Recently, birthers have been recycling long-discredited rumors about Barack Obama. One way to recycle rumors is to aggregate them into a pile, where they look more impressive than singly. One such aggregation of old news appeared on the Orly Taitz blog from a commenter named “Adam.” I respond to this compilation of people who have said Obama was born in Kenya by asking the obvious question: how do they know? I ask because if there is no way they could have know, then they don’t know.
Kenyan National Assembly members state at various times that Obama was born in Kenya and is not a native born American:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/36604073/
The link in the proceeding is not any official source; it’s to a newspaper ad, but there are a couple of quotations from Kenyan politicians that say, or might be understood to say, that President Obama was born in Kenya. I ask: how do they know? They were not speaking about where Obama was born, but about something else, using Obama just as an example. They weren’t authoritative statements on the subject of the President’s birthplace. Have you never heard a US politician make a glaring mistake, shoot from the hip, run off their mouth with their brain not engaged? If the Kenyan politicians don’t give a source, then don’t know any more than anyone else.
Kenyan Ambassador to the United States says on a U.S. radio show that Obama’s birth location in Kenya is well known:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zH4GX3Otf14
In this case the Ambassador was misunderstood. He talked about the Obama birth place being a popular tourist attraction. That refers to Kogelo Village where Barack Obama Sr. was born. When contacted next day, a spokesperson for the Ambassador stated flat out that the Ambassador had no information about where President Obama was born. We needn’t ask how he knew, because he tells us that he didn’t.
Newspapers in Kenya and other African countries report as far back as 2004 that Obama is Kenyan born:
http://www.scribd.com/my_document_collections/2441535
A very few, relatively speaking, of these did appear. However, they never give sources, and they don’t explain how they knew. Some printed retractions.
Obama’s family members in Kenya say he was born there:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=107524
Obama family members might reasonably know where the President was born, but they never said he was born in Kenya. They consistently say he was born in Hawaii.
Michelle Obama the wife of Barack Hussein Obama says in 2008 that Kenya is her husband’s “home country”:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx4Afe1NVYI
Figure of speech. Even if Michelle Obama knew her husband were born in Kenya, she would never say so in public.
Michelle Obama the wife of Barack Hussein Obama in 2007 says her husband is a Kenyan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rep-MB-wbkU
Figure of speech. Even if Michelle Obama knew her husband were born in Kenya, she would never say so in public.
NPR radio says that Obama is Kenyan born:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=138293
How do they know? What source do they have that is not available to all of us? Anyway, they corrected the mistake quickly.
Gov Richardson of New Mexico says Obama is an immigrant:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEjGmT1gmcw
How does he know? Whatever he meant, he has no way to know if President Obama was born in Kenya.
School records in Indonesia report that he is an Indonesian citizen:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=72667
Those school records also say he was born in Hawaii. If you accept the school record, then you have to throw out everything that says Obama was born in Kenya. According to school officials, the nationality of the parent (in this case Lolo Soetoro) was usually put down for nationality, as was the religion, Islam. Obama becoming an Indonesian citizen was impossible both under US and Indonesian law.
No hospital records exist in Hawaii proving Obama was born there per Tim Adams a 2008 Hawaii Election official’s sworn affidavit:
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=254401
How does Adams know? The best he has said is that it was an office rumor or something his supervisor told him. How did the supervisor know? The Elections Division does not have access to any birth records in Hawaii. They had no way to know, so they don’t know.
Obama’s Hawaiian birth registration records was likely created by an affidavit led by Obama’s maternal grandmother declaring him born at home with no witnesses using a simple mail-in form available in 1961 simply to gain her new foreign born grandson Citizenship. Birth registration fraud to gain Citizenship occurs now and it occurred then. His vital records were likely subsequently amended upon the marriage of his mother to her second husband, Lolo Soetoro in Hawaii. His official name in the vital records of Hawaii may show his name still as Soetoro. The online Certification of Live Birth (COLB) is a forgery:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmZpwcRf3FQ
So how do they know this? Given that all the details on Obama long-form birth certificate have been verified by the State of Hawaii, and in particular that President Obama was born in a hospital, this is clearly not true.
This particular list omitted the publicist’s brochure mentioning that Obama was born in Kenya. However, the author of that brochure stated specifically that she had no information from Obama that it was true. So asking how did she know, we know the answer: she didn’t.
The general response: how did then know, or how do you know, is a fairly non-aggressive way to argue, and quickly arrive at the result that the speaker believes something without good reason and really does not know.
Read more:
- “Barack Obama, Son of Africa” at Obama Conspiracy Theories
- The Debunker’s Guide to Obama Conspiracy Theories
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