Thanks to Loren’s “The Secret Origin of the Birthers” article, we have recorded one of the earliest mentions of the Born in Africa myth. It goes this way:
… Obama’s mother was allegedly visiting Kenya with Obama’s father in the final months of her pregnancy and was not allowed to board a flight in her late term to return home.She allegedly had Obama in Kenya and quickly boarded a flight to Hawaii. Airlines do not accept late term pregancies but do not refuse passage to a newborn, usually issuing a 10% or free fare ticket for the trip.Once in Hawaii, his mother registered him as being born in Hawaii.
There are a few details that I note:
- Obama’s mother and father were in Kenya
- They flew back to the US
Assuming such a trip took place at all, those details are almost reasonable (except for the prohibitive cost of the air fare). It would seem to make no sense for Ann Obama to travel to Kenya alone—18-years-old, pregnant, not knowing anyone.
However, we now know that this particular scenario didn’t actually happen. The first evidence is from the FOIA files on Barack Obama, Sr. We learn from those files that he did not travel outside of the United States in 1961.
In 1964, Barack Obama Sr.’s last entry into the United States was in 1959.
Now, we have further confirmation of that, from a statistical report of persons entering the United States. Surprisingly only one alien embarked from Kenya and traveled to the United States by air in the entire year ending June 30, 1962. Wow! Only 1 in a whole year: That kind of travel was REALLY UNCOMMON! Since President Obama would have been an alien under US law had he been born in Kenya, he and his alien father could not have both arrived in the US by air. (Please don’t look at the following chart YET—it’ll spoil the surprise.)
So the story gets complicated with no father in the picture. The birthers have concocted an alternative out of whole cloth. They now say that Ann Dunham made the trip to Kenya alone to give the baby up for adoption (which she didn’t). That way, baby Barack could have been the only alien. It’s complicated for all the other reasons of the original story, but it requires a reason for adoption. One reason given for the adoption is that Ann Dunham’s family was outraged by their daughter having a mixed-race child. That contention is borne out by this tense photo of Obama with his grandfather in Hawaii:
Add that to the fact that Obama Sr.’s father was furious at his son for marrying a white woman. That’s really complex.
But the greatest complexity of all is not only was it impossible for Barack Obama Sr. to have flown to the United States with his new-born son. It was also impossible for his mother to have flown home either, because according to the INS report, a total of ZERO US citizens arrived in the United States from Kenya by air for the entire year ending June 30, 1962.
OK birthers, dump the air travel. You’ve got to by sea. Or maybe via Canada, yeah, Canada. Ann Obama traveled on her husband’s British passport—oops, he wasn’t there.
I have written extensively on this. The Kenya birth scenario is physically impossible:
http://newyorkleftist.blogspot.com/2010/03/obama-born-in-kenya-no.html
Also, Barack Sr. was enrolled in a summer class that ended on Barack Jr’s birthday. Dad got an A in this class. This would place him in Hawaii on Jr’s birth.
“Assuming such a trip took place in the first those details are almost reasonable (except for the prohibitive cost of the air fare).”
About $22K in constant dollars.
Yes, there is no plausible scenario left here thanks to the clueless people at daily pen…
ROTFL
I am most shocked that the lame stream media has never acknowledge Ann Dunham’s remarkable record-setting solo (with child) sailing journey. In a small sailing skiff, she retraced (in reverse) the historic 1400s Portuguese voyage round Cape Good Hope. Granted, she did so without any support vessels or staff and has no proof, no certification of her accomplishment. But as is obvious from Dr. C’s expert testimony, she either set such a record, or she did not travel from Kenya at all. I just marvel how little recognition she received for this feat, most especially as she then set sail from Lisbon, traveling all the way to and through the Panama Canal and onwards west to Hawaii. How many ocean does a woman have to traverse to gain recognition?!
Never mind how she got to Kenya in the first place. Some conspiracies must be left for future generations.
Has any birther been so thoughtful as to suggest an unusually long gestation? I don’t know how it would help …. maybe if Obama was conceived in 1959, but delivered in 1961. Oh, wait, that would make him an elephant. That can’t be right. But what else is left?
No, it’s reasonable. The GOP’s mascot is an elephant, and they’ve been winking at the birther crowd for more than three years.
Better than tying a dog to a car roof.
