As Barack Obama declares victory in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, some researchers have begun a search into Obama’s past.
Cliff Kincaid, founder and president of America’s Survival, Inc., and Herbert Romerstein, author and former investigator for the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), held a press conference at Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse in Washington D.C. on May 22 releasing two new reports.
“We’re raising questions,” said Kincaid. “We don’t have all the answers.”
“Perhaps Barack Obama has some of the answers.”
Romerstein argued that Obama’s rhetoric lacks substance concerning the source of his political ideology.
“Obama is a self-candidate,” said Romerstein. “We know nothing about him other than the few bits and pieces he’s given us.”
“And when questions are raised about his current connections, he is very thin-skinned.”
The America’s Survival reports focus on Obama’s early years in Honolulu, Hawaii, where he was born and raised for a majority of his youth, and in his time in Chicago, Illinois.
The Hawaii report highlights Frank Marshall Davis as the “Frank” repeatedly referred to in Obama’s memoir, Dreams of My Father. According to Kincaid, Davis was “a key member of a Soviet-controlled network that was sponsored by Moscow and active in Hawaii.”
In his book, Obama referred to Frank—no last name was ever included—as a poet who visited his family in Hawaii. Frank is described by Obama as a man of “modest notoriety once” and who had “hard-earned knowledge.”
Davis was indeed a poet, authoring numerous verses with socialist sympathies which Kincaid and Romerstein ran lengthy excerpts from in their reports. The reports claim that in 1948, Davis moved from Chicago to Hawaii at the urging of singer and actor Paul Robeson, who HUAC found to be a member of the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA).
The reports claim that in Hawaii, Davis sought to infiltrate the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) attempts to advance the socialist movement in Hawaii.
Romerstein cites evidence that the U.S.S.R. wanted to remove American naval bases from Hawaii to ease expansion in the Pacific.
Also mentioned is Davis’ testimony before the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security. He invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than testify as to his CPUSA membership.
Kincaid and Romerstein hope that revealing links between Obama and Davis will raise questions about Obama’s past and present influences.
“You asked ‘Who’s Obama’s mentor?’ We don’t know who Obama’s mentor is,” said Romerstein. “We just don’t know why this guy does not tell us who these people are, who he works with, who he’s proud of, where he gets his information and his inspiration from.”
The Chicago report links Obama to prominent figures in the city with ties to the former Communist Party. The primary case arose from Ben Smith’s article in Politico this February. Smith reported that Obama launched his political career at the home of William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn.
Ayers and Dohrn were both members of Students for a Democratic Society, which in 1969 broke apart to form the violent activist group the Weather Underground. Ayers and Dohrn remained actively involved.
In 1970, the group issued “Declaration of a State of War,” a violent political campaign protesting the Vietnam War. The campaign’s primary function was the bombing of government buildings.
Ayers has claimed the organization never killed or injured anyone.
However, Kincaid and Romerstein’s report shows that both Ayers and Dohrn were “part of or had direct knowledge of a 1970 bombing plot that killed a San Francisco policeman and injured several other police officers.”
The report includes congressional testimony from Larry Grathwohl, a former informant for the Weather Underground. Grathwohl claimed that in a 1974 conversation, Ayers said Dohrn planned and executed the San Francisco bombing.
Ayers has not commented on the testimony.
Smith’s article also states Alice Palmer was in attendance at the meeting at the Ayers residence. The former Illinois state senator allegedly called the meeting to announce Obama as her chosen successor in the state senate.
The report claims Palmer was a member of the U.S. Peace Council, which FBI reports announced was a front organization for CPUSA. Palmer gave a glowing account of Soviet life in an interview conducted after her return from a visit to the U.S.S.R in 1986, which the authors reprint.
The Politico article quoted Dr. Quentin Young, a fourth member in attendance, at the meeting, whose patients were mostly communists, Kincaid and Romerstein said.
“There has been no explanation of why his state senate race was launched at the home of Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn,” said Kincaid. “Well, why? We know that’s a fact because the Politico uncovered that and confirmed it with Quentin Young; Young was there, too, along with Alice Palmer, but why were they there? Why those four people, with their copious and well documented radical and socialist connections?”
Kincaid continually expressed concern for media coverage of Obama.
“We have no political agenda,” said Kincaid. “We’re trying to get information out on any political candidate who may have links to potentially hostile foreign elements. In the case of Obama, who is new on the political scene, in my view, the media have not done an adequate job in investigating this information.”
Max Friedman, who assisted Kincaid in his investigations of Chicago, added: “Let’s say that the research on Obama is not finished.”
Ben Giles is an intern at the American Journalism Center, a training program run by Accuracy in Media and Accuracy in Academia.
