Barack Obama Was Born in Hawaii

Four years ago last Friday, the Birther 'movement' effectively began, as the web began demanding to see Obama's birth certificate. Four years ago today, it was published online. And yet today, Birthers continue to issue demands, and continue to claim that others have accepted Obama's birthplace on "blind faith."

Of course, it's anything but blind faith. Over the past four years, Obama's birth has been thoroughly documented and verified and re-verified. Below is a collection of many, but still not all, of the documentary evidence supporting Obama's 1961 birth in Honolulu.

Barack Obama Was Born in Hawaii

Obama's State Senate Webpage (1999)

The Birther meme following the Breitbart story has been that Obama claimed he was born in Kenya for 17 years. One of the ways of demonstrating this is false is to show examples of Obama's biography from during that time, either not claiming a foreign birth or explicitly stating that he was born in Hawaii. Particularly if they were biographies that he was more likely to see.

Thus, here is a screenshot of Obama's State Senate webpage biography, as it appeared on October 1, 1999:

"Biography: Attorney; born Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii..."

Barack Obama in Crain's Chicago Business's 1993 "40 Under 40"

In the wake of Breitbart.com's promotion of a 1991 literary agency's biography of a young Barack Obama, there's been increased interest in some circles as to how the President represented himself prior to the start of his political career. And while so much has already been republished online in the last four years, from newspaper articles to videos of book panels, I found one that's been almost completely overlooked.

Crain's Chicago Business publishes an annual "40 Under 40" list of young up-and-comers in the Windy City. And in its September 27, 1993 list, 33-year-old Barack Obama was among those honored. (As a soon-to-be 34-year-old, I suddenly feel like an underachiever.) This recognition has been noted in several of Obama's early biographical sketches, and was quoted from on the Fight the Smears website. But as far as I can tell, it's never been published online in its entirety.

BARACK OBAMA, 33

DIRECTOR
ILLINOIS PROJECT VOTE

Last year, Barack Obama galvanized Chicago's political community as no seasoned politico had before.

The director of Illinois Project Vote orchestrated an unwieldy band of 10 staff members and 700 volunteers to the tune of 150,000 new voters for the general election, the highest number registered in a single effort.

"Under Barack's leadership, we had the most successful, cost-effective, and orderly registration drive I've ever been involved with," says Alderman Sam Burell of the West Side's 29th Ward.

For Mr. Obama, an attorney and community organizer by profession, the job fit two of his aspirations: political reformer and entrepreneur for social justice.

"Temperamentally, I'm more suited to the latter. Practically, it's very difficult."

In fact, his catch phrase of late is "building institutions," although he's not yet sure what to build to achieve his most ambitious goal: to improve the quality of life for the working class and the poor.

Meantime, the 1991 Harvard Law School grad works at David Miner Barnhill & Galland, a small firm that handles civil rights cases and community development projects. He also lectures at the University of Chicago Law School on issues of race and law - topics that evoke strong feelings for him.

Born to a white American mother and a Kenyan father, Mr. Obama was raised in Hawaii and Indonesia and likes to impose his world view on racial issues. "I'm in a unique position," he explains.

He's used to uniqueness. In 1990, his election as president of the Harvard Law Review broke the publication's color lines and made newspaper headlines.

Rather than waltz the traditional path to a Supreme Court clerkship, however, he opted to direct Project Vote, write a book on race relations (to be published by Random House next year), and assist community groups in urban real estate development.

"If you have the chance to go to Harvard Law School, it's no accomplishment to be (just) a partner in a law firm," he observes. "It is an accomplishment to make a difference."

Crains

(Scan courtesy of Whatever4)

Jack Cashill Brags About Fake Award From Fake Law School

Jack Cashill is the man behind the accusations that William Ayers ghostwrote Obama's memoir, Dreams From My Father. Last year, Cashill released a book on the subject, Deconstructing Obama.

Currently, over at his website cashill.com, Jack is proudly bragging about that work being recognized:

"News: Deconstructing Obama just won book of the year for 2011 at Lysander Spooner Law School."

