KommonCents: From A to Z: What's wrong with Obama's birth certificate?

Examine for yourself mounting evidence that president's document isn't genuine

Posted: May 13, 2011
12:15 am Eastern
© 2011 WND

After years of stonewalling and fighting in court to keep his long-form birth certificate under wraps, President Barack Obama has publicized an image of the document he claims should resolve his birthplace once and for all.

But is it the real deal?

In his speech announcing the birth certificate's release, Obama quickly tried to silence critical analysis of document:

"I know that there's going to be a segment of people for which, no matter what we put out, this issue will not be put to rest, but I'm speaking to the vast majority of the American people," Obama said. "We do not have time for this kind of silliness."

But Joseph Farah, editor and chief executive officer of WND, the only news agency that has waged a relentless investigative campaign on questions swirling around Obama's constitutional eligibility, warns those questions shouldn't be dismissed so quickly.

"The news media and the political establishment were quick to rush to judgment regarding Obama's eligibility in 2008, without any basis," Farah said. "It would be a big mistake for everyone to jump to a conclusion now based on the release of this document, which raises as many questions as it answers."

Jerome Corsi's new book, "Where's the Birth Certificate?," is now available for immediate shipping, autographed by the author, only from the WND Superstore.

Some of those questions have already been resolved – such as rumors WND debunked claiming the name of the hospital on the document was fictitious – while others present significant challenges to accepting the birth certificate's validity.

Retired Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely, the chief of Stand Up America, a national security expert and Fox News contributor, says the "Certificate of Live Birth" released in April by the White House is a forgery, but the FBI is covering the fraud and no one in Congress is willing to tackle the situation because of fears of a "black backlash" if the failings of the nation's first black president are revealed.

Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely

In an interview with Greg Corombos for WND, Vallely, who previously has expressed concerns about whether the Obama administration is in violation of the U.S. Constitution, said, "His actual birth certificate has never been found in Hawaii nor released from Hawaii hospital there, Kapiolani hospital there, if it in fact did exist."

"We've had three CIA agents, retired, and some of their analytical associates look at it, and all came to the same conclusion, that even the long-form was a forged document," Vallely said.

"No members of Congress will take this on. The word I get out of Washington is that they don't want to challenge this because it would be in fact a felony offense and in some cases may be even treasonous and [they are] afraid of a black backlash from some of the urban areas," Vallely said.

"But that's a very poor excuse for not taking necessary steps to make sure this president in fact is a legitimate president under Article 2 and he is a born U.S. citizen."

The departments of government designed to uncover wrongdoing, in this case, are on the wrong side, he said.

"I think they're (the FBI) covering for this administration. I think the corruption within this administration is so proliferated through the agencies of government now, we're just in a bad situation here. I think the lack of confidence in our government is growing and many feel that not only all the members of Congress but even our courts are corrupted at this time," he said.

A multitude of questions over Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office under the requirements in the Constitution that call for a "natural born citizen" have been raised since before he was elected.

In a detailed analysis, a nationally recognized computer expert who has served as contributing author and technical editor for more than 100 books on Adobe and Microsoft software says the Obama long-form birth-certificate image released by the White House is a fake.

"The PDF file released by the White House contains evidence of manipulation suggesting that one or more forgers utilized existing Hawaiian birth certificates to assemble fraudulently for Barack Obama a document the president presented to the world as authentic," Mara Zebest told WND.

Zebest has prepared a full analysis of the image that was presented April 27 by Barack Obama to the world as a copy of his original birth documentation in the state of Hawaii.

Read the full analysis of the Obama long-form birth certificate image released to the public.

The image released online is a copy of Obama's copy of the original, as are the paper copies that were handed out to reporters.

