Posted on 08/10/2008 2:21:32 PM PDT by pissant
Since the story broke late Saturday that Barack Obama’s real Birth Certificate, now in Republican hands, has the name Barry Soetoro and not Barack Obama, as we predicted a couple of weeks ago, I notice that many people are still confused about the implications of dual citizenship for Obama.
The matter is somewhat complex, so I’ve decided to try to provide a summary, with the help of resident expert ”Judah Benjamin.”
Indonesian Connection
Soetoro is the name on Obama’s Birth Certificate (BC) because a new BC was issued when he was adopted by Lolo Soetoro, his step-father. His original BC, which we assume was issued for Barack Hussein Obama at birth, would have been sealed at the time of the adoption.
Barry Soetoro probably acquired Indonesian citizenship in approximately 1965-1966, and may still hold it. He possibly changed his legal name back to Barack Hussein Obama as an older child, teenager, or adult, possibly never did — but even if he did, this procedure would not result in a change to the BC. (If he never legally changed his name back, I imagine his current name on the Presidential ballot would be invalid.)
The Birth Certificate published by Obama on his campaign website (still there, by the way) and distributed to the media was forged because the real BC on file is in the name Soetoro, an identity he apparently wanted to hide from the American people.
I am getting reports from different sources that Obama traveled to Pakistan in ‘81 with an Indonesian passport.
Prior to 2007 (and possibly earlier), Indonesian law did not permit dual citizenship. Thus, if Obama actively kept his Indonesian citizenship, his US citizenship could be challenged.
I suspect that Obama may have dumped his Indonesian citizenship at some point along the way, to advance his political career. But I would not be shocked if he still holds it. This question, however, should not overshadow the serious problem of hiding his Indonesian identity from the electorate.
Kenyan Citizenship
I personally doubt that Obama holds Kenyan citizenship. If he did, he could be stripped of his US citizenship under US law.
Barack Hussein Obama probably was a citizen of the British Crown (first two years of his life) and, effective 1963, a citizen of Kenya by virtue of his father’s nationality.
Under the Constitution of Kenya, he would have automatically forfeited his citizenship at the age of 21 unless he affirmatively “claimed” it. If he took some action to keep his citizenship, that’s a big problem because 1) Kenya prohibits dual citizenship and 2) the US does not recognize dual citizenship with Kenya. Further under the Kenyan Constitution, given his circumstances, he could only have kept Kenyan Citizenship, if he had it, by means of a Ministerial, Prime Ministerial, or Presidential Decree. (Of course, Raila Odinga is Prime Minister of Kenya and Odinga’s father, Oginga Odinga, was Vice President of Kenya and Barack Hussein Obama, Sr, was a close ally of the older Odinga.)
If Obama retained his Kenyan citizenship and helped campaign for his cousin Odinga, that is especially problematic under Title 8 of the U.S. Code, the relevant language of which is:
a) A person who is a national of the United States whether by birth or naturalization, shall lose his nationality by voluntarily performing any of the following acts with the intention of relinquishing United States nationality—
(2) taking an oath or making an affirmation or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state or a political subdivision thereof, after having attained the age of eighteen years…
Again, I don’t think that Obama has Kenyan citizenship. I think that the Rocky Mountain report and Andy Martin’s work are poorly sourced on this point. I sometimes get the impression that Kenya serves as a diversion from the REAL PROBLEM, which is his Indonesian connection. It would be shocking to get actual confirmation of current Kenyan citizenship.
Electability & Eligibility Issues
These revelations raise several troubling issues for Obama’s electability and eligibility.
Foremost, there is the concerted attempt to cover up his Indonesian background and dual citizenship/identity from the electorate.
Secondly, there is a potential Constitutional problem with a POTUS having held dual citizenship, and Obama knows it; thus, the deception.
The “natural-born” clause of Article II is commonly understood to relate to the place of birth, but more accurately relates to loyalty to country as Commander in Chief. That was the original intent of the founding fathers. In McCain’s case, there is no question because of his circumstances (born on military base to 2 US citizens, later joined the military, never had anything to do with Panama, etc.). In Obama’s case, it’s not nearly so clear, especially given his travels, relatives, and associations in some of these other countries.
In my mind, however, the biggest problem is that Sen. Obama has intentionally concealed his background, Indonesian identity, citizenship, and the fact that he was at one time Muslim.
