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August 04, 2009
Obama's College Trip to Pakistan
Obama's College Trip to Pakistan
April 8, 2008...Date this was during the campaign
by Jake Tapper
At a fundraiser in San Francisco, Ca., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., claimed he had more world experience than his rivals, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and introduced a new bit of biographical information.
"It's ironic because this is supposedly the place where experience is most needed to be Commander-in-Chief. Experience in Washington is not knowledge of the world. This I know. When Senator Clinton brags 'I've met leaders from eighty countries' -- I know what those trips are like! I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do native dance. You meet with the CIA station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. You go take a tour of a plant that [with] the assistance of USAID has started something. And then -- you go."
"You do that in eighty countries," Obama said, "You don't know those eighty countries. So when I speak about having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa --knowing the leaders is not important -- what I know is the people...I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college -- I knew what Sunni and Shia was [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
This last part -- a college trip to Pakistan -- was news to many of us who have been following the race closely. And it was odd that we hadn't hear about it before, given all the talk of Pakistan during this campaign.
So I asked the Obama campaign for more information.
Apparently, according to the Obama campaign, In 1981 -- the year Obama transferred from Occidental College to Columbia University -- Obama visited his mother and sister Maya in Indonesia. After that visit, Obama traveled to Pakistan with a friend from college whose family was from there. The Obama campaign says Obama was in Pakistan for about three weeks, staying with his friend's family in Karachi and also visiting Hyderabad in Southern India.
more on Obama's trip to Pakistan:
In “Dreams from My Father,” he talks of having a Pakistani roommate when he moved to New York, a man he calls Sadik who “had overstayed his tourist visa and now made a living in New York’s high-turnover, illegal immigrant work force, waiting on tables.”
Mr. Obama, the campaign and his publisher have not provided any details about the identity of Sadik.
During his years at Occidental College, Mr. Obama also befriended Wahid Hamid, a fellow student who was an immigrant from Pakistan and traveled with Mr. Obama there, the Obama campaign said. Mr. Hamid is now a vice president at Pepsico in New York, and according to public records, has donated the maximum $2,300 to the Obama campaign and is listed as a fund-raiser for it.
1981 - Obama Visits Pakistan When All Non-Muslim Vistors Unwelcome - Bin Laden There, Too Pakistan was in turmoil in 1981 and ruled of martial law. Millions of Afghan refugees were living in Pakistan, while the Afghan Mujahedeen operated from bases inside Pakistan in their war with the Soviets. One of the leaders that based his operation in Quetta, Pakistan was Usama Bin Laden (The Sheik). The would be only a few reasons a young Westerner of the Muslim faith would travel to Pakistan in 1981: * To Participate in Jihad, which is the duty of every “True Believer”. * For religious education in a Wahabbi sect, Saudi funded, Madrassa. * In order to purchase drugs from the drug marketplace. Pakistan was not a tourist stop nor the place to hang out with someone’s family in 1981.
Obama spent the six years between 1979 and 1985 at Occidental College in Los Angeles and then in New York at Columbia University and in the workplace. His memoir, Dreams from My Father, talks about this time, but not in great detail; Siddiqi, for example, is identified only as “Sadik” _ “a short, well-built Pakistani” who smoked marijuana, snorted cocaine and liked to party. Obama’s campaign wouldn’t identify “Sadik,” but The Associated Press located him in Seattle, where he raises money for a community theater. Together, the recollections of Siddiqi and other friends and acquaintances from Obama’s college years paint a portrait of the candidate as a young man. Some described the young Obama’s personality as confident to the point of arrogance, a criticism that would emerge decades later, during the campaign. Not everyone who knew Obama in those years is eager to talk. Some explained that they feared inadvertently hurting Obama’s campaign. Among his friends were Siddiqi and two other Pakistanis, all of them from Karachi; several of those interviewed said the Pakistanis were reluctant to talk for fear of stoking rumors that Obama is a Muslim. As a freshman, he quickly became friends with Mohammed Hasan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, two wealthy Pakistanis. Neither Hamid nor Chandoo would be interviewed for this story; Hamid is now a top executive at Pepsico in New York, and Chandoo