The Obama Birth Certificate Brouhaha

The Guardian today had an article revealing the controversy in the States over Obama's birth certificate, conducted with typical liberal put-down tongue in cheek, and ending on the note that it has all been inspired by racism. Having done some investigation into this matter, I felt compelled to add my two cents' worth. Not that I hold out much hope that the Guardian will print my letter to their editor. So here it is.

"Dear Editor,

"The president of MSNBC is quoted as saying that the issue about Barack Obama's birth certificate is "racist" (Born-again right puts focus on Obama's birth certificate, 29 July). This is too facile a response. The matter is much more substantial than that.

"The matter first had to be addressed in more detail because it turned out that the document carried on the Obama camp's website was in point of fact not a copy of his original, vault-copy birth certificate - as the McCain camp provided for their candidate - but only a 'Certification of Live Birth' that the state of Hawaii issued for any child whose parents had been resident in the state for a year prior to the birth, regardless of where the child was actually born. This information coincided with reports on YouTube that his paternal grandmother said she was present at his birth in a hospital in Kenya. The Hawaiian state health director then issued a statement that, far from clearing the matter up, was ambiguous, further creating suspicion. This was exacerbated as well by the facts that Obama still refused (a) to let his original, vault-copy bc be released, and (b) to let his college application records be reviewed, as to how he presented himself for enrolment and financial support.

"Obama could have cleared this whole thing up long ago by authorizing release of his original bc. He refused to. This is not a witchhunt. This is a legitimate request for clarity on the matter.

"As for the Hawaiian state health director's recent statement: Many US citizens will no longer accept to buy a pig in a poke, with or without lipstick. It's time for Obama and his advisers to realise that the citizenry deserve total transparency in this matter. Or the poison will undermine his presidency, and his stated desire to bring about real change. Rather, it smacks of politics as usual. Not a good start.

"Yours sincerely," etc.

Perhaps the issue isn't clear enough to non-Americans. The Constitution of the US is very clear on it: that a candidate for the office of the president must be a natural born citizen, ie, of at least one US citizen on US soil. Indeed, Sen. McCain's candidacy was also up for question, because although he was born of two US parents, he was not born in the continental US, or on US soil. His case was that he was born in a US military base in the Panama Canal, and so that counted as at least de facto American soil. However, it turned out that he was not in fact born on the base - even if that argument could have passed constitutional muster - but in a hospital in Panama City. However as well, that issue became moot when he lost the election.

Back to Obama's case. It is a very murky matter. I didn't have space in my letter to mention other aspects: the age (read: underage) of his mother at his birth, with a British-Kenyan citizen for a father; his mother's subsequent marriage to an Indonesian citizen, where dual citizenship is not recognised, thus he must have become a citizen of that country and lost his purported US citizenship; what his passport gave as his citizenship when he traveled to Pakistan; and the fact that two different hospitals in Honolulu have been given as his place of birth, including by his half-sister from his mother's marriage to the Indonesian. What, in short, is going on here?

And incidentally, the first comment by the Hawaiian state health director, which I referred to as "ambiguous", was even more than that. With all the rumours and theories going around at the time, and total transparency being clearly called for, it was just plain outright slippery. She said that she and a colleague had looked at Obama's hospital record, and could verify that the Hawaii State Department of Health "has [his] original birth certificate on record, in accordance with state policies and procedures". Full stop.

Say what? And? And.......??

Outrageous.

And American citizens continue to be outraged by all this stonewalling. Citizens, who have to pony up certified copies of their true birth certificates to get a passport and so forth - what makes Obama think that he's any better than anybody else. Etc etc.

It's not only a major public relations disaster on his part. It's quite possibly a cover-up of the real facts. Which won't be known, until he consents to have his original, long-form bc released. If it still exists. Untouched.

There's more, than even most of those who have been following this saga closely know about. It turns out that his background in Illinois, before he started his political rise, has some murky aspects to it as well. To do with his time at a law firm called Sidley Austin. Where he met his subsequent wife. Who has some very murky aspects to her story as well. To do with things like the alternative picture for America of the Weather Underground, and computer technology gaining a cabal of people access to various secure sites, including airplanes engineered into flying bombs, and the capability to issue passports to selected people, like hired assassins, and to intriguing characters like one Barry Soetoro. Who needed help in cleaning up his US passport act....

What a tangled web people weave, when first they think to deceive. Or something like that.....