FactCheck.org: Obama's birth certificate and citizenship validated

Born in the U.S.A. August 21, 2008 Updated: November 1, 2008 The truth about Obama's birth certificate. Summary In June, the Obama campaign released a digitally scanned image of his birth certificate to quell speculative charges that he might not be a natural-born citizen. But the image prompted more blog-based skepticism about the document's authenticity. And recently, author Jerome Corsi, whose book attacks Obama, said in a TV interview that the birth certificate the campaign has is "fake."

We beg to differ. FactCheck.org staffers have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate. We conclude that it meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship. Claims that the document lacks a raised seal or a signature are false. We have posted high-resolution photographs of the document as "supporting documents" to this article. Our conclusion: Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said.

Update, Nov. 1: The director of Hawaii’s Department of Health confirmed Oct. 31 that Obama was born in Honolulu. Analysis Update Nov. 1: The Associated Press quoted Chiyome Fukino as saying that both she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

Fukino also was quoted by several other news organizations. The Honolulu Advertiser quoted Fukino as saying the agency had been bombarded by requests, and that the registrar of statistics had even been called in at home in the middle of the night. Honolulu Advertiser, Nov. 1 2008: "This has gotten ridiculous," state health director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said yesterday. "There are plenty of other, important things to focus on, like the economy, taxes, energy." . . . Will this be enough to quiet the doubters? "I hope so," Fukino said. "We need to get some work done." Fukino said she has “personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama’s original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures."

Since we first wrote about Obama's birth certificate on June 16, speculation on his citizenship has continued apace. Some claim that Obama posted a fake birth certificate to his Web page. That charge leaped from the blogosphere to the mainstream media earlier this week when Jerome Corsi, author of a book attacking Obama, repeated the claim in an Aug. 15 interview with Steve Doocy on Fox News.

Corsi: Well, what would be really helpful is if Senator Obama would release primary documents like his birth certificate. The campaign has a false, fake birth certificate posted on their website. How is anybody supposed to really piece together his life?

Doocy: What do you mean they have a "false birth certificate" on their Web site?

Corsi: The original birth certificate of Obama has never been released, and the campaign refuses to release it.

Corsi: No, it's a -- there's been good analysis of it on the Internet, and it's been shown to have watermarks from Photoshop. It's a fake document that's on the Web site right now, and the original birth certificate the campaign refuses to produce. Corsi isn't the only skeptic claiming that the document is a forgery. Among the most frequent objections we saw on forums, blogs and e-mails are: The birth certificate doesn't have a raised seal. It isn't signed. No creases from folding are evident in the scanned version. In the zoomed-in view, there's a strange halo around the letters. The certificate number is blacked out. The date bleeding through from the back seems to say "2007," but the document wasn't released until 2008. The document is a "certification of birth," not a "certificate of birth." Recently FactCheck representatives got a chance to spend some time with the birth certificate, and we can attest to the fact that it is real and three-dimensional and resides at the Obama headquarters in Chicago. We can assure readers that the certificate does bear a raised seal, and that it's stamped on the back by Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka (who uses a signature stamp rather than signing individual birth certificates). We even brought home a few photographs.

You can click on the photos to get full-size versions, which haven't been edited in any way, except that some have been rotated 90 degrees for viewing purposes.

The certificate has all the elements the State Department requires for proving citizenship to obtain a U.S. passport: "your full name, the full name of your parent(s), date and place of birth, sex, date the birth record was filed, and the seal or other certification of the official custodian of such records." The names, date and place of birth, and filing date are all evident on the scanned version, and you can see the seal above.

The document is a "certification of birth," also known as a short-form birth certificate. The long form is drawn up by the hospital and includes additional information such as birth weight and parents' hometowns. The short form is printed by the state and draws from a database with fewer details. The Hawaii Department of Health's birth record request form does not give the option to request a photocopy of your long-form birth certificate, but their short form has enough information to be acceptable to the State Department. We tried to ask the Hawaii DOH why they only offer the short form, among other questions, but they have not given a response.

The scan released by the campaign shows halos around the black text, making it look (to some) as though the text might have been pasted on top of an image of security paper. But the document itself has no such halos, nor do the close-up photos we took of it. We conclude that the halo seen in the image produced by the campaign is a digital artifact from the scanning process.

We asked the Obama campaign about the date stamp and the blacked-out certificate number. The certificate is stamped June 2007, because that's when Hawaii officials produced it for the campaign, which requested that document and "all the records we could get our hands on" according to spokesperson Shauna Daly. The campaign didn't release its copy until 2008, after speculation began to appear on the Internet questioning Obama's citizenship. The campaign then rushed to release the document, and the rush is responsible for the blacked-out certificate number. Says Shauna: "[We] couldn't get someone on the phone in Hawaii to tell us whether the number represented some secret information, and we erred on the side of blacking it out. Since then we've found out it's pretty irrelevant for the outside world." The document we looked at did have a certificate number; it is 151 1961 - 010641.

