Questions About Barack Obama's status as a "natural born citizen"-Truth! Fiction! & Unproven!
Summary of the eRumor:
A variety of articles and lawsuits that question whether Barack Obama is eligible to be President of the United States base on his citizenship.
The Truth:
This story began circulating during the 2008 presidential campaign and attracted a lot of interest, but on October 24, 2008, the judge in the case dismissed the lawsuit saying that the man who filed it lack standing and that any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was "too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters." Berg has announced that he will be appealing the dismissal of his case to the United States Supreme Court.
The WorldNetDaily web site has reported that "More than a half-dozen legal challenges have been filed in federal and state courts demanding President-elect Barack Obama's decertification from ballots or seeking to halt elector meetings, claiming he has failed to prove his U.S. citizenship status."
An online petition has been set up by "Rally Congress", a non profit group "dedicated to helping people and groups communicate more effectively with elected officials", they say that they have collected over 108,000 signatures and letters. Click for petition.
On November 18, 2008, the America's Independent Party (AIP) announced that Presidential candidate Alan Keyes and the party have filed a law suit with the California Superior court to keep Secretary of the State of CA, Debra Brown, from certifying the names of the electors to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, until proof of Barack Obama's U.S. Citizenship is verified. Click for AIP release.
On November 1, 2008 the Associated Press released a report saying that state officials in Hawaii "have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate." Hawaiian Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino and Alvin Onaka, who is the registrar of vital statistics both reviewed the original document.
The suit had been filed by Philip Berg , a Pennsylvania attorney who described himself as a lifelong Democrat, the former Democratic Chairman of Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, an 8-year member of the state democratic committee, a former Deputy Attorney General of Pennsylvania, and a past candidate for both governor of Pennsylvania and United States Senator.
Berg filed the suit in federal court on August 21, 2008 claiming that Barack Obama was not eligible to be president of the United States because he was not a “natural born” citizen of the United States, which is required by the Constitution. He asked that the court demand Obama and the Democratic National Committee to provide documentation proving he was eligible to be president.. He also asked for a temporary restraining order asking that Obama’s campaign be halted.
At issue was whether Barack Obama was ever an American citizen by birth, even if he is an American citizen whether he was a “natural born” citizen as the constitution requires for the president, and whether he ever lost his U.S. citizenship and, if so, whether he ever got it back.
An Internet video began circulating based on an interview with Berg. It was titled October Surprise and outlined Bergs contentions about Obama’s birth.
Most of this is has yet to be proven but in his lawsuit, Berg alleges:
· That Obama was not born in Hawaii, as he claims, but was actually born in Kenya, his father’s homeland.
· That Obama’s mother was in Kenya in the late stages of her pregnancy and airlines at the time would not let her fly back to Hawaii at such an advanced time of pregnancy.
· That Obama’s grandmother on his father’s side, a half brother, and a half sister all say Obama was born in Kenya. In October, 2008, Berg announced that he had a recording of the grandmother talking about the birth and that she was in the birth room when it took place.
· That Obama was born on August 4, 1961 but his birth was not registered in Hawaii until August 8, 1961 and that the registration and a Honolulu newspaper announcement of the birth were fabricated.
· That there is not agreement in Obama’s family about what hospital in which he was allegedly born in Hawaii.
· That according to Wayne Madison, a journalist with Online Journal, a GOP research team sent to Mombosa, Kenya, found a certificate registering the birth of Barack Obama, Jr. at a maternity hospital indicating his birth to a Kenyan father and a U.S. mother.
· That if he was born in Kenya, he cannot be a U.S. citizen because the law stated that his mother would have had to have lived 10-years in the United States, 5 of which were after the age of 14. Since she was 18 at the time of Obama’s birth, she did not meet the residency requirements for passing U.S. citizenship to Obama.
· That when Obama’s mother married an Indonesian man and took Obama to Indonesia when he was 6-years old, he would have lost his U.S. citizenship and become Indonesian. Indonesia at the time did not recognize dual citizenship.
· That when Obama was registered to attend school in Indonesia, the registration form listed him as “Barry Soetoro” (his stepfather’s last name), listed him as Indonesian, and listed is faith as Islam.
· That according to the law at the time, Obama’s mother would have lost her U.S. citizenship by marrying an Indonesian and living in Indonesia. Four years later she returned to Hawaii and divorced her Indonesian husband. Berg said that she could have regained her U.S. citizenship by taking an oath of allegiance to the United States but that there is no record that she did. Therefore, Obama would not have been able to regain his own citizenship until the age of 18 and himself take an oath of allegiance to the U.S. Berg said there is no record of that ever happening. Berg concludes that not only may Obama not be eligible to be president, but that he may be an illegal alien.
· That Obama traveled to Pakistan at the age of 20 and traveled using an Indonesian passport. Had he regained his U.S. citizenship, according to Berg, he would have traveled using a U.S. passport.
· In response to questions about his birth, Obama posted a birth certificate on his campaign website, but Berg contends that it is a forgery and that forensic experts have determined that it is a altered version of the birth certificate of Obama’s half sister, Maya Kasandra Soetoro, who was born in Indonesia but whose birth record was also forged to make it appear that she was born in Hawaii.
· That when Obama registered for the Illinois Bar he lied and said “none” when asked about any former names.
Berg said that Obama’s lawyers were dragging their feet in providing proof of Obama’s birth and citizenship and that means “he’s a total fraud, he’s a phony, and that means he should be arrested, tried, and deported.
An eRumor got started at the beginning of October 2008, saying that the judge in the Berg case, had issued an order for Obama to produce his original birth certificate, but that was false. An article by Jon Dryer was posted on NewsWithViews.com, which has since been retracted. In it, Dryer claimed that Judge R. Barclay Surrick had made a decision in the case and had ordered Obama to present the court with evidence that he is an American citizen.
The Berg lawsuit was the latest in a series of challenges about the birth of the Democratic nominee for president, which he lists as having taken place in Hawaii on August 4, 1961.
The first was an eRumor that said that Hawaii was not a state when he was born so therefore he is not a “natural born” citizen. That one was Fiction! Hawaii was a state in 1961 and it would not have mattered because prior to that it was a U.S. Territory, which would have still qualified him as “natural born.” CLICK for more on that story.
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Among the believers in Obama's birth certificate the folks at FactCheck.org. CLICK for fact check dot org findings
The most detailed forensic investigation was posted on Atlus Shruggs, a conservative website by Pamela Geller. The investigation was done by a self described forensics expert who goes by the screen name of Techdude, but he has not been identified nor has his credentials been confirmed. Click here for report.
Jerome Corsi, the controversial conservative author of the book The Obama Nation has said in TV interviews that he believes the birth certificate is phony. He made a trip to Kenya in 2008 and told WorldNetDaily that he, too, was told that Obama was born in Kenya but when he tried to gain access to official documents about Obama’s birth, he was told they had been sealed.
In the latest chapter of this saga of Berg vs Obama, Philip Berg has issued a press release that said "Obama & DNC Admit All Allegations of Federal Court Lawsuit - Obama’s 'Not' Qualified to be President Obama Should Immediately Withdraw his Candidacy for President."
According to his website, "Berg stated that he filed Requests for Admissions on September 15, 2008 with a response by way of answer or objection had to be served within thirty [30] days. No response to the Requests for Admissions was served by way of response or objection."
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