Obama 'was educated in madrassa'

Barack Obama was given a rude awakening to the cut-throat world of presidential politics yesterday after being accused of hiding four years in which he was educated at a madrassa when a teenager.

The claim, made in the conservative Insight magazine, also revealed the Machiavellian scheming of political activists in a presidential race still nearly two years away.

It was aimed at tarnishing Mr Obama’s image in the week he announced himself as a White House contender. But the article also claimed that the madrassa allegations came from aides to Hillary Clinton, Mr Obama’s main opponent for the Democratic nomination.

This may be wishful thinking on behalf of Republicans. The Clinton camp is determined not to be accused of digging dirt on Mr Obama because they fear such tactics could backfire, given his popularity.

But the Insight allegations represent an exquisite double shot at the Democrats’ two leading White House contenders: it implies that Mr Obama, whose middle name is Hussein, is a closet Islamic extremist, and that Mrs Clinton is so rattled by his candidacy she is using underhand tactics to weaken him.

Mr Obama, who is expected to announce formally his candidacy on February 10, has never been subjected to the hardball tactics of the presidential arena — until yesterday. Last night an aide said that the campaign was working on a formal statement, but added that the claims were “not accurate”.

The online article begins: “Are the American people ready for an elected president who was educated in a madrassa as a young boy and has not been forthcoming about his Muslim heritage?” It continues: “This is the question Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s camp is asking about Senator Barack Obama.”

Mr Obama’s mother was a white woman from Kansas; his father, a black Kenyan Muslim. He states in his recent biography that he attended a predominately Muslim school when he lived in Jakarta as a teenager.

But the article claims: “In Indonesia, the young Obama was enrolled in a madrassa and was raised and educated as a Muslim.” It says that Mr Obama omitted to say in his memoir, or at any other time, that he attended the school for four years.

Mr Obama, who has spent his adult life in Chicago, calls himself a Christian and says that he believes in God. He attends a local church.

A source close to the Clinton campaign told The Times, a day before the Insight article was published, that they do not want to be seen as attacking Mr Obama or digging for dirt, but that they would be happy for another Democrat contender to criticise him.

Well, now, isn't that quaint, both of the Bush administration's top-guns in the intelligence field, CIA-Director Porter Goss and the new Intelligence Czar John Negroponte are both members of the Fence Club aka Psi Upsilon at Yale. Psi Upsilon was formed as a pact between seven students at Union College in 1833:"We, the undersigned, having determined to form a secret society, and having some conversation on the subject, do now and hereby pledge our sacred honors that we will keep all that has been done and said a most profound secret''

Negroponte and Goss, both 1960 Yale graduates, are shown here in a photo from the Fraternity section of the 1960 Yale Banner, the university yearbook. Yale's Psi Upsilon chapter, the second oldest [Beta] in the country, was founded in 1840. The chapter went out on its own in 1934 naming itself The Fence Club, after Yale's honored gathering spot. The Fence Club then became a local fraternity at Yale and was always featured prominently in the Banner. It was a very prestigious house at Yale and many of its members went on to become members of the Order of Skull and Bones. Prominent Bones members include Henry Stimson, Averell Harriman, and William H. Taft. Son of one the founders of Bones, WH Taft is the only person to have held both the US presidency and Chief Justice-ship of the US Supreme Court. An interesting comment from Psi Upsilon's own history: Our chapters became smaller, restricted to a select elite. Ignoring our roots as an academic literary society, Psi U became more concerned with a person's ancestry than with their friendship.

Porter Goss is also a member of the secret society The Order of Book & Snake. Porter joined the CIA in 1959 while still at Yale, during his initiate year at the Book & Snake Temple. And there is the question posed by investigative reporter Daniel Hopsicker -- Is that Porter Goss sitting next to Barry Seal? [The Biggest Drug Smuggler in U.S.History] ... [more info on Goss]

In the 1960 Fence Club photo Porter is sitting next to William Henry Trotter Bush aka "Bucky" Bush, baby brother of ex-CIA Director/President George HW Bush and uncle to current president, George W. Bush. Bucky has taken care of the St. Louis end of the Bush dynasty. He was president of Boatman's National Bank in the 1980s. Bucky is currently -- "chairman and founder of Bush Bush-O’Donnell Co.. He also has holdings in '...Lord Abbett & Co., with about 8 million shares of Halliburton. Lord Abbett's trustees, who manage billions controlled by this investment firm, include Bush uncle William H. T. Bush. Lord Abbett is also one of Halliburton's top ten mutual fund holders (another 4.7 million shares).' 1 Among some of his other holdings are Right Choice Managed Care, Inc., Cobalt Corp., DT Industries, Inc., Engineered Support Systems, Intrav, Inc., Search Financial Services, Inc., Wellpoint Health Networks, Inc., and Medix Resources, Inc. He is also a trustee of his brother's Presidential Library Foundation." [http://www.hierarchypedia.com/~hierarch/wiki/index.php/William_Henry_Trotter_Bush]

Hmm ... Yale, Secret Societies, the Bush family, United States Intelligence, ... gee ... brings back memories, eh?

