been regularly issued ever since.
"I hereby determine and certify that it is important to the national security interests of the United States to waive" the restriction, Obama wrote in the determination sent Thursday to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The waiver was released at about the same time that Obama was having a Passover Seder at the White House with friends and members of his staff.
The $83.4 billion supplemental spending bill Obama sent to Congress Thursday contains $800 million "to support the Palestinian people, strengthen the Palestinian Authority and provide humanitarian assistance for the crisis in Gaza," a statement from the Office of Management and Budget said.
Zero wants a place where he can chill and enjoy a smoke away from the Mrs.
Wonder when the Somalian Pirates will open their office in DC?
Actually, they have this really cool Boho place in Georgetown- they feel it suits them better.
Offices for thugs and criminals in DC? Aren’t there enough there already?
As much as this disgusts me, lets not forget this started in 1994. (Thanks Bill, you SOB!) The fact is, these spots are still out there. So guess who else was signing wavers. That disgusts me too. And that person should have known better.
I expect Obama to be Obama. I don’t expect our guys to be Obama on some issues.
What do they mean by regularly?
Are they saying that both Clinton and Bush kept the PLO Office open all these years?
Let them set up shop in the Congressional Black Caucas office.
I didn't used to.
Good point. I hear ya...
As if they hadn’t. LOL
Wow- you gotta admit he has some brass balls
He is just blatantly doing all this crapola even Clintoon was too cowardly to do, even though you know he wanted to
Is this the reason 0bama is using the Somali terrorist/pirate event/distraction?
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Video: Obama, Khalidi, and Ayers - Terrorist Friends Update
Hannity Video: Barack Obama's Association with Former PLO Operative (Rashid) Khalidi
Video: Rashid Khalidi - The Palestinian Struggle for Statehood
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Oct 30, 2008
As the subject of Barack Obama’s friend Rashid Khalidi has gained traction in the media and the blogosphere, one of the talking points parroted by Obama apologists is that Khalidi was never a spokesman for Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Liberation Organization, at a time when it was listed as a terrorist group by the US government.
But is it true that Khalidi was not affiliated with the PLO?
In a word, no. Khalidi of the PLO.
As for Khalidi’s denial, there are ample grounds to question it. In 2004, when he made it, Khalidi wrote that between 1976 and 1983, “I was teaching full time as an Assistant Professor in the Political Studies and Public Administration Dept. at the American University of Beirut, published two books and several articles, and also was a research fellow at the independent Institute for Palestine Studies.”
Khalidi claimed he had time for little else. “I often spoke to journalists in Beirut, who usually cited me without attribution as a well-informed Palestinian source. If some misidentified me at the time, I am not aware of it.”
Now if someone misidentified me on the pages of the New York Times—Tom Friedman, no less—I’m sure I would be aware of it. So would you. Yet Khalidi did not seek a correction of Friedman’s characterization at the time, although the Times regularly issues corrections of such mistakes, and presumably would have done the same for Khalidi.
Khalidi’s self-description as being a preoccupied professor while in Beirut also contradicts a statement he made in a 2005 interview. After listing the stations in his academic career, he is asked this question: “You were also involved politically as well?” Khalidi: “Well, yes. I was deeply involved in politics in Beirut.”
It is worth explaining what it meant to be “deeply involved in politics in Beirut” during the civil war in Lebanon. It was not at all like community organizing in Chicago. The Lebanese state had ceased to function; the political actors were all armed militias, Lebanese and Palestinian.
Every individual needed to be affiliated with such an organization, if not for bread then at least for protection. Khalidi was known to be affiliated with, and protected by, Arafat’s Fatah.
A 1979 New York Times report (by Youssef Ibrahim) described Khalidi as “a professor of political science who is close to Al Fatah.” In Beirut, to be “close” to an organization meant you enjoyed its protection in return for loyalty and services rendered.
Khalidi’s wife also worked as an English translator for the PLO’s press agency, Wafa. So savvy journalists knew that if they wanted the Fatah spin, they could get it from Khalidi.
Video - Mike Schnitt Show - The L.A. Times Suppresses Obama's Khalidi Jew Bashing Video
RASHID KHALIDI
Look on the upside.
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