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Questions About Barack Obama's status as a "natural born citizen"-Truth!
Fiction! & Unproven!
Summary of the eRumor: A variety of articles and lawsuits that
question whether Barack Obama is eligible to be President of the United
States base on his citizenship.
The Truth:
This story began circulating during the 2008 presidential
campaign and
attracted a lot of interest, but on October 24, 2008, the judge
in the case dismissed the lawsuit saying that the man who filed
it lack standing and that
any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was "too
vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any
and all voters." Berg has announced
that he will be appealing the dismissal of
his case to the United States Supreme Court.
The
WorldNetDaily web site has reported that "More than a
half-dozen legal challenges have been filed in federal and state
courts demanding President-elect Barack Obama's decertification
from ballots or seeking to halt elector meetings, claiming he
has failed to prove his U.S. citizenship status."
An online petition has been set up by "Rally Congress",
a non profit group "dedicated to helping people and groups
communicate more effectively with elected officials", they
say that they have collected over 108,000 signatures and
letters.
Click for petition.
On November 18, 2008, the America's Independent Party (AIP)
announced that Presidential candidate Alan Keyes
and the party have filed a law suit with the California Superior
court to keep Secretary of the State of CA, Debra Brown, from
certifying the names of the electors to Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger, until proof of Barack Obama's U.S. Citizenship
is verified.
Click
for AIP release.
On November 1, 2008
the Associated Press released a report saying that state
officials in Hawaii "have personally verified that the health
department holds Obama's original birth certificate."
Hawaiian Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino and Alvin
Onaka, who is the registrar of vital statistics both reviewed
the original document.
The
suit had been filed by Philip Berg ,
a Pennsylvania attorney who describe
d
himself as a lifelong Democrat, the former Democratic Chairman
of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, an 8-year member of the
state democratic committee, a former Deputy Attorney General of
Pennsylvania, and a past candidate for both governor of
Pennsylvania and United States Senator.
Berg filed the suit in
federal court on August 21, 2008 claiming that Barack Obama was
not eligible to be president of the United States because he was
not a “natural born” citizen of the United States, which is
required by the Constitution. He asked that the court demand
Obama and the Democratic National Committee to provide
documentation proving he was eligible to be president.. He also
asked for a temporary restraining order asking that Obama’s
campaign be halted.
At issue was whether Barack Obama was ever an American citizen
by birth, even if he is an American citizen whether he was a
“natural born” citizen as the constitution requires for the
president, and whether he ever lost his U.S. citizenship and, if
so, whether he ever got it back.
An Internet video began circulating based on an interview with
Berg. It was titled October Surprise and outlined Bergs
contentions about Obama’s birth.
Most of this is has yet to be proven but in his lawsuit, Berg
alleges:
·That Obama was not
born in Hawaii, as he claims, but was actually born in Kenya,
his father’s homeland.
·
That Obama’s mother was in Kenya in the late stages of her
pregnancy and airlines at the time would not let her fly back to
Hawaii at such an advanced time of pregnancy.
·
That Obama’s grandmother on his father’s side, a half brother,
and a half sister all say Obama was born in Kenya. In October,
2008, Berg announced that he had a recording of the grandmother
talking about the birth and that she was in the birth room when
it took place.
·That Obama was born
on August 4, 1961 but his birth was not registered in Hawaii
until August 8, 1961 and that the registration and a Honolulu
newspaper announcement of the birth were fabricated.
·That there is not
agreement in Obama’s family about what hospital in which he was
allegedly born in Hawaii.
·That according to
Wayne Madison, a journalist with Online Journal, a GOP research
team sent to Mombosa, Kenya, found a certificate registering the
birth of Barack Obama, Jr. at a maternity hospital indicating
his birth to a Kenyan father and a U.S. mother.
