Who Is Rashid Khalidi?

Ever hear of a guy named Rashid Khalidi?

It's not a household name, but Khalidi is a friend of Barack Obama's, a professor of Arab studies at Columbia University in New York.

Back when Bill Ayers was bombing the Pentagon and Barack Obama was 8 years old, Khalidi was in Beirut where, according to The Los Angeles Times, he acted a spokesman for Yasser Arafat's PLO.

Later in the '90s when Barack Obama was starting his political career, Khalidi advised the Palestinian delegation during peace negotiations. Again according to The L.A. Times, when Khalidi was a professor in Chicago, Barack and Michelle Obama were frequent dinner guests at the Khalidi home.

But recently when Obama was asked about Khalidi before an audience of American supporters of Israel, he said this:

"And I do know him. And I have had conversations. He is not one of my advisers. He is not one of my foreign policy people. His kids went to the lab school where my kids go as well."

Sounds like the way he described Pentagon bomber Bill Ayers: "a guy I know in the neighborhood."

Well, more than that, we know that Obama and Ayers were partners on a foundation board that gave away a $100 million over a seven year period and that Obama's political career was launched at a fundraiser in Ayers' living room.

Now we have Khalidi, the PLO representative, who is also someone — quote — "I do know."

But it was more than friendly dinners. Over a period of time when Obama ran the Woods Fund, he approved somewhere in the neighborhood of $75,00 to Khalidi's Arab American Action Network and in 2000 Khalidi and his wife hosted a fundraiser for Obama.

Notice a pattern? Close involvement with people like Ayers and Khalidi — both socially and financially — and when asked about these close associations, they suddenly become just "someone I know in the neighborhood" or someone whose kids go to my kids' school.

Why is Obama covering up his friendships and why is the media working so hard to ignore Obama's friends?

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