Zebest's analysis begins by documenting inconsistencies in the pixels and bitmap text that display throughout the Obama file, for instance, in the birth certificate number 10641, as seen in Exhibit 1:

Exhibit 1. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Viewed in Adobe Acrobat at 1200 percent zoom

Exhibit 2 offers more examples of the telltale inconsistencies Zebest found. First, defining her terms, Zebest explains that "antialiasing" is the transition of pixel colors that occurs when differing color tones bump into each other in an image. It offers a smooth line (to the eye) when viewed at the normal zoom. Viewed in a closeup mode it appears as an angled pattern. She explains, "Without antialiasing, the edges appear jagged or bitmapped." Bitmapping is a specific computer format used for images that gives them a more choppy appearance when zoomed.

According to Zebest:

Bitmap text versus antialiasing text: Notice the bitmap X checkbox in question compared to the antialiased X checkbox in question "e" – major inconsistency.
Additionally, the checkboxes are slightly different widths and positioned differently. (Pixels of checkboxes on the bottom right overlap line pixels below, almost as if the boxes were copied and pasted and manually positioned).
Some letter characters are identical, pixel for pixel, almost as if they were copied and pasted and then moved into position. For example, the lowercase "i" in the word Inside is identicalto the first "i" in judicial. There are many similar identical instances as there are dissimilar typesetting examples of different fonts – both suggesting compilation of a document digitally.
Irregular typesetting spacing which is not consistent with proportional spacing used by computers or monospacing used by typewriters in 1961 – but is consistent with copy and pasting and moving letters around. Example: The word "Yes," which has too much space between "Y" and "e" and not enough space between "e" and "s."

"A normal document scanned and saved as a PDF file would not display these inconsistencies unless the document had been digitally altered," she said. "A digitally altered document is by definition a manufactured document, or in everyday parlance – a forgery."

Exhibit 2. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Evidence of Font typesetting inconsistencies

Exhibit 3 demonstrates mixed solid bitmapped character elements combined with antialiased elements in the signature of Ann Dunham and in the text of the form immediately above her first name, Stanley, enclosed in parentheses.

Exhibit 3. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Inconsistencies within signatures

"Typed characters in the birth certificate form appear to have been altered digitally by the forgers whenever signatures overlapped or bumped against printed text characters in the form,” she said.

Figure 4 shows the dates stamped into boxes 20 and 22 on the form displaying different color tones within the date stamp, such that some of the digits are dark black – especially the last digit "1" in both instances – while other digits are a light gray.

Exhibit 4. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Inconsistencies in pixel colors and spelling errors

"My guess is that the creator of this document was inexperienced when it comes to a multitude of concepts in using Adobe software," Zebest said. "Whoever forged the Obama birth certificate might have known enough to be dangerous, but not enough to know how to cover up their tracks."

Exhibit 4 also notes the misspelling of "THE" in the rubber stamp placed on the document by the Hawaii State Register Alvin Onaka, Ph.D., and an apparent smiley face drawn in the loop of the letter "A" on his signature – two anomalies on which WND previously reported.

As noted in Exhibit 5, Zebest also listed a number of questions about the Obama birth certificate that she believes demand explanation.

Exhibit 5. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Overall information defies common sense

Her list of questions regarding Exhibit 5 included the following:

Why is there an odd, excessive typesetting space between the number 4 and comma in the birth date?
"African" is not a race. Would "American" be a race? It may not be politically correct, but in 1961, the option for race would have been Negro, not "African," which is another odd artifact out of place with the context of the historical time and place – an anachronism.
Speaking of anachronisms, in 1961, when typewriters were used, the typist would move to the next line, and items would be started in a standard left margin (unless the typist purposely tabbed over to a different location on the document); thus, most of the left margin text would consistently line up at the same point. Figure 13 is explained below, and can be used to compare the margin line text in the Nordyke certificate with Obama’s in Figure 12. Nothing is properly aligned in Obama’s document.
The certificate number is out of sequence. Wouldn’t a smaller certificate number be consistent with the earlier birth date and the earlier Date Accepted, the filing date? WND previously reported on the anomaly involving the Nordyke numbers.
Where is the state seal? Who has an official birth certificate document that is missing a seal?
Why is there a background pattern? The Obama administration claims the pattern was added for security purposes – but isn't that admitting to altering the document? Is the administration trying to create a frame of hiding the edits in plain sight by saying, "Yes, we edited the document to add security paper." And why would this even be necessary?
Why would the date at the bottom of the document display different type fonts? The font used for the year is clearly a different font than the one used for the day. Under what circumstances would you change fonts while typing a date? Even if a stamp were used to stamp a date, wouldn't the stamp be made with the same consistent font?

