Forged Kenyan Document Splinters ‘Birther’ Movement (Free Republic Mentioned)

The Washington Independent ^ | Monday, August 3, 2009 | David Weigel

[kristinn]

Jon Chessoni, a first secretary at the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, can’t understand why his office gets so many baseless questions about whether Barack Obama was born in Kenya.

“It’s madness,” said Chessoni on Monday. “His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya. When this matter first came up, the Kenyan government did its research and confirmed that these are all baseless claims.”

Nonetheless, Chessoni spent part of his day fielding inquiries about an image posted at the fringe conservative web site WorldNetDaily–a purported “certified copy of registration of birth” belonging to “Barack Hussein Obama II,” submitted by attorney Orly Taitz in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, part of her undying quest to get a judge to listen to the conspiracy theories about the 44th president of the United States. “I’m forcing the issue, where Obama will have to respond,” Taitz told the Website. “I am asking the judge to give me the power to subpoena the documents from the Kenyan embassy.”

Chessoni didn’t understand what Taitz was talking about or what her discovery (the gift of an “anonymous source” who’s “afraid for his life”) was supposed to prove. He showed the image to other embassy employees, who rolled their eyes at what was, for some, only the latest forgery being passed off as an official document from Kenya. “It’s a red herring,” said Chessoni. “Maybe there are not enough facts out there.”

SNIP

On Sunday and Monday, the forums at the conservative web site FreeRepublic.com roiled with discussion of Taitz’s new allegations and the forged document. Some prominent “birthers” chimed in to attack Taitz. “Dr. Ron Polarik,” an anonymous “forensic analyst” whose attempts to prove that Obama’s Hawaiian Certificate of Live Birth is a forgery has been widely accepted by “birthers”–and even filed as evidence in one of Berg’s lawsuits–accused Taitz of shopping around “another BOGUS BIRTH DOCUMENT.” Jim Robinson, the founder and owner of the site, started his own thread, asking whether the certificate was a fake. On Monday, the site took the unorthodox step of linking directly to the two threads with a sort of disclaimer: “Welcome Visitors! If you’re looking for the Kenyan Birth Certificate story, click here! Or is it a fake?”

“The story broke at a perfect time [early Sunday morning] for people to sit at their computers all day,” laughed Kristinn Taylor, a spokesman for FreeRepublic. Taylor pointed to the combative threads about the “birth certificate” to show that the the conservative site’s readers were treating the story much the way they had treated the September 2004 CBS News story on President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard. A FreeRepublic poster named Harry McDougland (sic), who went by the handle “Buckhead,” did key research on the documents used in the original CBS News report that led producers to admit that they were probably forged, and eventually led to the network retracting the story.

“A lot of people are looking at this with a jaundiced eye, especially in light of what happened five years ago,” said Taylor. “One thing I really hate is people using forged documents to score political points. I didn’t like it in 2004. I didn’t like it when people went after Michelle Obama with that forged room service receipt, saying she had racked up this big bill at the Waldorf-Astoria. I don’t like it when it’s done to anybody.”

Taitz’s find has proven just as controversial with lawyers who’ve worked with her in the past. Gary Kreep, a California attorney who assisted Taitz when she filed her first lawsuits in the state last year, worried that Taitz had jumped the gun. “I’ve advised her in writing, along with several other attorneys, that if she has an original document that seems to bolster her case, it needs to be examined by a professional document examiner,” Kreep told TWI.

Kreep’s concern about Taitz’s “Kenyan birth certificate” came out of his own experience in being offered fishy or fraudulent “smoking gun” documents about Obama’s past. “I’ve gotten tips about birth certificates that are purported to be original, snuck out of Kenya, yadda yadda,” Kreep said. “Then, all of a sudden, the people offering these things disappear into the woodwork. Some people are definitely putting together hoaxes to damage our cause.”

SNIP

[kristinn]

I had a good talk with David Weigel today. I was quoted accurately in this article. A lot more ground was covered, of course. I told him we're just trying to get to the facts and that we're not afraid to look into subjects that our betters tut-tut over.

[kristinn]

Ping-a-ling.

[steve-b]

Gary Kreep, a California attorney

You just can't make this stuff up.

