Harry Reid: Not 1 minute for 'phony issue' of birth

Only a day after a document purporting to be President Obama's birth certificate from Kenya was submitted to a court in California, the long-running dispute over his birth and eligibility to occupy the Oval Office has been entered into the Congressional Record – by a Democrat no less.

WND reported over the weekend when California attorney Orly Taitz, who has filed a number of lawsuits demanding proof of Obama's eligibility to serve as president, released a copy of the document. She also filed a motion in a federal court seeking authentication of the information.

While the White House – several times – has ridiculed the controversy without providing the original long-form birth certificate that probably would answer many of the questions, Congress has diligently and studiously ignored the issue.

Virtually the only reference on Capitol Hill has been a proposal from Rep. Bill Posey, R-Fla., to require future presidential candidates to document their eligibility under the U.S. Constitution's demand the president be a "natural born" citizen."

This document purports to be a Kenyan certification of birth for Barack Obama, allegedly born in Mombasa, Kenya, in 1961

But now the Senate has plunged into the dispute, even if unwillingly, with a statement from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who formally elevated it to arguably the highest debate level in the land.

"Let's be clear. It's a phony issue and does not deserve even a minute of our attention on the floor of the United States Senate," Reid announced today, giving the issue just that minute. "It's absurd, irresponsible, baseless and the false claims of long ago have been refuted.

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"The American people have every right to expect us to solve real problems before creating fake problems," he said.

Glenn Thrush at Politico commented that Reid "may not have given them a full minute of attention of the Senate floor, but now the birther movement has a permanent spot in the official Congressional Record, thanks to Reid's speech."

Reid said the dispute "is getting far too much attention lately, one that ignores the undeniable and proven fact that President Obama was born in the United States."

Ironically, during the 2008 campaign, Reid called for "total transparency" in regard to Republican presidential candidate John McCain.

In a video posted on YouTube and embedded below, Reid said: "When we are talking about the president of the United States, health issues are extremely important.

"We learned that going back a long time ago, when you guys weren't around. When [1972 Democratic vice presidential candidate] Tom Eagleton [ran], it had been determined because of his depression, he had shock treatments. So, this isn't something which is dreamed up, its important. Eagleton had to drop out and [George McGovern had to] select a new vice presidential nominee. So, I think there should be total transparency when a person is running for president of the United States. And it may be when President Bush went and had some things burned off his head, or John McCain about a month ago had a little thing on his face and people asked a lot of questions about it."

In The Hill, writer J. Taylor Rushing noted many top Republicans have specifically distanced themselves from the fray.

So, he reported, "Reid's comments also represent the first time Obama's citizenship has been raised in the Senate – no leading Republicans have raised it on the chamber floor."

The report pointed out Obama's GOP opponent in 2008 discussed the issue during the campaign.

"All I know is that that came up during the campaign, and there was never any credence given to it," Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said. "In these days of the blogosphere, a lot of things are given weight that shouldn't be. I didn't ever look into it specifically, but no one in my campaign ever found anything, were given anything, or searched for any information that would lead us to believe that was the case."

The release of the purported Kenyan birth certificate immediately prompted hundreds to challenge its validity. Many critics note the early 1964 document uses the term "Republic of Kenya," arguing Kenya became a republic later in 1964.

Taitz told WND today the "republic" issue is one of many she's asking several individuals to examine as they test the authenticity of the document.

Kenya's official independence was in 1963, and any number of labels could have been applied to government documents during that time period.

At Ameriborn Constitution News, the researcher noted Kenya's independence process actually began in 1957, when Africans were first directly elected to the Legislative Council.

"Kenya became an independent republic Dec. 12, 1963, which gives more [credibility] that this is a true document," the website stated.

The 1963 independence is corroborated by several other information sources, including the online African History.

Even the People Daily news agency cited, on Dec. 12, 2005, the "42nd independence anniversary" in Nairobi. "The country gained independence from Britain on Dec. 12, 1963," the report said.

An online copy of the Kenya Constitution, "adopted in 1963, amended in 1999," states: "CHAPTER I - THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA, Article 1, Kenya is a sovereign Republic. Article 1A, The Republic of Kenya shall be a multiparty democratic state…"

It was in November 1964 when the region voluntarily became a one-party state, according to an online source.

The region including Mombasa originally was dealt with by the British as a separate independence movement, but it almost immediately became part of Kenya when the sultan of Zanzibar ceded the "coastal strip" to Kenya, according to reports.

A document analyst who previously judged the birth document Obama posted online to be a forgery said the purported Kenyan document is no more real than the first.

According to the commentator, who identifies himself by the pen name "Polarik," the Kenyan document is "another bogus birth document."

"I also found a number of anomalies that shout, 'Forgery,'" he wrote on Free Republic. "It's a government document saying the birth happened and that a birth certificate exists – or pretty much like Obama's bogus Hawaiian COLB."

Another question was raised about the Kenyan document number 47,044, suggesting that indicated it was a forgery because Obama was 47 when he became the 44th president.

Yet another questioned the font of the typing on the document, although Taitz told WND she'd been told it was appropriate for its age.

Further, the name of the registrar is "E.F. Lavender," a brand name, critics said.

Still more questions were raised over the resolution of the photograph, claims the name of the village that Obama's father was born in was mispelled as "Kanyadhinng" instead of "Kanyadhiang."

Further questions were raised over Obama's father's age: If he was born in 1936, was he 25 in 1961 or 26 as in the document?

Taitz told WND she's been discussing the document with several individuals who apparently "are willing to investigate." She's also awaiting word from the federal court in California on how her requests will be handled.

The document lists Obama's parents as Barack Hussein Obama and Stanley Ann Obama, formerly Stanley Ann Dunham, the birth date as Aug. 4, 1961, and the hospital of birth as Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya.

Document enlarged to show detail alleges Barack Obama was born at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa on Aug. 4, 1961

No doctor is listed. But the alleged certificate bears the signature of the deputy registrar of Coast Province, Joshua Simon Oduya. It was allegedly issued as a certified copy of the original in February 1964.

WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical.

An enlarged view of the bottom of the document

Last week, a counterfeit document purporting to be Obama's Kenyan birth certificate made the rounds of the Internet, but was quickly determined to be fraudulent. The new document released by Taitz bears none of the obvious traits of a hoax.

Taitz told WND that the document came from an anonymous source who doesn't want his name known because "he's afraid for his life."

Taitz's motion, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, requests the purported evidence of Obama's birth – both the alleged birth certificate and foreign records not yet obtained – be preserved from destruction, asks for permission to legally request documents from Kenya and seeks a subpoena for deposition from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I filed the motion with the court asking for expedited discovery, which would allow me to start subpoenas and depositions even before Obama and the government responds," Taitz told WND. "I am asking the judge to give me the power to subpoena the documents from the Kenyan embassy and to require a deposition from Hillary Clinton so they will be forced to authenticate [the birth certificate].

"I'm forcing the issue, where Obama will have to respond," she said.

"Before, they said, 'You don't have anything backing your claims,'" Taitz explained. "Now I have something. In fact, I have posted on the Internet more than Obama has. My birth certificate actually has signatures."

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WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to 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."

Some of the lawsuits question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.

Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest all of the questions.

WND has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes kindergarten records, Punahou school records, Occidental College records, Columbia University records, Columbia thesis, Harvard Law School records, Harvard Law Review articles, scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, passport, medical records, files from his years as an Illinois state senator, Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and adoption records.