Clarification: Michelle Obama's Terrorist Fundraiser 'Friend'

Fri, Apr 25, 2008 at 5:01:50 pm PST

There have been some questions about a statement I made in my earlier post about the page at the official Obama web site belonging to Hatem El-Hady (a former head of the Hamas-connected Kindhearts Islamic charity), with Michelle Obama listed as his friend. Remember the page that vanished down the memory hole this afternoon?

Some people have suggested that I was incorrect when I said:

Note: when someone is listed as a “friend,” it means they specifically chose it. In other words, Michelle Obama’s name isn’t there because El-Hady put it there — it’s there because she chose to be listed as his friend.

This is the way most social networking systems implement a “friends” feature, and it’s the most logical way to do it. So I was pretty confident it was right.

But just to be 100% sure, I registered an account at my.barackobama.com to see how the system worked. And imagine my surprise to discover that I wasn’t wrong. Heh.

At the Obama site, you invite people to be your “friend” by entering their address into a form. The person who receives the invitation then chooses to accept or reject the invitation. If they accept, they’re listed on your page.

This means that Michelle Obama agreed to have her name listed on Hatem El-Hady’s now-vanished web page, unless she has a secretary who makes decisions like that for her—which I doubt.

And please note: this also implies that Michelle Obama knew Hatem El-Hady.