2 more sheriffs to be asked to review Obama eligibility

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (Photo: Gage Skidmore)

Two more county sheriffs soon will be asked by their constituents to launch investigations into a dispute that already is the focus of a special five-member "Cold Case Posse" in Arizona – the authenticity of Barack Obama's birth documentation and his linked eligibility to be president under the U.S. Constitution's requirements.

Tea party leaders in Florida and New Jersey have informed "Where's the Birth Certificate?" author Jerome Corsi of their plans to have him meet with sheriffs in those states in coming days.

It was Corsi's "Where’s the Birth Certificate?" that so rattled the White House just as it was approaching its release date that the president dispatched a lawyer to Hawaii to retrieve a copy of a "Certificate of Live Birth," a document that now has been challenged as a fraud.

Corsi recently met with tea party leaders in Arizona who presented Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio with a formal request for an investigation on the grounds that a fraudulent document could be used to place an ineligible candidate for president on election ballots in the county.

Arpaio told WND that he assigned the five members of his "posse" to investigate. He chose citizens with professional experience in conducting investigations, including people with experience in law enforcement, lawyers who have participated in criminal or civil cases and others with specialized skills in fields ranging from accounting to criminal forensic examination.

Autographed copies of Jerome Corsi's "Where's the Birth Certificate?" are available only from the WND Superstore

The decision, he says, is simply a matter of doing his duty.

"This investigation does not involve politics," Arpaio told WND. "I listen to all the residents of Maricopa County who come to my office with complaints, regardless what their politics are.

"My door is open to everyone, and I don't kick them out. If a complaint is legitimate, I don't dump it into the wastebasket," he continued. "When I get allegations brought to me by the citizens of Maricopa County, I look into the allegations, just like I am doing here."

As WND reported, Arpaio was responding to a complaint brought to his office by representatives of the Surprise Tea Party in Surprise, Ariz., who contended that the voting rights of Maricopa County residents in the 2012 presidential election could be compromised if Obama were to use a forged birth certificate to establish his eligibility

Corsi's schedule of appearances will take him next week to Sarasota, Fla., to meet with a tea party group there. The leaders have rearranged Corsi's flight schedule to allow him to remain a day to meet with a sheriff, although exactly which sheriff wasn't released.

Also, a tea party organization in New Jersey has scheduled Corsi for an appearance a few days later and also has scheduled a meeting with a sheriff.

The evidence that the Surprise Tea Party members presented to Arpaio is being duplicated and also will be presented to the other sheriffs. It contains reports previously published by WND from more than 20 computer, document and imaging experts who argue, supported by their evidence, that the "Certificate of Live Birth" released on April 27 by Obama is a fraud.

Sarasota tea party officials also are making arrangements for a webcast of Corsi's appearance.

"The state of Arizona is behind us," said an organizer in Florida. "They have sent out a posse to investigate allegations that the birth certificate Barack Obama released to the public April 27 might be a forgery."

As WND reported, reporters in the mainstream media, who for years essentially have ignored the eligibility issue entirely, suddenly started paying attention when Arpaio confirmed his investigation.

This is what is being reviewed for its authenticity:

At the time of Arpaio's announcement, WND reported it was the first time a law enforcement official started investigating the document Obama presented as proof of his birthplace.

Arpaio says that since WND ran its story, he has been inundated with media inquiries, including invitations to appear on national TV news programs.

Sources within the sheriff's office explained to WND that the Cold Case Posse has been constituted as a 501(c)3 organization – separately organized within the 3,000-member volunteer posse – enabling people from around the country to contribute to its mission.

"The Cold Case Posse is a good place to put this investigation," Arpaio said. "The individuals on this posse have been sworn in by me and I have granted them the authority required to conduct this investigation."

Arpaio explained to WND that in the final analysis, all decisions stop with him.

"I will have the ultimate authority to decide," he emphasized. "I gave the Cold Case Posse the authority to investigate, but the results of their investigation ultimately come to me, and I will then decide how best to proceed from there."

From left to right, WND's Jerome Corsi, Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Surprise, Ariz., tea-party leaders Brian and Denise Reill

He also stressed that the investigative panel will not cost the taxpayers of Maricopa County anything.

None of the Cold Case Posse members will receive any personal compensation, and all expenses incurred in their investigation will have to be derived from funds raised through contributions from the public received by the Cold Case Posse 501(c)3 organization.

The identities of the five individuals assigned to the investigation are being withheld from the public to protect them from both public reaction and from questions that are certain to arise from the media.

According to Arpaio's official website, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office holds recruitment meetings for the volunteer posse program once a month. The 3,000 posse volunteers selected by the Maricopa County sheriff's office train and participate in a wide variety of missions, including search and rescue, crime prevention, civic functions, disaster relief and emergency support.

Those wishing to contribute to the 501(c)3 supporting the Cold Case Posse investigation of the Obama birth certificate are asked to send contributions addressed to the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office at: MCSO Cold Case Posse, P.O. Box 74374, Phoenix, Ariz., 85087.

In Arizona, tea party members delivered to Arpaio a letter outlining their concerns about the evidence.

"The Surprise Tea Party is concerned that no established law enforcement agency or other duly constituted government agency has conducted an investigation into the Obama birth certificate to determine if it is in fact an authentic copy of 1961 birth records on file for Barack Obama at the Hawaii Department of Health in Honolulu or whether it, or they, are forgeries," the letter addressed to Arpaio reads.

Also delivered was a petition containing 242 signatures that were obtained at an evening meeting of the group.

And presented was a binder containing the published reports of 20 experts with established credentials who conducted forensic examination of the computer PDF file published on the White House website and the Xerox copies of the Obama birth certificate handed out by the White House to the press during an April 27, 2011, press conference.

The letter noted that to date, despite continuing legal challenges, the Hawaii Department of Health has refused to make public or to release to independent forensic examination by qualified examiners the original Obama birth records yet held in its files.

The group further noted that Doug Vogt, a scanner expert who has analyzed the Obama birth certificate documents released by the White House, has already filed a criminal complaint with the FBI, charging the document is "created forgery," to no avail.

WND has previously reported on Vogt's studies here, here and here.

"Having exhausted all available governmental and law enforcement resources at our disposal," the Surprise Tea Party explains in the letter to Arpaio, "we are turning to you as the highest law enforcement officer in Maricopa County where we reside."

The presentation Corsi made to the Surprise Tea Party Aug. 17 can be seen in its entirety on YouTube.

The dispute is over Obama's eligibility under the Constitution's requirement that a president be a "natural-born citizen," which was thought by many at the time of the writing of the Constitution to be the offspring of two citizens of the nation. Obama's eligibility remains unconfirmed because of cloudy information about his birth location. Some also argue he wouldn't qualify even if born in Hawaii as he has stated, because his father never was a U.S. citizen.