[cripplecreek]

I don’t feel fractured and I damned sure don’t play into the attempts of those who try to start fights among us.

[TomServo]

Dan Rather may have the last laugh...

[Guenevere]

Thanks kristinn!

[PowerPro]

Exactly right.

There’s nothing wrong in examining a document and getting to the truth.

And once we do, we have to be able to accept that truth whatever it may be...even when it doesn’t go in our favor, like this Kenyan thing from Taitz.

At the same time...the fight goes on regardless of how many roadblock the left puts up. Obama is hiding something and it’s our duty to find out what that is.

[Red Steel]

Weigel dingbat lefty.

[xzins]

I didn’t see any splintering. I saw a bunch of folks trying to figure out a puzzle that had popped up.

[Jeff Head]

This is a simple thing to put to rest. I have a passport and a birth certificate. I can produce them at my house in a matter of minutes. I have not spent a million dollars to either acquire them...or to hide them.

This is not a unreasonable thing to ask for since being a "natural born citizen" of the US is a constitutional requirement for the job of President. It's not hateful, and it's not racist.

Proving that you are should be an honor.

Yet Obama cannot and will not produce either. Why?

The following birth certificate pupports to be from Kenya, and to be Obama's. It's getting a lot of press. Though there are a number of problems with it that indicate it is probably not authenticate, yet it looks a whole lot more authenticate than the elctronic COLB Obama made available on his web site.

The point is, this supposed document is out there and is being analyzed to death and will ultimately be certified one way or the other by experts. Obama's long form birth certificate is not...it is getting no such review. The longer it is absent, the more insistent the demands for it will become. Obama cannot hide from meeting the constitutional qualification.

THE AUDACITY OF TRUTH ABOUT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S UPBRINGING

A PETITION ON FACEBOOK FOR CONSTITUTIONAL RESTORATION

[Eagles6]

"Taitz does not claim that her document is authentic, and instead asks for a “subpoena for deposition duces tecum” and “letters rogatory” to force American, Kenyan, and British authorities into releasing their records on Obama."

There it is. Again brings up "zero's" refusal to release any records; school, passport, medical, birth.

What was the outcome of the Selective Service thing? Was it a forgery or has the Selective Service authenticated?

[HereInTheHeartland]

A very sound strategy on their part, if indeed O does not have a legit birth certificate.

And these people have the time to do it. Most of them live in their parent’s basements collecting some type of government check.

[BGHater]

‘Obama’s part to cause such a division within the country when he could fix it all with being transparent. ‘

Divide and conquer. He might be an illegal; but he isn’t stupid.

[Dutch Boy]

One thing the pinheads at the DU forget is that the document in question is a hard copy. It does not matter what the web copies are, the hard copy is the one that matters. If that is legit, it’s game over for Obama. On the other hand, if this is as fake as the one posted on KOS and Obama’s website, it needs to be known.

[FewsOrange]

It really is childish on Obama's part to cause such a division within the country when he could fix it all with being transparent.

He could not fix it by being transparent. If he released his long form birth certificate the birthers would just move on to the Kenyan father/not "natural born" issue, or the Indonesian adoption issue or the travelled to Pakistan issue or some other reason why they think he is not eligible

[bvw]

A FreeRepublic poster named Harry McDougland (sic), who went by the handle “Buckhead,”

Harry McDoug-from-Upland.

[Fresh Wind]

Wouldn’t it be interesting if the government of Kenya went after the person or persons who have been forging their documents!

Forging a US government document is a crime here, no doubt forging a Kenyan document is a crime there. But they probably don’t have the resources or interest to go after some pimply freak living in his parent’s basement in the States.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Was it a forgery or has the Selective Service authenticated?

CAN the SS authenticate anything from that era? My oldest son is the same age as Obama. Although the draft was over when he turned 18, I sent him down to the P.O. to register for SS because that was the law. He borrowed my car.

Then, a year later he got an official notice that he was in violation of the statute because he had never registered and would be under penalty of some sort. I think he had a receipt of some sort, so he went down and showed it to them and argued with them. They apologized and we never heard anything more about it.

