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Obama's College Trip to Pakistan & Travel Ban
ABC News ^ | April 08, 2008 | Jake Tapper

Posted on 12/16/2008 11:47:46 PM PST by FTJM

At a fundraiser in San Francisco, Ca., Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., claimed he had more world experience than his rivals, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., and introduced a new bit of biographical information.

"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," Obama said, according to the Huffington Post.

"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," Obama said, "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 [sic] before I joined the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."

(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: bambisbigadventure; birthcertificate; certifigate; indonesia; obama; obamapakistantravel; pakistan; passport
Old article but I have a question for Freepers:

Was there a travel "ban" for US citizens or a travel "advisory"? Were Americans allowed to travel there with US passports?

Links are appreciated.

1 posted on 12/16/2008 11:47:47 PM PST by FTJM
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To: FTJM

Travel advisory.


2 posted on 12/17/2008 12:00:51 AM PST by zarodinu
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To: FTJM
Some say he entered Pakistan on an Indonesian passport. Haven't heard Obama or anyone else refute it.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2059717/posts

WND

3 posted on 12/17/2008 12:03:12 AM PST by smokingfrog (I'll go green when they plant me in the ground.)
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To: FTJM

Mr. Obama and I are almost the same age. I, too, travelled abroad, alone, in the late 1970s and early 1980s. I had to get a U.S. passport to do that. And I still have ALL of my old (now invalidated) passports, containing all of the visas, entry stamps, time stamps, etc. with which it would be child’s play reconstructing my travels.

Wouldn’t it be nice if Mr. Obama released his old passports for public scrutiny?

Regards,


4 posted on 12/17/2008 12:03:34 AM PST by alexander_busek
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To: FTJM
Nope. No travel ban. There were probably any number of Americans in Pakistan hanging around, backpacking, at that time. And you could do it, I mean, probably DIRT CHEAP for weeks on end without being bankrolled...as some conspiratorially have thought. How does staying there at a backpackers flat for more than likely at about US $5 a night strike you, maybe 3-4$ a day on food? A US college student could do this no sweat for a few weeks; Southeast Asia (are) and South Asia (were) streaming with low budget young Americans traveling around like that. I will grant he probably did not smell too good.

Dead end road. I personally think there is no "there" "there" on this one. The dude was also in Karachi and Hyderabad (more near India), not anywhere near anything controversial such as the Afghan frontier areas, or border towns like Peshawar, etc.

5 posted on 12/17/2008 12:09:36 AM PST by AmericanInTokyo (Bushbot-ism: The depths of subjective idiocy & academic dishonesty among so-called "Conservatives")
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To: FTJM
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," Obama said, "You don't know those eighty countries. ..."

Ah, but four years as a young child in Indonesia, a couple of weeks meeting relatives you've never seen before and three weeks in Pakistan with a friend makes you world traveled and an expert in foreign affairs? ROTFLOL

Only a liberal would be stupid enough to buy that line of BS.

6 posted on 12/17/2008 12:11:42 AM PST by TigersEye (Mohammed licks my shoes but the Allah won't come off.)
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To: alexander_busek

Obama’s mother’s passport would settle the issue of where she was when Barack Jr was born.


7 posted on 12/17/2008 12:14:56 AM PST by Poincare
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To: FTJM
I have a close friend (ex college room mate) that is an American with Pakistani roots.  He typically travels to Pakistan more than once a year and has for the 40 years I've known him.  The guy was pediatrician to three of my four children and I see him quite often.  I'll ask him if he was ever banned, but I already know the answer will be no.
8 posted on 12/17/2008 12:25:30 AM PST by HawaiianGecko (Online internet polls are foolish: Winston Churchill, 1939)
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To: Poincare

That passport, is no doubt ‘sealed’ and safe, with Obama. That said; seems FOIA would come into play, should a citizen want to see where his country’s ‘President-Elect’ had indeed traveled on a passport; prior to asumming the highest office.


9 posted on 12/17/2008 12:25:47 AM PST by cricket (America's Freedom Rings! Thank You ~ U..S.A. Military~/)
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To: FTJM

Is he PROUD to have family that is impoverished in Africa?