is a self-employed financial consultant in the New York area. Both have each contributed the maximum $2,300 to Obama’s campaign, and records indicate each has joined an Asian-American council that supports his run for president. Both also are listed on Obama’s campaign Web site as being among his top fundraisers, each bringing in between $100,000 and $200,000 in contributions from their networks of friends. Both also attended Obama’s wedding in 1992, according to published reports and other friends. He had travelled with a college friend whose family used to live in Karachi.” As a matter of fact, Obama had travelled to Pakistan after leaving Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1981 to transfer to the Columbia University in New York. The Afghan war was at its peak at that time and the US State Department had already issued a warning for Americans travelling to Pakistan. An August 14, 2008 report by the Associated Press even alleged that Obama had actually travelled to Pakistan under his Muslim name—Barry Soetero—while using an Indonesian passport. According to www.pakistaniat.com , during his Pakistan visit, Obama stayed in Karachi with the family of his college friend Hassan Chandeo. Now a self employed financial consultant living in Armonk in Westchester County of New York, Hassan Chandeo took his African-American college friend on traditional partridge hunting trips to Hyderabad, Larkana, Shikarpur and Jacobabad districts. Partridge hunting is considered a symbol of good hospitality in Sindh. Barack Obama made friends with a Sindhi politician Muhammadmian Soomro as well, who hails from the Shikarpur district of Sindh and is Senate Chairman. The newly elected American president reportedly lived at Muhammad Ali Society residence of Ahmad Mian Soomro, the father of Muhammadmian Soomro.
Pakistan was on the banned travel list for US Citizens at the time and all non-Muslim visitors were not welcome unless sponsored by their embassy for official business.
Old friends remember Barack Obama's pre-politics years in New York, Los Angeles
May 16,2008
His campaign press secretary Bill Burton subsequently gave inquiring journalists more details of Obama’s Pakistan visit. US Today of April 10, 2008 quoted Bill as saying: “Mr Obama had visited Pakistan for three weeks after visiting his mother Mrs Ann Dunham and half-sister, Maya Soetoro, in Indonesia.
"While being sworn as an attorney in the State of Illinois, Mr Obama had to provide his personal information under oath. He was asked, if he had any other names, he responded none. In reality, he used the name Barry Soetoro, citizen of Indonesia. It was reported that he studied at Occidental College in California [Los Angeles] under the name Barry Soetoro and there was an entry in the journal of the California assembly in re. to grants given to foreign exchange students, one Soetoro from Indonesia. Mr. Soetoro/Obama clearly defrauded the State Bar if Illinois and perjured himself while concealing his identity. Anybody else would’ve been disbarred for this and the matter would’ve been forwarded to the district attorney for prosecution for perjury and fraud, however nothing was done to Mr. Obama. More importantly, why did he conceal his identity? " ~ Dr. Orly Taitz
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Wild Thing's comment.........
Reporters did not know about Obama's trip to Pakistan and only learned of it during his speech in San Francisco. Yes this is all from back during the campaign.
With Pakistan being under Martial Law at the time Obama went there, and the fact of it being a hot spot it would have been almost impossible to travel to Pakistan. It says it was on a banned travel list. And that "all NON Muslim visitors were not welcome". Oh I know Obama says he was not a Muslim and is not one now as well.LOL
What is he going to say “I went to a madrassa but didn’t inhale”-defense?
So many secrets, so many questions and all to hide things about Obama. So much for that transparency he has gone on and on about.
Posted by Wild Thing at August 4, 2009 04:48 AM
Comments
Orly has proven she has more balls than all of our congressmen [and women] combined. Go Orly!!!
Posted by: BT in SA at August 4, 2009 10:50 AM
So he knows the people of these Counttries ? Strange he doesn't seem to be aware his own Bro...ther lives in poverty on $12 dollars a month in a thatched hut. Yeah, he's got the experience all right...he's also got the BS to go along with it too.
Posted by: Mark at August 4, 2009 11:44 AM
So obama tries to downplay or even hide a lot of his background.Except when it proves to be beneficial to him as in pointing out he has a lot of foreign experience.
What really angers me is the press. They can investigate and find out seemingly almost anything on anybody from any time. They decline to investigate the varied backgrounds of their man obama. I also believe they know some facts about obama's background and they refuse to release those facts. We do not have an unbiased press in America.
Posted by: TomR at August 4, 2009 12:01 PM
