The Obama-Salahi Connection: Why No Invite for White House Gatecrashers?

I'm honored that my work on the Salahis was picked up by Atlas Shrugs, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, and World Net Daily (as well as many others to whom I've linked in earlier entries).

World Net Daily's piece develops the implications of Tareq Salahi's Palestinian ties in full, "White House 'Gatecrashers' Tied to Terror Sympathizer":

But Reliapundit at the Astute Bloggers has questions: For example, why would the Salahis sneak into a state dinner if they knew the president? The Secret Service confirmed, after the gatecrashers left the party unescorted, that the couple had not been officially invited. It's now known, of course, that Barack Obama met the Salahis as far back as 2005, and the couple claims to have been in "the Obamas' glass-enclosed viewing area after an inauguration concert at the Lincoln Memorial." So, there are a lot of unanswered questions.

The intense severity of the security breach is foremost, with scrutiny focusing on the breakdown at the Secret Service. As this morning's Washington Post indicates, "Security experts called the breach an indefensible breakdown that will almost certainly lead to changes within the Secret Service ..."

But after that we're left with Tareq Salahi's shadowy ties to radical Islamists and terror-enablers, especially Columbia University's Rashid Khalidi. Certainly these relationships aren't something that the mainstream press wants to discuss. As Debbie Schlussel noted yesterday, the New York Times, in previously published reports, removed reference to Tareq Salahi's membership at the American Task Force on Palestine, an Israel-bashing group now shown as having long relations with the terrorist organizations in the Middle East. See, "NY Times Scrubs Its Own Reporting on White House Party Crasher Tareq Salahi’s Board Membership in Pro-Palestinian Terror Group."

And Media Matters doesn't want to discuss Salahi's Palestian ties either; and in fact, the Soros-backed unit describes Jim Hoft's entry on the story as a "conspiracy." See, "Gateway Pundit Concocts Conspiracy Theory Involving WH Party Crashers, Rashid Khalidi, and Obama's 'Radicalism'."

The Salahis' reasons for crashing the event are being questioned as well, and the couple's now denying any profit-motivations for their actions. See Fox News, "White House Crashers' Rep Reportedly Says They Do Not Seek Cash for Interviews." (Although Anne Applebaum's piece this morning chaulks it up to the routine climbers' quest for "wealth and fame." See, "Social Climbing With a Twist: White House Gate-Crashers in a Long Tradition.")

So why, then? It's clear that the couple's forthcoming reality show gig was already clinched (a Bravo camera crew was trailing the Salahis at the entrance to the White House). Perhaps, given the Salahis' well-advertised earlier meetings with the Obamas, lacking an invitation, the couple felt entitled to be at the dinner anyway. And if that's so, the White House had to play dumb. After Jeremiah Wright, Bill Ayers, and Barack's long association with the sleazy Chicago underworld of ACORN thugs and (alleged) secret homosexual lovers, the last thing the president needs is for an old Palestianian pal to demonstrate open entrée at a state dinner hosting the prime minister of India.

So, perhaps besides the egregious security breakdown (which amply illustrates gross administration incompetence; no White House social-functions personnel were stationed at the gates), it's mostly a White House in damage control issue at this point. Van Jones, Anita Dunn, Bertha Lewis ... the list goes on. Maybe there's a limit to the heat the president's willing to take on his outrageous ties to ideological extremists and Palestinian lobbyists.

Fresh Conservative takes a look at this angle, "Gate Crashers or Genial Guests?":

Over the years, Barack Obama has distanced himself from the circle of extremist associates like Bill Ayers, Tony Rezko and Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Yet, while the White House denies it was the notorious Ayers on the White House visitor’s list, the cofounder of Weather Underground’s name has mysteriously disappeared from the roster.

New questions arise: could Khalidi, supporter of Palestinian terror and former Palestine Liberation Organization worker, have an ideological association to zany power couple Tareq and Michaele Salahi, crashers of the State Dinner honoring Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh?

Coincidentally, it appears that one half of the reality TV Washington, DC couple that allegedly busted through the security detail at the White House is Tareq Salahi of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP) Board of Directors. The American Task Force on Palestine is an inadvertent successor group of the American Committee on Jerusalem (1995-2003), to which Khalidi once served as President.

Tareq Salahi’s picture, which was still posted a week ago on the American Task Force on Palestine website, is currently deleted from the Board of Directors gallery. Yet, as cited by TPM Document Collectors, the audacious party boy remains on the Board of the American Task Force on Palestine’s website.

At the State Dinner, the Salahi’s were officially announced and took cozy photographs with the Vice President, Chief of Staff and Katie Couric. And if that weren’t stunning enough, it now appears, “President Obama met the couple…as they went through the receiving line.” The Secret Service is downplaying security threats posed by the couple, and the Salahi’s attorney Paul Gardner claims his, “clients were cleared, by the White House to be there.” If it is found out that Salahi was a valid guest, the question that deserves an answer is who granted the Khalidi-styled Director entry to the function? Specifically, because the Obama administration, on perpetual surveillance for threats posed from right-wing extremists, pro-life advocates, ex-military, and born again Christians are, together with the Secret Service, bizarrely downplaying security threats posed by the Salahi’s.

Supping around the First State Dinner table with cronies like Michaele and Tareq wouldn’t be a first for Obama, who admittedly dined on more than one occasion with the likes of Mona and Rashid Khalidi. Based on President Obama’s comfort level dining with PLO activists, its feasible that either he, or a close associate, extended the invitation to kindred Palestinian sympathizer Tareq Salahi and his wife.

Let’s review: Salahi is on the Board of Directors of the Palestinian Task Force, which has connections to the former American Committee on Jerusalem, who’s president was Rashid Khalidi. Obama is a friend and supporter of Khalidi. Then, out of nowhere the Salahi’s show up at the first White House State Dinner, and make it past high security barriers to the reception line, successfully gaining direct access to the President of the United States.

Could this be one big serendipitous twist of fate? Perhaps, but if Michaele and Tareq were indeed legitimate White House guests, such a revelation would be indicative of anti-Israeli sentiment deep within the recesses of the Obama administration, and would be more unsettling than two reality TV wannabes successfully crashing a White House party. If proven that the Salahi's are old friends of Obama, such startling news could be all that is needed to catapult the president into his own starring role in a reality show entitled, How to Dupe a Nation. The series could be a primetime special where a left wing, liberal, anti-America, Israel hating, radical socialist, swindles America into electing a barefaced impostor to the undeserved position of leader of the free world.