Give Us Liberty

Obama’s Kenyan Birth Claim

February 17, 2014 

by Mario Apuzzo, Esq.  http://puzo1.blogspot.com  copyright 2014
…You claim that there was confusion between the son Obama and the father Obama. This is a ridiculous excuse. This same excuse has been used to explain away how that Kenyan Ambassador, when asked specifically about President-Elect Barack Obama’s birth place, could have said that Obama’s birthplace in Kenya was well known and already a landmark.
You state that “some reports got confused.” First, reports do not get confused, people do. Second, you do not tell us who got confused, the literary agency or Obama. I do not see how the literary agent would have gotten confused with Obama right there to guide her.
The text of Obama’s biography in the brochure created by Obama’s former literary agency, Acton & Dystel in 1991, and reported on by Breitbart News on May 17, 2012, states:
“Barack Obama, the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review, was born in Kenya and raised in Indonesia and Hawaii. The son of an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, he attended Columbia University and worked as a financial journalist and editor for Business International Corporation.
He served as project coordinator in Harlem for the New York Public Interest Research Group, and was Executive Director of the Developing Communities Project in Chicago’s South Side. His commitment to social and racial issues will be evident in his first book, Journeys in Black and White.”
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/05/17/The-Vetting-Barack-Obama-Literary-Agent-1991-Born-in-Kenya-Raised-Indonesia-Hawaii .
The agency used Obama’s birth story in connection with marketing a future book called “Journeys in Black and White,” which neither Obama nor anyone else ever wrote. Twelve years later, in 2003,  Dystel of Acton & Dystel, which was then promoting Obama’s new book, “Dreams from My Father,” still publicly proclaimed through the brochure that Obama was born in Kenya.
Through the Internet archive Wayback Machine, WND found an August 2003 listing of Dystel & Goderich’s author bios, stating the following:
“Barack Obama was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review. He was born in Kenya to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, and was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii and Chicago. His first book is ‘Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance.”
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2012/05/shocker-obama-was-still-kenyan-born-in-2003/#xKCqEtw1IKYPxoxB.99
WND also reported that in April 2007, two months after Obama had launched his presidential bid, the same agency was still holding Obama out as having been “born in Kenya.” Dystel & Goderich described Obama this way:
“Barack Obama is the junior Democratic senator from Illinois and was the dynamic keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. He was also the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review. He was born in Kenya to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister and was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii, and Chicago. His first book, DREAMS FROM MY FATHER: A STORY OF RACE AND INHERITANCE, has been a long time New York Times bestseller.”
It was not until April 21, 2007 that any evidence appeared that the same agency changed Obama’s place of birth from Kenya to Hawaii.
I cannot imagine a competent publicist just on her own concluding that Obama was born in Kenya and then publishing that information to the public without having been provided that information and been so authorized to publish it by Obama himself.
Obama well knew what his publicist published about him 1991. In fact, it would have been Obama who provided his picture and “resume” to her so that she could have his background for any marketing materials that she published in connection with his first book which neither he nor anyone else ever published.
Obama would have told her that he was the first black president of the Harvard Law Review, that he was born to an American anthropologist and a Kenyan finance minister, and that he was raised in Indonesia, Hawaii and Chicago. And he would have also told her that he was born in Kenya. There simply is no way that the agent could have made up any of those facts on her own.
Obama would have reviewed and corrected any marketing materials before they were published. It is standard practice that before biographical materials are published, that the interested person review them before final publication.
Furthermore, Obama would have seen the marketing pamphlet which was used up to 2007 in the public domain. Obama would have also known that the agency said that he was born in Kenya when marketing the book, “Dreams from My Father.” Yet, throughout all those 16 years, there is no record of Obama ever having taken any steps to correct the alleged error.
On the contrary, Obama ran for state senator, U.S. senator, and even President of the United States, while the alleged error still existed in the public domain.
If the publicist made the error and caused the inaccurate publication, not only in connection with the first book that was never produced, but also in connection with “Dreams from My Father,” then she should provide a credible explanation as to how the error was made and why it was allowed to stay uncorrected for 16 years and through the intended publication of two books and through Obama’s several political campaigns for high public office.
To date, the publicist has not provided any credible explanation showing that she herself erroneously concluded that Obama was born in Kenya and that she erroneously published it.