Barack a Story, Magical Mystery Tour 2

"I think a lot of people assume that might be some sort of military thing to make me look more Commander-in-Chief-like. Ironically, this is an area--foreign policy is the area where I am probably most confident that I know more and understand the world better than Senator Clinton or Senator McCain."

"It's ironic because this is supposedly the place where experience is most needed to be Commander-in-Chief. Experience in Washington is not knowledge of the world. This I know. When Senator Clinton brags 'I've met leaders from eighty countries'--I know what those trips are like! I've been on them. You go from the airport to the embassy. There's a group of children who do native dance. You meet with the CIA station chief and the embassy and they give you a briefing. You go take a tour of a plant that [with] the assistance of USAID has started something. And then--you go."

"You do that in eighty countries--you don't know those eighty countries. So when I speak about having lived in Indonesia for four years, having family that is impoverished in small villages in Africa--knowing the leaders is not important--what I know is the people. . . ."

"I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college--I knew what Sunni and Shia was before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. . . ."

Senator Obama April 2008

It is not only I who thought this comment was cocky when I first read it, but the reporter from the Huffington Post felt the same way:

What Barack Obama's remarks last night in San Francisco reveal, however, is his self-confidence--to the point of cockiness--right now. This is exactly the same demeanor on display last week in Pennsylvania.

But his cockiness was not what caught peoples attention it was this revelation "I traveled to Pakistan when I was in college" since nobody was aware of this trip. Despite the seeming importance to his experience on foreign policy  he never mentioned it in either of his two autobiographies or had previously mentioned it during the campaign.  It was so surprising that one of the media's few real journalist, Jake Tapper.

This last part — a college trip to Pakistan — was news to many of us who have been following the race closely. And it was odd that we hadn’t hear about it before, given all the talk of Pakistan during this campaign.

So I asked the Obama campaign for more information.Apparently, according to the Obama campaign, In 1981 — the year Obama transferred from Occidental College to Columbia University — Obama visited his mother and sister Maya in Indonesia. After that visit, Obama traveled to Pakistan with a friend from college whose family was from there. The Obama campaign says Obama was in Pakistan for about three weeks, staying with his friend’s family in Karachi and also visiting Hyderabad in Southern India.

Obama's revelation of his college trip to Pakistan was not part of a speech, it was an off the record, off teleprompter comment given at a fundraiser having to do with questions on potential Vice Presidential candidates. Had Obama not mentioned it, basically in passing , and if Jake Tapper had not wondered why this seemingly important detail had been kept hidden or at the very least not been exploited for obvious political advantage, then this college trip might have gone unnoticed.

As with so much of Obama's life story what is missing is as important as what little we know. As the Tapper column points out "it was odd that we hadn’t hear about it before, given all the talk of Pakistan during this campaign." Pakistan was one of the primary foreign policy issues of the 2008 campaign yet the very biographical experience that Obama claims  makes him the most qualified, his personal knowledge of the people there, he never even reveals or uses.

It is not like these people he knew in Pakistan were insignificant either. Here from a July 10,2008 translation of the Pakistan Times (Emphasis mine)

During his visit to Pakistan he stayed in Hasan Chandio’s residence and later he traveled to interior Sindh for partridge hunting. In Sindh partridge hunting is considered as a symbol of good hospitality.

Hasan Chandio is Obama’s Pakistani friend who lives in Westchester County of New York. Obama also made friends with another Sindhi currently Chairman of Senate Muhammadmian Soomro who hails from Shikarpur hardly one hour’s drive from Larkana. He lived at Muhammad Ali Society residence of Ahmad Mian Soomro father of Chairman Senate Muhammadmian Soomro.

One could understand Obama's reluctance to mention his stay with the family of Hasan Chandio (Chandoo)  his college room mate and friend, not wanting to draw attention to someone who like himself was know in college to be tied to Marxist organizations.

In David Remnick's book, The Bridge, Chandoo's bona fides as a committed Marxist were well-known to those close to him. Chandoo's girlfriend at the time, Margot Mifflin, told Remnick that "[I]n college, Hasan was a socialist, a Marxist, which is funny since he is from a wealthy family."

So it is obvious why Obama might downplay Chandoo's connection in his life and it is also telling that most if not all of Obama's acquaintances are of the "rich kid" variety.  but who was/is this Muhammadmian Soomro whom a young Barack Obama befriended during this previously unknown trip to Pakistan?

Muhammad Mian Soomro, the president of the Pakistan Senate, assumed the office of acting president on Aug. 18, 2008, several hours after the resignation of Pervez Musharraf.

So just prior to our Presidential elections while Pakistan is in the midst of political chaos a friend of the Democratic nominee, a very well known Pakistan political figure, temporarily ascends to the Presidency of Pakistan a nation that is and was a focal point and a tenuous ally in our war on terror, and we hear from Obama and his campaign? Nothing?

