BRIT PAPER FINDS OBAMA INVADER-
Recently two venerabe old journalists, Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw, were waxing rhapsodic on the subject of Obama when they quite accidentally found themselves opining about how they really didn't know anything about him. And neither do we. It is to their shame - but it is our loss.
Sandy, Livonia, USA

From The Times
November 3, 2008
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.

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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.

HAVE YOUR SAY
It was indeed a good job of reporting...and to think this lady is in Boston, living on my taxes..an illegal..the Gov. of Mass. is Deval Patrick..the original Yes We Can, Change and Hope candidate who has bankruped our state in two years..He, is from chicago. Good Job..not all media is LAZY!
Caron Mac Carthy, So Boston Auntie's Home town, USA
What does any of this have to do with Barack Obama? An aunt he has only met a few times in his life is found living in Boston? Even if she was a serial murderer, it has nothing to do with the ability and character of Barack. You'd have to be a complete idiot to say this is an important issue.
Korey Kruse, Eudora, KS, United States of America
Recently two venerabe old journalists, Charlie Rose and Tom Brokaw, were waxing rhapsodic on the subject of Obama when they quite accidentally found themselves opining about how they really didn't know anything about him. And neither do we. It is to their shame - but it is our loss.
Sandy, Livonia, USA
Read all 46 comments
HAVE YOUR SAY
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article...

Onyango, who is the half-sister of Obama’s late father, lived at the federally subsidized Old Colony development in South Boston from 2003 to 2007. She moved to her current residence, the state-funded West Broadway development on Flaherty Way in South Boston, in January, McGonagle said.

To qualify for federally funded public housing, tenants must prove that at least one household member is a citizen or an “eligible noncitizen.” Eligible noncitizens include immigrants with a resident alien card, temporary resident card, employment authorization card or proof of refugee or asylee status, according to the BHA’s Admissions and Continued Occupancy Policies.

Unlike the case with federal public housing, tenants moving into state-funded housing in Massachusetts do not have to prove their citizenship or immigration status. According to the state Department of Housing and Community Development, “As a result of a consent decree in federal court in 1977, the state cannot deny state-subsidized public housing to undocumented immigrants.”

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security screens all noncitizen applicants for eligibility, the BHA said. McGonagle said he did not know which immigration class Onyango fell into when she was approved in 2003.

“When she applied and throughout the screening process, we applied all of the neccesary rules and followed all the necessary rules and she was determined eligible,” McGonagle said.

A one-person household must earn less than $43,600 annually to qualify for a state or federal public housing unit managed by the BHA. Rents at Onyango’s West Broadway residence are calculated at 32 percent of a resident’s income.
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/politics/2008/view/2008_11_02_Boston_Housing_Authority:_Deportation_notice_for_Barack_Obama_s_aunt_not_‘relevant_:_Illegals_slip_through_state_law_loophole/srvc=home&position=0