Corsi rises from the ashes? Since he was deported from Kenya, he's been attempting to revitalize his book here. Hannity, and now the Washington Times, welcomed him with open arms.
Regarding the massacre, the story appears to come from Corsi himself. I can find no independent story to correlate the Washington Times story.
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In the first paragraph of his opening dispatch from Nairobi on Thursday for the conservative WorldNetDaily website, Corsi made clear his agenda, alleging that Odinga, who he claims has close ties to Obama, "was appointed to the [prime minister] position to stop a wave of violence by Muslim supporters" protesting against the flawed presidential election. On Friday he claimed Muslims had killed "50 Christians [who had] sought refuge in a Christian church" in Eldoret in January.
Both claims are false. Kenya's post-election violence was ethnic-based rather than religious. If anything, the Kalenjin perpetrators of the church massacre were Christian.
Regarding Corsi's assertions concerning Obama and his Kenyan ties, from Politifact: <link>
Corsi's description of Obama's role in Kenyan politics is filled with errors and innuendo. Corsi focuses on a 2006 trip Obama made to Africa as a U.S. senator. The visit included stops in South Africa, Kenya and Chad.
Obama's trip came about a year before elections were scheduled in Kenya. On one side was incumbent President Mwai Kibaki; one of his main challengers was Raila Odinga.
Corsi alleges in his book that Obama openly supported Odinga, because Obama wanted to avenge his father's tribe, the Luo, against rival tribes. Corsi also suggests that Odinga is a socialist and was part of an alliance with Muslims to expel Christians in Kenya.
There are a number of problems here. First, we reported previously that Odinga is not a socialist. The alliance Corsi describes between Muslims and socialists seems conjecture at best. Corsi himself says his case hinges on a secret memo that he admits may or may not exist. Corsi then states that Odinga "professes to be an Anglican Christian" but adds that "concerns even today continue to circulate among Kenya's Christian leaders ... that Odinga intends to pursue an undeclared radical Islamic political agenda." His argument here is highly speculative.
Odinga is not Barrack Obama's Cousin. From Snopes:
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More from Politifact: <link>
• “Who just happened to be his cousin, Raila Odinga, who is a socialist trained in East Germany.”
This part of the claim stems from an interview Odinga did with BBC News in January 2008. ( Listen to it here. ) In a discussion about the political situation in Kenya amid fallout from a disputed election — where Odinga’s party rejected official results and vowed to install Odinga as the “people’s president” — the following exchange occurs:
Odinga: “Barack Obama’s father is my maternal uncle.”
BBC: “You’re related to him?”
Odinga: “Yes, I am.”
No, you’re not, says the Obama campaign.
We spoke to three Kenya experts who dismiss this part of the claim as well, suggesting Odinga made the connection to give himself more legitimacy during the political crisis.
“It’s stretched to the point of ridiculousness,” said Joel D. Barkan, political science professor emeritus at the University of Iowa and senior associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C. “To my knowledge, they are not first cousins in the normal sense. To my knowledge, there’s absolutely no relationship at all.”