[Vision2020] Hobo Eruption: How the foreign media — not the msm — found Aunt Zeituni

[No Weatherman]

How The Times followed a trail to find Barack Obama's aunt
Ben Macintyre and James Bone in Boston

The trail that led to "Aunt Zeituni", the relative of Barack Obama who
was traced by The Times last week, started with Mr Obama's memoir, one
of the most widely read political autobiographies of all time.

The Democrat campaign has implied that the story might have come from
Republican sources — "the American people are . . . pretty suspicious
of things that are dumped in the marketplace 72 hours before a
campaign," said Mr Obama's chief strategist David Axelrod yesterday.

In fact, the story came from a book that has been read by millions,
including just about everyone connected to the Obama campaign.

Dreams From My Father was first published in 1995, and the story of
how Mr Obama returned to Kenya in 1988 to trace his roots has become
the cornerstone of his political biography. Yet the US media appears
to have overlooked the passage indicating that at least one relative
of Mr Obama's had moved to America and might still be there.

Two thirds of the way through the book Mr Obama's half-sister talked
about Africans who had emigrated to the West and were never heard of
again, "like our Uncle Omar, in Boston . . . They've been lost, you
see".

A few pages later Mr Obama meets his step-grandmother, Sarah, for the
first time in the village of Kogelo. On the walls of her hut are
photographs of Omar, "the uncle who had left for America 25 years ago
and never came back". Touchingly, she asks the future presidential
candidate if he has any news of Omar, her son and Mr Obama's
half-uncle.

"She asked if I had seen him, and I had to say no," Mr Obama wrote.
"She grunted something in Luo, then started to gather up our cups.
'She says when you see him, you should tell him she wants nothing from
him,' Auma [Mr Obama's half-sister] whispered. 'Only that he should
come visit his mother'."

These brief references appeared to indicate that Omar Obama might have
moved to the US in the mid1960s, at about the same time that his
half-brother, Barack Hussein Obama Senior, went to Hawaii, where he
met Ann Dunham, the mother of Mr Obama.

Those intriguing passages in Mr Obama's book were first investigated
by The Times during a visit to Kenya in September to interview members
of the family, including "Granny Sarah". Inquiries as to the current
whereabouts of Omar elicited only vague responses — and even the
suggestion, from a full brother of the missing man, that no such
person existed.

This triggered a six-week search, one that would lead eventually to
Boston and to Aunt Zeituni. Public record searches found traces of O.
Onyango Obama, Uncle Omar's real name, in Boston. A friend and a
former landlady said that he now uses the name Obama Onyango.

In the course of searching for Uncle Omar The Times found a Zeituni
Onyango, who also played a prominent part in Mr Obama's book.

In the memoir Auntie Zeituni, Uncle Omar's sister, explained the
family's complex family tree to the future presidential candidate,
introduced him to other relatives and fed him a herbal remedy for an
upset stomach.

At that time Auntie Zeituni had been working at Kenya Breweries.
Inquiries about her whereabouts also met a blank response from the
family, however.

The Times called the Zeituni Onyango in Boston three times. The first
time a woman said that she "went to California". The second time a
woman said: "She died last summer." The third time a woman said in
French that she did not know her at that address.

On visiting the housing estate, however, neighbours confirmed that she
was indeed the "Auntie Zeituni" in Mr Obama's book — as she eventually
confirmed herself.

Uncle Omar has still not been found.

It was not until Wednesday evening that The Times obtained a formal
identification of Ms Onyango by George Hussein, Mr Obama's
half-brother who had known her throughout his childhood.

Whatever the Democrat campaign may imply, there is nothing suspicious
about the story or its timing. The only mystery, perhaps, is how so
many people read Mr Obama's book in the US without wondering what
might have happened to the mysterious relative, lost in America.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article5068613.ece