·That if he was born
in Kenya, he cannot be a U.S. citizen because the law stated
that his mother would have had to have lived 10-years in the
United States, 5 of which were after the age of 14. Since she
was 18 at the time of Obama’s birth, she did not meet the
residency requirements for passing U.S. citizenship to Obama.
·That when Obama’s
mother married an Indonesian man and took Obama to Indonesia
when he was 6-years old, he would have lost his U.S. citizenship
and become Indonesian. Indonesia at the time did not recognize
dual citizenship.
· That when Obama was
registered to attend school in Indonesia, the registration form
listed him as “Barry Soetoro” (his stepfather’s last name),
listed him as Indonesian, and listed is faith as Islam.
·That according to the
law at the time, Obama’s mother would have lost her U.S.
citizenship by marrying an Indonesian and living in Indonesia.
Four years later she returned to Hawaii and divorced her
Indonesian husband. Berg said that she could have regained her
U.S. citizenship by taking an oath of allegiance to the United
States but that there is no record that she did. Therefore,
Obama would not have been able to regain his own citizenship
until the age of 18 and himself take an oath of allegiance to
the U.S. Berg said there is no record of that ever happening.
Berg concludes that not only may Obama not be eligible to be
president, but that he may be an illegal alien.
·That Obama traveled
to Pakistan at the age of 20 and traveled using an Indonesian
passport. Had he regained his U.S. citizenship, according to
Berg, he would have traveled using a U.S. passport.
·In response to
questions about his birth, Obama posted a birth certificate on
his campaign website, but Berg contends that it is a forgery and
that forensic experts have determined that it is a altered
version of the birth certificate of Obama’s half sister, Maya
Kasandra Soetoro, who was born in Indonesia but whose birth
record was also forged to make it appear that she was born in
Hawaii.
·That when Obama
registered for the Illinois Bar he lied and said “none” when
asked about any former names.
Berg said that Obama’s lawyers were dragging their feet in
providing proof of Obama’s birth and citizenship and that means
“he’s a total fraud, he’s a phony, and that means he should be
arrested, tried, and deported.
An
eRumor got started at the beginning of October 2008, saying that
the judge in the Berg case, had issued an order for Obama to
produce his original birth certificate, but that was false. An
article by Jon Dryer was posted on NewsWithViews.com, which has
since been retracted. In it, Dryer claimed that Judge R. Barclay
Surrick had made a decision in the case and had ordered Obama to
present the court with evidence that he is an American citizen.
The Berg lawsuit was the latest in a series
of challenges about the birth of the Democratic nominee for
president, which he lists as having taken place in Hawaii on
August 4, 1961.
The first was an eRumor that said that Hawaii was not a state
when he was born so therefore he is not a “natural born”
citizen. That one was Fiction! Hawaii was a state in 1961 and it
would not have mattered because prior to that it was a U.S.
Territory, which would have still qualified him as “natural
born.”
CLICK
for more on that story. .
Among the believers in Obama's birth certificate the folks at
FactCheck.org.
CLICK
for fact check dot org findings
The most detailed forensic investigation was posted on
Atlus Shruggs, a conservative
website by Pamela Geller. The investigation was done by a
self described forensics expert who goes by the screen name of
Techdude,
but he has not been identified nor has his credentials been
confirmed.
Click here for report.
Jerome Corsi, the controversial conservative author of the book
The Obama Nation has said in TV interviews that he believes the
birth certificate is phony. He made a trip to Kenya in 2008 and
told WorldNetDaily that he, too, was told that Obama was born in
Kenya but when he tried to gain access to official documents
about Obama’s birth, he was told they had been sealed.
In
the latest chapter of this saga of Berg vs Obama, Philip Berg
has issued a press release that said "Obama & DNC Admit All
Allegations of Federal Court Lawsuit - Obama’s 'Not' Qualified
to be President Obama Should Immediately Withdraw his Candidacy
for President."
According to his website, "Berg stated that he filed Requests
for Admissions on September 15, 2008 with a response by way of
answer or objection had to be served within thirty [30] days. No
response to the Requests for Admissions was served by way of
response or objection."