Actually Barack Obama was an elephant
Just a thought…
The Birthers say that Ann Dunham traveled to Kenya to give up the baby Barack Obama Jr. for adoption because of some social stigma like being a biracial baby.
Okay, even if you give that point, that her giving birth and raising this child was an unacceptable taboo, why go to Kenya? There aren’t adoption agencies in Hawaii or any of the other 49 states?
“Also, Barack Sr. was enrolled in a summer class that ended on Barack Jr’s birthday. Dad got an A in this class. This would place him in Hawaii on Jr’s birth.”
.
I attended UofH in 1961 summer session, I ate at the foreign students cafeteria and met an African student that had a white pregnant wife and he missed class to visit his newborn son. He visited my dorm with the newborn but I was out at the time I don’t remember much but my wife said that was Obama’s father. As I look back on it, who else could it have been.
Here’s a 60 Minutes story on an elephant orphanage:
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-18560_162-1479398.html
Goodness me! So when I go to vote this fall, should I vote for GOP Elephant Obama, or this other Obama? Republicans keep telling me he’s a jackass. At least when upgrading from Romney to Elephant Obama, the Reds found some brain power.
Any elephant picked at random, is smarter than Santorum or any of the other crackpots in the GOP field.
Hey Doc I’m confused
The table below shows there were a total of 13 children of U.S. citizens who entered the U.S. from Africa’s Kenyan region. It also shows there were 11 from the United Kingdom in the same time in comparison, to demonstrate the consistency of this class of arrivals, regardless of the country of embarkation.
http://thedailypen.blogspot.com/2012/03/ins-doc-found-us-certificate-issued-to.html
So it comes down to Blame Canada, eh? Barack has only been pretending to like basketball, when he secretly is a hockey fan?
Ah the sleepy arrogance of us Obots…falling asleep last night at the keyboard, I typed about Ann Dunham retracing the Portuguese voyage around the Cape of Good Hope. I wake up this morning, look at the map, and realize I was wrong. Yes, an Obot admitting error. It happens.
Cutting to the chase…it is obvious with fresh eyes that she actually sailed through Indonesia, the opposite direction. While passing through Indonesia to Hawaii, she met her future husband, so clear with a cup of coffee. They made secret arrangements for him to come to the States and “meet” her there. Of course, she then got back on her sailing skiff with her infant son, and finished her journey back to Hawaii. The sailing skiff is true; that doesn’t change.
No, someday, when the master plan has been realized, and humanity enjoys its future utopia, they will all look back at this secret voyage and celebrate it as the beginning of the World Revolution (℗™).
Bdaman, of course you are confused, you missed Doc’s article on this
http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2012/03/us-citizen-births-in-africarare-in-1961/
NBC, the 2 PNG files in your article on this subject http://nativeborncitizen.wordpress.com/2012/03/24/daily-pen-rumors-debunked are the same, “Passengers Departed”, when the 1st should be “Passengers Arrived”.
There is no such think as “the Kenyan Region” in the report. You might start by looking at the original sources rather than Crosby’s misrepresentation of it. Why don’t you go read the report for yourself and then try to formulate a valid question.
I don’t mean to punch a hole in this analysis, Doc, but if someone traveled from Kenya to the US with a 1 or 2 day stopover in London, wouldn’t their embarkation country be UK?
I wondered the same thing but when you look at the same table for 1961 there are almost 285 people traveling from the Kenya to the US by air. The question this raises is how many direct flights from Kenya to the U.S.?
Today it is possible to go from Hawaii to Kenya in 3 flights with 5 stops. Maybe someone can figure out a different routing, but in 1961 one had to go through New York, and ny guess next to London or Paris, and then multiple flights. It is remarkable that anyone was reported as coming from Kenya at all.
All of which is totally irrelevant. The President was born in Hawaii.
Here are the BOAC timetables for 1960. Click on an image to find the various tables (BA60-12.jpg is the standard Nairobi to London).
http://www.timetableimages.com/ttimages/complete/ba60/
There were ways one could go from Nairobi, Kenya east to Hong Kong or Toykyo and then on to Honolulu. But the standard route was Nairobito London to New York. One could also go from London to Vancouver.
You can also figure out the cost because there is fare schedule.
You are generally asked upon arrival what countries you have been to and that is cross-veriified by stamps in your passport. Also, a person flying Nairobi-London-New York would have that indicated on their ticket. Could one buy 2 separate tickets, Nairobi-London and London-New York and simply say one had been in London? I suppose, but that would generally cost quite a bit more and then you would still have a Kenya stamp in your passport.
