1. Czar wars

WND was the news agency that broke the first major story on Obama's "green" jobs czar Van Jones and it was the dogged reporting of WND's Jerusalem bureau chief Aaron Klein that helped bring down the first high-ranking member of the Obama administration.

In April, Klein exposed Jones as a self-described radical communist and "rowdy black nationalist" who said his environmental activism was actually a means to fight for racial and class "justice." That was followed by many other revelations from WND about Jones.

Also in April, WND exposed Cass Sunstein, Barack Obama's nominee for "regulatory czar," as an advocate of a "Fairness Doctrine" for the Internet that would require opposing opinions be linked and also has suggested angry e-mails should be prevented from being sent by technology that would require a 24-hour cooling-off period.

And in May, WND revealed Kevin Jennings, Obama's pick to oversee "safety" in the nation's public schools, is founder of the homosexual-activist group GLSEN, which promotes homosexual clubs in high schools, middle schools and grade schools and is the driving force behind the annual "Day of Silence" celebration of homosexuality in many districts.

Among WND's many other "czar" exclusives:

Holdren: Ice age will kill 1 billion

Regulatory czar: Adult dog more 'rational' than baby

Obama science chief: Abortion can save planet

Holdren says Constitution backs compulsory abortion

Obama team 'socialists with communist background'

 2. U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean

WND led the investigation into the high-profile prosecutions and convictions of Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who received 11- and 12-year sentences for slightly wounding a fleeing illegal alien drug smuggler in 2005 with a gunshot while in pursuit and in the line of duty. A federal prosecutor gave the drug smuggler full immunity to testify against the agents.

WND's in-depth coverage of the case began with the first report Aug. 7, 2006. And in the years leading up to President Bush's commutation of the agents' sentences in January 2009, WND published at least 228 news stories and 51 commentaries about the case.

Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, launched a petition and letter-writing campaign in late 2008 that re-focused attention on the Ramos-Compean case in the last 30 days of Bush's term.

The petition collected more than 40,000 signatures by the time Bush commuted the agents' sentences, and the letter campaign produced more than 3,000 FedEx letters to the White House.

In a letter sent to WND, Compean expressed his gratitude for the petition and letter campaign.

"Thank you again for everything you have done to help. Words are not enough to express how grateful my family and I are."

3. Is Barack Obama constitutionally eligible to serve as president?

WND has been reporting since before the 2008 election on questions – and lawsuits – raised over Obama's birth and eligibility.

Congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural-born citizen," but no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.

The U.S. 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."

Obama's presidential campaign released to select news organizations only what is known as a "certification of live birth," a document obtainable in Hawaii in 1961 by Americans actually born outside the country. However, Joseph Farah has been calling for the release of Obama's long-form birth certificate showing the hospital of his birth, attending physician and other details to confirm his citizenship status.

Among the highlights of WND's reporting in 2009:

WND broke the strange phenomenon of Internet news sites swapping Obama's

birthplace like magic, changing it from the Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu to the Kapi'olani Medical Center across town.

This happened within hours of a WND report exposing numerous reports that Obama's birth took place in more than one hospital.

The Honolulu hospital which for nearly six months proudly declared Obama was born at its facility and used that claim as a major fund-raising tool began an active cover-up, hiding a White House letter announcing his alleged birth there and refusing to confirm such a letter even exists.

 

After weeks of inquiries, the White House refused to verify the authenticity of a letter allegedly sent by Obama in which he ostensibly declared a Honolulu hospital as his birthplace.

 

Wikipedia could not make up its mind about where President Obama was born. The free, online encyclopedia displayed at least two countries the commander in chief may have been born in – the U.S and Kenya.

WND revealed how the media actually probed other candidates, divulging personal documents on arrests, college and surgeries.

WND chronicled more than a dozen documents surrounding Obama's past that remain unreleased or otherwise blocked from the public eye.

And the fierce blonde behind some of the Obama eligibility lawsuits was profiled by WND.

4. "Where's the birth certificate?"

In May, Farah launched a national billboard campaign in an effort to keep the issue before the American people. The billboards, being leased around the country, ask the simple question, "Where's the birth certificate?"