What else is he hiding? Credit must be given to Judah Benjamin, historian and former journalist, who has provided ground-breaking research on the factual and legal issues related to Obama’s Indonesian connection and dual citizenship; to Polarik for breaking the story of the COLB forgery; to Techdude for his analysis of the COLB forgery; to Dr. Kate for her tireless research efforts; to Michele, for bringing us a new COLB; to the No Quarter team for endless support; and to all the other writers and readers dedicated to the truth.
Right now it is important to get out to the public any questions and chicanery involved in that BC just because that sort of thing is what many people in this land use to make up their minds. Real scandal and evidence of lying about things that folks can relate to makes a big difference with folks who don’t really understand or relate to large issues and there are a lot of such folks.
Ex post facto only applies when making something a crime.
I posted a reference to a publication of the U.S. State Department. You can download a copy if you wish to read it.
If you disagree with the State Department you must take it up with them.
I of course certainly do not believe he should be elected. Our job is to convince the American voters of that.
Fraud and misrepresentation by Obama and his supporters are excellent targets, including the photoshopped birth certificate.
OK, so he was born an Obama and for a while used the surname Soetoro, then went back to his original surname. Even if he didn’t take any steps to be un-adopted by his stepfather (whose marriage to Stanley Ann broke up), he’s consistently used the surname Obama and I doubt he can get into any trouble. Bill Clinton’s name at birth was Blythe (from the surname of his putative father) but he later started using the name Clinton. I don’t think he was ever adopted by his stepfather.
You’re forgetting that a proven forgery was put up and certified as correct on his official website. That alone should be enough to disqualify him, particularly if the extra step of showing that the original it was based on was his own sister’s can be taken.
It's like Nixon and Watergate. They couldn't impeach him for the break-in at the DNC. They had to find something that could be tied directly to Nixon himself. Obama can easily claim to have had no direct involvement. Plausible deniability.
What is indisputably true is that the COLB that the Obama campaign has proffered for proof of Obama’s natural born citizenship is a document that is devoid of the normal Indications of provenence that one expects to see on an official government document that enables it to be authenticated. It has no birth certificate number, no official State of Hawaii seal, and no official signatures. It looks to be in every way a crude forgery. Set aside the reliability of Texas darling, Judah Benjamin, Larry Johnson and Israeli Insider. The question should be, why has the Obama campaign not released indisputable evidence of his natural born citizenship? The WORST that should happen is that he does so, and this issue gets laid to rest. We will have provided a valuable service to the American people in satisfying a question of his constitutional eligibility and can devote our energies to exposing him for the radical crypto-Marxist that he really is. Or we will have shown that a presidential candidate is willing to defraud the American people by proffering an illegally altered government document to enable his election to the highest office in the land. This could possibly lead to felony criminal charges against persons in the Obama campaign. The Obama campaign is amazingly quick to respond to real and imagined slurs. They are suspiciously silent on this. I suspect that they are hoping that it will remain unexamined, and are counting on their in the tank MSM allies to hush it up.
We already know that a corrupt Democrat Congress will not vote to impeach and remove corrupt Democrat presidents from office despite clear evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. We know that Democrats almost NEVER resign when they have been caught in various forms of political criminality. Should (GOD forbid) Barack Hussein Obama ever take the oath of office, and it is subsequently proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he is NOT natural born, than there will be no legal way to remove him from office. This could (at best) lead to a constitutional crisis and worst a civil war. Not a War Between the States, but an honest to God fight over who controls the government.
This is NOT a subsidiary issue. It is of greater importance constitutionally than Obama’s position on health care, Iraq, the energy policy, or national health care. It is crucial to our standing as a constitutional republic.
We should be insisting the he release the proper documents. We should not be apologetic about upholding the constitution. We already have proof positive as to what an inveterate liar that he has already shown himself to be as seeks to create myths about himself.
Looks like I’m late to the party but I just clicked the link and it worked for me. Seems like this is happening a lot lately.
You might perhaps have a point, although an official web site, particularly one set up to establish the truth, should be held to a pretty high standard. However, if it can really be shown that the basis of the forgery was his own sister’s COLB then he doesn’t have a leg to stand on. There is no way that he COULDN’T have been involved.
Why should you be FAIR>>>I hate FAIR. I run every time I hear FAIR.
Meanwhile, Hillary isn’t spending a dime on pre-convention campaigning.
Hmmmmmmmm...
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