Click
for Berg Press release and up to date progress of the case.
A real example of the eRumor as it has
appeared on the Internet:
Version #1
Obama Sued in Philadelphia Federal Court on Grounds he is
Constitutionally Ineligible for the Presidency
by Jeff Schreiber
America's Right.com
A prominent Philadelphia attorney and Hillary Clinton
supporter filed suit this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the
Eastern
District of Pennsylvania against Illinois Sen. Barack Obama and the
Democratic National Committee. The action seeks an injunction preventing
the
senator from continuing his candidacy and a court order enjoining the
DNC from nominating him next week, all on grounds that Sen. Obama is
constitutionally ineligible to run for and hold the office of President
of the United States.
Phillip Berg, the filing attorney, is a former
gubernatorial and senatorial candidate, former chair of the Democratic
Party in Montgomery (PA) County, former member of the Democratic State
Committee, and former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania. According
to Berg, he filed the suit--just days before the DNC is to hold its
nominating convention in Denver--for the health of the Democratic Party.
"I filed this action at this time," Berg stated, "to
avoid the obvious problems that will occur when the Republican Party
raises these issues after
Obama is nominated.".
Berg cited a number of unanswered questions regarding
the Illinois senator's background, and in today's lawsuit maintained
that Sen.
Obama is not a naturalized U.S. citizen or that, if he ever was, he lost
his citizenship when he was adopted in Indonesia. Berg also cites what
he
calls "dual loyalties" due to his citizenship and ties with Kenya and
Indonesia.
Even if Sen. Obama can prove his U.S. citizenship,
Berg stated, citing the senator's use of a birth certificate from the
state of Hawaii verified as a forgery by three independent document
forensic experts, the issue of "multi-citizenship with responsibilities
owed to and allegiance to other countries" remains on the table.
In the lawsuit, Berg states that Sen. Obama was born
in Kenya, and not in Hawaii as the senator maintains. Before giving
birth,
according to the l awsuit, Obama's mother traveled to Kenya with his
father but was prevented from flying back to Hawaii because of the late
stage of her pregnancy, "apparently a normal restriction to avoid births
during a flight." As Sen. Obama's own paternal grandmother, half-brother
and half-sister have also claimed, Berg maintains that Stanley Ann
Dunham--Obama's mother--gave birth to little Barack in Kenya and
subsequently flew to Hawaii to register the birth.
Berg cites inconsistent accounts of Sen. Obama's
birth, including reports that he was born at two separate hospitals--Kapiolani
Hospital and Queens Hospital--in Honolulu, as well a profound lack of
birthing records for Stanley Ann Dunham, though simple "registry of
birth" records for Barack Obama are available in a Hawaiian public
records office.
Should Sen. Obama truly have been born in Kenya, Berg
writes, the laws on the books at the time of his birth hold that U.S.
citizenship may only pass to a child born overseas to a U.S. citizen
parent and non-citizen parent if the former was at least 19 years of
age. Sen. Obama's mother was only 18 at the time. Therefore, because
U.S. citizenship could not legally be passed on to him, Obama could not
be registered as a "natural born" citizen and would therefore be
ineligible to seek the presidency pursuant to Article II, Section 1 of
the United States Constitution.
Moreover, even if Sen. Obama could have somehow been
deemed "natural born," that citizenship was lost in or around 1967 when
he and his
mother took up residency in Indonesia, where Stanley Ann Dunham married
Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian citizen. Berg also states that he possesses
copies of Sen. Obama's registration to Fransiskus Assisi School In
Jakarta, Indonesia which clearly show that he was regi stered under the
name "Barry Soetoro" and his citizenship listed as Indonesian.
The Hawaiian birth certificate, Berg says, is a
forgery. In the suit, the attorney states that the birth certificate on
record is a forgery, has been identified as such by three independent
document forensic experts, and actually belonged to Maya Kasandra
Soetoro, Sen. Obama's half-sister.
