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Obama's birth certificate: Final chapter
By
Published on Friday, June 27th, 2008 at 5:21 =
p.m.=20
Related rulings:
![3D"Pants](3D"http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/rulings%2Ftom-pantso=)
=20
"His=20
true name is Barak Hussein Muhammed Obama."
Chain e-mail, Friday, April 18th, 2008.
Ruling: Pants on Fire! |
Bookmark this story:
UPDATE, July 2009: It's been a year since we published this =
article,=20
and Obama's birth certificate is still the subject of much speculation. =
So on=20
July 1, 2009, we published two Truth-O-Meter items exploring new aspects =
of the=20
controversy. In one, we explored whether a White House spokesman lied =
when he=20
claimed
Here's our original story as published in June 2008:
SUMMARY: Since we published Obama's birth certificate, = questions=20 about its authenticity have been frequent and fierce. After reviewing = the=20 evidence, we're confident in our rulings .
It started as a whisper, a trickle of nagging doubt.
"As a concerned citizen, I'm wondering if there isn't something fishy = going=20 on with the Obama certificate."
"I have serious doubts about the purported 'birth certificate' you = were=20 sent."
"Something doesn't smell right."
Soon, e-mails and blog posts were flying. As the pace quickened, the = tone=20 sharpened.
"You should be apologizing ... for your misinformation regarding BO = bogus=20 birth certificate, that you claimed was genuine!"
At full throttle, the accusations are explosive and unrelenting, the = writers=20 emboldened by the anonymity and reach of the Internet.
And you can't help but ask: How do you prove something to people who = come to=20 the facts believing, out of fear or hatred or maybe just partisanship, = that=20 they're being tricked?
Sen. Barack Obama's birth certificate is a document PolitiFact.com = had sought=20 for months. Countless chain e-mails, seeking to paint him as a secret = Muslim,=20 speculated that his full name included Muhammed (or Mohammed). Some said = he is=20 not an American citizen.
![3D"Birth](3D"http://static.politifact.com.s3.amazonaws.com/graphics/birthCertOb=)
As a fact-checking news Web site, we went to extensive lengths to =
sort out=20
the truth. We got a copy of
Not one of these documents shows a Muhammed (or Mohammed) in Obama's = name.=20 They all read "Barack H. Obama" or "Barack Hussein Obama."
The ultimate document we sought was Obama's birth certificate. Unlike = the=20 other documents, Hawaii birth certificates aren't public record. Only = family=20 members can request copies, so when the campaign declined to give us = one, we=20 were stalled.
On June 13, 2008,
When the birth certificate arrived from the Obama campaign it = confirmed his=20 name as the other documents already showed it. Still, we took an extra = step: We=20 e-mailed it to the Hawaii Department of Health, which maintains such = records, to=20 ask if it was real.
"It's a valid Hawaii state birth certificate," spokesman Janice Okubo = told=20 us.
Then the firestorm started.
=E2=80=A2 Where is the embossed seal and the registrar's = signature?
=E2=80=A2 Comparing it to other Hawaii birth certificates, the color = shade is=20 different.
=E2=80=A2 Isn't the date stamp bleeding through the back of the = document "June 2007?"=20 (Odd since it was supposedly released in June 2008.)
=E2=80=A2 There's no crease from being folded and mailed.
=E2=80=A2 It's clearly Photoshopped and a wholesale fraud.
At PolitiFact.com, we're all about original sources. We don't take = anyone at=20 their word or take the reporting of other media organizations as proof. = We go to=20 the heart of the story, the source of the truth =E2=80=94 original, = corroborating=20 documents.
When the official documents were questioned, we went looking for more = answers. We circled back to the Department of Health, had a newsroom = colleague=20 bring in her own Hawaii birth certificate to see if it looks the same = (it's=20 identical). But every answer triggered more questions.
And soon enough, after going to every length possible to confirm the = birth=20 certificate's authenticity, you start asking, what is reasonable = here?
Because if this document is forged, then they all are.
If this document is forged, a U.S. senator and his presidential = campaign have=20 perpetrated a vast, long-term fraud. They have done it with conspiring = officials=20 at the Hawaii Department of Health, the Cook County (Ill.) Bureau of = Vital=20 Statistics, the Illinois Secretary of State's office, the Attorney = Registration=20 & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois and many = other=20 government agencies.
Sounds like a Vince Flynn novel.
Peter Goelz knows a little something about conspiracy theorists.
He was managing director of the National Transportation Safety Board = in 1996=20 when TWA Flight 800 crashed off Long Island, killing 230 people. While = the=20 NTSB's investigation found no evidence of sabotage or terrorism, the = Internet=20 was stocked with insistent accusations.
"We were right at the beginning of this Internet lunacy," Goelz said = in an=20 interview with PolitiFact. "And there were a variety of crackpot Web = sites and=20 Web commentators that generated all sorts of rumors. The principle one = was that=20 TWA in fact was shot down by an errant Navy missile in ... a live-fire = exercise=20 off the Hamptons."
Nine miles off Long Island, in the middle of summer. And then a = full-scale=20 coverup by the Navy and all the sailors involved.
"I am sure that we spent another $10-million, perhaps $20-million, = out of a=20 $50-million investigation, to just knock down and put to bed these kinds = of=20 rumors, these insidious rumors," Goelz said. "We felt like we had to = answer=20 every question because it was such a public and dreadful and confounding = event."
Goelz, who is now a communications consultant in Washington, D.C., = says the=20 Internet has given a platform to anyone to say anything. And a way to = find=20 others who want to hear it.
"Online, they can be almost anything," he said. "They can be the = crusading=20 investigators that they always wanted to be."
The Hawaii Department of Health receives about a dozen e-mail = inquiries a day=20 about Obama's birth certificate, spokesman Okubo said.
"I guess the big issue that's being raised is the lack of an embossed = seal=20 and a signature," Okubo said, pointing out that in Hawaii, both those = things are=20 on the back of the document. "Because they scanned the front =E2=80=A6 = you wouldn't see=20 those things."
Okubo says she got a copy of her own birth certificate last year and = it is=20 identical to the Obama one we received.
And about the copy we e-mailed her for verification? "When we looked = at that=20 image you guys sent us, our registrar, he thought he could see pieces of = the=20 embossed image through it."
Still, she acknowledges: "I don't know that it's possible for us to = even say=20 beyond a doubt what the image on the site represents."
And there's the rub. It is possible that Obama conspired his = way to=20 the precipice of the world's biggest job, involving a vast network of = people and=20 government agencies over decades of lies. Anything's possible.
But step back and look at the overwhelming evidence to the contrary = and your=20 sense of what's reasonable has to take over.
There is not one shred of evidence to disprove PolitiFact's = conclusion that=20 the candidate's name is Barack Hussein Obama, or to support allegations = that the=20 birth certificate he released isn't authentic.
And that's true no matter how many people cling to some hint of doubt = and use=20 the Internet to fuel their innate sense of distrust.
Sources:See individual item Interview with Janice = Okubo,=20 spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Health, June 25, 2008 Interview = with=20 Peter Goelz, former managing director of the NTSB, June 25, 2008
Researchers:
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campaign promise database, please
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