The Peacock Conspiracy

WorldNetDaily writer Steve Peacock's job is to portray any U.S. spending "... in Kenya!" as being on direct orders of President Obama himself, despite the complete lack of any evidence to prove it.

By Terry Krepel
Posted 12/23/2015

Steve Peacock

Peacock never actually says that outright, of course -- he can't prove it, after all, and has never provided any evidence to support his inescapable suggestion of a direct link. Burt since 2012, Peacock's stories on the subject have included the following, with heavy emphasis on "... in Kenya!" headlines to drive home the point:

• Obama's latest plan to spend tax money ... in Kenya
• U.S. advisers chasing 'health care for all' ... in Kenya
• Obama bails out big pharma — in Kenya
• Obama moves to protect taxpayers ... in Kenya!
• Obama studying spending more ... in Kenya
• Obama finally fixing health care ... in Kenya
• Obama funds Kenya project during shutdown
• Obama can’t stop spending — in Kenya!
• Obama drops hundreds of millions on (Kenyan) farmers
• Obama repackages Kenyan aid scheme
• Obama pushes $50 million more for Kenya
• Obama expands reading program – in Kenya!
• New Obama projects to boost Kenya power companies
• COVER-UP! Contracting system sanitized of Kenya documents
• White House rolls out Kenya propaganda plan
• Obama’s spending grows ‘exponentially’ – in Kenya!

Peacock's Obama-Kenya obsession occasionally gained a little traction outside the WND fever swamp. He got some notice for a March 2014 article that effectively denounced U.S. spending on basic needs like sanitation -- in this case, using U.S. soldiers to build a dry-pit latrine for a girls' school in Kenya -- because it's somehow a nefarious scheme by Obama to help his so-called home country. Right Wing Watch, meanwhile, was mocking Peacock's obsession with aid to Kenya under the Obama administration.

A couple months later, Peacock took a victory lap for the project being canceled "after WND’s exclusive report on the diversion of defense resources." But it was not all sweetness and light, for Peacock huffily noted some criticism of his reporting:

The report simultaneously came under attack from leftist groups such as People For the American Way.

The group’s Right Wing Watch – a project “dedicated to monitoring and exposing the activities of the right-wing movement” – simplistically accused WND of opposing aid to children who lack access to basic needs like sanitation.

Actually, Right Wing Watch was mocking Peacock's obsession with aid to Kenya under the Obama administration, sarcastically noting: "Obviously, Obama is personally responsible for this Watergate-level disgrace, and came up with the entire idea of foreign aid." Peacock never explained why criticism of his obsession is "simplistic," given that a fair reading of his attack is that he opposes aid for basic sanitation needs.

In August 2014, Peacock was outraged anew when the project was revived, calling it part of a pattern of "problematic patterns of U.S. assistance to Kenya – the president’s 'home country,' as first lady Michelle Obama has referred to the Horn of Africa nation." But Peacock offered no comparative evidence, failing to examine whether there is a similar aid pattern of the kind he purports to be occurring in Kenya with other countries. And he didn't explain why sanitation is such a terrible thing for the U.S. to be funding.

Apparently, all Peacock is doing is plugging "Kenya" into the search box of various government databases, then spinning the results into a conspiracy.

Of course, this is all on orders of WND's editor and chief Obama obsessive, Joseph Farah (who destroyed the credibility of his "news" organization pursuing Obama conspiracy theories). In a March 2014 column, Farah proudly touted how "WND has been tracking the administration’s investment in what Michelle Obama calls her husband’s 'home country in Kenya,'" listing Peacock's reporting on "the projects and spending Obama has directed to Kenya," even though he, like Peacock, offers no proof that any of it happened on direct orders from Obama. Farah went on to conspiratorially sneer:

I have special fondness for some foreign countries – Israel, Lebanon, Scotland, Switzerland. But despite my connections with those countries, my wife would never refer to any of them as my home country. There must be something very special to Obama about Kenya.

Of course, we all know the story of Barack Obama Sr. He was from Kenya. But, he had no fatherly relationship with the son who bears his name. So the connection between Obama and what his wife calls "his home country in Kenya" remains a mystery, raising questions no one dare ask.

While that connection may be unexplained, there is no denying it – at least not on the basis of Obama's priorities as president.

But even Peacock couldn't keep himself from eventually giving away the game and admitting it was all a sham.

in a Sept. 17 WND article -- headlined "Obama's latest plan to spend tax money ... in Kenya" -- Peacock complained once more that "The Obama administration yet again is expanding one of its aid initiatives to Kenya." But you have to go to the 17th paragraph of the 20-paragraph article to see the truth: that the U.S.' overall aid to Kenya "dropped from a high of $830 million in FY 2009 to $460 million in FY2013."

But because that doesn't further the conspiracy, Peacock then complains about the "rise in aid to Kenya" -- which he admits is still only "$630 million in spending planned for FY 2016." In other words, it's still about 25 percent less than was spent under the final budget approved under Bush.

