Obama Fires Advisor -- For Conducting Talks With Terrorist Hamas

How do all these terrorist-sympathizing radicals keep mistakenly thinking that Obama is one of them?

One of Barack Obama’s Middle East policy advisers disclosed today that he had held meetings with the militant Palestinian group Hamas - prompting the likely Democratic nominee to sever all links with him.

Robert Malley told The Times he had regularly been in contact with Hamas, which controls Gaza but is listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation. Such talks, he stressed, were related to his work for a conflict resolution think tank and had no connection with his position on Mr Obama's Middle East advisory council.

“I’ve never hidden the fact that in my job with the International Crisis Group I meet all kinds of people,” he added.

...

Mr Malley, who is a respected commentator on Middle Eastern issues and was part of President Clinton's negotiating team at the Camp David talks, has come under attack in recent months from right-wing bloggers.

Today, asked if Obama campaign was aware of his contact with Hamas, he replied: "They know who I am but I don't think they vet everyone in a group of informal advisers."

Randy Scheunemann, Mr McCain's foreign policy chief, suggested Mr Malley was part of an emerging pattern which has seen other advisers repudiated after throwing confusion over policies on trade and Iraq.

"Perhaps, because of his inexperience, Senator Obama surrounds himself with advisers that contradict his stated policies," said Mr Scheunemann.

Here's the website for the International Crisis Group, which bills itself as...

The International Crisis Group (Crisis Group) is an independent, non-profit, non-governmental organisation, with some 145 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict.

He's never hidden it, so I assume Obama wasn't in church the days he discussed his Hamas connections.

Thanks to Portly Pirate.

By the way, it demonstrates that McCain is "losing his bearings" by noting that Hamas has endorsed Obama.

Gee, I wonder where they could have gotten the idea he would sympathize with their agenda.

Non-Correction: I took the flaming skull down and injected a cautionary note for a minute because I hadn't checked what the International Crisis Group actually was. If it was, say, a firm involved in K&R (Kidnap and Ransom) negotiations with terrorists, then of course it would have to talk with terrorist kidnappers on occasion, and all the sturm and drang I was suggesting wouldn't be fair.

But I looked it up, and it appears just to be an egghead "peace" organization. So if they're talking to Hamas, it's because that's their strategy for "peace."

And Obama's.

posted by Ace at 04:03 PM

| Access Comments