When Barack Obama was seeking to get into Harvard Law School (he entered in the fall of 1988) he had the assistance of Khalid Al-Mansour, a Black Muslim and Black Nationalist who was a “mentor” to the founders of the Black Panther party at the time the party was founded in the early 1960s.

There is some suggestion that Mansour had provided financial assistance to Obama for Harvard Law School, though the Obama campaign denies this.

Obama has refused all requests that Harvard and Columbia open up his records for examination, as he has refused requests to have the official birth records of the State of Hawaii opened to resolve questions that have been raised about his place of birth. [Nonetheless Columbia confrmed Obama graduated in 1983 with a degree in political science, but without honors.]

At that time Obama was applying to Harvard Law School he was a community organizer in Chicago working with, among others, ACORN, the national housing advocacy group that has been involved many times in cases of fraudulent voter registration. Mr. Mansour lives in Texas. Since Mansour is described as a black Nationalist, it is possible that the Nation of Islam's Louis Farrakhan might be the person who put Obama and Mansour together. Farrakhan was a close friend of Jeremiah Wright, a former Muslim, whose church Obama was attending.

Mansour refused to comment one way or the other about his Obama connection.

Here's the gist of the story:

[Former Manhattan Borough president Percy Sutton told a New York cable channel that a former business partner who was “raising money” for Obama had approached him in 1988 to help Obama get into Harvard Law School.

In the interview, Sutton says he first heard of Obama about twenty years ago from Khalid Al-Mansour, a Black Muslim and Black Nationalist who was a “mentor” to the founders of the Black Panther party at the time the party was founded in the early 1960s.

Sutton described al-Mansour as advisor to “one of the world’s richest men,” Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal.

Prince Alwaleed catapulted to fame in the United States after the September 11 attacks, when New York mayor Rudy Guiliani refused his $10 million check to help rebuild Manhattan, because the Saudi prince hinted publicly that America’s pro-Israel policies were to blame for the attacks.

Sutton knew Al-Mansour well, since the two men had been business partners and served on several corporate boards together.

As Sutton remembered, Al-Mansour was raising money for Obama’s education and seeking recommendations for him to attend Harvard Law School.

“I was introduced to (Obama) by a friend who was raising money for him,” Sutton told NY1 city hall reporter Dominic Carter. “The friend’s name is Dr. Khalid al-Mansour, from Texas.”

That Obama had substantial ties to rich, influential Muslim radicals in 1988 at age 26 or 27, long after he had left Indonesia and about the time he joined Jeremiah Wright's church is surprising, if true.

UPDATE: Later a press release from a "spokesman for the Sutton family" said that Percy Sutton's memory was faulty (he was 88) and his account should be disregarded. Timmerman, the author of the initial report, contacted the Sutton family who said they knew nothing of the press release or the person said to be their spokesman and that Percy's mind was sharp. The Obama campaign denied the report and referred Timmerman to the "spokesman," but Timmerman went to the family instead.