Deeds, not words!! Publish or ....
Posted on 10/20/2008 2:52:03 PM PDT by MountainLoop
The news agency that claimed Michelle Obama called to protest its coverage of WND stories about her husband has published an "open letter" to the potential first lady, suggesting she "confirm that we had a talk because it is the only right thing to do now."
The statement from Norway-based African Press International , however, simply heightened the doubts readers have expressed over whether the tape exists and whether the reported conversation ever happened.
Among the newest opinions about API:
"A wonderful lesson in Scamming 101."
"Just what is happening?"
"Stop this now. Produce the tapes or shut up."
Either play the tapes unedited or stop this hoax." API's "open letter" said its goal was to "avoid any embarrassment should the whole tape be aired unedited."
(Excerpt) Read more at worldnetdaily.com ...
Why doesn’t someone call API, ask them a bunch of dumb question, and record it. Come back here and make teasing posts day after day that you have audio that might incriminate them.
Cheney doesn’t exactly have Michelle’s history of saying outrageous things and closely associating with people who say outrageous things. This is a woman who (according to her and Obama) regularly took her children to the church where Rev. Wright preached. When somebody accuses her of doing something outrageous, there’s a plausibility factor. I’ve been saying from the start that I think probably API got hoaxed. But the longer the buzz continues and the Obamas don’t issue a perfunctory denial, the more I wonder.
The campaign denied it strongly when the story first came out.
Now, unless there is good evidence, it must be treated as a hoax. I have yet to see any kind of evidence beyond some words on the API website that could be made up.
Deeds, not words!! Publish or ....
Utter BS.
We’re being played.
I tend to agree it’s real. Michelle won’t deny it just like Hussein won’t produce a real birth certificate. Both could end these accusations within 5 minutes but both are dragging their feet.
BWWWHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!
The CIA??? Get OUT!
Well- We can finally cross these guys off. But they’ve been entertaining, no doubt. I had one day- one of those stupid updates seemed plausible- that I thought it might be real.
It still doesn’t make any SENSE - why they did this- put their reputation on the line- limited as it was.
Dumb, dumb, dumb.
Tune in tomorrow folks....
Same Bat-Time...
Same Bat-Channel...
Hmmm. I never saw/heard that. Was HER name given as the direct source of the denial? Or was it just a statement issued by a campaign staffer saying, in the third person, that she didn’t make the call? There IS a difference. Ethics-challenged politicians often have a staffer issue a fake denial, and then when proof of the denied misdeed turns up later, the politician claims s/he wasn’t aware of the staffer’s denial and hadn’t directed it, and that the staffer was simply misinformed. Of course, if the proof never comes out, the denial stands as the last word.
I think API (assuming they actually got such a call, and initially believed it was really from Michelle) should release the full audio with a cover explanation saying this is a call they received from someone claiming to be Michelle Obama, and that they have no idea whether it was really her or not, but would welcome any assistance in determining who it was (even it wasn’t her). I’m pretty sure API DID get this call, and if it wasn’t Michelle, the true identity and affiliation of the caller could possibly be as big news as if Michelle actually made the call.
That works for me.
National Review says that the Obama camp has issued a statement. See it here(^).
That's interesting. This (to me) is more interesting (About.com Urban Legends page ^). One person makes an especially things-that-make-you-go-hmmm accusation about half-way down.
Hey ... Got one of these just today !!! great huh
Good Day My good friend,
Let me start by introducing myself, I am Mr Ken Kotangora,
an ACCOUNTS OFFICER with an African Development bank in Burkina-Faso of West
Africa.
I am writing you this letter based on the latest development at my bank which I
will like to bring to your personal identification.($15million USA dollars transfer
claims ).
This is a legitimate transaction and you will be paid 40% for your “Assistance”.If
you are interested, please write back for more explanation.
Your,s faithfully,
KEN KOTANGORA. FROM (ADB) OUAGADOUGOU BURKINA-FASO. GOD BLESSINGS,PROTECTIONS AND
GUIDIANCE TO YOUR ENTIRE FAMILY.
(FILL THIS FORM BELLOW PLEASE AND RESEND IT TO ME).
1) Your Full Name.............................
2) Your Age.......................................
3) Marital Status................................
4) Your Cell Phon e Number..............
5) Your Fax Number..........................
6) Your Country.................................
7) Your Occupation............................
8) Sex...............................................
9) Your Religion.................................
10) Your Private E-mail Adress...........
I will say that there is more to this that I simply cannot report
Can you freep mail those that want to know?
This is a scam.
It was just a campaign flack, IIRC. True, they could just be issuing the automatic denial to give her cover and allow her to backtrack if necessary.
Still, I don’t think it can go anywhere at all without the audio recording, and if we aren’t getting that by now then I am tuning out unless there is some major development to give credibility to the story.
I beginning to think that this is a game called “pull my finger” Can you say, STFU on Free Republic? Because that’s my message to the API. I’m not wasting anymore reading time on API articles. They have been jerking our chain for days. Adios.
The poster, “Culpepper”, who makes the accusation that API is somehow linked to Stormfront is the same poster who posted the initial post in that thread, in which he claims that API is just a WordPress site that posts articles from African Press Agency and a link to a “fraudulent” charity which mimics the (bland, unimaginative) name of a “real” one (and Culpepper posts a link to the “real” one, which I’ve never heard of despite living near its claimed address, and which has “events” and “news” sections on its site with nothing more recent than a year ago and nothing upcoming, plus it sounds like they never really did much but hold expensive cruises and golf outings where people tell themselves they’re doing something really worthwhile because “it’s for charity”, plus there a conspicuous lack of so much as a peep anywhere on the site or the “gift form” that the outfit has tax-deductible non-profit status, plus this “real” charity’s e-mail address is a Hotmail account). The “fraudulent” charity “Culpepper” refers to appears to be at least as legit as the “real” one. And first he’s saying that API’s history consists largely of republishing African Press Agency stories, but then he suggests it’s controlled by Stormfront (though offers not one iota of backup for that assertion). Why would Stormfront be wasting its time giving wider exposure to news articles put out by the African Press Agency, via some Norway-based blog? API may well be full of excrement, but I think “Culpepper” is too.
API seems to have existed for at least a couple of years, and none of the blogosphere sources I bumped into that have been digging dirt on it have found anything beyond a blog masquerading as a real news-gathering/dissemination outlet. If API hatched this whole thing themselves, it’s way out of character for them, so I really doubt they did. They seem to be mainly about scoring cheap hits for their blog by reposting articles from the African Press Agency, and probably also about scoring some free catered lunches around Oslo by claiming to be “journalists” from “African Press International”. So I’m sticking with my guess that somebody hoaxed them, and I’d love to know who. Though the boring truth might be that it’s the work of the apparently legitimate (as much as anything in Africa is) African Press Agency, which got fed up with its articles being ripped off, and decided to have some fun while shutting this pesky blog down.
Thanks for the additional information.
I was unsure what to make of that accusation, and did not want to apply that odious label to anyone without knowing that it was absolutely true.
I think that you may be correct; that they were hoaxed. If they were, they need to admit it and get on with it and not drag it out any further as if they are a legitimate site, they aren’t doing themselves any good at this point.
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