Sometimes it seems as though if you get enough birthers together, each ones “evidence” will debunk the claims of one of the others.
As far as I have been able to find, even today, there are no direct flights from Kenya to the US. My sister and her husband went there a few years ago and flew out via South Africa and home via Europe.
There, fixed that up. 😉
What you are describing is known in the travel industry as “Split-Ticketing” and was sometimes used, when due to arcane national carrier travel rules, it was cheaper to buy two sets of return tickets on different carriers and refund the unused outbound and return “half” legs. It only came into active use in the early 70’s as part of de-regulation when mix and matching became possible when wholly commercial non national carriers cross honored (endorsed) rivals tickets.
It was however generally only used by so called “bucket shops” or “consolidators” who bought bulks sets of tickets and re-sold them avoiding the advanced purchse requiremnets set by IATA and national governments.
I might add the procedure then was in many countries (and still is in some today) outright illegal and I won’t even start to go into the arcana of the Warsaw Convention, Miscellaneous Charge Orders and wholesale-retail charge back.
In a nutshell,
YES, split ticketing could occur
NO, not when the President was born
NOT from Kenya as the national carrier was still the British carrier BOAC and they did not then allow split ticketing
Interesting schedule of world wide ocean travel in late 1961 through 1962. Transit time from Honolulu to Mombasa is about 6 weeks minimum.
http://www.lastoceanliners.com/cgi/lolschedule.pl?line=0&route=DW
I notice the chart you linked to has no proof that Stanley Ann Dunham ever set foot on a boat during that time to sail to Kenya, so your link doesn’t really amount to much.
You chose the westbound leg because this is a silly attempt at suggesting a departure by boat, and return by air for a quickie BC? Have you realized how long even air travel, unless it was a private charter, could take at the time? Not a trace of this fantasy voyage anywhere, only evidence arguing against it.
And who funded the worldwide tour? Which world-controlling shadow gov’t can I put you down for?
I know, I know – can I play? The International Jewish Conspiracy™.
Soros.
Absolutely, Misha! I thought of you while perusing Cagle Post today …. great stuff about Mitt:
GOP Kvetch-a-Sketch … Monte Wolverton is a genius! (this is a link to a great collection, scroll a few to see Monte’s!)
Romney In 2002: My Only Connection To The Republican Party Is My Party Registration …. links at end to numerous Etch-a-Sketch themed clips 😉
“your link doesn’t really amount to much.”
what did you expect, he’s a birther ater all, poor guy is lost in his delusions. or local birther was screaming to see hi steenage daugter (she wants nothing to do with hin), he kept shouting “Sheriff Joe Vidicated me”, was that you john?
I’d forgotten that there was Birther named John that post on Dr C site, my fault. However we seemed to hit the birther and insult trigger rather rapidly yesterday.
If you think about this subject of this article, the fact that no US Citizen/traveler starting in Kenya flew into the US (nor did any US Citizen leave the US for Kenya by air), that leaves journey by ship as the only practice means for Ann to make this ‘trip’. So, the purpose my posting of the cruise lines was to show that IT COULD NOT BE DONE, if you use the standard Birther timelines that have Ann in Washington State by mid to late August.
As far as cost, if you go to the main page of that site, you’ll see that economy class for this type trip was significantly cheaper then flying. It was most likely the manner in which Mr Obama Senior got to HI.
At least you got the point, “only evidence arguing against it”, even though you jumped to the incorrect conclusion that I was a birther.
The west bound trips would be the only logical ones to take if you were traveling from HI to Mombasa, simple as that.
I saw your first post and thought it was odd for a birther to post that. However, birthers, and especially birther John have had a tendency to post “evidence” which actually refutes their argument. Therefore, it would be rather natural for those who are used to John to jump on the issue that he, again, provided evidence that actually debunks their story. Birther John is especially gullible for anything.
Some birthers may be in the wrong line of work as they have shown quite a talent for being good birther debunkers.
Even today, there are no such direct flights.
But comparing with 1961, I have found something interesting.
I thought it was rather curious that in these figures, no one comes from Tanganyika or Zanzibar by air, but everybody comes from Saint Helena by air.
But then, comparing 1961 and 1962, you see Southern Rhodesia appears only in 1961-1962, not the year before. Uganda is just the opposite. It is strange, because international flights from Salisbury started in 1954.
