Screen shot of whole document from Lucas Smith's video; close-up views available in clip below |
A man who had claimed to have a copy of President Obama's Kenyan birth certificate, attempted to sell it on eBay and then disappeared from contact has reappeared, this time with a video of the document he claims proves Obama's foreign birth.
As WND reported, Lucas Smith, a former resident of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and known by the eBay handle "colmado_noranja," claimed online and in phone conversations with WND to have an authentic document from Coast Provincial Hospital in Mombasa proving Obama's birth there at 7:24 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1961.
After promising to reveal the document to WND, Smith then dropped communications with a team of people offering to help him verify the document, only fueling belief the sale – and therefore the alleged document – was a scam.
Since then, various images have appeared online, purported to be Obama's original birth certificate – along with pranksters taking credit for forgeries meant to fool Americans still waiting for Obama to release conclusive proof of his purported Hawaiian birth.
Lucas Smith, however, still claims he has an authentic Obama birth certificate from Mombasa, and a video of him showing the document – which includes a close-up shot of the document's raised seal and the alleged footprint of Barack Obama – appears below:
"My name is Lucas Smith, an American," the video states. "This is the birth certificate of Barack Obama."
In the video, Smith points to several features of the certificate, including information still unknown about the sitting president, such as the name of the attending physician at his birth – James O. W. Ang'awa according to Smith's video.
The video also shows a stamp suggesting – if legitimate – that Smith obtained the document on Feb. 19, 2009.
WND followed Smith's ongoing saga as "colmado_naranja" attempted several times to sell the document, or photos and stories surrounding it, on eBay, only to have the auctions repeatedly removed by site administrators.
WND also launched an investigation into "colmado_naranja," which led through several online aliases and reported collaborators, including Dawnella Wilson, "InspectorSmith" and, eventually, Lucas Smith.
Smith, whose background includes a lengthy criminal record and a reported attempt to sell his kidney to a man in need of organ transplant, nonetheless insists that his motives are above board, even if his past looks dubious.
"I do have a background. I've made mistakes in my life," Smith told WND in an email. "It took a guy like me to go and get tangible proof about Obama. I don't mind breaking a few laws or policies here and there. I don't mind paying the military in foreign countries to look the other way ... The military [in Africa] will grant you access to anything for just a few dollars. People are starving. So yes, it takes a guy like me to get things done once in a while."
WND Senior Staff Writer Jerome Corsi traveled last year to both Kenya and Hawaii looking into Obama's history. He said despite contacts in government offices, the help of others and even the offer of financial reward, the Coast Provincial Hospital in Mombasa would not confirm Obama's birth there nor provide access to records.
"When I was there, I tried to get records from that hospital, but I couldn't do it," Corsi said. "The hospital either had no records or wouldn't release them.
Corsi earlier wouldn't rule out the possibility that the eBay seller may have somehow obtained a genuine document but stated only that his efforts in Kenya proved fruitless.
Corsi also reported, however, that WND obtained an authentic 1961-era Kenyan birth certificate, which does look distinctly different from the document Smith released in the video.
Authentic 1961-era Kenyan birth certificate obtained by WND |
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 his kindergarten records, his Punahou school records, his Occidental College records, his Columbia University records, his Columbia thesis, his Harvard Law School records, his Harvard Law Review articles, his scholarly articles from the University of Chicago, his passport, his medical records, his files from his years as an Illinois state senator, his Illinois State Bar Association records, any baptism records, and his adoption records.
"Where's The Birth Certificate?" billboard in Pennsylvania |
The campaign followed a petition that has collected over 450,000 signatures demanding proof of his eligibility, the availability of yard signs raising the question and the production of permanent, detachable magnetic bumper stickers asking the question.
The "certification of live birth" posted online and widely touted as "Obama's birth certificate" does not in any way prove he was born in Hawaii, since the same "short-form" document is easily obtainable for children not born in Hawaii. The true "long-form" birth certificate – which includes information such as the name of the birth hospital and attending physician – is the only document that can prove Obama was born in Hawaii, but to date he has not permitted its release for public or press scrutiny.
Oddly, though congressional hearings were held to determine whether Sen. John McCain was constitutionally eligible to be president as a "natural born citizen," no controlling legal authority ever sought to verify Obama's claim to a Hawaiian birth.
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