ArchPundit

Is translated on this blog–if you get past the weirdness about how Obama hasn’t been wanting to talk about the experience when he actually highlights it in both books and is willing to answer questions, but is just now being asked the specifics, the story provides a decent understanding of his time in Indonesia.

And funny enough, that matches the exact information Eric Zorn got from David Axelrod.

And this former page indicates that Besuki is, wait for it, a public school.

They are referencing Frontline to point out that the Saudi’s didn’t start sending money for madrassas until late in the 1970s, but frankly this is sort of a common knowledge point for anyone who has a basic understanding of Middle East history (yes, Indonesia isn’t in the Middle East, but the relevant notion of Saudi Arabia funding radicals is the point).

The bit about Suharto is a bit more complicated, but essentially correct–Muslim students were part of the coalition he used when he undertook the coup, but they were not Islamist students.

The lesson here is that expect this to only get worse for all of the Democratic candidates. Loons and their publications will create thousands of rumors with just enough to them to make sure the regular press checks them out and puts them in print even if to debunk them. And reading the comment thread over at Eric’s you see one particular twit who still thinks it’s a credible story.

For extra fun, you can find many folks who attended Besuki on Friendster–though it’s hard to tell if it’s a district in some cases or the particular elementary school. None of the pics seem to be of Islamists and in fact, there is quite the international flavor of past school attendees with many having moved around the world.