June 2004 headline: "Kenyan-born Obama all set for US Senate"

Natural Born Citizen as used in the Constitution, and as determined by the Scott v. Sanford case means to be born in one of the States of the Union. Nothing else, including parentage, is relevant.

ANY thing else presented as proof of being a "natural born citizen" relies on language from an Act or Acts of Congress. The reason this is important to know is that Congress in Article 1§8 has the power to "establish an uniform rule of naturalization." Naturalization is the act of "making" someone a citizen who is not one by fact of their birth within one of the States of the Union. Thus anyone who is a citizen by virtue of an Act of Congress is by definition "naturalized" not "natural born."

According to this therefore, John McCain was not eligible to be president. He was born in the Panama Canal Zone. Whether the zone, the hospital of his birth was or was not U.S. territory at the time is not relevant. It was NOT one of the States of the Union. Even the military has noted that the "territory" argument is bogus. The way someone gets citizenship outside of one of the States is through laws of Naturalization passed by Congress which take into account the child's parentage. So McCain is a naturalized citizen because his parents were both citizens. But he is not "natural born." The fact, and very existence of the Resolution passed by the Senate to "consider" McCain as being a Natural Born Citizen is itself prima facie evidence that he is NOT a citizen by birth, but by an Act of Congress. (it is also curious that is was Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama who sponsored and pushed this legislation)

Obama may be in a similar situation. There is a dispute that he was born in Hawaii. Claims are that he was born in Mombasa, Kenya and that his parents sought a U.S. Birth Certificate for him a few days later in Hawaii. Hawaii at the time, it has later been discovered, was issuing Certificates of Live Birth (which verify you were in fact born and what your name is, but not WHERE you were born) to thousands of immigrants in an effort to seek more federal aid dollars for welfare programs. Illegals were costing them money for social services and this way, Hawaii could document them so Uncle Sam would foot the bill. It is suspected that the Obamas took advantage of this to obtain a COLB for Barak.

*Note a COLB is not the same as the original "long form" Birth Certificate. The long form contains the name and location of the Hospital of Record where the child was born, as well as the name and signature of the attending physician. Not all states issue in the same format and some issue the same information on both documents. Hawaii does not. The Hawaii COLB is an abbreviated form that has incomplete information which is critical, as noted above, to prove one is a Natural Born Citizen.

There are some interesting arguments concerning dual-citizenship that I don't thin have ever been addressed by the courts. Since Barak Obama Sr. was a citizen of Kenya, he was thus a British Subject. The claim is that anyone born to British Subjects are also British Subjects. This would make Barak Jr. even if he were born in one of the States, a dual-citizen. The argument is that the Founders intent by including the Natural Born requirement were on concerns of loyalty and that a dual-citizen would have divided loyalties and thus could not be president. Since there are no cases or writings anyone can produce on this matter, that is still an open question. There is also the issue of what was generally accepted as a test for natural birth citizenship according to the Law of Nations which was understood by the founders. If British citizenship to children is conferred by Act of Parliament or the Crown, then Barak Jr.'s dual-citizenship is not one by birth, but also by Naturalization. That would render the dual-citizenship issue moot since it does not taint his natural citizenship in the U.S.A. This is the more likely case in my opinion that Natural Born meant the same in the U.S. as it does in England because both are under the common law tradition and this is a common law question.

Thirdly, there is also the issue of the Obamas moving to Indonesia. It is well known that at the time, children were not allowed to attend school in Indonesia that Obama Jr. went to if they were foreign citizens. Thus in order to attend, either the Obamas defrauded the Indonesian government, or they expatriated Obama Jr. to Indonesia. If the latter is the case, then the courts need to settle the question that if someone is originally a natural born citizen, but later revokes it, then gets re-naturalized, are they still eligible to be President?

