McCain Tied To Terrorist? You Betcha!

McCain has been palin' around with anti-Semites. In fact he was head of a group that gave almost half a million dollars to Rashid Khalidi. If you haven't heard, Khalidi was once a spokesman for the PLO and the McCain folks have been trying to tar Obama with his associations.

The truth is McCain had far more contact and influence with Khalidi thorugh the International Republican Institute, an organization McCain chaired.

During the 1990s, while he served as chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI), McCain distributed several grants to the Palestinian research center co-founded by Khalidi, including one worth half a million dollars.

A 1998 tax filing for the McCain-led group shows a $448,873 grant to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies for work in the West Bank. (See grant number 5180, "West Bank: CPRS" on page 14 of this PDF.)

The relationship extends back as far as 1993, when John McCain joined IRI as chairman in January. Foreign Affairs noted in September of that year that IRI had helped fund several extensive studies in Palestine run by Khalidi's group, including over 30 public opinion polls and a study of "sociopolitical attitudes."