No So Fast! How about that citizenship “President-elect” Obama?

The Independent View ^ | November 15, 2008 | By Matthew Weaver

[library user]

A new challenge to Senator Barack Obama’s citizenship was filed November 12th in California demanding that the court stop certification of the election results until the state’s secretary of state can ascertain from Senator Obama his legal qualification to be a candidate for President.  This 18 page petition is a quick read.  It offers a good summary of what is at stake and the questions that surround Senator Obama’s citizenship.

A few points:

• Petitioners Ambassador Dr. Alan Keyes, Dr. Wiley S. Drake, Sr., and Markham Robinson, establish their standing to file the petition as members of the American Independent Party, for which Drs. Keyes and Drake were presidential and vice-presidential candidates on California’s ballot, respectfully.  (This is a technical point that doomed some other lawsuits.)
  
  
• Petitioners note that Senator Obama has not provided proof of his citizenship eligibility despite repeated requests during the primary and general election campaigns.
  
  
• Petitioners note that action in at least 10 states is underway challenging Senator Obama’s eligibility.
   
• Petitioners note that the 2007 birth certificate offered by Senator Obama is of questionable credibility for several reasons, including that it is a copy of suspect authenticity and that it does not detail actual birth location.
  
  
• Petitioners note that the only person claiming witness to Senator Obama’s birth is his own paternal grandmother who claims he was actually born in Kenya, then the British East African Protectorate of Zanzibar.  Other records and recollections of family members suggest either Queens Hospital or Kapiolani Hospital in Hawaii.  The disclosed Registry of Live Birth is a short-form of the birth certificate that does not state whether Obama was born in Hawaii or that his birth was subsequently registered there within the year following birth as then allowed by state law.
   
• Petitioners note that around 1967, Senator Obama moved to Indonesia with his mother and new stepfather.  Records indicate that once in Indonesia he adopted his stepfather’s name and citizenship.  Since dual citizenship was not allowed by Indonesian law, and U.S. law and treaty obligations required respect of this, Mrs. Obama-Soetoro had to relinquish her minor son’s U.S. citizenship.  Elsewhere, they note that if he later recovered it, and no records apparently substantiate this, it would by law be as a “naturalized” citizen, not a “natural born” and, thus, ineligible for the office of President under the Constitution.
  
  
• Petitioners also note that in 1961 what is now known as Kenya was then the British Protectorate of Zanzibar which, if he was born there as his paternal grandmother claims, he would be a British citizen based on his father’s citizenship.
   
• Petitioners also note that in 1981 Senator Obama traveled to Pakistan, which was then banned by the U.S.  Since he could not legally travel with a U.S. passport, they question whether he used  one of his other passports:  Indonesian, Kenyan, or British.  (Interesting point is that the petitioners state affirmatively that he had other passports.)

I am curious to see how this case fares in the courts.  The question of Senator Obama’s citizenship and constitutional eligibility have never been settled.  In fact, Senator Obama has resisted at every step to release his birth certificate and other relevant records that would resolve this matter.  That he has fought this suggests the information is at least embarrassing, if not disqualifying.

On August 14, 2008, I wrote a detailed article, What is Obama’s Citizenship?, where I explored some of the questions about Senator Obama’s citizenship.  I asked eight questions (seven pertinent to this discussion) that are still substantially unanswered today:

1. Are you now a U.S. citizen?
    
2. Have you ever held as a youth or adult, citizenship in another country?
    
3. Did you ever possess or travel using, at least in part, the passport of another country?  (E.g., while in Indonesia, visiting Pakistan, Kenya)
   
   
4. Did you renounce any foreign citizenship, and when, and do you now hold solely U.S. citizenship today?
    
5. Can you confirm or deny your name change as a youth from Barack Hussein Obama II to Barry Soetoro when you were adopted by your step-father?
    
6. Did you legally reclaim your birth name?  When and how?
    
7. Why did you not list your adopted name Barry Soetoro on any forms associated with your legal profession or others that ask for any other names you have ever used?  Have you now or will you update these records?

In regards to questions 1-4, Senator Obama’s own Web site says he was, through his father, a British citizen and that this British/Kenya citizenship “automatically expired August 4, 1982.”  That it “expired” doesn’t explain if he had passports and used them, nor does it address his potential Indonesian citizenship or how these were reconciled with his U.S. citizenship, especially where laws and treaties prohibited dual citizenship.

So, when will we see proof that Senator Obama is or is not a constitutionally eligible citizen?  Before or after he takes office?  As Keyes et al note, the latter will cause “irreparable harm in that an usurper will be sitting as the President of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or executive orders signed by him will be valid or legal.”

[BenLurkin]

bttt

[mountainlion]

The rats are such liars and Hippocrates. Kerry has not released his military papers to the public but he sure made a big deal of Bush's military papers. Clinton never released his medical papers. John McCain released 1000 pages of medical which was more than BO released. With the rats in power don't expect any law to be used against them.

