Obama Citizenship

Historical News Articles and FactCheck Agree: Obama is Kenyan-born

By Phil

What had been a footnote to a recent posting on this site — as originally broke by TheBirthers.org — has become a whirl-wind of unearthed historical documents that were originally posted long before Mr. Obama’s eligibility had ever become the subject of scrutiny. In fact, TheObamaFile.com has compiled a number of links to these various stories:

• Kenya Sunday Standard headline — “Kenyan-born Obama all set for US Senate”
• The Nigerian Observer — “Americans will today go to the polls to elect their next President with Democratic Party candidate, Senator Barack Obama largely favoured to win.  The Kenyan-born Senator will…”
• USAfrica — “Kenyan-born OBAMA makes history…wins presidential nomination of U. S. Democratic party; eyes on White House…”
• AllAfrica.com — ” Little wonder then why Kenyan-born Barack Obama, America’s first Black President…”
• GraphicGhana.com — “For Ghana, Obama’s visit will be a celebration of another milestone in African history as it hosts the first-ever African-American President on this presidential visit to the continent of his birth.” The same article, with the same quote, appeared in ModernGhana.com.
• The Ghana Times — “So far, the odds favour the once underdog in American politics, Obama, the African-American Senator from Illinois state. A Congressional Quarterly (CQ) politics monitored on BBC put the Kenyan born American ahead of his rivel, John McCain.”

From the comment section:

• (”AmericanDaughter“) NPR.org — “…She also describes the stories that have been exciting, including the U.S. presidential race of Kenyan-born Sen. Barack Obama.”
• (”AmericanDaughter“) AllAfrica.com — “Kampala ? Ugandans have formed a group to mobilise support for Kenyan born-senator, Barack Obama for the US presidency.”

I also extensively covered Mr. Obama’s July trip to Ghana here.

Eric Dondero of the LibertarianRepublican blog points out that the opposition doesn’t really have much to go on to refute the above articles:

From Eric Dondero:

The story first broke this morning, on Don Suber’s blog, Bob McClarty’s site, and on World Net Daily.

Suber wrote:

I checked.

Apparently that is a true image from the June 24, 2004, Standard, which is Kenya?s oldest newspaper.

Meanwhile, AudacityofHypocrisy notes: link to this story. The news is now deleted from Kenya newspaper website.

Obots.org, the popular Left site that debunks Birther claims issued this curious statement later in the day:

Speculation abounds about how the birthers found this obscure article which doesn?t appear to be on any search engine, and it has been suggested that the article is a fake; but that?s not likely. More likely is the fact that Barack Obama (the President?s father) was born in Kenya just led to a little confusion. I mean after all, if folks today can?t find a shred of evidence to support the crazy idea the President was born in Kenya today, how could a newspaper back in 2004 have found anything (particularly when the article was just a small Kenya-twist embellishment on an AP story).

Libertarian Republican Contributing Writer and Internationally-syndicated Columnist JB Williams had this to say:

“They know it’s real… It’s a real publication. Yes, it’s been scrubbed [newspaper's archives], but they missed some. I pulled some other incriminating articles just today… most especially about Obama’s Muslim background and upbringing and ties to Odinga… there’s articles of people referring to Obama as America’s Odinga.”

Williams is doing further investigation, and promises to release his findings next week right here at LR.

Also, according to the Obots.org quote, apparently they would have one believe that every story mistakenly featured Mr. Obama’s father as being the would-be Senator from Illinois. Unless the evidence were to show up, this theory appears highly doubtful (especially when the verbiage specifically brings context to that other federal office of Mr. Obama’s previous employment).

And as I had reported from attorney Leo Donofrio back in December, 2008, he goes on to further point out that Mr. Obama’s at birth Kenyan citizenship could be enough to substantially disqualify him from being eligible to be President (a very poignant point to which FactCheck has long since admitted):

It is undisputed that Obama was Kenyan-born by the blood of his father.  That led to his Kenyan citizenship having been automatically granted in 1963 by the Kenya Independence Act.

JUS SANGUINIS

The legal concept by which it is undisputed that President Obama was ?Kenyan-born? is ?jus sanguinis?, which means ?right of blood?.

Furthermore, President Obama admitted that, under the British Nationality Act of 1948 ? at the time of his birth ? he was a British citizen.  It has also been accurately reported by Factcheck.org that President Obama became a Kenyan citizen in 1963.  (However, a separate key aspect of that report was false and eventually corrected by Factcheck who cited this blog?s report and analysis in their mea culpa.  Please also note their second mea culpa to this blog.)

JUS SOLI

Unfortunately, the undisputed legal fact of Obama?s jus sanguinis foreign birth has been supplanted by the sensational conspiracy theory relating to the place of his birth.  The headline from the 2004 Kenyan news report does not indicate whether ?Kenyan-born? relates to Obama?s  Kenyan bloodline or ? in the alternative ? to his place of birth.  Place of birth citizenship is conferred by a legal concept known as ?jus soli?, meaning law of the soil.

Please don?t miss the forest for the trees.  President Obama admits to having been a British citizen at birth by law and a son of Kenyan blood which led to automatic Kenyan citizenship in 1963.  This alone should disqualify him from POTUS eligibility ? regardless of where he was born ? since he was a dual citizen at birth and at least until 1984.

Article 2 Section 1 Clause 5 of the US Constitution requires the President to be a natural born citizen.

This is an attribute only available at birth.

Whether a person (who admits having been) born subject to the laws of a foreign power can become Commander In Chief of the US armed forces is a genuine and necessary question of law, not a conspiracy theory.

Mr. Donofrio also mentions that being a natural born citizen isn’t so much a right of the executive office as it’s a national security measure:

The Constitutional requirements to be POTUS are not rights, they are national security measures.  Even natural born citizens who fail to meet the other requirements cannot be President.  For example, a 33-year-old natural born citizen cannot be President.  But 33-year-old men have no more rights than 35-year-old men.  Understand? Requirements are not rights.

As related side notes to this story, lead Plaintiff Charles Kerchner of Kerchner v. Obama found this link to a September, 2000 report from the Department of Health and Human Services regarding birth certificate fraud, and WorldNetDaily reports on a failed 2004 congressional proposal that would have attempted to let naturalized citizens become President.

See the following links regarding the eligibility saga:

• The background:
  • Obama?s Presidential Eligibility: What You Need to Know
  • Obama’s Sealed Background Documentation
  • Obama Citizenship Facts
  • What’s the Difference Between a Birth Certification Versus a Birth Certificate
• The questions:
  • Leo Donofrio Affirms FightTheSmears.com?s Obama Citizenship Admission
  • Fallible FactCheck.org: TheBirthers, Donofrio Cause Change on Obama Citizenship
  • Newsmax.com: Obama Birth Certificate Not Released
  • Keyes v. Lingle: Forensic Examiner and IT Expert Disprove Certification of Live Birth
  • The State Department and Sen. Patrick Leahy’s (D-VT) Natural Born Citizen Resolution (April 10, 2008)
  • Citizen Grand Jury Updates and Eligibility Lawsuit Listing

-Phil

Subscriptions -=- Twitter: @trsol -=- Facebook (TRSoL) -=- Facebook (Rightside Phil)

Photo courtesy AtlasShrugs

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on October 18, 2009 (boomark / email).