Jerome Corsi - author of the best-selling book Obama Nation and someone that the Barack Obama campaign subsequently smeared - has been detained in Kenya. The official word is apparently that he hasn't been detained, but Corsi says his passport has been taken. He and his publicist apparently haven't been charged with any crimes, and contrary to other reports he hasn't been deported; he was scheduled to leave the country today. The officials may have picked him up after "losing" his work permit.

Corsi traveled to Kenya to discuss his book and also to investigate Barack Obama's ties to that country, and Kenyan immigration officials detained him just before he was to hold a press conference. Those actions were certainly taken by BHO supporters, but whether the BHO campaign itself played a role will probably never be known. According to Corsi, Obama has been in direct contact with the president of Kenya since 2006. (For more on that, see this; yes, I know but desperate times...)

See this for how some Obama supporters reacted, which is what you'd expect.

From this:

Corsi had extensive meetings with top Kenyan officials upon his arrival. His visit and his activities during his stay have been well-known to authorities at the highest levels...

Obama has a long history of connections in Kenya, where his father worked as a government economist. Corsi documented this history in his book and went to Kenya to find answers to lingering questions – particularly about the links between the presidential candidate and Kenya Prime Minister Raila Odinga.

Corsi had promised a news conference today that would "expose details of deep secret ties between U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and a section of Kenya government leaders, their connection to certain sectoral groups in Kenya and subsequent plot to be executed in Kenya should Senator Obama win the American presidency."

...A hotel worker in Nairobi told Reuters Corsi was picked up as soon as he walked into the hotel for the scheduled press conference: "He was walking in and then some immigration officers who were following him snatched him. It happened so fast, they just vanished with him."

...Corsi was set to show Obama and Odinga have been in direct contact since the senator's visit to Kenya in 2006. He was to claim Obama advised Odinga on campaign strategy and helped him raise money in the U.S. for the Kenya presidential campaign.

Corsi was to report Odinga's 2007 presidential campaign strategy called for exploiting anti-Kikuyu tribal sentiments, claiming victory and charging voter fraud even if the campaign knew the election had been legitimately lost. Odinga, Corsi said, also was willing to fan the flames of ethnic tribal tensions and use violence as a last resort by calling for mass action that led to the destruction of properties, injuries, loss of life and the displacement of over 500,000 Kenyans. The purpose was to compel the Electoral Commission of Kenya to declare him the winner or enable him to declare himself the winner by force.

Even though Odinga has not fulfilled his campaign promises to the Muslims who voted for him, he continues to cause concern among Kenyans because he has not declared his position on Shariah law, Corsi said.

Corsi said Obama remained in active phone contact with Odinga through the New Hampshire Democratic Party primary in January. The Illinois senator continued to support Odinga, he said, turning a blind eye to an agreement signed with Muslims and the post-election violence instigated as part of the campaign strategy.

Corsi was also going to give $1000 to Obama's half-brother George, who lives in a Nairobi slum.

UPDATE: Tom Odula and Elizabeth Kennedy of the Associated Press say: "The best-selling book, released earlier in the United States, collects false rumors and distortions to portray Obama as a secret radical who cannot be trusted... Corsi's book claims the Illinois senator is a dangerous, radical candidate for president and includes innuendoes and false rumors - that he was raised a Muslim and attended a radical black church... Obama is a Christian who attended Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, and his campaign picks apart the book's claims on the Web site FightTheSmears.com." Their interpretation of BHO could have been written by the BHO campaign itself. For instance, while some might disagree, TUCC is a radical church; because of that disagreement it's not correct to flat-out state it isn't a radical church. Their report also includes one more paragraph promoting Barack Obama's supposed debunking of Corsi's book.

UPDATE 2: I haven't seen too much real support for a free press lately, but at least one person comes close. Frank James says:

It's a sad commentary on the state of freedom in Kenya that a Kenyan journalist would say Corsi shouldn't have had anything about his planned appearance, presumably an ad or story, in the morning paper, that he "should have kept it secret." Hard to do a publicity stunt while keeping it quiet.

UPDATE 3, 10/8/08: Corsi is going to be on tonight's Hannity & Colmes, and there's more on the incident here and here.