Birthplace sleuth returning to pursuit of president-elect

"Obama Nation" author Jerome Corsi

Jerome Corsi, senior reporter for WND and author of "The Obama Nation," which first raised questions about Barack Obama's birthplace, is recovering from back surgery and soon will return to investigate key issues regarding the president-elect.

Corsi confirmed today the success of his surgery to address an apparently inherited condition aggravated seriously by his detention by Kenyan authorities in October while he was investigating Obama's ties in the African nation.

"I am now able to walk, go up and down stairs," Corsi told WND. "But at least until Christmas I will have a limited schedule of assignments."

He said he had received more than 5,000 e-mails that he had not had a chance to open or answer.

"I am most appreciative of the prayers," he said. "It really was a miracle."

The condition was a deterioration of spinal cord materials that pressed on nerves, causing pain throughout his body and, as the condition worsened, making it impossible for him to sit upright, walk or stand.

The last interviews he conducted in both Kenya and Hawaii while trying to document Obama's birth location were done while he was lying down on floors, tables or across chairs, because of the excruciating pain, he said.

The key issue Corsi has kept in sight is that Obama's campaign reported the president-elect was born in Hawaii in 1961, yet the only documentation released has been a state "certification of live birth." The document is not the same as a birth certificate and, in fact, during the 1960s Hawaii issued certifications of live birth to mothers whose children were born elsewhere, including foreign lands.

Read the book that started it all – the No. 1 New York Times best seller, "The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality" by Jerome R. Corsi, Ph.D.

If Obama was not born in Hawaii as he has claimed, and his birthplace actually was Kenya, as his paternal grandmother has stated, then he could be ineligible to be president under the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a president be a natural born citizen.

More than a dozen court cases have been filed over the issue, and a hearing is scheduled Friday before justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

WND founder and editor Joseph Farah has launched an effort to persuade the justices to consider the issue in light of the plain language of the Constitution.

"I am very pleased to hear about Jerry's successful surgery.
He is irreplaceable as an investigative reporter and as a friend and
colleague. I know I speak for everyone at WND when I say we are all looking
forward to a speedy and full recovery," Farah said.

Corsi said his condition had been developing but was being managed by painkillers until he went to Kenya. The results of his investigation were to be announced in Nairobi Oct. 7, but Kenyan immigration authorities detained him and canceled the news conference.

He said the detention under armed guard caused a significant deterioration in his health.

"We kept trying to explain the [medical] needs that I had. We had to ask to get bottled water … There was no consideration for use whatsoever, no access to medication, which of course was in my luggage," he said.

Corsi said he declined an offer from Kenyan authorities to be taken to a hospital for the same reason he planned his stay there at a private location, rather than a public hotel: because of threats on his life from opponents of his investigations into Obama's history.

"I am enthusiastically looking forward to getting back to work at WND and confronting two challenges," he said. "One is that the government will be completely controlled by the far left, and the second that there no longer is a conservative direction to the Republican Party."

Barack Obama and Raila Odinga

Corsi also has reported extensively on Obama's close ties to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, on whose behalf Obama campaigned in Kenya and who now is reportedly demanding payback. Odinga told the Kenyan newspaper The Nation that he expected Obama's election to provide a windfall of U.S. trade, tourism and investment.

"What we want to see is the expansion of relationships in terms of trade and direct investments," said Odinga. "We want to see more of our products finding markets in the U.S. and expect more direct investments by the Americans in the country."

Odinga made it clear he played a small role in helping Obama win the White House.

As WND reported, Odinga is a Luo tribesman affiliated with Obama's father when Odinga's communist father was Kenya's first vice president after Kenyan independence. Obama's father was a Harvard-educated economist working in the Jomo Kenyatta government.

Corsi also reported Obama allegedly raised nearly $1 million for Odinga to run for president in Kenya in December 2007, adding to the nearly $1 million raised for Odinga's 2007 presidential campaign by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

When Odinga lost the December 2007 presidential election by approximately 233,000 votes, Odinga called for protests which led his Luo tribesmen to murder approximately 1,000 Kikuyu tribesman, displace another 350,000 Kikuyus and destroy 800 churches, while not a single mosque was destroyed. Obama helped negotiate a settlement in which Odinga was appointed co-head-of-state to end the violence, even after it became publicly disclosed Odinga signed a letter of understanding with radical Muslims in return for their votes.

The written agreement with Muslim leaders stipulated that if the Muslim vote was delivered to Odinga, he would change the constitution to declare Islamic law as the ruling authority in Muslim-dominated regions, protect terrorists and muzzle Christian evangelism.

On his trip, Corsi learned that Kenyan officials were withholding evidence that may confirm a birth location for Obama, raising more questions than were answered about the issue. Hawaii officials also have said they have seen a birth certificate for Obama, but declined to say whether it indicated his birth was in the U.S. or not.

After Corsi's return to the U.S., he reported:

Obama and Odinga have been in direct contact since Obama's visit to Kenya in 2006.
Obama has advised Odinga on campaign strategy and helped him raise money in the U.S.
The memorandum of understanding Odinga, representing the Orange Democratic Movement, or ODM, and Sheikh Abdullahi Abdi, the chairman of the National Muslim Leaders Forum, or NAMLEF, signed Aug. 27, 2007, is now verified as a genuine document in the original long form Abdi produced for Kenyan television.
An eight-page document drafted for Odinga as an executive summary of his campaign strategy, entitled "Positioning and Marketing of the Orange Democratic Movement and the People's President – Hon. Raila A. Odinga," that was allegedly prepared by the party's core strategy team has also been verified as a valid document.
Odinga's 2007 presidential campaign strategy called for exploiting anti-Kikuyu sentiments, claiming victory and charging voter fraud even if the campaign knew the election had been legitimately lost. Odinga supporters were willing to fan the flames of ethnic tribal tensions and use violence as a last resort by calling for mass action which led to the destruction of properties, injuries, loss of life and the displacement of over 500,000 Kenyans. The violence was to force the Electoral Commission of Kenya to declare Odinga the winner or having him declare himself, by force, "The People's President" at a rally in Uhuru Park in Nairobi.
Even though Odinga has not fulfilled his promises to the Muslims who voted for him, he continues to cause concern among Kenyan Christians, because he has not declared his position on Shariah law and the Kadhi's Court in Kenya.
Obama remained in active phone contact with Odinga through the New Hampshire Democratic Party primary in January, continuing to support Odinga, turning a blind eye to the memorandum of understanding signed with Muslims and the post-election violence instigated as part of the ODM campaign strategy.

As Corsi was preparing for his scheduled Nairobi news conference Oct. 7, he was confronted by approximately 30 Kenyan immigration officers and uniformed military armed with automatic rifles, demanding to see his passport.

Corsi was taken by the immigration authorities and detained at Nyayo House, the provincial government headquarters in Nairobi, beginning what turned into 13 hours of imprisonment more or less, during which Kenyan immigration officials conducted an official investigation into his immigration status.

Even as immigration officials were keeping Corsi, they assured him he was not under arrest.

Kenyan authorities also detained Corsi's publicist Tim Bueler, who had accompanied him to Kenya.

Both were denied the opportunity to eat until late in the day when Corsi insisted Bueler was beginning to suffer blood sugar problems from lack of food.

Corsi had been invited to Kenya by officials who had become disillusioned with Odinga after Odinga's agreement with Muslim leaders became public knowledge.

Upon handing Corsi's and Bueler's passports to British Airways flight attendants when the airplane's door was being closed for takeoff, an unnamed Kenyan official told Corsi, "Never come back to Kenya" and "See you in hell."