TRIBES RAGE AT HILL

By GEOFF EARLE Post Correspondent
Friday, February 29, 2008

WASHINGTON - Angry tribal elders in Kenya are calling on Hillary Rodham Clinton to "clear her name" over any involvement in publication of photos of Barack Obama wearing a turban and African garb on a trip to his ancestral homeland.

The leaders are planning a protest in their community today, and are turning up the heat on the US government over the incident.

The photos appeared nationwide after they were published earlier this week on the Drudge Report Web site with a report that they had been circulated by Clinton staffers.

Obama aides blasted the Clinton campaign for "shameful, offensive fear-mongering."

The pictures show Obama wearing traditional Somalian garb on a 2006 visit to the Wajir region of Kenya, where his late father was born.

"The US government must apologize to us as a clan and the old man," Mohamed Ibrahim told Reuters, referring to a highly respected tribal elder who is also shown in the photos.

"We have been offended, and we cannot afford to just watch and stay silent."

He also said it was essential that Clinton "clear her name."

The Drudge Report said the photos had been forwarded by a Clinton staffer with an e-mail that said, "Wouldn't we be seeing this on the cover of every magazine if it were HRC [Hillary Rodham Clinton]?"

Obama has fought a whisper campaign by fringe elements who wrongly say he is Muslim and have even compared his name to Osama bin Laden's, as well as highlighted his middle name, Hussein.

The photo showed Obama wearing a turban and being outfitted in other traditional clothing alongside Sheik Mohamed Hassan.

"He [Hassan] was the right person to perform any such activity like dressing a visitor like Obama with traditional Somali clothes," Mukhtar Sheik Nur, another leader, told Reuters.

The elders said if they did not get an apology, they would demand the expulsion of US troops based near the town of Garissa in their region.

Clinton campaign spokesman Jay Carson said, "As we made clear several days ago, we had nothing to do with this photo or its distribution. Sen. Clinton has worn local dress on many trips to countries around the world."

Clinton herself has denied any involvement.

Clinton campaign manager Maggie Williams called Obama's initial hard-hitting response "divisive," adding, "They should be ashamed."

Obama said in Tuesday's debate in Cleveland that he took Clinton at her word and was ready to set the issue aside.

State Department spokesman Curtis Cooper, asked about a call for an apology, said, "I haven't heard anything from the government of Kenya about this."

A spokesman for Kenya's embassy in Washington declined to comment.

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Source: NYPOST, Feb 29, 2009