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In our two prior articles we discussed our intention
to publish a full-page
open letter to President-Elect Obama in
USA TODAY. In effect, the open letter would be a
Petition for Redress of a violation of the natural
born citizen clause of the Constitution (Article II,
Section 1).
The First Amendment to the Constitution
guarantees a citizen’s Right to Petition officials
of the Government for Redress (i.e., for a Remedy)
of alleged violations of the Constitution. Inherent
in the Right to Redress is the citizen’s Right to a
response.
We are in the process of raising $90,000 to
pay for the publication of the Open Letter and a
room at the National Press Club to publicly discuss
any response by Mr. Obama.
Time is of the essence. We would like to
publish the open letter next week and hold the press
conference at the National Press club one week
later, in advance of the dates when the Electoral
College’s state electors are certified cast their
votes. If Mr. Obama is not able to prove his
eligibility, the electors will have to cast their
votes for someone else for it would be treason to
the Constitution to cast their votes for a usurper.
The purpose of this update is twofold: (1)
to provide the updated total of the funds received
to date; and (2), to review some of the evidence.
FUNDS
Thus far, we have received $13,961.54 to pay
for the open letter.
CLICK HERE to make your secure,
(tax deductible) donation
to the WTP Foundation.
EVIDENCE
Despite the assurances of the Obama
campaign, the dominant media and Internet
commentators, significant unresolved questions still
exist regarding Mr. Obama’s ability to meet the
explicit requirements of the U.S. Constitution to
hold the office of President as a natural born
citizen who has not relinquished his American
citizenship.
Official government documents, statements by
officials, affidavits, credible legal pleadings and
statements by Mr. Obama’s globally dispersed family
members give rise to these questions.
Unfortunately, Mr. Obama has remained
virtually silent against these allegations, refusing
to produce his original (vault), certified, birth
certificate as well as other legal documents
that are normally readily available, which would
quickly resolve the eligibility issue.
In fact, the only document provided by Mr.
Obama thus far is a 2007 computer-generated
Certification of Live Birth,
(“COLB”), generated by officials of the
state of Hawaii, purportedly at the direction of the
Governor and two U.S. Senators.
This “short-form” document is NOT the
same as the original
vault copy (i.e., “Certificate of
Live Birth”) as it does not bear a sworn
certification of an attendant (physician) or contain
other vital birth information such as hospital
location, mother’s age, etc. The sample vault copy
shown here is a copy of a legal “Certificate of Live
Birth” obtained at the request of a person born in
Hawaii in 1963.
Given the statement of facts included in Mr.
Berg’s lawsuit and additional evidence summarized
herein, Mr. Obama’s continued failure to squarely
address this festering issue suggests he is hiding
something regarding the true nature of his
citizenship. Absent a rebuttal by Mr. Obama, we
believe a reasonable jury would conclude, after
reviewing all the evidence, that Mr. Obama does not
meet the eligibility requirements.
Although the Internet is awash in
unsubstantiated assertions and bits and pieces of
evidence, we have chosen to focus on several of the
most clearly articulated items of evidence.
The Berg Lawsuit
In August 2008, Pennsylvania attorney
Phillip Berg filed a lawsuit seeking to enjoin
Barack Obama from running for President unless he
produced certain legal documentation establishing
his status as a “natural born”
citizen. Here is Berg’s
initial complaint.
What follows is a brief overview of some of the
lawsuit’s allegations followed by links to the
currently available evidence.
a.
Mr. Obama’s father was a citizen of Kenya, Obama’s
mother was a U.S. Citizen. They met while both were attending the University of
Hawaii. There is apparently no question regarding
these facts.
b.
Mr. Obama was born in Kenya, not Hawaii -- Citing Obama family sources, Berg claims that
Obama’s mother, while residing in Kenya, was not
allowed by Kenyan authorities (because of her
late-stage pregnancy) to fly back to the U.S. before
she gave birth to Obama in Kenya.
c.
