Blogger admits Hawaii birth certificate forgery, subverting Obama claims (Uh-oh)

Israel Insider ^ | 3 July 2008 | Reuven Koret

[SE Mom]

Jay McKinnon, a self-described Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist, has implicated himself in the production of fraudulent Hawaii birth certificate images similar to the one endorsed as genuine by the Barack Obama campaign, and appearing on the same blog entry where the supposedly authentic document appears.

The evidence of forgery and manipulation of images of official documents, triggered by Israel Insider's revelation of the collection of Hawaii birth certificate images on the Photobucket site and the detective work of independent investigative journalists and imaging professionals in the three weeks since the publication of the images, implicate the Daily Kos, an extreme left blog site, and the Obama campaign, in misleading the public with official-looking but manipulated document images of doubtful provenance.

The perceived unreliability of the image has provoked petitions and widespread demands for Obama to submit for objective inspection the paper versions of the "birth certificate" he claimed in his book Dreams from My Father was in his possession, as well as the paper version of the Certificate of Live Birth for which the image on the Daily Kos and the Obama "Fight the Smears" website was supposedly generated.

Without a valid birth certificate, Obama cannot prove he fulfills the "natural born citizen" requirement of the Constitution, throwing into doubt his eligibility to run for President.

McKinnon, who says he is 25-30 years old, operates a website called OpenDNA.com and uses the OpenDNA screen name on various web sites and blogs, including his comments and diary on The Daily Kos. In recent years he has divided his time between Long Beach, California and Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a Democratic political activist, frequent contributor to the left wing Daily Kos blog, and a fervent Barack Obama supporter.

[bvw]

Noted that the article says “back to Hawaii — his mother’s birthplace”. Why didn’t it say “Hawaii — his birthplace”?

[Diver Dave]

Another thing I read in my search last night was the proposition that there may indeed be a birth certificate registered in Kenya.

The author proposed that Kenya custom is to register a birth of a Kenyan decendant whether born in Kenya or elseware.

Don’t know if there’s any truth to that statement, but just a little more fuel to add to the rumor pile.

[bvw]

What did you mean when you asked 'Why would they tell everyone he was “Irian”?'

I don't know what that term means and it wasn't in the linked article.

[mcar]

OMG

That image is great!!!

[Diver Dave]

ooops... elseware = elsewhere

[RubyR]

It was in the article I linked in #3171. I think it means from Papua (??)

[Calpernia]

Register, yes, not out of the ordinary. A birth certificate is different though :)

We may find out more about that this week.

[null and void]

The early and short growth spurt seems unlikely. As near as I can figure it’s possible, but something like 99% percentile, if that.

Either your measurements are off, easy enough to do with so many variables, or the dates are off, or he had an atypical growth spike.

Just to muddy the waters a bit more, maybe he looked chubby because of a glandular problem? That might affect growth rate.

[null and void]

10 seconds of google:

West Papua (Indonesian: Papua Barat; formerly West Irian Jaya or Irian Jaya Barat)

[null and void]

Why would they tell everyone he was “Irian”?

Indonesia was busy kicking out foreigners at the time. If he could "pass" as an Irian (from part of the Indonesian archipelago), rather than an American, it might have been a lot easier for all concerned.

Just a little more practice in pretending to be who you are not...

[jellybean]

Notice how some of the fields were filled in later and that the certificate doesn't bear a raised seal?

If you zoom in(ctl + scroll wheel on your mouse) the image of JM's birth certificate, you can see there are some letters which look to be under the U S A in the "Father's Birthplace" & "Mother's Birthplace" fields. There are also some letters in the "Place of Birth" field.

In the "Place of Birth" field: There is an "A" in front of the "C" in Colon. To the right of the word Panama, there is what looks to be "uan".

In the "Father's Birthplace" field: There is an "n" between the "U" and "S". There are other letters, but I can't make them out enough to unequivocally say what they are.

In the "Mother's Birthplace" field: To the right of U S A in the "Mother's Birthplace" field, there is what looks like "ap" _ _ _ then what could be "de" _ "an" (very faint) and then "ama".

I think this is the raised seal which certifies the certificate.

Click on the image for a larger version. Zoom in or out using the scroll wheel on your mouse + the Ctl key.

[bvw]

Right, I see -- from expat's blog! Has he come up with that breakthrough story he promised yet?

After extensive googling and such, here's my class report:

Irian Jaya is West Papua, or Western New Guinea. It is the western half of the same island as New Guinea. Irian Jaya is exotic, less-populated than the rest of Indonesia. About 1/20th of the population density.

It was a Dutch colony until 1961. The neighboring island country Indonesia was behind many attempts at insurrection against the Dutch in Irian Jaya. Not long the Irian's achieved a nominal sort of independence Indonesia took them over, with UN and US (McGeorge Bundy, advisor to JFK and LBJ, spent later part of life at Ford Foundation) backing. It has been Indonesian since 1963. Yet the independence movement continues and Indonesia has banned the display of the independence movement flag (the Morning Star), and considerable force has been brought to bear by the Indonesians to suppress independence movements.

Obama's official stories have the family in Jakarta -- which is the capital of Indoesia. That is some thousands of miles from Irian Jaya. Given the nation-state politics of the time and place, being from Irian Jaya may have been seen as being more alien than being from Hawaii. Or it may have been seen as a political statement about his parents. I do not know, I am just speculating feveredly from my swamp dwelling.

[bvw]

Evidently it taketh me the longer.

[jellybean]

Forgot to add:

I think the U S A in both the Mother's Birthplace and the Father's Birthplace were added after the raised seal. The font is different from the rest of the document. Compare the capital A in U S A to the capital A in August under Date of Birth. I have no theory as to why this was done.

[null and void]

I might be able to convince myself that that is an impression of a seal.

It could just as easily be something transfered from another document, say one that was stored with the BC and pressed against in in a crowded file?

Good eye, though!

[null and void]

Well yeah, but you came back with much more data. You painted a better picture of the zeitgeist.

(I don't get many chances to use zeitgeist)...

[David]

Another thing I read in my search last night was the proposition that there may indeed be a birth certificate registered in Kenya.

The author proposed that Kenya custom is to register a birth of a Kenyan decendant whether born in Kenya or elseware.

Don’t know if there’s any truth to that statement, but just a little more fuel to add to the rumor pile.

I have read that and have no knowledge whether it is true nor whether the person who said it really knew.

However, if it is true and he was born in Kenya, it will reflect the fact. This isn't going to be a deal where his birth is registered in Kenya as having occurred in Hawaii.

[jellybean]

It could just as easily be something transfered from another document, say one that was stored with the BC and pressed against in in a crowded file?

Could be, but I would think it would transfer over the print on the document, not under it. I won't rule it out though.

I'm off to work...check in later...

[Calpernia]

>>>In the “Father’s Birthplace” field: There is an “n” between the “U” and “S”.

Wow, I think you are right!

Why is this? What is the point of messing with this birth certificate?

[Calpernia]

>>>Right, I see — from expat’s blog! Has he come up with that breakthrough story he promised yet?

Maybe it will be in the book this week? Obama, Behind the Mask? (Andy Martin) Just a thought.