The Obama Cult

My orig­i­nal Novem­ber 15, 2008, arti­cle is updated here as this is a cru­cial mat­ter in respect to our Con­sti­tu­tion and who we accept in the office of Pres­i­dent. It is sur­real that Barack Obama has refused to release the records nec­es­sary to resolve the mat­ter of his eli­gi­bil­ity to be pres­i­dent. Ignor­ing this will not change the Con­sti­tu­tion, nor will those con­cerned allow the mat­ter to wither away. Either Barack Obama is or is not eli­gi­ble to be Pres­i­dent of the United States.

In the con­tin­u­ing news sur­round­ing Obama’s cit­i­zen­ship is Janet Porter’s claim that Obama did not get his first pass­port until after becom­ing a U.S. Sen­a­tor. This adds weight to his non-U.S. cit­i­zen­ship as his pri­mary or declared cit­i­zen­ship. Did he travel to Pak­istan using his Indone­sian, Kenyan, or British cit­i­zen­ship? Porter notes that his 1981 travel to Indone­sia and Pak­istan were after his mother’s 1980 return from Indone­sia and divorce from her Indone­sian hus­band. Thus, adding more ques­tions to Obama’s story and cred­i­bil­ity as he claimed to have trav­eled first to see her, then to go on to Pak­istan for a three week visit. She also revis­its ear­lier ques­tions about his allegedly forged birth cer­tifi­cate released by the cam­paign that has been repeat­edly called into question.

As I pre­vi­ous wrote…

A new chal­lenge to Sen­a­tor Barack Obama’s cit­i­zen­ship was filed Novem­ber 12th in Cal­i­for­nia demand­ing that the court stop cer­ti­fi­ca­tion of the elec­tion results until the state’s sec­re­tary of state can ascer­tain from Sen­a­tor Obama his legal qual­i­fi­ca­tion to be a can­di­date for Pres­i­dent. This 18 page peti­tion is a quick read. It offers a good sum­mary of what is at stake and the ques­tions that sur­round Sen­a­tor Obama’s citizenship.

A few points:

• Peti­tion­ers Ambas­sador Dr. Alan Keyes, Dr. Wiley S. Drake, Sr., and Markham Robin­son, estab­lish their stand­ing to file the peti­tion as mem­bers of the Amer­i­can Inde­pen­dent Party, for which Drs. Keyes and Drake were pres­i­den­tial and vice-​presidential can­di­dates on California’s bal­lot, respect­fully. (This is a tech­ni­cal point that doomed some other lawsuits.)
• Peti­tion­ers note that Sen­a­tor Obama has not pro­vided proof of his cit­i­zen­ship eli­gi­bil­ity despite repeated requests dur­ing the pri­mary and gen­eral elec­tion campaigns.
• Peti­tion­ers note that action in at least 10 states is under­way chal­leng­ing Sen­a­tor Obama’s eligibility.
• Peti­tion­ers note that the 2007 birth cer­tifi­cate offered by Sen­a­tor Obama is of ques­tion­able cred­i­bil­ity for sev­eral rea­sons, includ­ing that it is a copy of sus­pect authen­tic­ity and that it does not detail actual birth location.
• Peti­tion­ers note that the only per­son claim­ing wit­ness to Sen­a­tor Obama’s birth is his own pater­nal grand­mother who claims he was actu­ally born in Kenya, then the British East African Pro­tec­torate of Zanz­ibar. Other records and rec­ol­lec­tions of fam­ily mem­bers sug­gest either Queens Hos­pi­tal or Kapi­olani Hos­pi­tal in Hawaii. The dis­closed Reg­istry of Live Birth is a short-​form of the birth cer­tifi­cate that does not state whether Obama was born in Hawaii or that his birth was sub­se­quently reg­is­tered there within the year fol­low­ing birth as then allowed by state law.
• Peti­tion­ers note that around 1967, Sen­a­tor Obama moved to Indone­sia with his mother and new step­fa­ther. Records indi­cate that once in Indone­sia he adopted his stepfather’s name and cit­i­zen­ship. Since dual cit­i­zen­ship was not allowed by Indone­sian law, and U.S. law and treaty oblig­a­tions required respect of this, Mrs. Obama-​Soetoro had to relin­quish her minor son’s U.S. cit­i­zen­ship. Else­where, they note that if he later recov­ered it, and no records appar­ently sub­stan­ti­ate this, it would by law be as a “nat­u­ral­ized” cit­i­zen, not a “nat­ural born” and, thus, inel­i­gi­ble for the office of Pres­i­dent under the Constitution.
• Peti­tion­ers also note that in 1961 what is now known as Kenya was then the British Pro­tec­torate of Zanz­ibar which, if he was born there as his pater­nal grand­mother claims, he would be a British cit­i­zen based on his father’s citizenship.
• Peti­tion­ers also note that in 1981 Sen­a­tor Obama trav­eled to Pak­istan, which was then banned by the U.S. Since he could not legally travel with a U.S. pass­port, they ques­tion whether he used one of his other pass­ports: Indone­sian, Kenyan, or British. (Inter­est­ing point is that the peti­tion­ers state affir­ma­tively that he had other passports.)

I am curi­ous to see how this case fares in the courts. The ques­tion of Sen­a­tor Obama’s cit­i­zen­ship and con­sti­tu­tional eli­gi­bil­ity have never been set­tled. In fact, Sen­a­tor Obama has resisted at every step to release his birth cer­tifi­cate and other rel­e­vant records that would resolve this mat­ter. That he has fought this sug­gests the infor­ma­tion is at least embar­rass­ing, if not disqualifying.

On August 14, 2008, I wrote a detailed arti­cle, What is Obama’s Cit­i­zen­ship?, where I explored some of the ques­tions about Sen­a­tor Obama’s cit­i­zen­ship. I asked eight ques­tions (seven per­ti­nent to this dis­cus­sion) that are still sub­stan­tially unan­swered today:

1. Are you now a U.S. citizen?
2. Have you ever held as a youth or adult, cit­i­zen­ship in another country?
3. Did you ever pos­sess or travel using, at least in part, the pass­port of another coun­try? (E.g., while in Indone­sia, vis­it­ing Pak­istan, Kenya)
4. Did you renounce any for­eign cit­i­zen­ship, and when, and do you now hold solely U.S. cit­i­zen­ship today?
5. Can you con­firm or deny your name change as a youth from Barack Hus­sein Obama II to Barry Soe­toro when you were adopted by your step-​father?
6. Did you legally reclaim your birth name? When and how?
7. Why did you not list your adopted name Barry Soe­toro on any forms asso­ci­ated with your legal pro­fes­sion or oth­ers that ask for any other names you have ever used? Have you now or will you update these records?

In regards to ques­tions 1 – 4, Sen­a­tor Obama’s own Web site says he was, through his father, a British cit­i­zen and that this British/​Kenya cit­i­zen­ship “auto­mat­i­cally expired August 4, 1982.” That it “expired” doesn’t explain if he had pass­ports and used them, nor does it address his poten­tial Indone­sian cit­i­zen­ship or how these were rec­on­ciled with his U.S. cit­i­zen­ship, espe­cially where laws and treaties pro­hib­ited dual citizenship.

So, when will we see proof that Sen­a­tor Obama is or is not a con­sti­tu­tion­ally eli­gi­ble cit­i­zen? Before or after he takes office? As Keyes et al note, the lat­ter will cause “irrepara­ble harm in that an usurper will be sit­ting as the Pres­i­dent of the United States, and none of the treaties, laws, or exec­u­tive orders signed by him will be valid or legal.”

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