NOW THE QUESTION IS...DOES OBAMA EVEN HAVE AN AMERICAN UNCLE?

Earlier today we learned of Obama's outright lie about his uncle liberating Auschwitz during World War II. It went as follows:

Despite not having served in the military himself, Barack Obama used his Memorial Day remarks to speak about his family’s service. “My grandfather marched in Patton’s army, but I cannot know what it is to walk into battle like so many of you,” he told a small group of veterans here. “My grandmother worked on a bomber assembly line, but I cannot know what it is for a family to sacrifice like so many of yours have.”

Obama also spoke about his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz.

And it was quickly pointed out by anyone who took history in high school, that it was the Soviets who liberated Auschwitz. Which, unless Obama's uncle was a commie (hey, don't put it past him), he did not, as he claims, participate in the liberation of Auschwitz.

But now, The National Review Online is calling into question whether or not Obama even has an American "uncle". To wit:

A key update to this post, in which Obama describes "his uncle, who was part of the American brigade that helped to liberate Auschwitz."

From a Chicago Tribune profile of Obama's mother:

The education of Obama the would-be politician didn't begin, of course, until after his birth in 1961, in Honolulu. But the parental traits that would mold him — a contrarian worldview, an initial rejection of organized religion, a questioning nature — were already taking shape years earlier in the nomadic and sometimes tempestuous Dunham family, where the only child was a curious and precocious daughter of a father who wanted a boy so badly that he named her Stanley — after himself.

Presuming Obama's mother didn't have some previously unknown long-lost brother, is Obama referring to his mother's cousin or some other, more distant relation on his mother's side? A great-uncle perhaps?

This uncle couldn't be on his Kenyan father's side, could it?

I doubt Obama would be insane enough to lie about this. But I think this is the first we've heard of this uncle from Obama. Like with his previously-unmentioned trip to Pakistan, Obama — the subject of two autobiographies, other biographies, and countless magazine and newspaper profiles — there are still chapters of his life story not yet explored.

UPDATE: An Ace of Spades commenter thinks it is Ralph Dunham. I largely concur with the assessment of Campaign Spot reader Dave:

What bothers me about this statement is not that Obama calls his great-uncle "uncle" (I do that myself), or that he doesn't personally know that Uncle Ralph could not have liberated Auschwitz, since the Russians did that, but rather:

1) he doesn't think facts important enough to have a staff member check his old family stories before sharing them

and, more importantly

2) the point of his telling the story was not that his uncle was a hero, but rather a victim, spending several months holed up in an attic, upon his return from the war.

Obama is so full of shit his eyes are brown. There is one very obvious aspect of this story that has not been explored. Anyone check to see if this guy, the "crazy old uncle", was crashing the gates at Auschwitz?