The Obama candidacy just gets weirder and weirder. This article in the September 26, 2008 British magazine The Spectator indicates that Obama's law school tuition was paid by someone named Khalid al-Mansour (hence my pun on The Manchurian Candidate). And who is that? And why should you care?
A few months ago, a claim was made by former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton that Obama had been funded through Harvard law school by Khalid Al-Mansour, a ‘mentor’ to the founders of the Black Panther party and advisor to ‘one of the world’s richest men,’ Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal. It was Prince Alwaleed whose $10 million check to help rebuild Manhattan after 9/11 was refused by New York mayor Rudy Guiliani because the Saudi prince hinted publicly that America’s pro-Israel policies were to blame for the attacks.Jack Cashill also has a column pointing to the unlikelihood that Obama wrote the book that made him rich, and some curious aspects of the al-Mansour connection, again relying on Sutton--although less certain as to who al-Mansour is:
According to this story by Kenneth Timmerman, Camp Obama denied this claim -- and referred to a story on Politico.com in which reporter Ben Smith wrote that ‘a spokesman for Sutton’s family, Kevin Wardally’ said that Sutton had been mistaken when he made those comments. But when contacted, Sutton’s family not only denied that Sutton had misspoken but also said they had never even heard of Kevin Wardally – who appears to work for a Harlem political consulting firm.So the claim that Obama was funded through Harvard by a radical Black Muslim activist with ties to the Saudis remains on the table.
A Manhattan borough president for 12 years and a credible candidate for mayor of New York City in 1977, Sutton spoke knowingly about the Obama candidacy. Although unspecified as to date, the interview likely took place within the last few months."I was introduced to [Obama] by a friend," Sutton told the interviewer. The friend's name was Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, and the introduction took place about 20 years ago.Sutton described al-Mansour as "the principal adviser to one of the world's richest men." He also implied that al-Mansour was currently raising money for Obama.Knowing that Sutton had friends at Harvard, al-Mansour asked Sutton to "please write a letter in support of [Obama] ... a young man that has applied to Harvard." Sutton gladly did so.Although Sutton does not specify a date, this would likely have been in 1988 when the 27-year-old Obama was applying to Harvard Law.Two years later, while still a law student, Obama improbably received an advance to write a memoir that would be called "Dreams From My Father" when finally published in 1995.Not yet clear is who exactly this Khalid al-Mansour is. There are at least two candidates, one more troubling than the other. The first is a Muslim crackpot preacher who has not met the paranoid racial fantasy unworthy of his energy.The second, more likely, is a Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq al-Mansour, described as "an internationally acknowledged adviser to heads of state and business leaders in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America."Apparently, al-Mansour serves on the Board of, among others, Saudi African Bank and was responsible for the Africa investment activities of Kingdom Holdings, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal's investment company.Two other details argue for this al-Mansour's involvement in Obama's academic and literary careers. He has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University and has authored 24 books.In short, al-Mansour fits the profile of the political godfather. When I was speculating whose "purposeful intervention" had steered Obama's career through its rough spots, I could not have imagined a more likely candidate.Caution is warranted here. This story is still developing, not in the major media of course, but in the blogosphere, where just about all serious reporting now takes place.
The Soviet Union did a lot of very interesting work infiltrating deep cover agents into the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. Many years ago, I remember reading a very interesting autobiography by a man whose father had moved to the United States in the 1920s from the Soviet Union, and who returned their during the Great Depression. The writer had been born in the U.S., but returned with his parents when he was five. Because he had an American birth certificate, the KGB spent considerable energy training him in American customs, creating an elaborate background of jobs that he had held--with companies that were out of business--so that he could look for work in American defense industries. (So why did the Obama campaign apparently provide a forged birth certificate to Daily Kos to prove that he was born in Hawaii? This is getting curiouser and curiouser.)
Eventually, this deep cover KGB agent saw that what he had learned in the Soviet Union about America was entirely wrong, and he became a double agent. I suspect that there were many other deep cover agents who were infiltrated into the U.S. by the KGB who did not change sides--and perhaps some who, for whatever reason, never ended up in a position to be useful. KGB Colonel and defector Vladimir Sakharov's High Treason discusses the role of deep cover agents and agents of influence in the West. It would not be impossible that Wahhabist factions in Saudi Arabia might have done their best to set up dozens or even hundreds of deep cover agents--knowing that at least a couple might eventually work their way into some significant positions.
There are just way too many weird, worrisome, and curious aspects to Obama to simply ignore them all.
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