In other words, despite all of Peacock's ranting about how much money being spent in Kenya, Obama is spending far less in Kenya than President Bush did.

Perhaps not coincidentally after having admitted his Obama-Kenya campaign is a fraud, Peacock hasn't published another article on the subject.

Bashing support for gays, HIV victims

Trying to manufacture a link between Obama and aid to Kenya isn't the only thing Peacock obsesses over for WND. He's also unhappy that the federal government dares to help anyone who's gay or has HIV.

Peacock wrote in a June 2013 WND article:

If one believes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the reason certain populations in the U.S. report more cases of HIV isn’t a mystery.

Except to the Obama administration.

The administration seems perplexed about why homosexuals – whom it defines as “men who have sex with men”– along with racial and ethnic minorities, transgender persons and youths 13-29 continue to represent the “overwhelming majority” of the 50,000 new HIV cases reported annually in the U.S.

So now the Obama administration, through the CDC, is working to amass a list of researchers who could investigate and publish, independently of the government, conclusions about “this health disparity in the HIV epidemic,” according to a sources-sought notice that WND discovered via routine database research.

That's an apparently deliberate misinterpretation of what the CDC is looking for. It's not questioning that "men who have sex with men" make up the “overwhelming majority” of new HIV cases -- it wants to know why new cases of HIV has remained relatively constant and arguably high in recent years. From the CDC solicitation Peacock cites:

Thirty years into the HIV/AIDS epidemic, many advances have been made in HIV prevention, care, and treatment. Great strides have been made in the development of faster and more efficient HIV testing and screening technologies, and in medical treatments that allow HIV-positive persons to live long and productive lives. Yet despite these efforts, approximately 50,000 Americans are infected with HIV each year, and the overwhelming majority of these new infections remain among minority and vulnerable communities, such as racial and ethnic minorities, men who have sex with men (MSM), transgender persons, and youth (aged 13-29). This health disparity in the HIV epidemic is anchored in long-standing social issues, such as racism, discrimination, stigma, poverty, incarceration, and healthcare inequity.

In July, 2010, President Barack Obama unveiled the first National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) for the United States, a coordinated national response to reduce the burden of HIV in the U.S. by 2015. The strategy outlined 3 major goals: (1) reduce the number of people who become infected with HIV; (2) increase access to care and improve health outcomes for people living with HIV; and (3) reduce HIV-related health disparities. The strategy emphasizes focusing efforts in communities where HIV is highly concentrated, and by addressing HIV in these communities, lowering the collective HIV risk of all Americans.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention (DHAP) provides leadership in helping to control the HIV epidemic. To continue these efforts and in alignment with NHAS, DHAP requires the support of an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contract to (1) conduct qualitative inquiry methods to help answer timely questions related to HIV prevention, and (2) to use the findings to strengthen existing and future HIV prevention efforts. It is increasingly important to understand the issues, behaviors, barriers and facilitators experienced by those at greatest risk for HIV to better focus prevention programs and successfully reduce the number of persons infected with HIV, especially in vulnerable communities, and increase access to HIV treatment and care for all HIV-positive persons.

Peacock's portrayal of the CDC and the Obama administration as being in denial that gays make up most cases of HIV is very dishonest.

Peacock's insistence that there's no difference between being homosexual and "men who have sex with men" is not just dishonest but inaccurate. The United Nations explains that male-on-male sex does not necessarily mean a homosexual orientation:

Sex between men occurs in diverse circumstances and among men whose experiences, lifestyles, behaviours and associated risks for HIV vary greatly. It encompasses a range of sexual and gender identities among people in various sociocultural contexts. It may involve men who identify as homosexual, gay, bisexual, transgendered or heterosexual. Men who have sex with men are often married, particularly where discriminatory laws or social stigma of male sexual relations exist. Sex between adolescent males can also be a part of sexual experimentation. In places where men spend long periods in all-male environments, such as prisons or boarding schools, sex between men can be common regardless of sexual identity and may be coerced.

He again inaccurately equates "men who have sex with men" with "homosexuality," grumbles that "lamented that “their behaviors are perceived as immoral: e.g., engaging in sex work, injecting drugs, or having same-sex partners," and adds: "WND has reported on similar Obama administration endeavors that explicitly rejected 'conservative gender norms.'"

Peacock mostly ignores the part in the solicitation pointing out that these people are not getting treatment because they're marginalized in society, and and the goal of the initiative is to address cultural conditions that block treatment, including societal stigma and gender-based violence, and promote healthier behavior among the marginalized groups. It would also be "addressing police violence against key populations."

Apparently, Peacock doesn't believe gays or similarly marginalized people -- read: people he personally doesn't like -- deserve proper medical treatment or any kind of basic human respect at all. And, to sum up, he is mad at the Obama administration for believing otherwise.

But, then, Peacock's obsessions are all par for the course at WND, which not only despises gays but whose hatred of Obama is so intense, it destroyed what little journalistic integrity it had trying (and failing miserably) to ruin him.