Obama had close ties to a top Saudi adviser at an early age.

New evidence has emerged that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama was closely associated as early as age 25 to a key adviser to a Saudi billionaire who had mentored the founding members of the Black Panthers.

In a videotaped interview this year on New York’s all news cable channel NY1, a prominent African-American businessman and political figure made the curious disclosures about Obama.

Percy Sutton, the former borough president of Manhattan, off-handedly revealed the unusual circumstances about his first encounter with the young Obama.

"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," Sutton said.  "He is the principal adviser to one of the world’s richest men.  He told me about Obama."

Sutton, the founder of Inner City Broadcasting, said al-Mansour contacted him to ask a favor: Would Sutton write a letter in support of Obama’s application to Harvard Law School?

"He wrote to me about him," Sutton recalled. "And his introduction was there is a young man that has applied to Harvard.  I know that you have a few friends up there because you used to go up there to speak.  Would you please write a letter in support of him?"

Sutton said he acted on his friend al-Mansour’s advice.

"I wrote a letter of support of him to my friends at Harvard, saying to them I thought there was a genius that was going to be available and I certainly hoped they would treat him kindly," Sutton told NY1.

Sutton did not say why al-Mansour was helping Obama, how he discovered him, or from whom he was raising money on Obama’s behalf.

Much more here . . . video too!