Zebest concluded her study with an analysis of the multiple layers evident in the White House-released PDF file.

She rejected the White House explanation that the layers were produced by scanning the document with OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, software turned on.

Examining the Onaka ink stamp, Zebest was able to determine that the object placed into the Obama document was scaled 34 percent and rotated 90 degrees. The result, she said, could be obtained only through digital manipulation and could not be an artifact of having scanned the document with OCR software activated.

"The text responds as if it were in a Microsoft Word document," she asserted. "The text can be selected, changed, copied and pasted."

Zebest concluded that whoever forged the Obama birth certificate probably did most of the digital manipulation required to construct the document using the program Adobe Photoshop.

Then, the manipulated document was transported to Adobe Illustrator for final touch-up before being released to the public.

She believes whoever created the forgery had insufficient expertise and did not realize that "flattening" the document in Photoshop Illustrator – a process that melds the layers – would still allow professionals to determine the layers required to manipulate the data in the process of forging the document.

"Overall, it's an amateur job," Zebest said. "The forgers obviously over-estimated their level of expertise in undertaking to forge a document that is destined to play a pivotal role in U.S. history."

She just the latest on a growing list of graphic artists and computer experts who have examined the online birth certificate and have concluded the image has been altered.

For example, Karl Denninger, the former CEO of MCSNet, a Chicago networking and Internet company, who also told WND he voted for Obama, demonstrates "kerning" on the birth certificate, a lining up of letters routinely done by computers but impossible on typewriters of the 1960s, implying the document was computer generated, not photocopied.

Denninger explains that in the image above, of the name of the hospital, the "a" and the "p" share vertical space on the line, an example of "kerning," which only modern computers can do.

Denninger's work follows the opinion from another analyst, Ivan Zatkovich of Tampa-based eComp Consultants, which consults on intellectual property for telecommunications, Web publishing and e-commerce. Zatkovich has 28 years experience in computer science and document management and for more than 10 years has been an expert witness in federal court in both criminal and civil litigation.

Zatkovich's analysis of layers in the PDF file, while dispelling some purported anomalies on the document, nonetheless confirms others, leading him to the conclusion, "The content clearly indicates that the document was knowingly and explicitly edited and modified before it was placed on the web."

And KJCT-TV of Grand Junction, Colo., reported the opinion of graphic artist James Colby, who said, "There is no doubt it has been edited and quite significantly."

Several other factors bring the birth document's authenticity into question:

The objectivity of "experts" cited by the mainstream media to verify the birth certificate is suspect, including that of Fox News Channel's Jean-Claude Tremblay, who assured America they "should not be suspicious" of the document, but who, WND discovered, had heralded Obama's election victory in an online post.
Stunningly, Tremblay later told WND that he wants the Fox News story corrected, claiming it deliberately misquoted him and continues to ignore his repeated requests. He said none of his comments would permit the conclusion that the Obama birth certificate is an authentic document. "I no longer trust Fox News," he said, expressing anger verging on disdain for the way he feels the network treated him. "Despite my protests, Fox News will not allow me to correct their story."
Obama's posted birth certificate contains the same anomalies as a well-known forgery that claimed he was born in Kenya, suggesting the anomalous markings came from the same source. "How could Obama's 'real' birth certificate share these unique characteristics with an obvious forgery?" asks Farah. "For the life of me, I can't figure out an answer other than they were created by the same person or persons."
The birth certificate's reported delivering physician, Dr. David Sinclair, differs from previously published reports and even the myth-busting Snopes.com's original entry, which named Dr. Rodney T. West as the doctor of record.
Obama's purported birth certificate contains over a dozen differences in form from the verified, Hawaii copy of the birth certificate issued to the Nordyke twins, born the next day at the same reported hospital.
Another YouTube participant, 37, who identifies himself as orangegold1 and a computer image expert, posted a video trying to persuade watchers that the White House either was ignorant in scanning and posting a document, or was submarined by someone inside the walls who wanted people to be suspicious of the document:
His concerns rest with the layers that are in the document, and he claimed some of the images on the document actually were added via computer.
"I do this for a living," he said, adding that the document is "obviously faked."
The local registrar listed in the Nordyke twins' birth certificate is notably different than the local registrar on the Obama birth certificate.

