Chapter 2: Factual Inaccuracies In Corsi’s Book (Continued)LIE: “Despite all they had done for him, his grandparents were still ‘white folks’ and ‘white folks’ are racists.” [p 88]
REALITY: OBAMA SAID CALLING HIS GRANDPARENTS “WHITE FOLKS” WOULDN’T RESONATE WITH HIM
Obama Said That The Phrase “White Folks” Did Not Resonate With Him, Because Of His Love For His Mother And Grandparents. Obama wrote, “White folks. The term itself was uncomfortable in my mouth at first; I felt like a non-native speaker tripping over a difficult phrase. Sometimes I would find myself talking to Ray about white folks this or white folks that, and I would suddenly remember my mother’s smile, and the words that I spoke would seem awkward and false. Or I would be helping Gramps dry the dishes after dinner and Toot would come in to say she was going to sleep, and those same words—white folks—would flash in my head like a bright neon sign, and I would suddenly grow quiet, as if I had secrets to keep.” [Dreams, p. 81 – 82]
LIE: “The Obama campaign denied the photo [of him in Somali clothing] proves any connection between Obama and Islam.” [p 93]
REALITY: SOMALI OUTFIT HAD “NO RELIGIOUS SIGNIFICANCE”
The Somali Clothes Obama Was Wearing Are The Traditional Clothes Nomadic People In Somalia Wear And Have No Religious Significance Whatsoever. Yusuf Garaad Omar, head of the BBC’s Somali Service wrote, “These are the normal clothes that nomadic people wear. The head turban is especially used by elderly people as a suggestion of respect. It is something that has no meaning whatsoever in Somalia culture. If you see someone dressed like that in Somalia, you think it is a nomadic person - that is all. There is no religious significance to it whatsoever. It is mainly the nomadic people who use it. Some of them are religious, some are not. It is simply a tradition of the place where they are from. In this particular place, Wajir in north-east Kenya, the community is majority ethnic Somali. They have a council for Peace and Development, and when they get delegates they dress them as a nomadic person.”
[BBC News, 2/26/08]LIE: “Senator Barack Obama came full circle with his father’s past by openly supporting Raila Odinga during his visit to Africa in 2006. He took up his father’s battle with Kenyatta and joined forces with the most extreme Luo in Kenyan politics, Raila Odinga, the son of the communist Odinga Odinga, who was ousted by Kenyatta.” [p 103]
REALITY: OBAMA WAS IMPARTIAL IN KENYAN POLITICS
Obama Did Not Take Sides, Said That Each Leader Should Go To Negotiations “Unconditionally.” “Obama said President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga should sit down and talk ‘unconditionally,’ and he urged them to ‘welcome the assistance if your concerned friends.’ Aides to Obama said he gave the statement after consulting with U.S. Ambassador Mike Rannenberger, at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. The address was broadcast live during the morning commute in Kenya on Capital FM Radio in Nairobi.”
[Chicago Tribune, 1/29/08]Awiti: Raila Odinga Was Using Obama To Add Some Political Points And It Should Be Totally Disregarded. “Alex Awiti, a Kenyan postdoctoral fellow at Columbia University, says you have to consider the context of when Odinga was speaking, that being in the middle of a political crisis. ‘Raila Odinga was groping all over the place, trying to find some political legitimacy to get on a high pedestal to claim leadership and using Obama was basically going to add some political points,’ said Awiti, who lived in Kenya until three years ago. ‘This is very opportunistic and it should be totally disregarded.’”
[Politifact]PS: If Corsi even cared to vaguely research his facts, he will find that Kenyatta did not "oust" Odinga as he claims; they had a political disagreement which led to Odinga's exit from government. In any case, Odinga was Kenyatta's subordinate, him being the Vice President to Kenyatta, the first president of the Republic of Kenya. Siasa DuniLIE: “Senator Obama could claim to be a citizen of Kenya, as well as of the United States. Obama can trace his heritage back to his mother, who was born in the United States and was an American citizen when he was born, and to his father, who was born in Kenya and was a Kenyan citizen when Obama was born.” [p 103]
REALITY: OBAMA CANNOT CLAIM KENYAN CITIZENSHIP
Kenya Does Not Allow Dual Citizenship Applications for People Over 21 Years of Age. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management writes of Kenya, “DUAL CITIZENSHIP: Not recognized except for persons under 21 years old.” The Kenyan Constitution writes, “A person who, but for the proviso to section 87 (1), would be a citizen of Kenya by virtue of that subsection shall be entitled, upon making application before the specified date in such manner as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament, to be registered as a citizen of Kenya: Provided that a person who has not attained the age of twenty-one years (other than a woman who is or has been married) may not himself make an application under this subsection, but an application may be made on his behalf by his parent or guardian.”
