Source: Daily Times
NEW YORK: Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has cited a 1981 visit to Pakistan while he was a college student in a bid to counter rivals’ accusations that he lacks foreign policy experience.
He spoke of his trip to Pakistan while speaking to supporters at a fund-raiser in San Francisco on Sunday night, according to a dispatch in The New York Times on Thursday.
Senator Obama, an African-American, also made reference to his ties to relatives in poor villages in Kenya and the years he spent growing up in Indonesia, and says he has real-life experience of foreign countries.
In 1981, Obama visited his mother and sister Maya in Indonesia and then travelled to Pakistan. According to Obama, he was in Karachi for about three weeks and then visited Hyderabad in India.
In Karachi, he stayed with the family of a college friend, Muhammad Hasan Chandoo.
Chandoo is now a self-employed financial consultant, living in Armonk in Westchester County, New York. When contacted, Chandoo said that he would not comment about his relations with his “friend”.
According to The Times, he has donated the maximum, $2,300, to Obama’s primary campaign and an additional $309 for the general elections.
During the speech, Obama said that because of his trip to Pakistan, “I knew what Sunni and Shia was, before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.” During his years at Occidental College, Obama also befriended Wahid Hamid, a fellow student who was an immigrant from Pakistan and travelled with Obama there, the Obama campaign said.
Hamid is now a vice president at PepsiCo in New York, and according to public records, has donated the maximum $2,300 to the Obama campaign and is listed as a campaign fundraiser. Hamid was not available for comment as he is travelling abroad, his office said.
With the war in Iraq and extremism among the top issues in the campaign, all three of the presidential contenders have sought to emphasise the value of their very different foreign policy credentials. app
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Tags: Barack Obama, Pakistan, United States
8 responses so far ↓
1 Auntie Coosa // Aug 24, 2008 at 12:00 am
Where did the Passport Obama used in 1981 originate? Was it an Indonesian Passport or a US Passport? Do you have any documentation regarding the Passport he used?
Thank you.
2 Carol Merrill // Oct 1, 2008 at 6:25 am
Obama boasts of his humble beginnings and being on food stamps etc… Is there any “source” to the financial costs of his round the world trip in 1981? or the “funding” of his tuition at Columbia? We know after Columbia he made $12,000/year as a community organizer…. and why did he go to Chicago to do that? And how did he pay for Harvard Law School (were they all loans?)
Thanks.
3 leo // Oct 1, 2008 at 8:38 am
C I A knows every thing
4 ScrewedInAmerica // Oct 10, 2008 at 7:15 am
I have no desire to vote for McCain due to the state of our economy. But, there are just way too many questions about Obama for me to vote for him.
5 Mauiclaire // Oct 10, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Anybody know if Pakistan was under martial law at the time of Obama’s visit in1981? Was there a banned travel list for US citizens at that time?
6 Apnaavenue.com // Oct 22, 2008 at 5:47 am
In 1981 Pakistan was being ruled by General Ziaul haq under Martial law and Pakistan was under ban list to travel for USA citizens.
7 Mike // Oct 27, 2008 at 9:15 pm
There are certainly more questions that need to be answered. Why doesn’t the media research this?
8 catrina // Oct 30, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Asian Development Bank for Islamic Pakistan
Agricultural Development Bank’s Gujranwalla Agricultural Development Program.
THE OFFICIAL program talked about in 1984 IMPLEMENTED 1985″ mom oversaw funding
through 1992
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