"Voters donated money, goods and services to elect a
nominee and were defrauded by Sen. Obama's lies and obfuscations,"
Berg stated. "If the DNC officers ... had performed one ounce of due
diligence we would not find ourselves in this emergency predicament, one
week away from making a person the nominee who has lost their
citizenship as a child and failed to even perform the basic steps of
regaining citizenship as prescribed by constitutional laws."
"It is unfair to the country," he continued, "for
candidates of either party to become the nominee when there is any
question of the ability to serve if
elected."
BORN IN THE COAST
PROVINCIAL GENERAL HOSPITAL AT MOMBASSA, KENYA at 7.24 PM on August
4th 1961
Reports quote
information that certified copies of a Kenyan Birth Certificate (BC)
for Obama were sent from Kenya, and have been received by three
separate individuals. And that these documents are certified, with
an embossed seal, and display the name of the hospital where Obama
was born, as well as witness signatures.
Reportedly this BC
reflects information filed Oct. 9 by Philip Berg. See item #18 on
this docket, page 10, the relevant language of which, underlined in
red, is captured here in a screen shot: Barack Hussein Obama II By
Judah Benjamin,
It has been
asserted by a number of sources, including Andy Martin, that Barack
Hussein Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya and not in Hawaii. Philip
Berg?s Latest Motion to the Court is more explicit since it gives an
exact Place of Birth. I must assume that Berg did not simply pluck
the Location out of thin air, Mombasa has more than one Hospital,
though Coast Provincial General was the best in 1961.
British Birth
Certificates have a Standard Format which has been more or less the
same since 1837 and they can only be challenged in a British Court.
Kenyan Law is explicit and can only be challenged in a Kenyan Court.
Indonesian Law is explicit and can only be challenged in an
Indonesian Court. Be clear, if Obama was born in Kenya this is not
simply a matter for the US Courts, or US Law. If he was born in
Kenya, and his parents were Legally Married [which on the
Preponderance of Evidence they were, his father's first "Marriage"
being a Tribal, or Village, Marriage, which was not Legally
Recognized] due to the age of his mother he would NOT have been a US
Citizen. The Immigration and Nationality Act 1952, 8 U.S.C. 1401.
Sec. 301 (g) [Effective November 14, 1986] does not apply, nor does
Title III, Immigration and Nationality Act Section 309. [8 U.S.C.
1409]. Unless he has taken the Oath of Allegiance as a Naturalized
Citizen since he was 18 years old, and if he was born in Mombasa,
Kenya, Barack Hussein Obama II would not be a US Citizen, period.
The issue of whether or not he was Natural Born under Article II of
the Constitution of the United States would cease to matter and he
would need to be Deported as an Illegal Alien. Impeachment as a
Senator would seem not to be necessary since he would never Legally
have been one, but Diane Feinstein and the members of the Senate
Ethics and Rules Committee would be liable to Impeachment. So would
their opposite numbers in the Illinois Senate and the appropriate
officials of the Illinois State Supreme Court and Bar, so far as I
can see. If Senator Barack Hussein Obama II was born in The Coast
Provincial General Hospital at Mombasa in Kenya at 7.24 PM on August
4th 1961, or at any other time, he is not a Natural Born Citizen of
these United States and he never was. Philip J Berg, Esq, is
correct, under the Nationality Act of 1940, as Revised June 1952 and
in accord with United States of America vs Cervantes-Nava 281 F 3d
501 (2002) and Drozd vs INS, 155 F 3d 81, 85-88 (2d Circuit 1998)
Senator Barack Hussein Obama II would not ever have been a Legal US
Citizen at all, unless he was Naturalized. If he was born in The
Coast Provincial General Hospital at Mombasa in Kenya any
Certificate, or Certification of Live Birth, issued for him by the
State of Hawaii is a Fraudulent and Illegal Document. At Birth he
would have been a UK and Colonies Citizen and in accord with the
Kenyan Constitution he would have become a Kenyan Citizen in
December 1963. He would not have been a US Citizen. Alternatively,
his UK and Colonies Birth Certificate issued in Mombasa in August
1961 could be a Fraudulent and Illegal Document. The two BCs would
need to be compared. By this I mean the Original Vault Copy of the
Hawaiian Birth Certificate and not the Amended, Post Adoption, Copy,
Legally available to the Senator, assuming he was, as indicated by
the Preponderance of Evidence, Adopted by Lolo Soetoro. This case
might also need to go through the UK and Kenyan Courts and becomes a
Matter of International Law and Controversy.