Funny thing, though: there is no Lysander Spooner Law School.

The "school" is nothing more than a bare-bones blog, with sections on Terry Lakin and "Pretensidential Politics" [sic]. If you Google the name, the second result is Cashill's own website.

The site is run by a single person, Kenneth Olsen. He said that in setting up the site, he hoped for people to "apply for admission at a low cost, and earn a diploma if you pass my tests." In other words, he wanted to sell people fake law degrees.

He's also, unsurprisingly, an avid Birther, who has lately been trolling over at ObamaConspiracy.org. One of his other websites is the not-at-all-racist http://jiveasspresident.com/.

But the extent of Olsen's silliness is beside the point. It's Cashill who's important here.

In the Media Matters-themed article that can be seen at the bottom of the screenshot above, Cashill complains about how he is not taken seriously as a journalist or a researcher. Perhaps this is why. He's bragging about having won a nonexistent award, from a nonexistent law school. Not just in passing, or buried in a bio; it's prominently displayed at the top of his website. Since he links to the page where Olsen made up this crap about an award, Cashill is also fully aware of what the website for LysanderSpoonerLawSchool.org looks like, and it looks nothing like an actual law school website.

So if he can't spot the difference between a law school website and an internet troll's blog, and if he can't be bothered to take two seconds to do a web search for the 'school' that supposedly honored him, why should anyone take him seriously about his ability to spot similarities between writing styles?

Or worse, what if Cashill did spot the difference, and did realize that the school was fictitious, but still decided to brag about having "just won book of the year for 2011 at Lysander Spooner Law School" anyway?

WND's Farah Lifts From the L.A. Times and the AP?

In reaction to my blog post from last week, documenting the uncredited lifting of text in a Jerome Corsi article, WND appended an 'Editor's Note' to Corsi's article, claiming that the "error" was the result of unscrupulous (and still anonymous) "Kenyan researchers". No further explanation has followed.

I then wondered if these same "Kenyan researchers" were responsible for the Aaron Klein article from two weeks earlier, where he appears to have cribbed from a CNN editorial.

Now we can further ask whether these same "Kenyan researchers" must also be to blame for Farah's own November 22 column, "Civil rights and civil wrongs", which was published less than a month before Corsi's article. Because Farah's writing bears an uncanny resemblance to articles by the Los Angeles Times and the Associated Press. And Farah's column contains no links or citations whatsoever, much less to the L.A. Times or to the AP specifically.

Here are some comparisons of the text, with quotes from Farah's column italicized, and word-for-word identical text bolded:

Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2011:

Students and teachers at the trial testified that King had been dressing in women's accessories and wearing makeup, and was flirting aggressively with male students on campus who did not want the attention.

Joseph Farah, November 25, 2011:

For whatever reasons, the 14-year-old was acting up by dressing in girls' clothing, wearing makeup and flirting aggressively with other young boys in his junior high school in Oxnard.

Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2011:

The victim's mother, Dawn King, revealed for the first time Monday that she had contacted school officials four days before the shooting in an effort to solicit their cooperation in toning down her son's behavior. The boy had been taken from the Kings' home two months earlier by authorities because of domestic problems.

Joseph Farah, November 25, 2011:

Dawn King said she contacted school officials to solicit their cooperation in getting her son to tone down his behavior. Two months earlier, Larry King was taken from his parents because of domestic problems.

(Note: So far, you'll notice, there is at least the effort to rearrange the sentences, rather than simply cutting-and-pasting them. It seems that midway through "writing" this column, that proved to be too much work...)

Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2011:

She said she was told that her son had a civil right to explore his sexual identity.

"I knew, gut instinct, that something serious was going to happen," she said. "They should have contained him, contained his behavior."

Joseph Farah, November 25, 2011:

Mrs. King was told by school officials that her son had a civil right to explore his sexual identity.

"I knew, gut instinct, that something serious was going to happen," she said. "They should have contained him, contained his behavior."

Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2011:

School administrators sent a memo advising teachers to give King his space, but to report safety problems.
Teachers at the trial testified that when they tried to report growing tensions between King and several boys, school leaders shunned them.