10 posted on 12/17/2008 12:28:40 AM PST by Yaelle
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To: Poincare
"Obama’s mother’s passport would settle the issue of where she was when Barack Jr was born."

Another piece of data to focus on ... at least to see if it can be demanded.

Barristers?

11 posted on 12/17/2008 2:05:03 AM PST by knarf (I say things that are true ... I have no proof ... but they're true.)
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To: alexander_busek

My guess is that the trip to see his dying grandmother in her apartment was a mission to recover not only his birth certificate, but his old passports and probably his mother’s.


12 posted on 12/17/2008 3:18:17 AM PST by Liberty Ship ("Lord, make me fast and accurate.")
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To: TigersEye

According to his logic, my childhood summer vacations qualify me as a friggin’ international genius. //rolls eyes//


13 posted on 12/17/2008 3:32:05 AM PST by visualops (portraits.artlife.us or visit my freeper page)
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To: alexander_busek
I do too... mine is a US Passport also... but hussein cannot show his INDONESIAN Passport... no sirree!

LLS

14 posted on 12/17/2008 4:30:48 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!! so sue me!)
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To: knarf

“Barristers?”

1/2 hot chocolate1/2 coffee, no whip cream please.

Oops... wrong baristas. My bad.


15 posted on 12/17/2008 5:06:23 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz ("Control the information, you control the people.")
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To: AmericanInTokyo
There were probably any number of Americans in Pakistan hanging around, backpacking, at that time.

True, but Obama doesn't strike me as the backpacking type.

16 posted on 12/17/2008 5:42:44 AM PST by randita
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To: knarf

Strunk litigation (Connecticut) seeking release of Stanley Ann’s passport records between 1960 and 1963


17 posted on 12/17/2008 5:45:14 AM PST by tyou48
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To: FTJM
This should be a few simple questions:
Under what name did you travel to Pakistan?
Which nation issued your passport to travel to Pakistan?
18 posted on 12/17/2008 5:58:15 AM PST by SERKIT ("Blazing Saddles" explains it all.....)
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To: FTJM

Sorry, I don’t know about the travel advisory, but I would like to know how he got the money to travel to these countries. Yes, it was very inexpensive to live in Pakistan & Indonesia but plane tickets were very expensive. I remember my summers in between college years working as many hours as possible to pay for the next year’s tuition.


19 posted on 12/17/2008 6:29:33 AM PST by classical artist
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To: FTJM

Wow! Isn’t Jake Tapper a brilliant journalist. Through diligent investigative reporting, he has now discovered that The Messiah traveled to Pakistan in 1981. Give this guy a Pulitzer.


20 posted on 12/17/2008 7:27:21 AM PST by norwaypinesavage (Global Warming Theory is extremely robust with respect to data. All observations confirm it)
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To: FTJM
DOES IT REALY MATTER THAT HE WANTS TO GIVE OUR MONEY TO OTHER NATIONS.

Obama’s $845 Billion SECRET - He NEVER talks about...

http://video.aol.com/video-detail/obamas-845-billion-secret-he-never-talks-about-this-why/3343804643

21 posted on 12/17/2008 7:34:55 AM PST by jarofants (Obama wants to bailout Kenya and other nations.)
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To: FTJM

bump


22 posted on 12/17/2008 12:02:52 PM PST by angelsonmyside
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To: visualops

We took two separate three week vacations in Mexico when I was a kid. That’s more time than he spent abroad not counting his childhood as a Muslim kid in Indonesia. I should at least beat out Hillary as SOS.


23 posted on 12/17/2008 12:46:57 PM PST by TigersEye (Mohammed licks my shoes but the Allah won't come off.)
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To: FTJM

obumpa


24 posted on 12/17/2008 12:48:44 PM PST by Dajjal (Obama is an Ericksonian NLP hypnotist.)
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To: HawaiianGecko

So your friend has at least 1,000 times as much world knowledge as 0bama. Why the heck isn’t he President-Elect?


25 posted on 12/17/2008 12:51:04 PM PST by TigersEye (Mohammed licks my shoes but the Allah won't come off.)
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To: smokingfrog

Is there a link to the State Dept.’s exact position back then? Looking for proof.


26 posted on 12/17/2008 1:57:15 PM PST by FTJM
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