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Obama eligibility: Kenya question

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The Obama birth certificate. Why is this still accepted as valid? The Birther movement still matters, for the precedent.

Obama eligibility investigators have overlooked a vital question. An alleged birth certificate for Barack H. Obama lists the birthplace of his father as “Kenya, East Africa.” But that is not the birth certificate that Lucas Smith says he got from a Kenyan army officer. It is the “official” long-form birth certificate file that the White House released last year. The problem: Kenya never had that name.

Obama eligibility: many birth certificates

The first Obama eligibility challenges came from the Hillary Clinton campaign in 2008, during primary season. For various reasons (including the murder of a close friend of the Clintons), the Clintons stopped their challenge. But others took it up and have talked about it ever since.

The Obama eligibility question has two parts:

  1. Where was Obama born, and
  2. Were both his parents American citizens or nationals, or not?

No one disputes that the man whom Obama identifies as his father, Barack H. Obama, Sr., was a subject of the Queen of England. He was born in Nyasa Province in the Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. On that ground alone, Barack H. Obama is not a natural born citizen of the United States.

But activists still dispute Obama’s birthplace as well as what his parentage means. Obama says that he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. Until last year, he refused to release anything more than a “short form” with the title “Certification of Live Birth.” For reasons that no one explained, the legislature of Hawaii passed a law permanently sealing the long-form birth certificate in 2010. Then-Governor Linda Lingle signed that law. Her successor, Neil Abercrombie, dumbfounded the country by saying that he could not find the long form! Finally, on April 27, 2011, the White House released the infamous PDF file. Only Obama’s apologists and advocates have ever said that this satisfied them. Famously, Alexandra M. Hill, of Genova, Burns, Giantomasi and Webster, conceded in a New Jersey administrative hearing (April 10, 2012) that Obama would introduce neither that file nor any other document to prove his eligibility.

Other events have clouded the Obama eligibility issue since before the Election of 2008. In October of 2008, Jerome R. Corsi of WND traveled to Kenya to learn more about Obama’s origins and parentage. On October 7, Kenyan immigration authorities detained him and his companion all day. They then bundled him onto a British Airways flight and told him,

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This account of the affair, sympathetic to Obama, admits (or avows) that many Kenyans called Obama a “son of the soil” and maintained his rock-star image long after he toured Kenya in 2006.

On October 8, 2008, YouTube User “syc1959” released this video asking why Obama never released a “long form,” among other things. It also showed what a Republic of Kenya birth certificate might look like. Ironically, that serves as a standard of comparison. In August of 2009, one Lucas Smith tried to sell what he said was a “certified copy of registration of birth” for Obama. This link has that document, and one other that purports to be a hospital birth certificate from Coast Province General Hospital in Mombasa.

The Smith certificate, pro and con

On August 2, 2009, WND asked whether the Smith documents could be genuine.

WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical.

The problem: the document form is not identical to the snapshot in the YouTube “syc1959” video. WND did not publish any snapshots of the “other birth certificates” that they got.

Snopes.com, first of the “urban legend research” sites, condemned the Lucas Smith documents as forged. They did show a snapshot of another birth certificate that they compared to the Smith document. That other birth certificate came from Australia. Snopes also asked why Obama Senior and his then wife, Stanley Ann Dunham, would have gone all the way to Mombasa, instead of Nairobi, which was much close to where Obama Senior lived.

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But Snopes might have made too much of one other alleged discrepancy. The date on the “certified copy” document is February 17, 1964. Snopes insists that the Republic of Kenya did not call itself that until December 12, 1964. But in fact, the Protectorate of Kenya became independent of Britain on December 12, 1963. Activist Jomo Kenyatta governed Kenya with a caretaker government until the 1964 anniversary, when the new constitution was ready.

CNAV concludes that the document called “certified copy” cannot be genuine. The so-called hospital certificate (with the baby footprint and embossed seal) suffers from association. The source that produced it, also produced an obvious forgery.

Orly Taitz foolishly tried to introduce one or both documents into evidence in August. Undoubtedly she harmed her reputation, even among Obama eligibility challengers, by doing that.

White House certificate

The Obama birth certificate: probable casualty in the Obama eligibility battle

Obama's long-form birth certificate, as released by the White House. A photocopy of an image in a book, with green safety-paper texture added after-the-fact. Suppose a teacher had assigned this as homework? Would that teacher still be teaching?

