I travelled to Pakistan multiple times during that period. The State Department travel advisory addresses specifically airport visas, which were being issued only for 30 days. If you obtained your visa prior to entering the country, you could get a longer period of time, no bribes involved.
Who footed the bill? Was it a Grant from the University of National Friendship (Patrice Lumumba University) ? I understand they had one hell of a Exchange Program, and Institute of Distant Learning, at one time...
Even IF it was possible to get in and out of Pakistan ...
Wouldn't it have been nonetheless difficult for a “Christian” American (ie, a non-Muslim) to have traveled to Pakistan during that time frame in Cold War history, especially on an American passport? Remember, just 2 years earlier, a mob in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, burned the US Embassy to the ground and killed a Marine on the rooftop. The Iranian Ayatollah Khomeini wasn't exactly spreading the love for Americans in Pakistan. And YES -- Obama's religion would have been a very relevant question asked by Pakistani "Customs" officials each time he flew into town.
Those are pretty big questions. Here's another:
If Obama was in Pakistan as part of some college correspondence program (as some of us suspect), what the hell brand of Poli Sci was he studying at Occidental College and Columbia University?
Not IF, but WHEN we confirm the answer to the last question, yes, it will be quite an inconvenient truth for Obama ...
No wonder he doesn't want his college records to be publicly known. And no wonder he's in a hurry...