OBAMA'S GRANDFATHER TORTURED BY BRITISH.

It turns out that Barack Obama's grandfather, a former British soldier, was imprisoned and tortured by the British Army during the Mau Mau Uprising:

Barack Obama’s grandfather was imprisoned and brutally tortured by the British during the violent struggle for Kenyan independence, according to the Kenyan family of the US President-elect.

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 Mau Mau Uprising took place in Kenya during the same period as the Malayan Emergency. While the latter is often discussed as a template for good counter-insurgency doctrine, the former is known mostly for its brutality.

The British press appears to be reacting to the news that the grandson of a victim of British torture has ascended to the presidency with some consternation:

Obama, with more pressing contemporary problems on his plate, is unlikely to be fixated on extracting revenge from the UK. But he may draw the broader historical conclusion that the imposition of torture and repressive violence has a habit of undermining the political legitimacy of world-class powers.

I concur; Barack Obama is unlikely to exact revenge upon the British during his first hundred days. After that, who can tell?

--Robert Farley