The Steady Drip

Sam and Bunny Sewell

However, Dr. Manning is not the only individual who is bringing up such an admittedly controversial concept.

Washington, D.C.-based investigative journalist Wayne Madsen reported last Tuesday that “a veteran member of the White House Press Corps” said that certain questions regarding the President’s background — specifically, Occidental College, Columbia University, and Mr. Obama’s first employer, Business International Corporation — “are definitely off-limits” (h/t ResistNet):

WMR has learned from a veteran member of the White House Press Corps that the Obama administration has made it known through White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs and other White House Communications officials that certain questions posed by the reporters who cover the White House are definitely off-limits.

On the banned list are any questions about Obama’s post-Columbia University employment with Business International Corporation (BIC), a global financial and political information company that WMR previously reported was a front for the CIA.

White House Press Corps members have been quietly told that any questions related to BIC, Obama’s withheld records while he was a student at Occidental College in Los Angeles from 1979 to 1981, or his records at Columbia, are forbidden. At the same time he was attending Occidental, Obama, using the name Barry Soetoro and an Indonesian passport issued under the same name, traveled to Pakistan during the U.S. buildup to assist the Afghan mujaheddin.

…

The word from the White House Press Corps is that if anyone were to ask Obama about BIC or possible past CIA work, domestically or abroad, the offending reporter would see a quick pulling of the White House press credential.

The White House website states the following about openness and transparency by the Obama administration:

“My Administration is committed to creating an unprecedented level of openness in Government. We will work together to ensure the public trust and establish a system of transparency, public participation, and collaboration. Openness will strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness in Government.

Such allegations of off-limit questions regarding Mr. Obama’s past are not new, as I’ve previously reported. Yet, if true, don’t we, as Americans, have a right to know the background of the President? Could there be a “there” there? Potentially; we don’t know, and that’s the point. However, when a well-credentialed reporter is being explicitly told that specific questions are forbidden from being asked, it would appear that there’s a heck of a lot of smoke coming from a fire not too far away.

The fact of the matter is that nobody knows, for sure, who Mr. Obama is, based on the substantially lacking amount of original documentation concerning his bona fides. And regarding eligibility, I’ve always maintained that I don’t know if he’s eligible to be President. Yet, as Mr. Madsen points out once again, the President claims to be committed to “an unprecedented level of openness in Government.”

Perhaps the President is correct — being as willingly closed as he is regarding his background really could be “an unprecedented level!”

See the following links regarding the eligibility saga: