Obama's birth-certificate guardian out of job

Chiyome Fukino

The primary gatekeeper for those who would like to explore President Obama's original birth documentation on file with the state of Hawaii has left her post.

The Hawaii Department of Health today confirmed to WND that the term for department Director Chiyome Fukino, M.D., ended on Dec. 6 and that she no longer is serving at her previous position, in what is being described as a normal change of command as Gov. Neil Abercrombe takes office.

Abercrombie was sworn in on Monday, Dec. 7, as Hawaii's seventh governor, succeeding Republican Gov. Linda Lingle.

Until the state senate confirms a new director for the Hawaii Department of Health, Fukino is being replaced by interim Acting Director Keith R. Ridley, the former program chief of Health Care Assurance for the Hawaii Department of Health.

"Gov. Neil Abercrombie has asked Keith Ridley to serve as the state's acting director of health to perform the duties of the director of the department until the vacancy in office is filled by an interim appointment, the state senate confirms someone to serve as the director for the remainder of the governor's term, or Feb. 4, 2011, whichever comes first," Janice Okubo, a spokesman for the Hawaii Department of Health, told WND in an e-mail.

Fukino unwillingly came to center stage in the Obama birth certificate controversy after issuing a statement on Oct. 31, 2008, in which she stated: "Therefore, I as Director for the State of Hawaii, along with the Registrar of Vital Statistics who has statutory authority to oversee and maintain these type of vital records, have personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures."

Below is a screen copy of the Fukino press release:

In a separate statement, Fukino said, "I and Dr. Alvin Onaka have personally seen and verified that the Hawaii State Department of Health has Sen. Obama's original birth certificate on record in accordance with state policies and procedures."

But those with questions have pointed out that neither statement revealed what the "record" or
"certificate" says or clarified many of the questions raised over the issue. Do the "original vital records" and "original birth certificate" reflect a Hawaii birth, or an overseas birth?

Many people, including some in the national news media, remain ignorant of the fact that a "Certification of Live Birth" from the state of Hawaii, such as the computer image Obama's campaign posted on the Web in 2008, can be given to children who were actually born in foreign countries.

WND has reported that Abercrombie, a close friend and associate of President Obama in Hawaii, has been closely tied to the Marxist-oriented Democratic Socialists of America.

WND also has documented that Abercrombie was at the center of a controversy over a letter President Obama supposedly sent to Kapi'olani Medical Center on Jan. 24, 2009, claiming Kapi'olani was the hospital where President Obama was born; the letter originally published by Kapi'olani turned out to be a digital image displayed on the hospital's website, not the image of an actual paper letter.

The letter surfaced when then-Congressman Abercrombie, a Democrat, read the letter aloud at Kapi'olani's centennial dinner that took place on the evening of Jan. 24, 2009.

A photograph taken by the Kapi'olani Medical Center for WND shows a letter allegedly written by President Obama on embossed White House stationery in which he declares the Honolulu hospital to be "the place of my birth," The hospital, after publicizing the letter then refusing to confirm it even existed, is now vouching for its authenticity. The White House has yet to verify the claim.

A controversy still continues whether initial reports, now scrubbed from the Internet following WND reporting, that Barack Obama was born at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu are true, as opposed to the current White House version that Obama was born at Kapi'olani.

WND has reported on multiple legal challenges to Obama over his 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 Obama actually was 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.

Get the most comprehensive special report ever produced on the Obama eligibility issue.

Further, others question his citizenship by virtue of his attendance in Indonesian schools during his childhood and question on what passport did he travel to Pakistan three decades ago.

Adding fuel to the fire is Obama's persistent refusal to release documents that could provide answers and his appointment of lawyers to defend against all requests for his documentation.

WND also has reported that among the documentation not yet available for Obama includes his 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, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records and his adoption records