Kenya Detains U.S. Author Critical of Obama


By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: October 7, 2008
NAIROBI, Kenya — The American author of a best-selling book highly critical of Senator Barack Obama was detained by Kenyan immigration agents on Tuesday as he prepared to give a press conference in Nairobi.

Jerome R. Corsi, the conservative gadfly who wrote “The Obama Nation,” in which he attacks the Democratic presidential candidate, was being held Tuesday because he was trying to work in Kenya without a valid work permit, according to local media reports. The reports said that Mr. Corsi would likely be deported.

Kenya’s immigration authorities, however, were tight-lipped Tuesday afternoon and said little officially, despite a camp of 20 journalists who quickly descended on the immigration office.

Eric Kiraithe, Kenya’s police spokesman, said he had heard the reports of Mr. Corsi’s arrest and was pushing the immigration department to release more information.

“I’ve just sent an officer to the immigration department and I should get more on this soon,” he said.

Many Kenyans would be very sensitive about Mr. Obama, the Democratic contender in the American presidential election next month. His father was Kenyan and many people here are intensely cheering him on. His photos have been plastered across the back of mini-buses and stories about the election are front page news almost every day.

However, affection for Mr. Obama is not universal, especially within the divided Kenyan government. Several government officials, including some aligned with President Mwai Kibaki, have distanced themselves from Mr. Obama, saying he is American, not Kenyan, and asking what is the big deal about his candidacy.

One explanation is Mr. Obama’s criticism of some of Kenya’s leaders as corrupt. Another is the ethnic tensions that divide Kenya and plunged the country into chaos earlier this year.

Mr. Obama’s father, who died more than 20 years ago, was a member of the Luo ethnic group, the same group as Kenya’s prime minister, Raila Odinga. Mr. Kibaki is a member of another large ethnic group, the Kikuyu. Mr. Odinga nearly defeated Mr. Kibaki in an election last December that was tainted by widespread allegations of vote-rigging by Mr. Kibaki’s party.

Violence erupted and fighting between Kikuyus and Luos, among others, killed more than 1,000 people, shaking Kenya in the worst strife since independence in 1963.

Mr. Corsi’s attacks on Mr. Obama are similar to those in “Unfit for Command” a book he co-authored in 2004 that helped derail Senator John Kerry’s presidential bid by questioning his record as an officer during the Vietnam War.

Among his allegations in “The Obama Nation” is that Mr. Obama is a radical liberal who has tried to cover up “extensive connections to Islam” — Mr. Obama is Christian — and that Mr. Obama has maintained secret ties with certain Kenyan politicians. Mr. Obama and others have disputed many of the allegations in the book.

Mr. Corsi was preparing Tuesday morning to give a press conference about his Obama book at a big hotel in downtown Nairobi. Dozens of purple chairs and a microphone had been set up. The room was soon deserted.

SOURCE

Karma.

Now we will see a zillion right wingers bemoaning his illegal detention, as they root on the US government doing the exact same thing.

"Among his allegations..."

Allegation-a declaration or an assertation made without proof.

An update: Corsi is being deported from Kenya for failing to obtain a work permit. Now, surely he's of such demonstrably low character that we can see him barred from returning to the U.S.? Let's get Lou Dobbs on this ASAP!

Oh, wait - I presume Corsi's parents are US born, which probably allows him US entry no matter his character. After all, they let Cheney back in when he leaves.

Still, it will be nice that he's not made a martyr by detention/imprisonment in Kenya. Moreover, anything stronger than deportation would be conflated into a supposed confirmation of his lies. That may be the case as it is. Thing is, anyone who believes Corsi now, or uses his bullshit, wouldn't be supporting Obama under any circumstances anyway.

BTW, nice catch, Deke!

Yeah really - can you imagine what they'd be saying if this was an author who was critical of Bush?

Thank you bushwa.

Poor thing. Imagine going all the way to Kenya for work. All he was trying to do was to scrape together some more tidbits so they could be twisted and used to mislead people. Too bad he was in the country without the proper documents.

Deportation is too good for him.

They should have locked him up there until after the election

Oh, darn! I was hoping the Kenyan government would detain Corsi indefinitely, obliging Obama to intervene on his behalf.

They can keep him as far as I'm concerned.

Make him someone's servant!

I laughed so hard when I read that today, yes it is Karma Kramer!!!

Something tells me he'll get better treatment than these people:

http://forums.therandirhodesshow.com/index...showtopic=11729