My point is that they were pretty sloppy about their record keeping in 1979.

[Politicalmom]

Hey!! FReepers don’t HAVE “betters”!!!

[Art in Idaho]

...the fight goes on regardless of how many roadblock the left puts up. Obama is hiding something and it’s our duty to find out what that is.

Yes, it is our duty to remember, and to keep up the fight!

[marron]

I think its kinda cool that, whatever comes up, the folks at FR are the ones that finally get to the bottom of it. I’ve seen some pretty good analysis pro and con over this thing.

I’m not sure I’ve actually figured it out, but I know where to go to read the latest.

If in the end it turns out to be bogus, FR helped to prove it. And if it turns out to be true, again FR helped to prove it.

[ForGod'sSake]

So, just who was the forensic document expert that declared this piece of paper a forgery? Has someone owned up to it or what?

[wastedyears]

Remember what happened to the last guy that said "This is madness!"

[freedomwarrior998]

Yet Obama cannot and will not produce either. Why?

Because he's playing rope-a-dope, and conservatives are playing the part of dopes.

Obama is a marxist thug, but we are playing right into his hands with this stuff. He is perfectly willing to sit back and allow us to be branded as "crazy lunatics" by the media.

[El Sordo]

I am suspicious if that is not the plan on their part.

Speculation:

If this thing continues to get pushed, whether by true believers or agents provocateurs, then Obama steps forward with a certified copy of his Hawaiian BC that has been witnessed to by Hawaiian State Officials...

Well, it would result in at least a modest loss in credibility by the Republicans if only through implied guilt by association.

Then if further, more legitimate, issues are brought up the administration has a good hill to fight from. It would then be much easier for them to dismiss claims or accusations as just another baseless fishing expedition like that whole BC thing.

[bayliving]

All Zerobama has to do is produce the Long Form BC that can be vetted and I will stop wondering and this would all go away.

I am beginning to think that Zero doesn't want this to go away.

I am also starting to feel like a dog that chases its own tail.

Round and round we go, never really getting anywhere.

[GovernmentShrinker]

the conservative site’s readers were treating the story much the way they had treated the September 2004 CBS News story on President George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard

Basically true, and seriously scary because there is zero evidence that this latest document from Taitz is authentic, nor any evidence that anybody who matters believes it is. The "memogate" memo, on the other hand, was obviously fake -- at first glance by anyone who'd been an adult in the 1970s, it was clear that it could not possibly have been produced when it was alleged to have been produced, by the office that was alleged to have produced it. And almost immediately, instructions emerged enabling anyone with a current or recent version of Microsoft Word to produce an absolutely *identical* document using the default settings. Yet it was being touted by CBS News as having been professionally verified as authentic, and much of the voting population of the US believed this because of the source.

I worry that Free Republic is not going to have much influence on the political direction of the country, if phony documents with no authentication backup whatsoever, can generate a 5000+ post thread, made up largely of posters who are terribly excited because they believe that 1) it's very likely real, and 2) that it stands a realistic chance of bringing about their fantasy of having President Obama removed from office. Seriously, a lot of posters on that thread sounded every bit as out of touch with reality as Dan Rather and his CBS pals did when they were insisting that the obviously fake memos were real, even long after it was clear to the whole country that they were amateurish fakes.

[El Sordo]

I agree. I cannot help but suspect that they are hoping this thing peaks a few months before 2010 elections so they can use it to deflect attention from other issues.

[Las Vegas Ron]

Obama is a marxist thug, but we are playing right into his hands with this stuff. He is perfectly willing to sit back and allow us to be branded as "crazy lunatics" by the media.

So what do you recommend we do?

[RummyChick]

It looks like this is the guy that found the Australian BC.

Did he create the fake?

http://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:koyaan/index?brevity=full;tab=comments

[Dallas59]

[Las Vegas Ron]

Obama steps forward with a certified copy of his Hawaiian BC that has been witnessed to by Hawaiian State Officials...

This is why we need to be focusing on the release ALL records, the BC being first and foremost.

[Jeff Head]

Serious issue.

Major Cook is certainly not a "kook" and they know it. They rescinded his orders rather than face the court battle.

That is the way to fight this issue...and it is being fought out there as we speak.