Joseph Farah, November 25, 2011:

Prior to the shooting, school administrators sent a memo advising teachers to leave King alone, but to report safety problems.
Teachers at the trial testified that when they tried to report growing tensions between King and several boys, school leaders shunned them.

Los Angeles Times, November 22, 2011:

Assistant Principal Joy Epstein has come under criticism for allegedly being more intent on protecting King's civil rights than in acknowledging that his dress and behavior were causing problems.

"It was reported, more than once, by more than one person,'' said English teacher Dawn Boldrin. "It was documented. There is paperwork on this. She kept saying that she didn't know and she did. She knew. She did. Everybody knew."

Joseph Farah, November 25, 2011:

Assistant Principal Joy Epstein has come under criticism for allegedly being more intent on protecting King's "civil rights" than in acknowledging that his dress and behavior were causing problems.

"It was reported, more than once, by more than one person,'' said English teacher Dawn Boldrin. "It was documented. There is paperwork on this. She kept saying that she didn't know and she did. She knew. She did. Everybody knew."

Associated Press, November 22, 2011:

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said in a statement the plea agreement ends a tragic chapter.

"Ventura County along with communities and school districts everywhere must come together to promote a culture of respect and nurture the true potential found in every individual regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression," Byard said.

Joseph Farah, November 25, 2011:

In the aftermath of this wholly preventable tragedy, Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said in a statement the plea agreement ends a tragic chapter:

"Ventura County along with communities and school districts everywhere must come together to promote a culture of respect and nurture the true potential found in every individual regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression."

So once again, why exactly should anyone believe in the existence of these "Kenyan researchers"? And why are there three different articles, by three different senior WND writers, all within the span of a single month, that have committed the same journalistic offense?

WND's Aaron Klein cribs from CNN?

So WND now says that the seeming plagiarism in Jerome Corsi's article was the fault of anonymous "Kenyan researchers," and that the "unattributed references" were "unknown to WND."

Whether you trust WND's explanation may come down to whether you believe WND's writers would knowingly include unattributed references in their articles. Perhaps you would consider whether they had done so recently.

Take, for instance, Aaron Klein's December 9, 2011 article, "Naturalizer Newt: Gingrich's shifting views on immigration".

Now take this November 29th CNN editorial by William J. Bennett.

Now let's compare them:

CNN, Nov. 29:

Gingrich's call for a "humane" immigration policy in last Tuesday's CNN debate sounded too much like amnesty to many conservatives.

Aaron Klein, Dec. 9:

During a CNN debate two weeks ago, Gingrich called for a "humane" immigration policy that would grant legality for an untold number of illegal immigrants, something that sounds a lot like amnesty to conservative critics.

CNN, Nov. 29:

...only grant legality, not full citizenship, to anyone who has entered the country illegally should they meet stringent requirements.

Aaron Klein, Dec. 9:

Although legality, not full citizenship, would be given to those who meet stringent requirements,

CNN, Nov. 29:

Only those who can sustain themselves without government assistance (Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.) and pay for their own private health insurance would be eligible to stay.

Aaron Klein, Dec. 9:

only those who can sustain themselves without government assistance and pay for their own private health insurance would be eligible to stay in the country with legal status.

CNN, Nov. 29:

An independent, local "citizen's review" board would grant legal status based on the requirements above as well as the immigrant's standing in his or her community. Should they be permitted to stay, they will still be subject to a $5,000 penalty.

Aaron Klein, Dec. 9:

...an independent, local "citizen's review" board that would grant legal status based on the financial independence requirements and the immigrant's standing in his or her community. Each individual permitted to stay would be subject to a $5,000 penalty.

And finally, the real kicker, the word-for-word swipe:

CNN, Nov. 29:

...full control of the border by January 1, 2014. All government resources necessary would be made available for this, including "round-the-clock drone flights" and "multi-layer, strategic fencing in urban areas."

Aaron Klein, Dec. 9:

...full control of the border by Jan. 1, 2014. All government resources necessary would be made available for this, including "round-the-clock drone flights" and "multi-layer, strategic fencing in urban areas," Gingrich says.

