SHOCKING evidence of US Democrat presidential hopeful Barack Obama's hidden Islamic sympathies – or a final, dirty, trick by the floundering campaign of Hillary Clinton?
Obama pictured in traditional Somali clothing in 2006
That is the question being asked across the United States after a photograph showing Obama in Somali traditional dress was circulated yesterday.
The photograph, showing Obama with tribal elders in a white sash and turban, was taken during the senator's official visit to Kenya in 2006.
The gossip and news website Drudge Report posted the image yesterday claiming it was sent to them as part of a smear campaign by the Clinton camp.
Drudge reported an unnamed Clinton staffer saying "wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC?" a reference to Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Mr Obama's campaign manager, David Plouffe, accused Mrs Clinton of "shameful, offensive fear-mongering".
Speaking on the eve of the final head-to-head debate before the all-important primaries next week in Ohio and Texas, Mr Plouffe said: "It's exactly the kind of divisive politics that turns away Americans of all parties and diminishes respect for America in the world."
But Maggie Williams, Mrs Clinton's campaign manager, insisted it is Mr Obama, not Mrs Clinton, who is playing dirty tricks."If Barack Obama's campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed," she said.
Clinton staffers, who refuse to confirm or deny they sent the photograph, insist there is nothing offensive in the picture: American leaders have a long tradition of dressing in local attire while on foreign visits.
However, as the Democratic primary contests enter their most crucial stage, the negativity meter has been climbing, and a game of bluff and double bluff is beyond neither camp.
Mrs Clinton needs to win the contests next week in Ohio and Texas to keep a realistic chance of beating Mr Obama, while he knows victories there would kill off her challenge. Currently they are neck-and-neck in Texas while she has a modest lead in Ohio.
Certainly it is nothing new for American leaders to dress in colourful outfits to please foreign hosts.
A caption issued with the photograph says it shows Mr Obama in traditional dress during a meeting with ethnic Somalis in north-east Kenya in August 2006 as a junior US senator.
A former US general, Scott Gration, who travelled with Mr Obama to Kenya, said the photograph was taken in all innocence, with Mr Obama donning traditional dress to be polite to his hosts. "He did what any great leader should do," he told CNN. "He accepted the gift, accepted the hospitality, accepted that token of friendship."
However the photograph made it into the public sphere, it has revived debate over alleged dirty tricks campaigns aimed at Mr Obama, whose father was a black Muslim Kenyan and mother a white American.
Last year, an anonymous source claimed Mr Obama attended an Islamic Madrassa, or religious school, during his upbringing in Indonesia – in fact, records show he went to secular and Catholic schools.
In December, two Clinton Iowa volunteers resigned after forwarding a hoax e-mail that falsely said Mr Obama is a Muslim possibly intent on destroying the US. Mr Obama is a member of the United Church of Christ and says he has never been a Muslim.
"People are acting as if he (Obama) is an Islamic Manchurian Candidate," said Senator John Kerry, an Obama supporter, in a reference to the Cold War film.
This weekend saw both sides abruptly sharpen their rhetoric. Mrs Clinton mocked Mr Obama's rhetorical style, branding him unrealistic.
Mr Obama, meanwhile, accused Mrs Clinton of backsliding over a free trade agreement, NATFA, she had supported when her husband as president.
Picture of traditional garb drew no flak at the time Chris Stephen MY FIRST brush with Obama-mania came in 2006, when I was researching a story on war crimes in Uganda.
I arrived in Kenya at the same time Mr Obama was in town for the visit in which the controversial picture was later snapped.
We shared the same hotel, ringed with security guards and wellwishers for what was, for Kenyans, a magic moment – an official visit by the first US senator, not just African-American, but of Kenyan descent.
The road to the village of his relatives in the western town of Nyangoma Kogalo had been specially upgraded for his motorcade and the local beer, Senator, had been renamed "Obama".
Across the capital, Nairobi locals sported T-shirts with "Welcome Home" emblazoned across them.
Mr Obama highlighted Aids awareness, earning plaudits for taking an Aids test in a clinic in Kisumu, one of the worst-hit regions, to encourage others to follow suit.
Kenya, once a British colony, is mostly Christian but about 20 per cent of the population, living along the coast, is Muslim.
Relations between Christians and Muslims in Kenya are good, despite grumblings by Muslims that the tribal culture among the ruling clans denies them their share of government jobs.
It was during a visit to ethnic Somalis among this community that the photograph of him in traditional garb was taken, though at the time it excited no criticism from the mostly Christian media.
The big difference between Obama-mania then and now is that the senator was keen to play down expectations, warning Kenyans that they should not expect a rush of aid as a result of his visit.
"There is a sense that somehow I can deliver the largesse of the US government," he told the press.
The full article contains 938 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