Mr. Obama is a citizen of Kenya, not the
U.S. – Citing U.S. law in effect in
1961, Mr. Berg argues Obama could not
possess U.S. citizenship because Obama’s mother,
although a U.S. citizen, was only 18 years old.
U.S. immigration law in 1961 explicitly denied U.S.
citizenship at birth to children of mixed national
parentage, unless the U.S. citizen parent (in this
case Obama’s mother) had resided in the U.S. for 10
years, 5 of those required to be after attaining
the age of 14. Because Obama’s mother was not
yet 19, according to Berg, Obama was either a
citizen of Kenya, or in the alternative, became a
naturalized U.S. citizen. Either way,
Berg argues Obama is not eligible to hold the office
of President because he would not be a natural
born citizen.
(See e.g.,
Findlaw immigration overview)
NOTE:
Attorney Leo C. Donofrio, in his recent brief to the
Supreme Court of the United States makes an
additional persuasive argument that Mr. Obama fails
the eligibility test based on the historical
context, purpose and original intent of
Constitution’s the natural born citizen
clause. After clicking on the following
link, click
here to read
Mr. Donofrio’s
arguments to the Supreme Court.
d. Obama became a citizen of Indonesia
– Following Mr. Obama’s mother’s divorce from Barack
Obama (senior), she married Lolo Soetoro, a student
at the University of Hawaii and a citizen of
Indonesia. In 1967 she moved to Indonesia with Obama.
She became a naturalized citizen of Indonesia,
relinquishing her American citizenship. At the time,
Indonesian law prohibited dual citizenships and
American law disallowed dual citizenships if the
other country did not allow dual citizenships. At
this time, even if Obama was Registered as a
“natural born” citizen (which he apparently he was
not qualify to be registered as), he would have lost
his U.S. Citizenship when his mother married Lolo
Soetoro (who apparently adopted Barack Obama giving
him the name of Barry Soetoro) and took up residency
in Indonesia as a naturalized Indonesian citizen.
Berg argues that at the time, Indonesia did not
allow dual citizenships, and U.S. law did not allow
dual citizenships if the other country did not allow
it.
FightTheSmears.com
In 2007, Mr. Obama released a scanned
graphic copy of a computer-generated Certification
of Live Berth (“COLB”) via this
campaign website, (www.fightthesmears.com).
After numerous individuals began to question the
authenticity of the document supplied by Obama, a
“respected” political watchdog organization,
FactCheck.org initiated an “independent”
analysis of Obama’s COLB, which included physical
examination of the document and photographs of the
document. The organization concluded the document is
authentic and that, as indicated on the certificate,
Obama was therefore born in Honolulu, Hawaii.
FactCheck.org apparently did not check the
meaning of the content of the authentic, COLB.
For instance, FactCheck.org did not determine if the
authentic, Hawaiian issued, computer-generated,
Certification of Live Birth was generated from a
State database that included births that were
registered in Hawaii after occurring in foreign
countries. According to Berg, it was not uncommon
for people living in Hawaii to give birth in foreign
countries and then register the birth in Hawaii.
Surprisingly, FactCheck.org apparently did
not ask Mr. Obama to obtain a copy of the official
vault copy of his birth certificate.
NOTE: Obama’s Hawaiian “Certification of Live
Birth,” reviewed by FactCheck, was created in 2007.
This raises an additional question as to what
documentation Obama used to establish his
citizenship to run for Illinois state Senator or
U.S. Senator in 2006.
Beside its apparent failure to investigate
the proper document, an apparent conflict of
interest exists regarding FactCheck’s analysis.
FactCheck.org is an arm of the powerful
Annenberg Foundation which also runs the
Chicago Annenberg Challenge, the entity which
employed Barack Obama as its chairman of the board.
According to the National Review, the Annenberg
Challenge was founded by former “Weather
Underground” terrorist Bill Ayers, who apparently
played a pivotal role in politically positioning
Obama to run for public office. See this
National Review article detailing Obama’s
relationship to Annenberg and Ayers and its
unsuccessful efforts to review the archives of the
Annenberg Challenge.
