Its to do with implicature, ake - or at least my smile was, so I guess Ebbie's laugh could be similar. A particularly nasty and underhand of deceit is to tell truths in a misleading way. (For the literary minded, that's how one of Shakespeare's greatest villians, Iago, works. He never actually tells a falsehood)


In this case, the statement that Obama has "other names" carries a overtone that he is engaged in shady deal for which he needs multiple aliases. Not that that is said, of course, just implied. And if challenged SW would merely say that no so implication should be drawn - it was just reporting multiple names. As I say, we are in Iago territory.