President's uncle to join him in Normandy

(Riyadh) Charlie Payne, President Barack Obama's great uncle, will join the President for D-Day commemorative events in Normandy, France, this Saturday.
Mr. Payne, who lives in Chicago, was originally invited to accompany the President to Buchenwald concentration camp in Germany - a camp that Mr. Payne helped liberate during World War II.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said last week that Mr. Payne had declined the invitation. Fox learned Wednesday from a senior administration official that the trip would have been too taxing on the 84 year old man because he would have had to be on the entire trip starting with Wednesday's stop in Saudi Arabia.
But over the weekend the White House learned that Veteran's Affair Secretary Eric Shinseki would be taking a direct flight to Normandy with other luminaries such as Bob and Elizabeth Dole and Susan Eisenhower. Arrangements were quickly made to get Mr. Payne on that flight.

During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama misspoke and said Mr. Payne had helped liberate Auschwitz, not Buchenwald. A flap that garnered criticism from republicans.
In an interview with German magazine, Der Spiegel, days ago, Mr. Payne suggested that his nephew's trip to Buchenwald was purely strategic. "This is a trip that he chose, not because of me I'm sure, but for political reasons," he said.

Mr. Payne is the brother of the President's late grandmother Madelyn Dunham.