Saudi Report: Michelle O Visited 'Person of Interest' - Jeddah newspaper says first lady saw Alharbi in hospital

Bob Unruh * WND

A Saudi Arabian newspaper is reporting that United States First Lady Michelle Obama visited in the hospital Saudi citizen Abdul Rahman Ali Issa Al-Salimi Alharbi, the young man who had been labeled a “person of interest” in the Boston Marathon bombing.

The newspaper accompanied its report with an image of  Obama, although the background was generic and it couldn’t be confirmed immediately that she was at the hospital where Alharbi was being treated at the time. He reportedly suffered injuries in the Boston bombing.

The newspaper’s Arabic-language report is being highlighted by Walid Shoebat, a former Muslim Brotherhood member who now is a peace activist.

“Okaz, the same prominent Saudi newspaper that published photos of Abdul Rahman Ali Issa Al-Salimi Alharbi in the hospital after the Boston Marathon bombings, is now reporting that the Saudi national was also visited by the first lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, during his hospital stay,” Shoebat reported.

The newspaper is more than half a century old and publishes out of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia. It also publishes simultaneously in Riyadh.

One of the oldest newspapers in Saudi Arabia, it also is brave, taking on banned issues such as lesbianism in the repressive Islamic kingdom. Its circulation is estimated at about 150,000 and the online version was reported by Forbes Middle East two years ago to be one of the Top 10 online newspapers in the Middle East region.

It was CBS in Boston, and other outlets, that reported that President Obama and Michelle visited some of the victims of the marathon terrorism at hospitals in the Boston area yesterday.

It was reported the first lady went to Boston Children’s Hospital, as well as Brigham and Women’s Hospital, but the visits were off-limits to the media.

Read more at WND:

http://www.wnd.com/2013/04/saudi-paper-michelle-o-visited-person-of-interest/#lVdtCyeSxDPbAj0c.99