Hawaiian Newspapers Don't Prove Birthplace
Drew Zahn
Announcements published in 1961 not solid evidence of U.S. location
 Birth announcements reportedly from the Star-Bulletin (left) and Honolulu Advertiser (right), with Barack Obama's annoucement marked |
The announcements of Barack Obama's birth printed by two Hawaii newspapers in 1961 do not provide solid proof of a birth in the Aloha State because of uncertainties over the policies and procedures that apparently were being used at the time.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, for example, according to its website, now reprints birth information it receives from Hawaii's Department of Health.
"We don't have an editor who handles birth and marriage announcements; we print what we receive from the Department of Health Vital Statistics System," a Star-Bulletin newsroom operator explained to WND.
The operator said, "This is how we've always done it."
The newspaper's "proof" of birth, therefore, could be based on a state-issued "Certification of Live Birth" which, as WND has reported is insufficient alone, even for some State Department officials, to document the birthplace.
Many people remain unaware a child does not even have to be born in Hawaii to receive a Certification of Live Birth, the very "evidence" the White House has cited in defending its assertion Obama was born in Hawaii.
The only requirement for proof cited in the law doesn't address the birth of the child either, just "that the legal parents of such individual while living without Territory or State of Hawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child."
Complicating the situation somewhat is the affirmation from a woman in the Star-Bulletin newsroom – who did not identify herself – that the birth listings today contain just a child's name, no home address. The 1961 newspaper announcements also did not carry the name of the child.
The unanswered question, since the Obama announcement carried an address and no name, was whether the state provided addresses at one time and stopped, and didn't provide the name, or whether the information was obtained in some other fashion. Or was there another procedure to transmit information different from what now is released through the Certification of Live Birth that state officials say is the only document they now provide?
Likewise, the Honolulu Advertiser, which ran a Barack Obama birth announcement in the Aug. 13, 1961, Sunday Advertiser, relies on the state-issued certification, rather than reporting from hospitals.
The Advertiser's Marsha McFadden told WND at the time of Obama's birth announcement, the newspaper got all of its information from the state Department of Health. That would include the address.
"If we published it, it came from the state," she said.
She said today's rules are different. Anyone can submit information for announcements but the newspaper requires a birth document to verify. It also no longer uses addresses.
Hawaii State Registrar Dr. Alvin Onaka has told WND that most birth records stem from a hospital report. Documentation for children not born in hospitals depends on other records, such as the pregnant mother's prenatal exams, the statement of an attending midwife and a verification of the birth of a live child.
Onaka did not cite any independent investigative procedures for a report that would be submitted by a midwife.
According to Jerry Fuller and Mike Persons of the passport services division of the U.S. State Department, a document such as the Obama's COLB could be acceptable proof of U.S. citizenship for the purposes of getting a passport, but Fuller also conceded there are cases known where a COLB did not reveal the location of the child's birth accurately.
"There are some documents that say things that aren't true," Fuller said. "That's not what's supposed to happen."
The affidavit from Jorge Baro was made available online.
Baro was hired by WND to investigate issues related to Obama's birth in Hawaii and he documents an interview his staff conducted with Beatrice Arakaki, who has lived at 6075 Kalanianaole Highway in Honolulu since before Obama was born.
The affadivit was at the center of a federal lawsuit filed prior to the November election in Hattiesburg, Miss., before U.S. District Judge Keith Starrett. The suit was one among many calling for proof of Obama being a "natural born citizen" as required by the Constitution.
Baro is the in-house senior investigator for Elite Legal Services, LLC, in Royal Palm Beach, Fla.
In Hawaii, WND was able to locate at the Honolulu public library microfilm of a notice placed in the Sunday Advertiser Aug. 13, 1961. The announcement in the "Births, Marriages, Death" section read: "Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy., son, Aug. 4."
Arakaki told Baro's investigators she had no recollection of Obama being born or of the family living next door having a black child born to a white mother.
Baro sent a team of investigators to Honolulu to explore records regarding current residents of Kalanianaole Highway and to track down residents back to 1961.
Baro's investigators were unable to locate any current or past resident of Kalanianaole Highway who could recall Obama or his family living at the address listed in the Sunday Advertiser announcement.
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Baro also sent investigators to the newspaper offices to examine files, but the Advertiser could not confirm who actually placed the ad.
According to Baro's affidavit, Beatrice Arakaki affirmed she was a neighbor of the address listed. She has lived at her current residence of 6075 Kalanianaole Highway from before 1961 to the present.
Moreover, Arakaki said she believed that when Obama lived with the Dunhams, his grandparents, the family address was in Waikiki, not on Kalanianaole Highway.
Baro was able to determine the previous owners of the residence at 6085 Kalanianaole Highway – the alleged address of Obama's parents when he was born – were Orland S. and Thelma S. (Young) Lefforge, both of whom are deceased.
It still remains unclear at which Hawaiian hospital – if any – Obama was born in, since two different facilities, the Queen's Medical Center along with the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children, have both been cited as the exact facility.
The Kapi'olani Medical Center claims it has a letter on White House stationery from the president himself in which he ostensibly calls Kapi'olani "the place of my birth." But both the hospital has not verified the content of the letter, and the White House has steadfastly refused to confirm the authenticity of the letter and its content despite repeated requests by WND.
WND has reported on multiple legal challenges to Obama's eligibility to be president that focus on Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
The lawsuits include contentions Obama was born in Kenya, wasn't a "natural born" citizen because of his father's Kenyan citizenship, was a dual citizen and that his mother wasn't old enough to transmit citizenship at birth.
Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees to fight releasing a state birth certificate that could put to rest the questions.
A key to the defenses presented by Obama supporters always has been the "Certification of Live Birth:"
 Short-form "Certification of Live Birth" |
The document contrasts with an actual Hawaii long-form birth certificate from 1963 (the same era as Obama's birth), which while redacted includes detailed information documenting a birth, including the name of the birth hospital and the attending physician.
 Long-form birth certificate from state of Hawaii (Image courtesy Philip Berg) |
Until recently when state officials changed their program, the Hawaiian "homelands" program didn't even accept a "Certification of Live Birth" for its qualifications.
To date, Obama has not revealed his original long-form, hospital-generated "Certificate of Live Birth" that includes details such as the name of the medical facility and the doctor who delivered him. He's also declined to confirm as authentic a letter used by Kapi'olani hospital in Honolulu as a fundraising tool in which he states it is the hospital of his birth.
Note: Members of the news media wishing to interview Drew Zahn, Joseph Farah, Joe Kovacs, Jerome Corsi, Les Kinsolving, Chelsea Schilling or Bob Unruh on this issue, please contact WND.