Obama's Grandfather Was Imprisoned, Tortured By British

[Julius Civitatus]

Obama's family had a horrific experience with torture. The Times of London reveals that Obama's paternal grandfather was tortured by the British.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/03/obamas-grandfather-impris_n_148039.html

Hussein Onyango Obama, Mr Obama's paternal grandfather, became involved in the Kenyan independence movement while working as a cook for a British army officer after the war. He was arrested in 1949 and jailed for two years in a high-security prison where, according to his family, he was subjected to horrific violence to extract information about the growing insurgency.

"The African warders were instructed by the white soldiers to whip him every morning and evening till he confessed," said Sarah Onyango, Hussein Onyango's third wife, the woman Mr Obama refers to as "Granny Sarah"...."He said they would sometimes squeeze his testicles with parallel metallic rods. They also pierced his nails and buttocks with a sharp pin, with his hands and legs tied together with his head facing down," she said The alleged torture was said to have left Mr Onyango permanently scarred, and bitterly antiBritish. "That was the time we realised that the British were actually not friends but, instead, enemies," Mrs Onyango said. "My husband had worked so diligently for them, only to be arrested and detained."

[Bullet1987]

1. I just saw that...ironic isn't it?

[Julius Civitatus]

2. The more the reason he stops Guantanamo, waterboarding, and

the rest of the horrible practices that the Bush administration made common and "legal".

[Clio the Leo]

3. I remember something to that effect from "Dreams" ...

.... and his step-father had it pretty rough during the war he was drafted into (in Indonesia.)

[Frustratedlady]

4. Oh, how awful. He was a cook and treated like that?

What could he have known?

The inhumanity to man makes me sick.

[slackmaster]

5. My grandfather was imprisoned by the United States of America

They didn't torture him, at least not much.

[Occam Bandage]

8. Mine wasn't, but he should have been. nt

[beachmom]

6. Did you go to the London Times linked from HuffPo?

They are all worried (I think this is a Murdoch paper, right?) that Obama will be anti-British and that the "special relationship" the U.S. and Great Britain have enjoyed is over. I mean .... WTF??? There is nothing in Obama's political career pointing to him being bent on revenge. Especially against Great Britain.

[FrenchieCat]

9. That's similar to the "angry Black Man" theory here in America....

that one who is a descendent of slaves will get payback if given power.

I'm sad to see anyone in Britain even intimate this. That's sad. :(

[Riverman]

7. Obama must tell Eric Holder his Att General appointee to publically

denounce all forms of torture and end all such practices conducted by ANY representative of the US citizens. Holder defended a banana company who allegedly hires paramilitary facists to torture leftists in South America. He negotiated a "settlement." That usually means that the company was guilty and therefore could not rely of corrupt courts to exonerate them. So, they cut a deal to get off the hook. Eric Holder negotiated that deal in defense of a corporation that paid to torture people! Nice Pick, Mr. President-Elect! WTF are you thinking. Remember your own grandfather and all the troops who become prisoners on other countries and get tortured in turn for the US torturing their people. I voted for Obama and cried when he won - it is one of the great political and social events of human history given the horrific legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and all forms of racism! But, now Mr. Obama put your principles where your power is - you too must publically renounce all forms of torture in the name of the US citizens and issue an Executive Order on January 20, 2009 instructing all US federal employees and contractors that any evidence of torture of human beings in violation of the Geneva Convention and federal laws by such federal employees and contractors will be prosecuted, and if convicted, issued the most severe prison sentences.