Birth certificate of Gretchen Nordyke, one of two twin sisters born at what was known in 1961 as the Kapiolani Maternity & Gynecological Hospital in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Though Obama was born before the Nordyke twins, and though his birth was filed with the registrar three days before the twins' birth, Obama's purported birth certificate has a higher registration number.
The age of Obama's father, as listed on the document, conflicts with previously discovered documents about Barack Obama Sr.
There are no notations on the document indicating Obama's adoption by his Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, as are often made – even replacing the name of the birth parents – when a child in the U.S. is adopted.

In addition, the SmokingGun.com website notes several additional irregularities with the Obama birth certificate that do not appear on the Nordyke twin's birth certificates:

In Box 3, "This Birth," there are two "Xs" above "Twin" and "Triplet" – why are these "Xs" here and what do they signify?

What is the meaning of the smudges in the Obama birth certificate in the box containing the name of the attending physician?

What is the significance of the numbers, seen vertically, on the right side of the Obama birth certificate?

Hawaii officials say they have Obama's original birth certificate and made copies for the president. One of the copies then was scanned and posted on the White House website.

But Denninger is among those who say there are still too many questions to simply examine an online image.

He contends, "There's only one way we're going to get the truth – a forensic document examiner is going to have to go look at the certificate and authenticate it. The real one – not a printout."

The White House had trumpeted the release of the document, calling it "proof positive" Obama was born in Hawaii, as if that would answer all of the questions about his presidential eligibility.

In another swipe at the validity of the White House release, an international expert on scanners and document-imaging software filed a 22-page criminal complaint with the FBI, charging that the long-form birth certificate released by the White House is criminally fraudulent.

"What the Obama administration released is a PDF image that they are trying to pass off as a Certificate of Live Birth Long Form printed on green security paper by the Hawaiian Health Department," Doug Vogt writes, "but this form is a created forgery."

Vogt's criminal complaint asserts: "I have irrefutably proven that the Certificate of Live Birth that President Obama presented to the world on April 27, 2011, is a fraudulently created document put together using the Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator programs, and the creation of this forgery of a public document constitutes a class B felony in Hawaii and multiple violations under U.S. Code section Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 47, Sec.1028, and therefore an impeachable offense."

When the Obama birth certificate "forgery" comes to the public's attention, Vogt continues, "It will surpass all previous scandals including the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration."

Since 1993, Vogt has owned Archive Index Systems Inc., in Bellevue, Wash., a company that sells a wide variety of document scanners worldwide and develops document imaging software.

Before that, Vogt owned Nova Typesetting for 11 years.

He has several concerns, including the curved and non-curved lines of type:

As seen in Figure 1 below, the word "Sex" on the printed form curves into the binder, while the typed word "Male" does not, Vogt argues.

Vogt observes that the word "Sex" printed on the form slants more to the left than the typed-in word "Male" below it.

He claims to have found another parallax problem in line 6c, "Name of Hospital or Institution."

Vogt contends that the forger placed the typed-in text over the printed copy, creating a composite from a variety of original birth certificate forms.