Fourth, there is the issue that Obama attended Occidental College under foreign scholarships as a foreign student. If this is the case, that would comport with his having Indonesian citizenship. If he was a dual-citizen there would be no need nor legitimate claim for foreign student financial assistance. So either he was not a U.S. citizen at the time, or he defrauded the College and the financial aid institutions that funded his studies. He has fought furiously to prevent the release of his records there which would shed light on if he did indeed attend as a foreigner and receive such financial assistance and what nation he claimed citizenship for.

As it stands, here are the possibilities:

Obama was born in

a) Kenya, and his parents obtained a U.S. COLB with the name Barak Obama Jr. for their and his benefit a few days later, or
b) Hawaii as he claims.

His mother and stepfather Lulu Soetoro moved him to Indonesia as a child and

a) Expatriated Obama Jr. from the U.S. and obtained Indonesian citizenship for him as Barry Soetoro so he could attend school there, or
b) Defrauded the Indonesian government by claiming Indonesian citizenship for him as Barry Soetoro so he could attend school there

He attended Occidental College as

a) As a foreign student receiving foreign student financial aid because he
i) held British Subject status as a Citizen of Kenya as Barak Obama Jr.
ii) held Indonesian citizenship as Barry Soetoro
iii) He defrauded Occidental College using a citizenship claim from i) or ii)

b) As an American Citizen named Barak Obama Jr. recieving no foreign student financial assistance.

If he at any time claimed foreign citizenship or in fact held foreign citizenship, there is no documentation or any trail whatsoever that he ever obtained naturalization upon returning to the U.S. from Indonesia, or after College and prior to entering politics.

I think the most likely scenario is that regardless of the location of his birth, fraud was committed in Indonesia and at Occidental college. No citizenship changes were obtained as that may have been more difficult to deal with and the reliance on his father's British status, and his Hawaiian COLB would have been sufficient. (his name change helped in Indonesia to hide these tracks) I would bet that he simply uses whatever documentation that he needs at whatever point in his life he needs it to obtain whatever it is that he wants. This would be consistent with what is known about his mother and step father as well as his biological father, and how he was likely raised as a person.

Considering that as well, and the situation in Hawaii at the time with their propensity to document illegal immigrants, it is quite possible Obama Jr was born in Kenya and his US COLB is a fraud as well though he may believe it to be true and correct. (but why sue to hide it if you think it is correct is the elephant in the room)

This could all be solved by releasing the needed records for verification, starting with the long form birth certificate which was used to generate the COLB publicly issued and released. This should be followed by enrollment and financial records from Occidental College, as well as INS records from when the Soetoro's moved to Indonesia. A request to the Indonesian government for immigration records on Barry Soetoro would also be helpful.

But anything beyond the long form birth certificate only come into play if he was really born in Hawaii. If he was not, then the investigation can stop there as he is not eligible without question.

Finally, there is also the Constitutional problem of how to resolve this. There is a claim that the courts will refuse to declare Obama ineligible if he is because the Constitution provides a means for Representatives and Senators to challenge the electoral votes when they are unsealed before the joint session in January following the election. The courts may decide that since Congress did not object, the question is moot. This would mean it were possible for someone to commit fraud long enough to escape Congressional scrutiny, and thus usurp the office as a foreigner. However, there is no such language in the Constitution. So the document is silent on the matter other than that any person not meeting the requirements is not eligible.

If he is not eligible, a full blown Constitutional Crises is upon us. The longer we go without finding out one way or the other, the worse the damage to our Republic will be. If he is ineligible, that means he was NEVER the president. That means ANY action taken by him, any ordered he issued, any bill signed into law, treaty negotiated, justices confirmed, etc. are all ILLEGAL and VOID as if they never happened. This also means that anyone following such orders was following illegal orders. And it just gets even messier the more you look at it.

Ultimately, it is interesting to note that Obama entered every office he ran for except the presidency because he was ultimately unopposed. In every race until this last one, he managed to sue to disqualify his opponents. Could Karma be ready to smite him? Was he doing this because he himself knows he is ineligible to hold ANY office and wanted to strike first?