Here is some breaking news that the
MSM oddly enough is NOT reporting!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media contact
Tom Hoefling
Chairman, America's Independent Party
National Committee Chairman, Alan Keyes for President 2008
tomhoefling@gmail.com
Presidential candidate Alan Keyes, AIP leaders sue in CA court to
obtain Obama citizenship proof, stop Secretary of State from
certifying Electors
Fenton, MI – November 14, 2008
Presidential candidate Alan Keyes, vice-presidential candidate
Wiley S. Drake, and the Chairman of the American Independent Party,
Markham Robinson, have filed suit in California Superior Court in
Sacramento seeking to bar Secretary of State Debra Bowen from
certifying to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger the names of Electors,
and from transmitting to each presidential Elector a Certificate of
Election, until documentary proof is produced and verified showing
that Senator Obama is a "natural born" citizen of the United States,
and does not hold citizenship of Indonesia, Kenya or Great Britain.
In addition, they have asked that the court issue a peremptory
writ barring Senator Obama's California Electors from signing the
Certificate of Vote until such documentary proof is produced and
verified.
In response to questions about why the suit was being filed,
Ambassador Keyes commented, "I and others are concerned that this
issue be properly investigated and decided before Senator Obama
takes office. Otherwise there will be a serious doubt as to the
legitimacy of his tenure. This doubt would also affect the respect
people have for the Constitution as the supreme law of the land. I
hope the issue can be quickly clarified so that the new President
can take office under no shadow of doubt. This will be good for him
and for the nation."
Sign the Petition : 105,144 Letters and Emails Sent So Far
Article II, Section 1 of the U.S. Constitution
reads: "No Person except a natural born citizen, or
a citizen of the United States at the time of the
adoption of this constitution, shall be eligible to
the Office of President; neither shall any person be
eligible to that office who shall not have attained
to the age of thirty five years, and been fourteen
years a resident within the United States."
There are numerous questions as to Obama's citizen
status raising suspicion and doubt about Obama
constitutional qualification to be president. To
settle these questions Mr. Obama must produce proof
of citizenship!
Documents that must be produced include;
(a) a certified copy of "vault" (original long
version) birth certificate;
(b) certified copies of all reissued and sealed
birth certificates in the names Barack Hussein
Obama, Barry Soetoro, Barry Obama, Barack Dunham and
Barry Dunham;
(c) a certified copy Certification of Citizenship;
(d) a certified copy Oath of Allegiance taken upon
age of maturity;
(e) certified copies of admission forms for
Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard
Law School; and
(f) certified copies of any court orders or legal
documents changing his name from Barry Soetoro.
It is reasonable that these documents should be
produced considering that his father is Kenyan, his
adoptive father is Indonesian, and his grandmother
claims to have been present at his birth in Kenya.
If he is a natural born citizen then producing these
documents should not be any problem.
These allegations will not go away until Mr. Obama
produces proof to federal authorities and the
public. If he will not do so voluntarily he must be
compelled by every means available. You, as an
employee of The People, have sworn an oath to
support and defend the Constitution.
We The People are demanding you to make every
effort, both public and private, to resolve this
fundamental Constitutional question before 20
January.