10 Facts that Suggest Birthers are Fake

This is a response to an article: “10 Facts That Suggest Obama’s Birth Certificate is Fake” at MrConservative.com. The bold-face numbered items are from that article.

1. No one knows where Obama’s real birth certificate is.

We actually know exactly where it is. Fox News reported in 2011:

More than a month before Donald Trump began his media blitzkrieg over the issue of President Obama’s birth certificate, the document was quietly moved to a more secure location within a dual combination-key lock safe inside the state’s health department vault.

The certificate was moved there by Alvin Onaka, Hawaii’s State Registrar, in response to what had already become an increasing number of media requests by FoxNews.com and others, according to sources.

2. Classmates at Colombia (sic) University think Obama lied about going there.

Maybe “Wayne Allen (sic) Root” doesn’t remember Obama, but others do. See, for example, this article at Columbia College Today. There are also Columbia classmate interviews in the PBS/Frontline video, The Choice 2012.

3. British National Archives confirm Obama Sr. had a child in 1961 Kenya [Photo of fake certificate from Lucas Smith shown]

No one has ever produced a shred of evidence that such documentation ever existed in the British National Archives, but there is ample evidence from the US archives obtained by FOIA that Barack Obama Sr. was in the US continuously from 1959-1964.

4. Obama claimed in a literary agent’s bio that he was born in Kenya.

The literary agent says otherwise. The author of that bio, Miriam Goderich, told Yahoo News:

You’re undoubtedly aware of the brouhaha stirred up by Breitbart about the erroneous statement in a client list Acton & Dystel published in 1991 (for circulation within the publishing industry only) that Barack Obama was born in Kenya.  This was nothing more than a fact checking error by me — an agency assistant at the time.  There was never any information given to us by Obama in any of his correspondence or other communications suggesting in any way that he was born in Kenya and not Hawaii.  I hope you can communicate to your readers that this was a simple mistake and nothing more.

5. Obama used the name Barry Sotero (sic) when he went to college.

Obama used the nickname “Barry” in high school and for a while in college, but he never went under the name “Sotero” (or “Soetoro”). He’s on graduation lists as Obama, and his college friends knew him as Obama. There are many interviews of Obama’s college friends in David Maraniss’ biography, Barack Obama: The story. There’s no College document anywhere liking the President to any name but “Obama.”

6. Yahoo News posted Obama’s country of birth is Kenya…….. By accident?

If you visit that Yahoo News article today, it says:

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the president’s birthplace.

Where does Mr. Conservative think Yahoo got their earlier information? Facts need a source, and there is none.

7. Document examiner tied to Obama’s attorney says Obama’s birth certificate is fake.

This one may have a grain of truth in it; however, the report of that document examiner, Reed Hayes has never been published, and Hayes himself refuses to discuss it publicly. All we have is second-hand reports of what he supposedly said. In any case, forensic document examiners typically work with original documents, not software-compressed 2nd generation photocopies.

The statement “tied to Obama’s attorney” is a bit misleading. Hayes once did unspecified work for an attorney in Seattle who works at a large national law form, Perkins-Coie, many years before that firm started representing Barack Obama and the Obama for America campaign.

8. Obama’s selective service card bears a number showing that it was issued in 2008.

The Selective Service System verifies the card as authentic, since it came from them!The serial number on the card is from 1980, when Obama was supposed to register. Copies of the 1980 form were first obtained in 2008 (during the Bush Administration) of Obama’s registration. Selective Service also confirmed that their computer records show Obama registered in 1980. What Mr. Conservative calls “forensic analysis” was done by a volunteer with no background in document analysis, nor any special skills., someone trying to find a way to discredit it, not an objective investigator.  It is true that the century part of the date on a postal stamp is missing on the form, but poor postal stamp images with parts missing are common. A fake card wouldn’t have made a mistake like that. Other articles on this site dealing with selective service discuss this in more detail.

9. There at least five Social Security numbers associated with men named Barack H. Obama who lived in at addresses associated with President Barack H. Obama.

This is a large topic, but the main issue is that this information (and I have never actually seen the 5 numbers listed anywhere) comes from large unverified public records aggregation databases. These database are full of errors. No one has actually found a public record for Barack Obama using any other than his known social-security number. All they have is unverified index entries. Other articles on this site (and there are many) deal with this topic.

10. Alabama Supreme Court reviewed shocking evidence that Obama’s birth certificate is likely a forgery.

The affidavit from Mike Zullo (a fellow who was a policeman a few decades ago, a used car sales man and bar bouncer) was submitted to the Alabama Supreme Court in the Case of McInnish v. Chapman. Since that affidavit, consisting of hearsay and bits copied off the Internet, had no relevance to the narrow question of Alabama law before the court, it’s unknown whether they reviewed it or not. In any case, the appeal to which the affidavit was attached, was denied by the Court.

Conclusion

It’s a pretty pathetic list, poor even by birther standards.