Some of the conspiracy theories that have circulated about Obama are quite imaginative. One conservative blogger suggested that the campaign might have obtained a valid Hawaii birth certificate, soaked it in solvent, then reprinted it with Obama's information. Of course, this anonymous blogger didn't have access to the actual document and presents this as just one possible "scenario" without any evidence that such a thing actually happened or is even feasible.

We also note that so far none of those questioning the authenticity of the document have produced a shred of evidence that the information on it is incorrect. Instead, some speculate that somehow, maybe, he was born in another country and doesn't meet the Constitution's requirement that the president be a "natural-born citizen."

We think our colleagues at PolitiFact.com, who also dug into some of these loopy theories put it pretty well: "It is possible that Obama conspired his way to the precipice of the world’s biggest job, involving a vast network of people and government agencies over decades of lies. Anything’s possible. But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary and your sense of what’s reasonable has to take over."

In fact, the conspiracy would need to be even deeper than our colleagues realized. In late July, a researcher looking to dig up dirt on Obama instead found a birth announcement that had been published in the Honolulu Advertiser on Sunday, Aug. 13, 1961:

The announcement was posted by a pro-Hillary Clinton blogger who grudgingly concluded that Obama "likely" was born Aug. 4, 1961 in Honolulu. Of course, it's distantly possible that Obama's grandparents may have planted the announcement just in case their grandson needed to prove his U.S. citizenship in order to run for president someday. We suggest that those who choose to go down that path should first equip themselves with a high-quality tinfoil hat. The evidence is clear: Barack Obama was born in the U.S.A.

Update, August 26: We received responses to some of our questions from the Hawaii Department of Health. They couldn't tell us anything about their security paper, but they did answer another frequently-raised question: why is Obama's father's race listed as "African"? Kurt Tsue at the DOH told us that father's race and mother's race are supplied by the parents, and that "we accept what the parents self identify themselves to be." We consider it reasonable to believe that Barack Obama, Sr., would have thought of and reported himself as "African." It's certainly not the slam dunk some readers have made it out to be.

When we asked about the security borders, which look different from some other examples of Hawaii certifications of live birth, Kurt said "The borders are generated each time a certified copy is printed. A citation located on the bottom left hand corner of the certificate indicates which date the form was revised." He also confirmed that the information in the short form birth certificate is sufficient to prove citizenship for "all reasonable purposes."

–by Jess Henig, with Joe Miller Sources United States Department of State. "Application for a U.S. Passport." Accessed 20 Aug. 2008.

State of Hawaii Department of Health. "Request for Certified Copy of Birth Record." Accessed 20 Aug. 2008.

Hollyfield, Amy. "Obama's Birth Certificate: Final Chapter." Politifact.com. 27 Jun. 2008.

The Associated Press. "State declares Obama birth certificate genuine" 31 Oct 2008.

Nakaso, Dan. "Obama's certificate of birth OK, state says; Health director issues voucher in response to 'ridiculous' barrage" Honolulu Advertiser 1 Nov 2008.

"Sufficient to prove citizenship for 'all reasonable purposes.'"

Here's the problem:

1. It's not clear that "citizenship" is the same thing as "natural born citizen" for purposes of meeting the constitutional requirement to be eligible to serve as President.

2. Proving "citizenship" for "all reasonable purposes" sounds mighty lame when the Constitution says the requirement is to prove "natural born citizenship" for the purpose of, um, being PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.

It is not unreasonable to require one tiny step more when it pertains to the presidency, not, say, obtaining a student loan.

I don't think the musings of a bureaucrat at the DVR is necessarily going to capture all the possible constitutional issues that might be afoot in this fact pattern.

Obama consented to release the short-form. What's the problem with releasing the long-form, or at least having it reviewed by a court in chambers if he insists on not releasing it to the public? Why would he decide one way on the short form, but differently on the long-form?

It's always the perceived cover-up that brings pols down. I don't think this will hinder Obama in the end, but, when the matter is so simple to resolve and can even be resolved in a way that preserves his privacy and withholds the LFBC from the public, the way Obama has proceeded is not a sign of good judgment.

Thank you!

Now. Is Donofrio or anyone else raising anything related to the adoption?

FWIW, more:

More Detail on Obama and the Law

Posted by Steve Marquis on November 11, 2008

In order to be eligible and qualified to serve as the President of the United States you must be a "natural born" citizen, be at least age 35 and reside in the U.S. for 14 years. United States Constitution, Article II, Section I, Clause 5.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr. was born to Stanley Ann Dunham, a U.S. citizen born in Kansas and Barack Hussein Obama, Sr., a National of Kenya.

Senator Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya on August 4, 1961. At the time of Obama's birth, Kenya was a British Colony and did not become the Republic of Kenya until 1963.

