The wrong man, sir

Townhall links to a video in which civil rights activist Percy Sutton claimed he was asked by a certain “Dr. Khalid al Mansour”, supposed adviser to ‘one of the richest men in the world’, to write a letter of reccomendation on behalf of Barack Obama to help him gain acceptance to the Harvard Law Review many years ago.  Mansour was raising money for Obama at the time,according to Sutton, a circumstance strange enough in itself. Townhall identifies the Mansour in question as a preacher from Islam Studios. A video purporting to show Dr. Mansour exemplifies his somewhat comical style of preaching. However, it seems at first glance that Townhall may have erred in its identification of the right Mansour for the Islamic preacher featured in the video seems unlikely to have been any kind of adviser to billionaries. A search on the Internet showed another  Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour‘s whose biographical details fit the Sutton profile much better.

Dr. Khalid Abdullah Tario Al-Mansour is an internationally acknowledged advisor to Heads of State and business leaders in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and North America. He has been actively involved in structuring investments and joint ventures worldwide for over 35 years. Dr. Al-Mansour was also responsible for the Africa investment activities of Kingdom Holdings, Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal’s investment company. During his distinguished career, Dr. Al-Mansour has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, Bombay University, Columbia University, UCLA, University of Kenya, London School of Economics and the University of Ghana.

In addition to Africa Venture Partners, Dr. Al-Mansour sits on the Boards of: Saudi African Bank; Kingdom Holdings, Africa; Multimedia Super Corridor (Malaysia); Space Tech Inc.; AmNet Corp. International; New Avenues Fund Ltd; United Bank for Africa; United Networks; and Landmark Entertainment.

Dr. Al-Mansour has authored 24 books and is listed in Who’s Who in the World; International Who’s Who in the Arab World; Two Thousand Men of Achievement; Royal Blue Book of London; World’s Who’s Who of Intellectuals and American Hall of Fame. Dr. Khalid Al-Mansour has a Bachelor of Arts degree from Howard University (Phi Beta Kappa) and Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of California at Berkeley.

This Mansour of Africa Ventures looks too good to be true. His accomplishments are so great and fame so limited that he appears to be the human equivalent of a Nigerian email scam? Yet he is apparently real. Another al-Mansour who may fit the bill is “Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour of San Antonio, a black lawyer and orthodox Islamic lecturer”. Sutton mentioned that Al-Mansour was from Texas. This  profile of the lawyer, said to be from 1996 AP piece suggestively coincides with Sutton’s recollection that Mansour was from Texas.

Sayyid M. Syeed, secretary-general of the Indiana-based Islamic Society of North America, cites higher numbers. He estimates blacks comprise half of the nation’s 8 million Muslims, with members of the vocal and controversial Nation of Islam — perhaps the best-known group of Muslim blacks — constituting a small minority. It’s growing. There’s no question it’s growing,” says Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al-Mansour of San Antonio, a black lawyer and orthodox Islamic lecturer. More and more inner-city Islamic centers are emerging,” Syeed says. “That’s a new phenomenon.”

Are they the same man? This link from Par Excellance, suggests that Al-Mansour and the preacher shown on the Townhall video unlikely as it may seem, may be the same person. The Mansour described in Par Excellance matches the profile in Africa Ventures and has the same face as the Muslim preacher in the video. If so, then this list of his lectures, distributed from the Halalco Supermarket at Falls Church, VA, is a strange one indeed. This would raise almost as many questions as it answers. This video bio of Mansour leaves no doubt that he claims to be a lawyer is the preacher and the man described in the Africa Ventures site.

I wonder if the readers can shed any additional light on this matter. Knowing someone at the right hand of very rich men is a great thing when you’re looking for entry into law school. Sutton took Mansour’s advice, whoever he was, and wrote Harvard saying there was a “genius” who would soon be available to them. And the rest is nearly history.

PJM editor Allison Kaplan Sommer noticed that  Dr. Khalid al-Mansour (picture shown here) is also into Pyramid Power Products! It sells whole food products good for all 60 trillion cells in your body. I’m beginning to wonder how much of Percy Sutton’s recollections about Dr. Khalid al-Mansour come from the same universe that you and I inhabit. The whole scenario is a few teeth short of set of dentures. So readers … your wisdom please.

Update:

Sutton is ambiguous about whether the recommendation he was solicited for referred to his admission to Harvard or the Law Review. Townhall quotes Sutton as “I was introduced to him by a friend who was raising money for him and the friends name was Dr. Khalid al Mansour from Texas. He is the principle adviser to one of the world’s richest men. He told me about Obama. He wrote to me about him and his introduction was ‘there is  a young man that has applied to Harvard and I know that you have a few friends left there becasue you used to go up there to speak, would you please write a letter in support of him?’…I wrote a letter in support of him to my friends at Harvard saying ot them I thought there was a genius that was going to be available and I sure hoped they would treat him kindly.” But if you listen carefully to the Sutton video itself, acceptance into the Law Review is also mentioned. My guess is that Sutton’s recollection is poor on the point.

Nobody is accusing Barack Obama of anything. What I am trying to figure out is whether Sutton’s story is plausible, and if so, who the Khalid Mansour referred to in the recollection refers to.  It seemed astounding that the Muslim preacher in the Townhall video should be a man of such international influence.  But just now, Allison Kaplan Sommer sent me a link to a 1981 US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case between a Union and OPEC. Guess who one of the lawyers for OPEC is? Mansour. But this is ludicrous, or at least bizzarre. I don’t want to chase conspiracy theories here, just the opposite. There are just two questions in my mind. Did a Khalid al-Mansour request Sutton to help BHO get into Harvard or the Law Review? Second, who is Khalid al-Mansour? I’m not sure BHO has anything to do with it, except as a person referred to in Sutton’s recollection.

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE
WORKERS, (IAM), an association, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
The ORGANIZATION OF the PETROLEUM EXPORTING COUNTRIES
(OPEC); the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria
(Algeria); the Republic of Ecuador (Ecuador); the Gabonese
Republic (Gabon); Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia);
Imperial Government of Iran (Iran); Republic of Iraq (Iraq);
State of Kuwait (Kuwait); Libyan Arab Republic (Libya);
Federal Republic of Nigeria (Nigeria); State of Qatar
(Qatar); Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (Saudi Arabia); State of
United Arab Emirates, (United Arab Emirates); and the
Republic of Venezuela (Venezuela), Defendants-Appellees.

James H. Davis, Los Angeles, Cal., for plaintiff-appellant.
Antonin Scalia, Chicago, Ill., Khalid Abdullah Tariq Al Mansour, San Francisco, Cal., for defendants-appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California.
Richard I. Fine, amicus curiae per se.
Before CHOY and NELSON, Circuit Judges, and SPEARS,* District Judge.
CHOY, Circuit Judge:

Tip Jar.