Now admittedly, this is hardly the worst case of unattributed borrowing out there. But Klein clearly cribbed from Bennett's editorial, borrowing word choices and sentence structure and even whole phrases, and there is no link or attribution to either Bennett or CNN.

More importantly, this was published on WND on December 9, just ten days before Corsi's article that similarly (but more blatantly) swiped from the London Evening Standard and the AFP. So how much benefit of the doubt do you want to give WND in believing their story about "Kenyan researchers" being to blame for Corsi's conduct? Are "Kenyan researchers" also to blame for Bennett's words showing up in Klein's article?

WND's Corsi Plagiarizes the London Evening Standard and the AFP?

Several months back I illustrated how Brad O'Leary, in his WND-published book The Audacity of Deceit, heavily copied an article by another WorldNetDaily writer. Another blog noted last month where a column by WND head Joseph Farah bore a suspicious resemblance to a Wikipedia article.

But neither of those hold a candle to a December 19 WND article by Jerome Corsi, author of The Obama Nation and Where's the Birth Certificate? The article is "Obama's legacy of broken promises – in Kenya". Not only is roughly half of Corsi's article lifted from a 2008 British news story, but Corsi goes further, and repeatedly claims that the copied information and quotations were instead obtained by unnamed "WND researchers" in Kenya.

The British article in question is "Barack Obama's broken promise to African village", written by David Cohen and published in the London Evening Standard on July 25, 2008. Corsi even links to Cohen's story in his article (proving that he personally read the article he copied, and the content was not just provided to him by an unscrupulous "source"), but credits it as the source of only three sentences of information.

Meanwhile, he claims the rest of the article is the result of "a report in Kenya commissioned by WND." Corsi writes:

"A former Kenyan Parliament member with whom WND has worked confidentially since 2008 compiled the report. The research was assigned to trusted Kenyan professionals who conducted the field work and reported their findings in writing."

This is not the only specific reference in Corsi's article to WND researchers. On several occasions, he provides quotes and statements that he claims were provided to WND researchers. But a review of the Evening Standard shows that Corsi simply lifted them, verbatim, from the 2008 story:

Evening Standard, 2008:

However, the school's senior teacher Dalmas Raloo, 41, who is often used as a translator for Obama's grandmother who only speaks Luo, and is a friend of the family, says the family are mystified by what they are calling "Obama's lapse". "If you ask whether Obama's family think he should give something to the village and to the school, the answer is 'yes, definitely'. But they feel it should come from him spontaneously. They don't want to ask him for it."

Jerome Corsi, 2011:

Raloo said Obama's family in Kenya is mystified by what they are calling "Obama's lapse."

"If you ask whether the family think Obama should give something to the village and to the school, the answer is 'Yes, definitely,'" Raloo told WND researchers in Kenya. "But support should come from Obama spontaneously. We shouldn't have to ask him to keep his promises."

Evening Standard, 2008:

Villagers say that despite her age, Sarah Obama still comes to market where she sells her homegrown fruit and vegetables.

Jerome Corsi, 2011:

Villagers told WND researchers that Sarah, 88 years old, still goes to market where she sells her homegrown fruit and vegetables.

Evening Standard, 2008:

The market is where we head next to speak to villagers about their hopes for an Obama victory in November and what it might do for their village. Mary Manasse, 40, who runs the Mama Siste Mini Shop selling staples such as bread and cow's milk (packaged in old Coke bottles) says she has a photograph of Obama shaking hands with her on his 2006 visit.

"Back then I was looking after 40 orphans at the orphan centre," she recalls. "We faced a desperate shortage of money and Obama told us that he especially liked special, dedicated projects like ours and wanted to help. We thought he would give funds to help our project but we got nothing. A few months later we were forced to shut down the orphan centre because of lack of funds. Just a million Kenyan shillings [£6,000] would have kept us going another year. I feel disappointed that he did not come through."