He also expresses worry over the "halo" around lettering, which under a typical scan should not be there:

He then compares the above example to a grayscale scan in which there is no halo effect:

There also was a question raised because of the recent release of Barack Obama Sr.'s immigration file.

That's because while he reportedly was born June 18, 1934, the senior Obama began listing the year of his birth as June 18, 1936, on U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service forms two years after arriving in the U.S.

The long-form birth certificate released by the White House lists Obama Sr's. age as 25, corresponding to a 1936 year of birth.

The INS file documents that until Obama was born, Barack Obama Sr. stated that he was born in 1934. But after the birth of Obama Jr., he claimed a birth year of 1936 on some documents and 1934 on others.

But even if Obama's Hawaiian birth were proven and verified, many contend the country's founders understood a "natural born Citizen" – as listed by the Article 2, Section 1, of the U.S. Constitution as a requirement to hold the office of president – to be a person born of two American parents.

Barack Obama Sr., who is listed as the father, was not a U.S. citizen.

The president himself even seemed to acknowledge the relevance of parental citizenship when he co-sponsored a resolution to address Sen. John McCain's presidential eligibility that implied a "natural born Citizen" must be born to "American citizen" parents.

The list of other questions also being raised is long:

Just two weeks before Obama finally released his "long-form birth certificate," Hawaii's former Health Department chief Chiyome Fukino – the one official who claimed to have examined Obama's original birth document – was interviewed by NBC News' national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, who reported that Fukino told him she had seen the original birth certificate and that it was "half typed and half handwritten."

However, the document released by the White House was entirely typed. Only the signatures and two dates at the very bottom were "handwritten." What Fukino described is apparently a different document from what Obama released to the public.

The typography expert who played a key role in ending the career of CBS News anchor Dan Rather confirmed he has strong suspicions the Obama document is a fraud. Joseph M. Newcomer, who exposed the "Killian documents" as fraudulent in 2004, said it deserves a professional forensic examination. "There is something deeply wrong here," he said.

A private investigator, Takeyuki Irei, in Hawaii has reported state employees in Hawaii said three Hawaiian birth certificates for Obama were forged to "screw with birthers." The 57-year-old detective said he was stunned when he discovered that the purported copy of Obama's document released by the White House was more or less an exact image of one of the forgeries. Irei said the document Obama released document looks just like another document he saw purporting that Obama's birth place was an Queens Medical Center, not Kapiolani.

Doubt also seems to be fueled by revelations such as the report that noted Congress tried eight times over the time frame from 2003-2008 to eliminate or change the constitutional requirement that a president is a "natural born Citizen." The report says Congress eventually gave up on eliminating the requirement, but then changed the focus of the argument to Sen. John McCain, in a resolution that addresses his eligibility. Obama's eligibility never was similarly evaluated.

Some no longer even are considering the issue of eligibility: they are just calling for impeachment. Among those groups is the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC. Spokesman William Gheen said Obama "is no longer the legitimate president of the United States."

The American public has been moving more and more toward the idea that there's something wrong. A full half of the American public said in a recent poll that Congress needs to investigate Obama.

There also have been reports that a number of radical supporters for Obama have openly admitted to forging Obama birth certification documentation.

Paul Irey, a retired professional typographer with 50 years experience in his business, also said the fact that the typed letters on the document are different make it a forgery. "My analysis proves beyond a doubt that it would be impossible for the different letters that appear in the Obama birth certificate to have been typed by one typewriter."

Billionaire entrepreneur Donald Trump even said his own computer expert told him it was a computer-generated document.

"You may have thought Barack Obama ended the eligibility debate, and certainly the birth certificate debate," said Farah, "with his release of what purports to be his long-awaited, long-form document.

"But it's not over," he added. "Not by a long shot."

WND Editor Joseph Farah is available to discuss today's breaking stories on eligibility. Contact media@wnd.com.

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