Statements By Hawaiian Public Officials on the
Record
On October 31, undoubtedly in reaction to
the growing number of lawsuits surrounding the issue
of Obama’s eligibility,
Chiyome Fukino, director of Hawaii’s Department of
Health, issued a public statement regarding her
office’s inspection of Obama’s birth certificate. In
her brief press release she stated:
“There have been numerous requests for Sen. Barack
Hussein Obama’s official birth certificate. State
law (Hawai‘i Revised Statutes §338-18) prohibits the
release of a certified birth certificate to persons
who do not have a tangible interest in the vital
record.
“Therefore, I as Director of Health for the State of
Hawai‘i, along with the Registrar of Vital
Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee
and maintain these type of vital records, have
personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State
Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth
certificate on record in accordance with state
policies and procedures.
“No state official, including Governor Linda Lingle,
has ever instructed that this vital record be
handled in a manner different from any other vital
record in the possession of the State of Hawaii.”
Unfortunately, numerous media and Internet
outlets (see e.g.,
here,
here) erroneously concluded this
pronouncement settled the matter. In fact, the
official Hawaii release raises additional
doubts about Obama’s citizenship status and, thus,
his eligibility.
At no point in the release does the Director of
Health state or claim that Obama was actually
born in Hawaii. She merely states she has personally inspected the
original document in their possession and that it is
being stored according to state regulations.
This omission speaks volumes, strongly suggesting
that either something may not be right with the
official documentation produced by the Hawaii
Department of Health or that the 2007 documentation
proffered by Senator Obama may in fact be
fraudulent.
Compounding the problem was the subsequent
statement of Health Department spokeswoman Janice
Okubo (see
Chicago Tribune, 10-31-08). Citing
Hawaii state privacy laws, and guidance from the
state attorney general, she said she, “was not
permitted to confirm the authenticity of the
certificate released by the Obama campaign.” She
also said Obama’s computer-generated COLB “appeared
similar to other Hawaii birth certificates.”
In sum, the statement by the Health Department spokesman Okubo does not
speak to the substance or veracity of the Obama
computer-generated document, only that its “form”
appears similar. Nor does she address the issue of
the meaning of the content of the document, and
whether there is an actual long-form Certificate of
Live Birth in the vault.
Indonesian School
records
Mr. Berg submitted photographic evidence to
the Court indicating Obama, known then as “Barry
Soetoro,” was enrolled by his parents (at
approximately age 6) at the public Fransiskus Assisi
School in Jakarta, Indonesia. This suggests he was
adopted by his step-father.
In the
school document (which is also translated
into English), Obama’s birth place is indicated as
Honolulu, but his citizenship is indicated as
Indonesian. As a minor, Mr. Obama’s citizenship
went with the custodial parent, who, under
Indonesian law had to be the father.
Obama's name is given as “Barry Soetoro.”
In a citizenship related
PolitFact/St. Petersburg Times article,
they provide a
document they obtained from the Illinois
Supreme Court’s Attorney Registration & Discipline
Commission (ARDC) apparently indicating that the
official records make no mention of any prior name
except “Barack Hussein Obama.”
The Sworn Affidavits
Evidence recently made available to an
Internet news
site (www.newswithviews.com) from the
office of attorney Phil Berg, includes two
(partially photographic) sworn affidavits containing
important first-hand knowledge regarding Barack
Obama, including testimony of a direct, in-person
interview of Obama’s Kenyan grandmother in which she
asserts she was present at Obama’s birth in Kenya.
Read the sworn affidavits of
Bishop Ron McRae and
Kweli Shuhubia (includes a partial
transcript of the grandmother’s interview)
CONCLUSION
Given the relative strength of the evidence
and the public interest in the issue, Mr. Obama is
obligated to respond to any citizen’s Petition for
Redress of the apparent violation of the
Constitution’s natural born citizenship clause.
We the People demand and deserve nothing
less.
Click here to read the
draft full-page USA TODAY Letter to Obama.
CLICK HERE to make your secure,
(tax deductible) donation
to the WTP Foundation.
Click
here to see how much money we have raised
so far.
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