OpEdNews - Page 2 of Article: Corsi May Face Libel Suit Over False Claims in Anti-Obama Book

"Jerome Corsi is a discredited liar who is peddling another piece of garbage to continue the Bush-Cheney politics he helped perpetuate four years ago," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor told the Associated Press. "His is just one of what will likely be many more lie-filled books rushed to print this election cycle, which are cobbled together from debunked Internet sources to make money and advance a partisan agenda. We will respond to these smears forcefully with all means at our disposal."

But the most forceful response of all may be made in a courtroom, as Obama is considering taking legal action against Corsi, according to a source close to the Obama campaign who spoke to The 'Skeeter Bites Report on condition of anonymity.

The Obama Nation "goes far beyond a political hatchet job by containing statements that Corsi knows are untrue and doesn't have a shred of evidence to back them up," the source said. "That constitutes a reckless disregard for the truth, which -- combined with Corsi's avowed aim to destroy Obama's election prospects -- in my opinion meets the legal definition of libel."

Reckless Disregard for Truth Would be Easy for Obama to Prove. . .

If the Illinois senator were to sue Corsi for libel, it's unlikely that he'll have difficulty proving a reckless disregard for the truth. Book reviewers have slammed Corsi's tome as riddled with factual inaccuracies as well as outright falsehoods.

For example, Corsi claims that Obama was raised as a Muslim -- receiving extensive Islamic religious education as a boy in Indonesia. In Dreams from My Father -- which was first published in 1995 -- Obama acknowledged that "I'd spent two years at a Muslim school, [and] two years at a Catholic school. In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I'd pretend to close my eyes, then peek around the room.

"Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words," Obama wrote. "Sometimes the nun would catch me, and her stern look would force my lids back shut. But that didn't change how I felt inside."

Those are hardly the words of a devout Muslim -- or a devout Catholic, for that matter.

However, Obama's Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro -- second husband of Obama's mother, Ann Dunham -- was a Muslim, as was Obama's Kenyan father (who, according to the senator in The Audacity of Hope, later became an atheist). But Soetoro was "not religious" and "never went to prayer services except for big communal events," according to Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng.

Indonesia, with more than 220 million people, is the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, but, like Turkey, it is a secular republic, whose constitution guarantees freedom of religion -- although the government officially recognizes only six religions: Islam, Protestant Christianity, Roman Catholic Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and Confucianism.

. . .But the Tough Part Would be Proving 'Actual Malice'

Because Obama is a public official -- a sitting United States senator -- he would also be required to prove in any libel lawsuit that Corsi wrote his book with a clearly malicious intent. That's much more difficult to prove, even though Corsi has stated publicly that he wrote The Obama Nation with the clear intent of ensuring the soon-to-be Democratic nominee's defeat in the November election.

It's a high standard that the U.S. Supreme Court set more than 40 years ago in New York Times v. Sullivan, a landmark 1964 ruling that public officials must prove actual malice in order to win a case of libel and defamation.

The Sullivan decision was hailed as an important First Amendment victory for news organizations when they report on the actions of public officials. Whether Corsi's intent behind his anti-Obama book meets the "actual malice" standard set by Sullivan is up to a jury to decide, should Obama move forward with a lawsuit.

One Possible Motive for 'Malice' -- Racial Animus

Corsi -- a darling of right-wing extremists who derogatorily refers to Arabs in one Internet posting as "ragheads" -- also dwells extensively on the white, Kansas-born Dunham's two interracial marriages to Obama's black father and later to his Asian stepfather ("A second man of color to be [Dunham's] mate," he writes).

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