'The lost tribe of Barack Obama' surfaces

BIR AL-MAKSOUR, Israel, Nov. 13 (UPI) -- As many as 8,000 Bedouin tribesmen in northern Israel claim to be the lost tribe of Barack Obama, a spokesman says.

A sheik in Galilee says he has evidence that he and his family are linked by blood to the new U.S. president.

"We knew about it years ago but we were afraid to talk about it because we didn't want to influence the election," Abdul Rahman Sheik Abdullah, a 53-year-old local council member, told The Times of London in the small village of Bir al-Maksour in the Israeli region of Galilee.

"We wrote a letter to him explaining the family connection," he said, undismayed that he received no answer.

Abdullah told The Times that he has papers and pictures to back up his claim but has promised his mother not to divulge them until he has presented them to Obama, hopefully in the White House.