For your edification
The Order of Book & Snake
The Temple • The Pin • The Founders

2/19/05
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Additional material from Linda Minor:

... see: http://www.populist.com/03.19.burns.html
Cheney's "golden handshake," however, is not the administration's only link to Halliburton. The company's chief shareholders, whose top management can be predicted to benefit financially from war in Iraq, also have administration ties.
David Letterman-style, the Top Ten shareholders for Halliburton Company, Inc., are as follows: (see biz.yahoo.com/hd/h/hal.html):
#10: The Vanguard Group, with 7.6 million shares of Halliburton stock, worth about $176 million. Vanguard, also 10th largest mutual-fund shareholder in Halliburton, is a huge owner in ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips. It moved onto this list recently when Dallas-based Maverick Capital, privately owned by the Wylie family, moved off. Vice President Cheney's disclosure statement (above) shows millions of his retirement money invested through Vanguard.
#9: Lord Abbett & Co., with about 8 million shares of Halliburton. Lord Abbett's trustees, who manage billions controlled by this investment firm, include Bush uncle William H. T. Bush. Lord Abbett is also one of Halliburton's top ten mutual fund holders (another 4.7 million shares).
#8: Deutsche Bank, with 8.3 million shares of Halliburton. Deutsche Bank was home to Alvin B. Krongard, now Bush's number-three man at the CIA. Krongard, whom the CIA web site lists as a longtime consultant, was a director at Alex Brown Bankers Trust, which got a multi-million management contract with FMR (see #7).
#7: FMR Corporation (Fidelity Management & Research), with 10 million shares. FMR, the world's largest mutual fund company, and Wellington (see #2, below) are by far the biggest shareholders in TB Woods Corp., where presidential cousin Craig Stapleton was a director before becoming ambassador to the Czech Republic. FMR also owns big in United Defense/Carlyle, connected to former President George H. W. Bush, and Fresh Del Monte, where presidential brother Marvin P. Bush is back on the board. Interestingly, FMR also owns about 50,000 shares of Harken Energy, George W. Bush's old stomping grounds (current value: about $20,000). Fidelity's Magellan Fund is also the second largest mutual fund holder in Halliburton.
#6: Putnam Investment Manage-ment, LLC, with more than 12.5 million shares. Putnam also owns stock in United Defense/the Carlyle Group and in Fresh Del Monte. Putnam is another top mutual fund holder in Halliburton.
#5: State Street Corporation, with 13 million shares. State Street, which reportedly controls $6 trillion in investments, recently revealed plans for a multi-million deal with (#8) Deutsche Bank, and owns $4.5B worth of Morgan Stanley (#3, below). State Street is also hugely invested in ExxonMobil, one of Saddam's biggest customers, and BP, which started life as "Iraq Petroleum." Also owns big in United Defense/Carlyle.
#4: Barclays Bank PLC, with 17.5 million shares of Halliburton. Barclays is also into United Defense and Fresh Del Monte, and has successfully hung on to 85,000 shares of Harken Energy.
#3: Morgan Stanley, with over 20 million shares. Morgan Stanley, among other connections on this list, is also a shareholder in United Defense and Fresh Del Monte, as well as in #8 Deutsche Bank.
#2: Wellington Management Co., LLP: Headquartered in Boston, Wellington calls itself one of America's oldest investment firms. It holds about 23 million shares, or more than half a billion dollars' worth, of Halliburton, and is linked with most of the rest of this list.
#1: Capital Research and Management Company, with 25 million shares, also worth over half a billion dollars. Los Angeles-based Capital Group is also a major investor in military contractors Lockheed and Raytheon, and is linked with FMR and Wellington in other large holdings.

=======
http://www.engineeredsupport.com/directors.htm

William H.T. Bush
Chairman
Bush O'Donnell & Co.

William H.T. Bush, is chairman of the St. Louis-based investment firm, Bush O'Donnell & Co., which he founded in 1986. Previously, he was president and CEO of Boatmen's National Bank of St. Louis and began his career with the Hartford National Bank and Trust Co. in Connecticut. Bush has been a Director of the Company since 2000 and serves as a director of Mississippi Valley Bancshares, Inc., Maritz, Inc., RightChoice Managed Care, Inc., DT Industries, Inc. and The Lord Abbett family of Mutual Funds.

