Stonewalling Stanley Kurtz

Stanley Kurtz has been digging into Barack Obama’s network of relationships in Chicago. Among his articles on the subject is “Inside Obama’s ACORN,” and the recent Standard article “Barack Obama’s lost years.” Among the most intriguing relationships Kurtz has sought to explore is the one between Obama and Bill Ayers, the unrepentant terrorist. Obama has consistently sought to downplay his relationship with Ayers, describing him, for example, as “a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who’s a professor of English in Chicago.”

Following up on his Standard article, Kurtz sought to review the files of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, where Obama served as chairman of the board and worked with Ayers. The records of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge are on deposit with the Richard J. Daley Library of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Kurtz contacted the library, was provided an index of the Anneberg Challenge documemnts collection and was advised by the library that it would would accommodate his review of the documents.

Then something happened. Just before Kurtz boarded his flight to Chicago to review the documents, top library officials mysteriously intervened to bar access. Kurtz tells the story in “Chicago Annenberg Challenge shutdown?” noting that the explanations offered by library officials for the last-minute decision to block access to the documents were contradictory and shifting. Today he adds an alarming update here, indicating that the documents may be returned to their donor.

Steve Diamond has more here, Tom Maguire has more here and here, and the AP dips its toe into the water here. The Obama campaign’s fact check on Obama’s relationship with Ayers suggests that whoever is behind the coverup at the Richard J. Daley Library is not alone.

JOHN adds: See also my post here, mostly for the Sandy Berger joke.

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