Jerome Corsi, 2011:

The market is where WND researchers heard villagers express disappointment over hopes they once held that Obama would transform their lives in Kogelo.

Mary Manasse, who runs the Mama Siste Mini Shop selling staples such as bread and cow's milk packaged in old soda bottles, told researchers she has a photograph of Obama shaking hands with her on his 2006 visit.

"Back then I was looking after 40 orphans at the orphan center," she recalled. "We faced a desperate shortage of money, and Obama told us that he especially liked special, dedicated projects like ours and wanted to help.

"A few months later we were forced to shut down the orphan center because of lack of funds. Just a million Kenyan shillings (about $12,000) would have kept us going another year. I feel disappointed that he did not come through."

Those are just the instances of Corsi attributing the work and research of the London Evening Standard to his anonymous "WND researchers."

The singular other specific reference to the work of his "researchers" is also nothing more than a paraphrase of a May 2011 AFP article. While not copied word-for-word like much of the content from the Evening Standard, the information and 'quotes' provided to "WND researchers" by "Francis Muti" appear suspiciously similar to quotes appearing in the AFP article. (I'd also note that discovering the true source of this particular material was considerably more difficult than the content copied from the Evening Standard, given Corsi's paraphrasing and misspelling of Muti's last name.) To wit:

AFP, May 2011:

“In the wake of security challenges including terror threats, I can confirm that we decided to enhance security at the home of Mama Sarah … ,” said regional administrator Francis Mutie"

There have been no direct threats against the family but Kenya is on alert following warnings from Al-Qaeda followers after bin Laden was killed by US special forces in Pakistan on May 2.

Jerome Corsi, December 2011

"'As a result of the security challenges, including the threat of terror, I can confirm that we decided to improve security at home,' she told WND researchers in Kenya."

Francis Muti, the regional administrator said there was no immediate threat to the family, but Kenya was on high alert after a warning from adherents of al-Qaida after U.S. Special Forces in Pakistan killed bin Laden.

In short, every single quote or finding specifically attributed to Corsi's unnamed "researchers" was lifted from an earlier publication by another news agency.

While these falsifications may be the worst journalistic offenses in the article, they're still not the only ones. Several pictures accompany the article. It's not explicitly stated where these photographs originated from, but it's implied that they also came from "WND researchers." Corsi captions one picture of Sarah Obama by writing "As seen in Exhibit 5, Sarah continues to have roving chickens around her home, as well as goats and cows not seen in this photograph."

But this picture is, in fact, a copyrighted photo belonging to Evelyn Hockstein. No attribution to Ms. Hockstein is provided, and WND does not even indicate that the image is copyrighted. Even the 'roving chickens, goats, and cows' language is borrowed from the Evening Standard.

So much of Corsi's article is paraphrased or copied, word-for-word, that it can only be illustrated visually. Below is that illustration, with the yellow portions of Corsi's column representing the content that was lifted from other sources.

Color-Coded Legend:
Yellow = word-for-word copying from the Evening Standard;
Orange = content taken from the AFP;
Pink = specific references to the work of 'WND researchers';
Blue = credited citations to the Evening Standard

Obama's legacy of broken promises – in Kenya

I emailed Corsi for comment, including to ask for the names of his 'researchers' or a copy of their 'report.' I received no response. (Update: I received a reply from Corsi claiming that the report is "proprietary," but he'd be willing to give comments. However, he did not respond to follow-up emails with specific questions, including when the supposed investigation was conducted, and what other stories the 'source' has supposedly contributed to since 2008).

In the event that the online version of Corsi's article should disappear or be altered, I have preserved a PDF printout of the article at Scribd.

Finally, while the straight lifting of text from the Evening Standard is egregious, and the rewording of quotations from the AFP is suspicious, Corsi's attribution of all this material to his unnamed 'WND researchers in Kenya' is most troublesome. Corsi regularly relies on unnamed phantom "sources" from Kenya and Hawaii. Corsi's actions here, claiming that copied material was actually spoken directly to his anonymous "sources," should not just call into question the credibility of his "sources"; it should seriously call into doubt whether they even EXIST.