But the same standards that cause a reasonable person to reject the Smith documents, apply also to the White House document. The blogger “Sherrie Questions All” pointed out a discrepancy with the birthplace of Obama Senior on the White House document the day it came out. Specifically, that certificate lists Obama Senior’s birthplace as “Kenya, East Africa.” Never once did any place in the British Empire have both these names at once. The British first called the region British East Africa, or the Protectorate of East Africa. After the First World War, the British transformed their protectorate into a crown colony. They renamed it Colony and Protectorate of Kenya. This was the name the region held in 1961.

The “Sherrie” blog misstated the real name of the region. But the point is still valid. “Kenya, East Africa” was never a valid name for the birthplace of Barack H. Obama, Senior.

Summary

Many on both sides have clouded the Obama eligibility issue. The “Kenya question” is still open; the Lucas Smith documents prove nothing. But almost a year before Smith produced them, Jerome R. Corsi traveled to Kenya and there the authorities arrested him, detained him, and then deported him. Corsi did not invent that story; even The Huffington Post covered it. The authorities could have reacted in anger at Corsi’s coverage of the political shenanigans of the time. But they also could have taken offense at Corsi for getting too close to Obama’s own origins. Obama’s cousin, Raila Odinga, had a hand in the shady electioneering in Kenya then. That cannot be a coincidence.

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Nick Purpura, the lead New Jersey Obama eligibility challenger, told CNAV today that he and his friend Ted Moran will appeal the administrative law judge’s “conclusion” to the Appellate Division of the New Jersey Superior Court. Other Obama eligibility challenges are pending in other States. Purpura asked pointedly the same thing that Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County, Arizona, asked. Specifically: why won’t Congress investigate the Obama eligibility question? Why, for instance, are landing records for six days in August of 1961 missing from the National Archives? Could a Kenyan birth certificate for Obama exist after all, perhaps in a Nairobi hospital as Snopes suggested would be more logical? Why did Kenyan authorities arrest, detain, and deport Jerome Corsi? Would Kenyan authorities dare treat a US Representative the same way if he traveled to Kenya to follow the same leads Jerome Corsi tried to follow?

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Terry A. Hurlbut has been a student of politics, philosophy, and science for more than 35 years. He is a graduate of Yale College and has served as a physician-level laboratory administrator in a 250-bed community hospital. He also is a serious student of the Bible, is conversant in its two primary original languages, and has followed the creation-science movement closely since 1993.

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JT

Here we go with the conspiracy theories again. Corsi entered Kenya on a tourist visa and then called a press conference. This constitutes work and violates the terms of his visa. They were well within their rights to throw him out, seeing as he lied to gain access to the country. Then again, he lost his job for lying too, so it seems to come easy to the man.

And your natural born citizen has been thrown out of how many courts already? Oh yes, I forgot… another conspiracy.

By the way, you really need to keep up. Now Corsi is saying that Obama’s dad is Frank Marshall Davis… which would make him a natural born citizen. And you wonder why we laugh at you – you guys can’t keep a straight story for 5 minutes.

link to wnd.com

JT

They did, Corsi appears to have conveniently “forgotten” to mention that fact.

Nathan Bickel

Excellent article! Thank you for covering this crucial issue and doing the job which the big money mainstream media continues to arrogantly ignore and dismiss!

As you say in your news piece:

…..But the point is still valid. “Kenya, East Africa” was never a valid name for the birthplace of Barack H. Obama, Senior……

What further proof does a logical and half ways decent thinking mind, need to spot the White House forgery of Obama’s birth certificate? The man many think is [legitimate] “president,” is no more than a charlatan and destructive White House occupier!

MDB

Once again, I wonder why I bother posting here, since, gutless wonder that you are, you only allow a handful of people to question your extraordinary idiocy.

Why won’t Congress investigate? Have you considered that maybe, just maybe, they don’t investigate because EVERY SINGLE MEMBER OF CONGRESS accepts what you are incapable of seeing — that Obama was born in Hawaii, and is, by any legal standard, a natural born citizen?

Would Kenyan authorities dare treat a US Representative the same way if he traveled to Kenya to follow the same leads Jerome Corsi tried to follow? Well, no, probably not. For one reason, a member of Congress being arrested in a foreign country would create what’s called an “international incident”, and that is generally considered a bad thing. But more to the point, a member of Congress would presumably not go to a country on a tourist visa and then conduct business which, as was pointed out to you, is exactly what journalist-only-in-his-own-mind Corsi did.