[U.S. Office of Personnel Management; Kenyan Constitution]Even if Obama Had Applied for Dual Citizenship Before He Was 21—Which He Did Not—It Would Have Expired. ”A person who, upon the attainment of the age of twenty-one years, is a citizen of Kenya and also a citizen of some other country other than Kenya shall, subject to subsection (7), cease to be a citizen of Kenya upon the specified date unless he has renounced his citizenship of that other country, taken the oath of allegiance and, in the case of a person who was born outside Kenya, made and registered such declaration of his intentions concerning residence as may be prescribed by or under an Act of Parliament.” [Kenyan Constitution]
LIE: “Even as Kenya entered this postelection violence, Senator Obama has continued to insert himself into Kenyan politics.” [p 104]
REALITY: SECRETARY RICE ASKED OBAMA TO TAPE A RADIO ADDRESS
Klein Praised Obama For Finding “The Time To Do Some Diplomatic Scut-Work” For Kenya. Joe Klein wrote, “One of the more extraordinary stories of the Obama campaign has been playing out behind the scenes over the past week as the candidate has been working on a daily basis to try to calm things down in his father’s homeland and his grandmother’s home, Kenya, where a contested election has led to riots. On January 1, two days before the Iowa caucuses, Obama left a message for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. According to Robert Gibbs, Obama’s Communications Director, Rice called back ‘as we were driving from Sioux City to Council Bluffs on January 1. They talked about the situation and Rice asked Obama to tape a Voice of America message calling for calm.’…I haven’t been able to talk to Obama directly about this--he is sort of busy right
now--but it does seem noteworthy that, in the midst of the most amazing week of his life, Barack Obama has found the time to do a some diplomatic scut-work. I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot of this sort of thing if he wins the nomination and is elected President.”
[TIME, 1/7/08]Obama Called On The Opposition To “Turn Away From The Path Of Mass Protest And Violence.” Obama said, “The rule of law and the rights of the Kenyan people, including freedom of the media and the freedom of peaceful assembly, must be restored…The opposition must turn away from the path of mass protest and violence in seeking participation in government.”
[Chicago Tribune, 1/29/08]Obama Did Not Take Sides, Said That Each Leader Should Go To Negotiations “Unconditionally.” Obama said President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga should sit down and talk ‘unconditionally,’ and he urged them to ‘welcome the assistance if your concerned friends.’ Aides to Obama said he gave the statement after consulting with U.S. Ambassador Mike Rannenberger, at the U.S. embassy in Nairobi. The address was broadcast live during the morning commute in Kenya on Capital FM Radio in Nairobi.”
[Chicago Tribune, 1/29/08]LIE: “This reference establishes that Obama Senior was considered at the time to be ‘a radical economist’ and leaves no doubt that Obama Senior had gravitated from his longtime family supporter Tom Mboya to the more extreme communist position openly advocated by and identified with Odinga Odinga.” [pp 110-111]
REALITY: NO ONE WITH “A SHRED OF INTEGRITY” OR INTELLIGENCE WOULD CALL OBAMA SR A COMMUNIST BASED ON HIS ACADEMIC WORK
Noam Scheiber: “No One With More Than Well-Below-Average Intelligence Or A Shred Of Integrity” Could Conclude From Reading Obama Sr.’s Paper That He “Was An Ardent Communist.” “According to the development expert Ben Smith and Jeffrey Ressner consulted for their Politico piece, the paper is an artifact of an esoteric debate about the right way to implement a set of Kenyan economic reforms back in 1965--and absolutely can’t be understood outside of the historical/economic/political context in which it was written. In other words, no one with more than well-below-average intelligence or a shred of integrity would conclude from it that Obama Sr. was an ardent Communist. And no one who met a quarter of those criteria would make the additional, preposterous leap between this paper and the worldview of Barack Obama the presidential candidate. Sadly, that doesn’t appear to include the right-wing hacks spreading this nonsense. I await the forthcoming Bill Kristol column...”
