Obama File 80 Michelle and Barack's Black Panther Mentor

Obama file 79 hereUS President Obama has waded into a controversy over the arrest, in his own house of black Harvard academic Henry Louis Gates.Why would Obama risk a public backlash defending this man and criticising the police?Well it turns out that Obama regards Gates as a friend and they have several acquaintances in common on the black left.Gates co-wrote two books with Obama's "comrade", Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) member Cornel West. Gates is also close to another DSA supporter who Obama once shared a DSA organized forum with-academic William Julius Wilson.But more interestingly Gates' lawyer Charles Ogletree is a long time friend and mentor to both Michelle and Barack Obama.It also turns out that Ogletree was a hard core radical with roots in the Maoist influenced Black Panthers movement. It also seems that Ogletree is still a militant leftist and is still called on by the Obamas for advice.In 1970, Charles Ogletree enrolled at Stanford University near San Francisco, then a major center of black activism. Ogletree became a campus radical, organizing an Afrocentric dormitory and editing a campus Black Panthers newspaper called The Real News. He also traveled to Africa and Cuba with student activist groups. In 1973 Ogletree was president of the radical Black Student Union. Ogletree's first interest in the law came when he attended the trial of Black Power activist and then Communist Party USA member Angela Davis. By 1986 Ogletree was director of Harvard's introduction to trial advocacy workshops, where students were taught that law can be "an instrument for social and political change…a tool to empower the dispossessed and disenfranchised… and a means to make the privileged more respectful of differences," Ogletree also began a Saturday School Program so that "African-American students could learn from other professionals of their own heritage". Barack Obama became one of his regular students. Ogletree claims to have mentored mentored both Michelle and Barack Obama during their time at Harvard. According to Ogletree the Obama's have called on him for advice since that time."I met Michelle when she started her legal career here at Harvard in the fall of 1985, and I was able to watch her develop into a very strong and powerful student leader. She was an active member of the Harvard Legal Aid Bureau, where she served as a student attorney for indigent clients who had civil cases and needed legal help..." "I met Barack three years later when he arrived at Harvard Law School in fall of 1988. He was quiet and unassuming, but had an incredibly sharp mind and a thirst for knowledge. He was a regular participant in a program that I created called the Saturday School Program, which was a series of workshops and meetings held on Saturday mornings to expose minority students, in particular, to critical issues in the study of law. Even then I saw his ability to quickly grasp the most complicated legal issues and sort them out in a clear, concise fashion.I was faculty adviser to the Harvard Black Law Student Association. I routinely gave career advice, and often personal advice, to students who would come in with questions about where they should work, how they should use their legal skills and talent, and was it possible to do well and do good...My advice to people like Barack and Michelle was that they could easily navigate the challenges of a corporate career and find a variety of ways to serve their community-through financial support, through volunteer legal services, and through getting involved in community efforts. So this advice started then, and I guess it must have been useful enough. They have not hesitated to call on me over the past 20-plus years as needed.It's one thing to see Michelle and Barack keep their promises by going back to Chicago and serving those communities. It's another thing to see them have the dream of leading the nation as the President and First Lady and to see that happen. I was most deeply touched during Barack's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention in Denver...It was a moment of deep reflection that I will never forget, and it is an incredible reality today to realize that not only are the President and First Lady younger than me, but they are two people that I've had the honor and pleasure of mentoring over the past 20 years."After the election Ogletree had messages for both of his protoges."For the President, it was a personal message about the things that he needed to do. Without getting into any details, the central point was: Make sure you keep your promises. With Michelle, it was more my sense and my hope, that has now been realized, that she would not just be a great First Lady and a phenomenal First Mom, but that she would also be able to use her many gifts and talents in the community in ways that were natural to her. I've been particularly pleased this past week to see her not only out building support for her husband's stimulus package, but talking about families and children and education and health care, where she's going to be incredibly helpful".As Ogletree seems not to have abandoned his youthful radicalism, it might be interesting to know what kind of advive he has given the first couple over the years.In 2000 Ogletree joined the Reparations Coordinating Committee, a group pursuing a lawsuit to win reparations for descendants of African slaves.The committee was convened by the TransAfrica Forum, a partner organization the radical Institute for Policy Studies. Ogletree serves on the Board of TransAfrica Forum-alongside long time Communist Party USA front activist Johnetta Cole and board chairman and Progressives for Obama founder Danny Glover. The committees objectives were;''To ascertain, document, and report comparative repair and restitution in the United States and abroad on behalf of the contemporary victims of slavery and the century-long practice of de jure racial discrimination which followed slavery;''''A. To detail a range of feasible relief, reform, reconciliation, and restitution initiatives to make America better for everyone.''''B. To identify and structure causes of action that would be cognizable in domestic and international tribunals and courts;'' ''C. To begin a comprehensive review of such initiatives with leading domestic and international institutions'';''D. And to work cooperatively with other groups pursuing reparation claims.''James Lloyd; Alfred L. Brophy; Michele Roberts; Kimberly Ellis (at back); Johnnie Cochran; Randall Robinson; Charles J. Ogletree; Dennis Sweet; Adjoa Aiyetoro; Eric J. Miller; Sharon Cole; James O. Goodwin The committee, which Ogletree co-chaired was a mixture of top trial layers and seasoned radical activists. It included Johnnie Cochran of OJ Simpson fame Randall Robinson and Ogletree's co-chair Adjoa Aiyetoro, a former official of the Communist Party USA front US Peace Coucil with Obama's one time employer Alice Palmer.Bowman, Jones, BoudreauxOn December 8 2005, Former Black Panther members John Bowman, Hank Jones and Ray Boudreaux held a meeting at the Washington, D.C. office of Trans-Africa Forum. They were complaining about re-newed police investigations of a 1971 police killing in San Francisco that they had been accused of.The three Panthers had been indicted at the time by a grand jury, but were released when the court rendered a decision stating the methods used to obtain information were unlawful.The former Panthers were flanked by Danny Glover, reparations activist Ron Daniels, Democratic Socialists of America activist and Progressives for Obama co-founder Bill Fletcher jnr and Charles Ogletree. Ogletree, said that the community should protect the rights of the former Panthers with their lives ''"These gentlemen, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones and others have been victims of the most vicious forms of American terrorism and torture...It takes a village to protect its elders. We tell them today, through our presence here and through our commitment that we will provide a protective blanket over them. They will not come in this village and take these elders, except over our dead bodies''."Barack Obama called on Ogletree and Democratic Socialists of America member Cornel West, during his 2008 Presidential campaign. Ogletree and West both joined Obama's Black Advisory Council.Cornel West, Charles Ogletree''Ogletree has advised Obama on reforming the criminal-justice system as well on constitutional issues. He is a member of the Obama campaign's black advisory council, which also includes Cornel West, who teaches African-American studies at Princeton University. The group formed after Obama skipped a conference on African-American issues in Hampton, Va., to announce his presidential candidacy in Illinois.'' Maybe Obama was just sticking up for old friends?