Both McCain and Obama released similar statements when Mussaraf stepped down but consider how strange it is that Obama did not use the opportunity to promote his foreign policy credentials. Either candidate, both US Senators, could have called the new interim president and offered support and encouragement, but consider the  opportunity that Obama squandered. Something like "Today I called Interim President  Muhammadmian Soomro of Pakistan, a friend I have known for over twenty five years, to offer my support and encouragement in these times of change in Pakistan and if elected president I will blah, blah, blah." For such a supposed brilliant campaign to miss such an opportunity especially since the one area McCain had an obvious advantage was in foreign policy seems almost unbelievable. No statement or press release on the connection between the new President of Pakistan and the candidate, no attempt whatsoever to take advantage of a situation that begs to be taken advantage of.

Perhaps like his other Pakistan friend Chandoo perhaps it is as simple as Obama not wanting to expose the hypocrisy of his true life story rather than the narrative he had so carefully crafted beginning with the publication of Dreams From My Father. The young oppressed  and searching black man fighting for the rights of the dispossessed and underprivileged peoples of the world. The man who swore off the greed of a lucrative career in law to fight as a community organizer for the downtrodden of Chicago. You know that altruistic young man whose driving purpose in life is to secure "fairness" for the world's put upon classes. The fact that he and his socialist minded peers and cronies are mostly the products of privilege and have used their "ideology" to amass wealth and political power is, well....ignored.

But back to Pakistan and Obama's college vacation. In another more detailed biography of Soomro we also find out that he is a highly regarded banker and businessman.

He has also worked in important positions for major banks:

* Bank of America
* General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of International Bank of Yemen
* Faysal Islamic Bank of Bahrain
* Muslim Commercial Bank
* Agriculture Development Bank of Pakistan
* Federal Bank of Cooperatives
* National Bank of Pakistan

Soomro earned great recognition for his achievements during his time with these organizations. He was also instrumental in the establishment of micro credit banking in Pakistan.

He also held a position at the board of directors of Shell Pakistan Ltd.

Like Chandoo who lives in one of the most exclusive areas of New York and is a very successful financial consultant or Imad Husain another Obama room mate who is a Boston banker, Obama's friendMuhammadmian Soomrois just another son of privilege and wealth that our Crusader in Chief spends so much time demeaning .

This as much as anything else is the true story of Barack Obama's life, his seeming endless encounters and engagements with people of of means usually of extreme leftist ideology. Whether Pakistan room mates or Valerie Jarrett  or Bill Ayers or Dr. Khalid al Mansou or  even Jeremiah Wright, Obama always seems to gravitate towards people of extreme ideologies who have the means to advance Obama "Forward".

Which brings us once again back to Pakistan and Obama's friend hiding in plain sight Soonoro. Well hiding from any inquisitive American journalist anyway.(emphasis mine)

While in Karachi, Obama had stayed at the residence of his college friend, Hassan Chandio. In Jacobabad, he was the guest of Soomro family. Muhammadmian Soomro confirmed this information and said it was his first meeting with Obama.

“Yes, he had been our guest and spent three days in Jacobabad,” he told The News. Soomro, presently in the US, his second home, said an American friend had told his father, Ahmadmian Soomro, about Obama’s arrival in Pakistan and asked him to look after the American. Soomro’s father was the deputy speaker of West Pakistan Assembly and had also later served in the Senate.

So the young Obama in between Oxidental and Columbia didn't just happen to meet the very influential and wealthy Soomro family in Pakistan. He wasn't even introduced to them through his wealthy Pakistan friends from college. The Soomro family was asked in advance to look after our future president by an American friend. And who was this American friend?

When Soomro was asked about the person who referred Obama to his father, he said he nowadays lived in some country in South America. He was, however, reluctant to disclose his identity, saying he will have to seek permission from that man before giving his profile.

Now that is a surprise, another relevant person in Obama's life story is a mystery, but why? Note also that Soomro says this was the first  time they met, not the only time. Why is nearly everything to do with our president either surrounded in mystery, has been misrepresented or out and out lied about? If all these never ending mysteries have legitimate innocent explanations why not just be out front and explain them and provide the relevant documentation?

There is much more that can be written about Obama's trip to Pakistan or even his more recent revelation that he visited Europe as a student,

“The last time I was in the South of France – or the first time, rather, was as a college student, and I’ve never forgotten the extraordinary hospitality of the French people and the extraordinary views that are available here.”

Well until that statement nobody knew that Obama had been to Europe as a college student. In fact previous accounts had given the impression he had  first visited Europe as a twenty six year old community organizer. Oh well details, details. Perhaps I will go deeper into the Pakistan trip or return to it in future segments, but these simple questions should have been asked and answered long ago. and Obama's life story is such a target rich environment for investigation that much must be left behind.

There is a simple truth in life, only people with something to hide actually hide them. I personally do not think that Obama is foreign born, or a closet Muslim. I do believe that he is nothing more than a narcissistic  extreme left wing ideologue who not only hides his true political beliefs but has used lies and bullying his entire political career to advance... mostly himself. In the process he has taken the nation on a Magical Mystery Tour into the life and mind of a sociopath.