Senator Obama has admitted his citizenship status to Kenya on his website www.fightthesmears.com. Mr. Obama also had this information posted on www.factcheck.org. However, Senator Obama's claim is that he automatically lost his Kenya citizenship status once he turned 18. This is completely inaccurate. Senator Obama never qualified to be a "natural born" citizen as a result of his mother not being old enough to meet the legal requirements in order to register her son, Senator Obama, as a "natural born" U.S. citizen.

The U.S. Law in effect during Obama's birth stated if you are born abroad to one U.S. parent and a foreign national, the U.S. parent must have resided in the United States for ten (10) years, five (5) of which were after the age of Fourteen (14) in order to register the child's birth abroad in the United States as a "natural born" U.S. citizen. Nationality Act of 1940, revised June 1952. United States of America v. Cervantes-Nava, 281 F.3d 501 (2002), Drozd v. I.N.S., 155 F.3d 81, 85-88 (2d Cir.1998), United States v. Gomez-Orozco, 188 F.3d 422, 426-27 (7th Cir. 1999), Scales v. Immigration and Naturalization Service 232 F.3d 1159 (9th Cir. 2000), Solis-Espinoza v. Gonzales 401 F.3d 1090 (9th Cir. 2005). The law that applies to a birth abroad is the law in effect at the time of birth, Marquez-Marquez a/k/a Moreno v. Gonzales 455 F. 3d 548 (5th Cir. 2006), Runnett v. Shultz, 901 F.2d 782, 783 (9th Cir.1990) (holding that "the applicable law for transmitting citizenship to a child born abroad when one parent is a U.S. citizen is the statute that was in effect at the time of the child's birth")

Stanley Ann Dunham, Senator Obama's mother, was only 18 when she had Obama. She was not old enough to register Obama's birth in Hawaii or anywhere else as a United States "natural born" citizen as she did not meet the residency requirements pursuant to our United States Laws. It does not matter that this is a minor technicality, the law is applied regardless. See United States of America v. Cervantes-Nava, 281 F.3d 501 (2002), Drozd v. I.N.S., 155 F.3d 81, 85-88 (2d Cir.1998).

A Certification of Live Birth (COLB) is issued for all birth's registered in the State of Hawaii. The COLB, even if it has not been altered and/or forged, does not prove "natural born" citizenship or birth in Hawaii.

[snip]

Obama was enrolled Lolo Soetoro in a public school, Fransiskus Assisi School in Jakarta, Indonesia. Plaintiff has received copies of the school registration, in which it clearly states Obama's name as "Barry Soetoro" and lists his citizenship as Indonesian. Obama's father is listed as Lolo Soetoro, Obama's Religion is listed as Islam. At the time Obama was registered the public schools obtained and verified the citizenship status and name of the student through the Indonesian Government. Indonesia at this time was a police state and foreign students were not allowed to attend public schools. The school, upon registration of a new student, verified the citizenship status and name of the child with the Indonesian Government. Moreover, Indonesian Immigration and police checked all public schools on a weekly basis to ensure the only students attending were in fact Indonesian citizens.

Do to Obama's birth abroad, he could only be "naturalized", second, he became a "natural "citizen of Indonesia. Even if Obama's adoption and/or acknowledgement allowed him to choose his citizenship status, there is more involved. Indonesia, still to this day, does not permit dual citizenship. The law in Indonesia states if a minor who lost citizenship in another country, may reclaim that citizenship, however, prior to age 21, they must swear a declaration signed and served and filed with Indonesia their desire to relinquish their citizenship status. If this is not done by age 21, they lose that right. As stated in the Indonesian laws, "at the age of 18, the child can choose whether to stay an Indonesian citizen or follow their foreign father's citizenship. They will be then given additional three more years to decide on which nationality to choose." 18 + 3 = 21. The problem here is the citizenship of Obama's father "Soetoro" is Indonesian. Indonesia did not recognize dual citizenship. The Indonesian citizenship law was designed to prevent apatride (stateless) or bipatride (dual citizenship). Indonesian regulations recognize neither apatride nor bipatride citizenship.

The Hague Convention prevented the U.S. from interfering with Indonesia's laws. Indonesia did not recognize dual citizenship, thus, neither did the U.S. An adoption severs all relationship to the birth place and/or citizenship of a birth parent. Once Indonesian "natural" citizenship status occured, it stayed. In order, according to Indonesia, which is who's law prevails, Obama would have been required to relinquish in writing under oath his Indonesian citizenship and file the declaration with Indonesia government.

Indonesian citizenship does not expire without a person, in declaration, swears under the penalty of perjury, to relinquish Indonesian Citizenship and files said document with the government no later then age 21. Indonesian Constitution, Article 2.

http://peoplespassions.org/documents/Obama_and_the_law.html

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.