Probably, taking the Saint Helena paradox at face value, this means that debarkation place is probably taken as where the “foreign trip” started and the question of whether whether it was by air or by sea is decided by the manner of arrival in the USA.
The figures for Kenya 1961-1962 by air may therefore include people who arrived in Nairobi by train from all over Eastern Africa, except Uganda. Point is that until 1963, it was possible that no one got their passports stamped when using “international” trains, since all this was British territory, from Somalia to South Africa. Do you see what birfers are going to make of this?
So here you are: switch from the (impossible) train trip Mombasa-Nairobi to train trips Mombasa-Nairobi and Nairobi-Salisbury (now Harare, of course). That must have been some train trip. I have evidence that in 1967, a Ducth bank manager who was transferred from Mombasa to Salisbury, preferred to take a dhow along the Eastern coast of Africa. So, you probably will not escape some stretch of sea in this incredible scenario.
However, now Corsi can make a do-over and check the 10 Americans who started off from Salisbury. Odds that he will not – and odds that if he will and of course finds no Obamas there, he will claim that the records are mysteriously missing?
I take the blame for the confusion, I had completely forgotten about Birther John, My first name was auto-populated in the name field by Firefox and I never gave it a second look.
Still something to keep in mind however. For John was the most popular first name in the US, 50’s through late 60’s.
Looks like “Not Birther John” auto-populated in the comment form this time. Hopefully it will stay that way, if not I hoipe my brain will remember to check in the future.
Sorry again for the confusion.
Yeah, the name “John” can be a pain that way (believe, me, I know! Please note initial “J” in handle 😉 )
That “other” john has been dropping droppings consistently for while here, and your post looked like a typical birther john post … a factoid without context or position. Being one myself, i shouldn’t automatically lump all john’s together. Ach.
So you were confirming it takes weeks by boat. I can imagine birthers retrenching, asserting he could have been born at sea (woman in third trimester signs up to sail ’round the globe! Hmmm…), or they could have just lied to Hawaii about having gone anywhere (passing off a 2-month old as a newborn? Hmmm…).
Yes. They most likely took the White Star Line, with Edward John Smith, Captain.
The quickest time to Mombasa was 6 weeks one way and included days of layover in certain port cities, where the passenger would have to pay for lodging etc. Adding more cost.
http://www.lastoceanliners.com/
“In those days fares for this alluring around the world voyage began at only $935 in Tourist Class or $1488 in First Class.”
Using a good SWAG, a trip from Kenya to HI from the round the world cost of 935$ and you get something along the lines of 400$ to 500$ one way. For Mr Obama Sr, this was the most likely way to travel to HI, considering his dependence of the Kenyan Government for financing his schooling etc. Makes much more sense then flying. The time factor also helps explain, other then pure cost, why he never left the US in those 4+ years he was in school.
Looking at the East Bound routes, the return would have been even longer, 8-9 weeks
http://www.lastoceanliners.com/cgi/lolschedule.pl?line=0&route=DE
$935.00 in 1961 = $7,119.23 in 2012.
http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
It is established there was an airlift of African students.
http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/how-obama-sr-came-to-hawaii/
Well, still cheaper then conventional flying. However I could see where a charter aircraft for that specific purpose would be cheaper. Makes sense.
However my point was that since we know that Ann did not fly, that leaves sea travel and the schedules of those do NOT support any birther timeline. Once again supporting the fact that there could not have been a Ann visit to Kenya.
Sorry about that…force of habit from reading too many of birther John’s posts, like JPotter said. Birther John tends to leave short, one sentence comments like the one you left but I apologize for pulling the birther trigger on you. Also, I plan on stealing the phrase birther trigger.
I’m telling you, she went by sailing skiff, secretly mind you, all by herself (with child). Unacknowledged world record and all. Tremendous woman, even if she only did it for the cause. Viva World Revolution!
Can we send these birthers on this cruise, maybe on a ship that was renamed The FEMA (I know, it is bad luck to rename a ship.. hence..). I would have to find a new hobby but maybe I would start getting something done.
I would LOVE to go on one of these:
http://www.freightercruises.com/
http://www.freightercruises.com/voyages.php#transpacific
however if you shoved a bunch of Birthers on board with me, blood would flow….
More appropriately, they should have the fate of Phillip Nolan in the Edward Everett Hale story.