[2111USMC]

“Maybe there are not enough facts out there.”

No Sh!t Sherlock. That's the base of the problem.

[Eagles6]

Point taken. The crap he has shown is all worthless.

[pissant]

Methinks the forged document may well be the Aussie one.

[stevejwn]

They are trying to make a big deal about this, but If I wanted to, I could forge a Hawaii COLB, so this just shows how you cant trust a document unless you see it for yourself, and second where he was born has nothing to do with it his father was never a American. The Media loves to skim over blatant that fact.

[CONSERVE]

Heck I registered joined the service a year later then got the same letter.

[4woodenboats]

GoreNoMore, I know you're just copy & pasting the DUmmie text word for word, but jimrob likes to keep the walls clean and the glass clear around here, as do most of the rest of us.

F-bombs will get your posts TOSsed, as will much of the ghetto attitude that makes heroes of the maggots over there.

You can still get the idea and quote across by using astericks & such, and believe me, I walk that line as much as most ;~)

[johncocktoasten]

“This is why we need to be focusing on the release ALL records, the BC being first and foremost.”

Exactly, the BC issue is important because it shows Obama stonewalling on a very simple and innocuous document.

The smoking torpedo is going to be the school records and whatever writings exist from his days at Harvard. No doubt social justice screeds I am sure. Enough material for the Panthers to write a new national anthem. Then again, maybe he did apply for financial aid as a foreign student. He may have been elected without vetting, but I don’t think he’ll be re-elected with or without it.

[IrishPennant]

Take a breath...expect a salvo of return fire...we return fire...

Wait for Orly...It is their war plans we are spinning back at them and patience seeks its own reward in these matters!

[Polarik]

Weigel is a lying sack of s**t and an anti-Birther hack who could never get a job as a real reporter. I never accused Taitz of anything. I reported what other people said.

Am I the only one here who sees an obvious, f**king set-up?

[Marty62]

It took LGF and FR about 5 or 6 hours to figure out Dan Rathers scam.

Have to admitt this was a pretty good rear flank move, but FR always gets to the truth. Now that the Dummies feeble attempt at diversion has been outted. “birthers” will continue unfazed. So relax the TRUTH will be known. and remember one thing. ZERO COULD END THIS TODAY...PRODUCE THE ACTUAL BIRTH CERTIFICATE.

[El Sordo]

From where I sit, the BC is a red herring that will severely taint all further attempts to dredge up his records.

Just my $.02

[Bluebeard16]

“His father, in 1961, would not even have been in Kenya”

What does that have to do with anything?

[4woodenboats]

Even if B0Z0 suddenly pulled out a perfectly legitimate long form birth certificate, a video of him being born in the entrance of a Hawaian hospital and a stack of affadavits from people who watched him put his footprint on the birth certificate moments after he was born, he'll have an awful hard time coming up with a reason for the charade.

At the very best, he'll look like a twisted, childish jerk that set up an elaborate and expensive ruse to punk the white conservatives he has so much contempt for.

He'll look worse than BOR did tonight, and that's no mean trick.

[chris37]

Look pretty legit to me.

I am now going to go ahead and believe that Barack Obama is from Kenya, thus is not the president of the United States.

And I am going to continue to believe that until he proves otherwise via proper legal documents.

[Las Vegas Ron]

From where I sit, the BC is a red herring that will severely taint all further attempts to dredge up his records.

How so, if you can't get the one, how do you expect to get the others?

[Nathan Zachary]

"I didn’t see any splintering. I saw a bunch of folks trying to figure out a puzzle that had popped up."

Where's all this "splintering"? All I see is legitimate questions on whether this doccument is authentic or not.

Make one wonder if this Weigel wiener isn't party to this possible forgery's release and distribution in an attempt to discredit all the people who are simply demanding Obama prove he is a natural born citizen by producing his birth certificate, a question that Obama himself is forcing more and more people to ask because he refuses to comply, which raises even more suspicion.

What Weigel the wiener cannot grasp the reasoning behind this simple demand, and instead resorts to calling the citizens of this nation "crazy right wingers", and "birthers", nuts etc. only proves what a retard he is.