Do you realize just how massive a conspiracy has to be going on for your theories to be correct? Pretty much the entire media — even Glenn Beck, who sees conspiracies in the spelling of words, rejects this out of hand. All of Congress, including the tea bagging crowd elected in 2010 won’t touch it. Every judge in the entire judiciary is somehow part of it. Plus the numerous officials in Hawaii who have said, for the umpteenth time, “for God’s sake, he was born here! Get a life, you idiots!”

I don’t see how anyone can be as stupid as you and continue exist as an independent adult. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn you had a caretaker whose sole job is to water you and make sure you’re placed in direct sunlight. You go beyond mere human stupidity; you’ve reached the level your comparable to plant life.

JT

You do mean, of course, “Little Shop of Horrors” but inaccuracy is what we’ve come to expect from you.

Here we go with the blackmail again. You’ve already said that the judges who rule against the birthers are being “extorted”, now people are being “blackmailed.”

Two words: Prove it.

It’s time to put up or shut up. No more innuendo, no more Sheriff Joe ‘thinks’ there’s “probable cause”, no more taurus excretum.

Put the facts on the table that show there’s a cover-up and blackmail and extortion in the legal system, in Congress, or admit that it’s all because you can’t abide having a black man in the White House.

Which we all know is the real truth.

MDB

Sheer ignorance as to what a natural born citizen is? Horse-hockey. For decades, the definition has been “one parent of US citizenship”. Your legal arguments are based on laws that haven’t been in force for two centuries.

And, as someone pointed out, but you lack the balls to respond to, WND latest claim is that Obama is the son of Frank Marshall Davis. If that’s the case, then your entire citizenship arguments have zero basis. But hey, logical consistency isn’t your strong suit, is it?

JT

Natural born citizen meant no such thing, except for in some definition by a Frenchman who never set foot in the US.

The fact remains that nowhere in US law is natural born citizen defined as you would like it to be defined. That is why the birthers are being laughed out of court.

However, it’s time to try and sort out which birther theory you subscribe to:
* The certificate is a fake and Obama was born in Kenya, in which case the NBC thing doesn’t matter.
* The certificate is not a fake, which means he was born in the US, to a US citizen, but because his father was a foreigner, he doesn’t qualify (in your mind)
* He’s the son of Frank Marshall Davis, in which case he does qualify to be President.

At the moment, you seem to wander between the first two theories indiscriminately.

Ans what does your going to Israel prove? I went to Japan and Thailand last year.

Nathaniel Roubideaux

Hi Mr. Hurlbut – I posted a comment on this Emerich de Vattel stuff you keep repeating but it didn’t make it. I don’t know what happened. My comments usually appear immediately. If you can find it, I’d appreciate it if you re-post it or whatever.

The crux of it was that I’m interested in debating you on the meaning of “natural born citizen.” I’m a lawyer. You’re a birther. I think it will be interesting and informative. What do you think? I think you’ll find that if you open your mind you’ll learn that there’s no one shred of support for your claim that the phrase meant what you say it did when the Constitution was signed. Let me know.

MDB

Tell me, Terry, when are you going to start blaming “the Jews” for this? Conspiracy loons inevitably go there, and considering poorly disguised racism of the birthers, anti-Semitism would fit in quite well.

[…] Kenya question […]

B.Steadman

Barack Hussein Obama II, illegal president, was born August 4, 1961 at the Coast Province General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya and NOT in Hawaii as he claims. This may explain why he allowed release of only a highly-questionable, computer-generated abstract of his purported birth certificate on the official White House website in April 2011. Furthermore, he authorized this release only after ignoring countless requests by concerned citizens to make the document available for nearly three years….

Maricopa County, AZ Sheriff, Joe Arpaio, stated the following in his press release of March 1, 2012 — “A six month long investigation conducted by my cold case posse has lead me to believe there is probable cause to believe that President Barack Obama’s long form birth certificate released by the White House on April 27, 2011, is a computer-generated forgery.”

… A high resolution copy of the authentic KENYAN BIRTH CERTIFICATE of Barack Obama is available for free download at http://WasObamaBornInKenya.com

… Lucas Daniel Smith obtained a certified copy of Obama’s Kenyan birth certificate directly from the birth hospital on February 19, 2009. His amazing story is told in a VIDEO that is also available for viewing at the same website.

[…] Kenya question […]

[…] Kenya question […]

[…] testimony about his detention in Mombasa over your statement made upon your own cognizance. Obama eligibility: Kenya question – Conservative News and Views Kenya probed claim Obama born in Africa Tallison Rausch says: May 28, 2012 at 1:42 am And why do […]

[…] Kenya question […]

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