The billboard campaign followed one launched months earlier to collect the names on an electronic petition demanding accountability and transparency on the issue. The petition gathered nearly 500,000 names.

5. Department of Homeland Security vs. "right-wing extremists"

WND broke the news of a newly unclassified Department of Homeland Security report warning against the possibility of violence by unnamed "right-wing extremists." The "extremists" were characterized as those who express concerns about illegal immigration, increasing federal power, restrictions on firearms, abortion and the loss of U.S. sovereignty. The report singled out returning war veterans as particular threats.

After the Department of Homeland Security branded pro-lifers and tax protesters as "extremist threats," gun owners feared a proposed bill that would keep firearms out of the hands of those only suspected to be "domestic terrorists."

At least two groups demanded Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano quit after a report revealed the agency's report on "right-wing extremists" was based on sources no more or less secure than Internet chat, WND revealed in an exclusive report.

6. Something in the air

As WND reported, CNBC analyst Rick Santelli became a YouTube sensation after he spoke out against President Obama's proposed $275 billion deficit-financed homeowner bailout plan and other massive spending measures with a call for a new "tea party" from the floor of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

WND's coverage played a pivotal role in helping to launch the tea-party movement. The news site was the first media outlet to provide a comprehensive list of more than 40 planned tea parties across the nation, using information gathered through Facebook and other online searches.

WND was first to reveal how town-hall meetings, driven by the tea-party movement and billed as opportunities for Americans to ask health care

questions of an "open" and "transparent" administration, were being packed with "planted" questioners ranging from Obama campaign donors and Organizing for America volunteers to single-payer health care lobbyists and Service Employees International Union members.

And when taxpayers stormed Washington, D.C. on Sept. 12, in a three-day event to take their fight against excessive spending, bailouts, growth of big government and soaring deficits to the front door of the U.S. Capitol, WND was there to provide complete coverage of the historic event.

7. Miss California Carrie Prejean

WND was first to report Miss USA judge Perez Hilton launched into a full-blown

attack on Christian contestant Carrie Prejean – calling her a b-tch and a c---, as well as

defacing photos of her with sexually explicit drawings – because she believes marriage should be between a man and a woman.

8. The "pink-slips" campaign

Did you ever want to send an urgent message to every member of Congress, ensuring delivery to their offices on Capitol Hill and letting them know they are being watched?

WND helped make it possible through a bold program called "Send Congress a Pink Slip." The "pink-slips" campaign guarantees a brief but poignant message will be delivered by Federal Express to all 535 members of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Voters across the nation, and representing every state, answered the call and joined together to generate the 8 million pink slips in the special campaign that warns members of Congress they will be facing a one-way trip home on election day if they support big government.

If you stacked the pink slips Congress has received in 2009 warning members away from support of the health-care bill, big spending, hate-crimes legislation and energy taxes, the pile would be half a mile (nearly 2,700 feet) tall and tower over the tallest buildings in the world.

9. Michael Savage banned in Britain

WND told the world the reaction of talk-radio host Michael Savage upon hearing the news Britain's top homeland security official released a list grouping him with terrorists and neo-Nazi murderers banned from entering the country because the government believes their views might provoke violence.

10. Muslim Mafia

In the wake of the sensational ACORN video sting operation by two young investigators, an even more daring and devastating undercover investigation – this one infiltrating the nation's most aggressive Muslim "civil rights" organization for six months – has produced startling new revelations about the supposedly "moderate" group.

A new book detailing the operation and its findings shows the Washington, D.C.-based Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR, is not the beneficent Muslim civil-rights group it claims to be.

Co-authored by Paul Sperry, an investigative journalist and expert on terrorism, and P. David Gaubatz, a counter-terrorism investigator and former Air Force special agent, "Muslim Mafia" uncovers how the nonprofit Council on American-Islamic Relations fronts for established terror networks intent on bringing the United States under the authority of the Quran.

In a courageous act of high-risk surveillance that stretched for six months, Gaubatz's own son, Chris Gaubatz, posed as recent Islam convert David Marshall and served as an intern at CAIR's national headquarters in Washington, D.C. Gaubatz spirited out 12,000 pages of documents during the secret operation.

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