[TNR, 4/15/08]Kenya Expert, Economist And UCLA Visiting Professor Dr. Omwami Said That Obama Sr.’s Projections And Critiques Are So Spot On That He Plans On Assigning The Paper In His Future Classes. “But Kenya expert Dr. Raymond Omwami, an economist and UCLA visiting professor from the University of Helsinki who has also worked at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, said Obama Sr. could not be considered a socialist himself based solely on the material in his bylined piece. Omwami points out Obama Sr.’s paper was primarily a harsh critique of the controversial 1965 government document known as the “Sessional Paper No. 10.” Sessional Paper No. 10 rejected classic Karl Marx philosophies then embraced by the Soviet Union and some European countries, calling instead for a new type of socialism to be used specifically in Africa… Obama Sr.’s projections and critiques are so spot on, says Omwami, that he plans on assigning the paper to his classes in the future.”
[Politico, 4/15/08]LIE: “The funding memo listed seventy-two top individuals and organizations allegedly contributing to Odinga’s presidential campaign, including over $1 million from ‘Friends of Senator BO,’ widely interpreted as friends of Senator Barack Obama…” [pp 115-116]
REALITY: OBAMA NEVER CONTRIBUTED MONEY TO ODINGA
Politifact: The Claim That Obama Contributed $1 Million To Odinga “Are As Baseless As Anything You’ve Read From An Anonymous Blogger” And Earned A Rating Of “Pants On Fire” Wrong. “A chain e-mail that originates with a letter from American missionaries working in Kenya warns about Sen. Barack Obama’s ties to Kenya and its opposition party, encouraging readers ‘not to be taken in by those that are promoting him.’ Among the many allegations is one about Obama’s ties to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga: ‘Obama under ‘friends of Obama’ gave almost a million dollars to the (Kenya) opposition campaign who just happened to be his cousin, Raila Odinga, who is a socialist trained in East Germany.’ The e-mail reads like a bad game of ‘telephone,’ its claims drawn from assorted people and sources that have been stitched together. And yet, because it is signed by real people, who have a life in Africa, it somehow carries more credence than your average blog posting — and it’s spreading rapidly. But even with the credibility of a real author, the claims in this e-mail are as baseless as anything you’ve read from an anonymous blogger.”
[Politifact]Obama Never Gave Money To Prime Minister Odinga. “Not to mention, the Obama campaign says the senator never gave money to Kenyan Prime Minister Odinga. And Salim Lone, spokesman for Odinga whom we spoke with in Kenya, confirms that. ‘That is absolutely ridiculous,’ Lone said in an interview with PolitiFact. ‘Mr. Obama did not donate a single cent to Mr. Odinga’s campaign.’ Just to be certain, we did an analysis of Federal Election Commission reports of disbursements from Obama’s principal presidential campaign committee, Obama for America, during the 2008 election cycle. We searched for ‘Kenya,’ ‘Odinga’ and ‘ODM,’ (the Orange Democratic Movement) the latter being Odinga’s political party, and came up with no matches.”
[Politifact]There Is No “Friends Of Senator BO” PAC. ”On the legible version, you can see the underlined entry says, ‘Friends of Senator BO,’ presumably Barack Obama. Only, there is no political action committee named Friends of Senator BO or Friends of Barack Obama. So says Obama’s campaign. And a search of the Federal Election Commission Web site and Opensecrets.org, the Web site of the Center for Responsive Politics, pulls up neither. In fact, there’s no PAC name even close.”
[Politifact]LIE: “No one in Obama’s paternal or maternal family had ever resided in Chicago.” [p 123]
REALITY: OBAMA’S GREAT UNCLE LIVED IN CHICAGO
Obama’s Great-Uncle Charlie Payne Left Kansas For The Army And Returned For College; Payne Attended Graduate School At The University Of Chicago And Stayed, Retiring As The Assistant Director Of Their Library. The AP reported, “During the war, home was Augusta, a small town in central Kansas. Payne had enlisted in 1943 along with most of his high school graduating class. He served in a mortar squad, then a communications squad rigging telephone lines. After the war, Payne went to college in Kansas on the GI Bill and then to graduate school at the University of Chicago, where Obama would later lecture on constitutional law. He later became interested in computers and how they could be used in libraries. He retired at age 70 as assistant director of the University of Chicago’s library.”
[AP, 7/24/08]
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