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”!!!