[Guenevere]

I still want to know...

..although you should expect some naysayers to show up (yes, right here on FR) ...

..claiming it's irrelevant or a moot point.

Regardless, some of us still care about the Constitution.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

It's so bizarre to me that this guy even got to the point of actually being elected President of the United States of America, for crying out loud, without having to provide 100% verifiable proof of citizenship!

Shouldn't that be one of the very first things that a person should need to absolutely provide (and when I say absolutely, I mean without a single shadow of a doubt) before he is even eligible to be put up as a candidate at all?

Some screening process we have. Sheesh.

[hosepipe]

Hmmmm.... is America too corrupt to care?...

[beezdotcom]

Given that Keyes is involved, this starts to move this issue away from the kook fringe (somewhat).

(And, it would be fitting if Keyes were able to make something happen here, given his dismal attempt to run against 0bama in Illinois is one of many issues that let 0bama get this far in the first place.)

[JudgemAll]

This could be a trap mean to seal his righteousness, a sort of minireichtag for fairness doctrine.

That being said, he is an emotional betrayer and alien of America and unfit for Presidency. It’s a good direction of the questions.

His terrorist friends like Bill Ayers should not be parading around freely like this without citizens arrest. Free hand outs and perverted gratuitous communist terrorism is the issue, not guns of self employment and self government.

[FatherofFive]

THIS IS ABSOLUTLEY AMAZING NEWS! I’M SURE THE MSM WILL SEND HUNDREDS OF REPORTERS TO COVER THIS STORY! /s

[TLI]

He is The One.

Thou shalt not question thine The One.

He is The One He has been waiting for.

Thou must go forth and chant O-Ba-Ma and blasphime no more.

[Just mythoughts]

I can't wait until some Bill (I am god) Riley type, asks Biden if he has seen Bama’s real hidden birth certificate.... Or even that Axelrod guy that ran his campaign... he has to know the citizenship status. Wonder what Raham’s reaction would be if he were asked if he had personally seen the hidden birth certificate.... Talk about people coming unhinged... I would make certain Raham does not get asked this at a dinner table with steak knives as part of the place setting.

And also ask that former financier now policy wonk $ORO$ who bought a paid for this office of president.....

[GeorgiaDawg32]

forget it..they’re off trying to figure out if Sarah Palin didn’t return a skirt she didn’t ask for that was paid for by the RNC..THAT to THEM is news..

[moondoggie]

He may be "legal" and all of this may not be a disqualifier, but, to my knowledge, every other person running for President has had to provide a birth certificate.

We have a RIGHT to see his, IMO.

[SatinDoll]

A trap? I think not.

There are now 17 lawsuits in 12 states contending that Barack Obama must provide evidence that he is a natural born citizen of this nation.

He, Barack Obama, and the Democratic Party, have retained 3 law firms to dispute the issue. This seems excessive if he has nothing to hide or fear.

This situation could be solved with the presentation of his Hawaiian birth certificate, called a Certificate of Live Birth. Most likely he doesn’t have one of these.

However up until 1972 a baby born in a foreign nation could be registered in Hawaii using a document called a Certification of Live Birth, which is NOT a birth certificate. Most likely, Barack Obama has one of these.

Phillip Berg supposedly has Stanley Anne Dunham’s medical records (he couldn’t get her son’s, Barack Obama’s, records). Dunham never gave birth within the United States. She delivered a son, 1961, in Mombassa, Kenya, and a daughter, 1970, in Djakarta, Indonesia.

I just don’t understand why upholding the Constitution is so damn difficult nowadays!

[newheart]

I am convinced that this needs to be pursued as far as it can be. But I have to confess there is something that makes me nervous about this. Two words: President Biden.

The irony is astonishing that, potentially, a sitting president might have to step down over falsely representing his provenance, only be replaced by a plagiarist.

[Pravious]

“Given that Keyes is involved, this starts to move this issue away from the kook fringe (somewhat).”

Well, the key is that our lovely court system ruled that we-the-sheeple do not have the legal right to question the citizenship of a candidate. However, as someone on the ballot (at least in California), that would presumably give Keyes greater standing to argue the point.

Good luck to him.

If Obama has nothing to hide, why not just provide the proof and be done with it (unless he’s so arrogant he just feels insulted that his word should even be questioned... well, actually that probably IS the answer).

[ritewingwarrior]

Why would Biden be President if the votes for Obama are invalidated then McCain won right?
While this case should be pushed through immediately it wont be, liberal judges will say its immaterial.

[They'reGone2000]

Nothing to see here....please move along.

[ridesthemiles]

Some screening process we have. Sheesh.”

Screening was the responsibility of the DNC, as I have ascertained.

They either didn’t do a thing or the group at the top- Howard Dean, etc, knew his status all along.

They all have STONEWALLED this issue, which tells me more and more that he is NOT a qualified candidate.

[bronxboy]

This is a non-starter folks. It makes Republicans look like idiots. If there was anything to find, Hillary would be president.