=======
http://www.bushodonnell.com/capitalpartners/whtbush.htm
President and Director of Boatmens National Bank (1978-1986), a commercial bank then headquartered in St. Louis.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/pr?s=wbgsx

John Jostrand
Lead Manager since 01-May-01

Jostrand is principal and portfolio manager with William Blair & Company. He joined the firm in 1993 as a portfolio manager. Previously, he was with TRW for 10 years as director, equity portfolio manager and venture capital funds manager. Prior to that, he was with Boatmens National Bank for five years as assistant trust officer, equity fund manager and research analyst. [This would have been during Bucky’s tenure at Boatmens.]
Jostrand is a Chartered Financial Analyst.

=====
http://www.theantechamber.net/V_K_Durham/WhereDidTheAllies.html

Re: Obama's Muslim background?
Senator Barack Obama
Summary of the eRumor:
Various stories and questions about Democratic Senator Barack Obama.
The Truth:
Senator Barack Obama is a rising star in the Democratic party including some who would like to see him as a presidential candidate. As with other high profile politicians there are stories and questions that circulate on the Internet about Obama.

Obama is actually Muslim-Fiction!
There are several emails circulating that, in different ways, say that Obama is Muslim. Obama's middle name is Hussein (named after his father, Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.), his heritage does include Islam, and his grandfather was Muslim. But there does not seem to be a time when either he or his parents were practicing Muslims and Obama regards himself as a Christian. He is a member of Chicago's Trinity United Church of Christ where one Sunday morning in 1988 he said walked down the aisle during an alter call by the pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Some of the most definitive information about Obama's faith comes from an interview he did with journalist Cathleen Falsini. She writes that Obama was born in 1961 in Hawaii to a white mother who came from Protestant Midwestern stock but whom Obama describes in his own book as a Christian but "a lonely witness for secular humanism." Obama's father was a black African from the Luo tribe of Kenya. Obama called him agnostic. Obama's grandfather on his father's side was Muslim. When he was six years old, Obama's mother and father divorced and she married an Indonesian man who was a non-practicing Moslem. They moved to Indonesia where Obama said he attended a Roman Catholic school until he was 10. An article Scott Turow on Salon.com in 2004, however, said that while in Indonesia, Obama spent 2 years in a Moslem school then 2 more in the Catholic school.

In terms of actual beliefs, Obama told Falsini that he has a deep faith "...rooted in the Christian tradition." He added, "I believe that there are many paths to the same place, and that is a belief that there is a higher power, a belief that we are connected as a people, that there are values that transcend race or culture, that move us forward, and that there’s an obligation for all of us individually as well as collectively to take responsibility to make those values lived." He said his mother "...was a deeply spiritual person and would spend a lot of time talking about values and give me books about the world’s religions and talk to me about them. Her view always was that underlying these religions was a common set of beliefs about how you treat other people and how you aspire to act, not just for yourself but also for the greater good." He also told Falsini, "Alongside my own deep personal faith, I am a follower, as well, of our civic religion. I am a big believer in the separation of church and state. I am a big believer in our constitutional structure." Regarding his conversion experience, Obama said, " It wasn’t an epiphany. It was much more of a gradual process for me. I know there are some people who fall out. Which is wonderful. God bless them. For me, I think it was just a moment to certify or publicly affirm a growing faith in me." Critics have said that his Christian faith is a political choice to help his image and conceal Islam in his life. Supporters point out that his conversion took place before he ran for any public office. In the Falsini interview he said he reads the Bible, although not as much as he wants to, and that prayer is a part of his daily life but not in the formal sense. "I think I have an ongoing conversation with God. Throughout the day I’m constantly asking myself questions about what I’m doing, why I am doing it," he said. "The difficult thing about any religion, including Christianity, is that at some level there is a call to evangelize and proselytize. There’s the belief, certainly in some quarters, that if people haven’t embraced Jesus Christ as their personal savior, they’re going to hell," he told Falsini. She said Obama did not believe that he or anyone else was going to hell and that he wasn't sure he was going to heaven either. "What I believe in is that if I live my life as well as I can, that I will be rewarded. I don't presume to have knowledge of what happens after I die. But I feel very strongly that whether the reward is in the here and now or in the hereafter, aligning myself to my faith and values is a good thing.” Obama's support of abortion, including the controversial partial-birth abortion procedure, resulted in controversy when he was invited by evangelical pastor Rick Warren to be the keynote speaker at an AIDS conference at Saddleback Church in Southern California in 2006. Warren, who is opposed to abortion, said his invitation to Obama had nothing to do with abortion and that he wanted to embrace diverse voices in his fight against AIDS. Abortion opponents argued, however, that someone like Obama whose support of abortion included something so extreme as partial-birth abortion should not be given such a prominent platform and endorsement from pro-lifers.

Obama has used drugs-Truth!
Some of the eRumors ask questions about whether Obama has used drugs. O

Obama, who is currently U.S. Senator from Illinois, also served 8 years in the Illinois State Senate, graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, and was the first African-American president of the Harvard Law Review.

Updated 1/7/07

Summary of the eRumor: truthorfiction.com

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