Obama Met Gatecrashers in 2005: Salahi's ATFP Tied to Academic Radical Rashid Khalidi; Security Breach Rekindles Issue of President's Islamist Ties!

Atlas Shrugs has the scoop, from Polo Contacts Worldwide, "Americas Polo Cup Pre-Event - Invite Only - with President Elect Obama and Black Eyed Peas":

But see also, Canada Free Press, "'Party Crashers' Had Five-Year Relationship With Obama Before State Dinner":

While the big gun media and American Secret Service are out there investigating “party crashers” Tareq and Michaele Salahi, no one’s telling the truth: Obama knew the Salahis when he was still an Illinois senator.

Polo Contacts Worldwide could make it easy for the investigating Secret Service by brown-enveloping them this picture ....

Interesting little detail for White House gumshoes: As the above photo was published in June 2005, Barack Obama was still Senator Obama and not the President Elect.

And with Michaele Salahi yesterday having been caught out—Facebook pompoms notwithstanding—as a bogus cheerleader for the Washington Red Skins and not a model for Victoria’s Secret as claimed, Canada Free Press (CFP) leaves it to FoxNews.com to find out if she ever was a “former Miss USA”.

We do know for a fact that among the slew of memberships on charitable boards, Tareq Salahi is a former member of The American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP). The only way to know for a fact is because even though ATFP scrubbed all references to Salahi as a board member, he can still be found on Google cache. (Canada Free Press)

Sad that White House Secret Service are looking like Keystone Kops in the aftermath of Obama’s very first state house dinner in the tent.

While the media is fixated on the hitch in Michaele Salahi’s git-along, there can be no doubt that these recently minted “party crashers” really get around.

Here's the Washington Post piece on the Rock the Vote event in 2005, "At Rock the Vote Awards, 15 Bipartisan Candles":

Tom Nelson, chief operating officer of AARP, summed up the night for everyone from Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama to "American Idol" judge Randy Jackson and R&B singer Mya gathered in the National Building Museum's Great Hall:

"You were probably wondering, as you sat down at your table, 'What the heck is the AARP doing in a Rock the Vote event?' "

And while we're wondering about things: Why was Rock the Vote -- last year's ubiquitous celeb-magnet, get-out-the-youth-vote group -- throwing a barbecue dinner ($5,000 or $10,000 or $15,000 a table) three years early?

Because Rock the Vote, a teenager itself, is celebrating its 15th year. For the first time, it held its awards dinner and after-party in Washington (usually it's the night before the Grammys, in New York or Los Angeles), bringing in $680,000.

First there were burgers, beans and potato salad at the Building Museum, with erstwhile Republican vice presidential nominee Jack Kemp and former Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe hosting. Then it was hard-core partying ($25 a ticket) at Dream nightclub, hosted by the Black Eyed Peas with a performance by pop star Nikka Costa. Fergie, the lead singer of the Peas, might have violated the height restriction in Washington by vamping on five-inch heels, but they sure went well with her too-short shorts and tight spaghetti-strap pink and beige top.

Readers will recall the Tareq Salahi is a former member of the board at the American Task Force on Palestian, the "moderate" rights groups pushing a thinly-veiled program of Palestinian nationalism and the "right of return" (the backdoor destruction of Israel). See, "Tareq Salahi, Gate-Crasher at White House State Dinner, Tied to ATFP, America-Bashing Palestinian Group Calling for Power-Sharing With Hamas!"

And via American Pundit, here's the cache of Salahi's bio-page at ATFP:

According to Discover the Networks, ATFP's former vice president is Rashid Khalidi, the Columbia University Middle East Studies professor and militant Palestinian rights activist. Khalidi cites the late Edward Said as his major influence, and according to the entry cited, "As with Said before him, Khalidi's involvement with the Palestinian cause goes beyond mere support." And, "Khalidi so strongly identified with the aims of the PLO, which was designated as a terrorist group by the State Department during Khalidi's affiliation with it in the 1980s, that he repeatedly referred to himself as 'we' when expounding on the PLO's agenda." Also, according to Campus Watch, ATFP remains in full support of Kha lidi, for example, during charges of academic misconduct in 2005, at the time of Senator Barack Obama's meeting with Tareq Salahi. See, "ATFP EXPRESSES FULL SUPPORT FOR COLUMBIA PROFESSOR RASHID KHALIDI."

Note too that Obama's ties to the Palestinian community became something of an issue during the 2008 campaign. See, the Los Angeles Times, "Allies of Palestinians See a Friend in Obama." Plus, from Andrew C. McCarthy and Claudia Rosett, "In Obama’s Hyde Park, It's All in the Family: Passing Anti-American Radicalism From Generation to Generation":

In Hyde Park during the 1980s, Rashid [Khalidi] made the easy transition from Arafat apologist to American academic. So, ultimately, did his wife Mona. In Chicago, Mona, a former top PLO translator, joined with her husband to found the Arab American Action Network, an activist anti-Israel/pro-illegal-immigration organization that was generously funded by Obama and Ayers at the Woods Fund. Later, after Rashid made the move from the University of Chicago to the Edward Said professorship at Columbia, Mona became an assistant dean of student affairs and assistant director of graduate programs at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.

So, while earlier speculation at this blog suggested that the state-dinner security breach posed a terrorist danger to the president, the First Family, and guests (a conclusion later bolstered by expert commentary on the gatecrashers), it's becoming increasingly clear as well that the Salahi affair is resurrecting long-buried questions of Barack Obama's ties to hardline anti-American and anti-Israel organizations, some with real ties to violent extremists in the Middle East.

With all of this, combined with my earlier reporting on the total reversal of priorities in the Obama White House, it's looking that the Salahi security breach is much more than an "embarassment" for the Secret Service. This event is a devastating indictment not only of the Obama regime's administrative competence, but of its stewardship of American national interests as well.

See also, "Pumping Celebrity, White House Publishes Dinner-Crasher Pics on Flickr: Yet, Tareq and Michaele Security Breach a Major Blow to Obama Administration."

For additional commentary, see Jules Crittenden, "No Dithering Around ."

Added: Snooper's Report, "That Settles It...Obama is in Fact a Jihadist." Plus, Gateway Pundit, "White House Party Crashers Linked to Obama’s Radical Pal Rashid Khalidi."

More at Astute Bloggers, "BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA AND TAREQ SALAHI GO WAY BACK."