I’m not talking about President Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, but rather the Lebanese born mother of Iraqi prime ministerial challenger Ayad Allawi. Yes, birtherism has been exported to Iraq amidst claims that Allawi has ties to the CIA and is not eligible to be Prime Minister because of his mother’s foreign citizenship. Oh, did I mention they invoked Nazi Germany?
Read the story in the Christian Science Monitor.
I’d like to know whether this idea migrated to Iraq through US-based PR people working for Maliki, or whether Iraqis simply read about birtherism from seeing the US media. Of course the answer could be neither, nativism in Iraqi politics has always been a theme, shaping the image of Moqtada Al Sadr and Saddam Hussein for example.
Or maybe they read it on the website of the infamous Post and Fail. Their most recent aricle. I guess they are not happy with the most recent respone by a Republican State Senator….Of course some of the responding letters contain numerous examples of wrong information.
http://www.thepostemail.com/2010/03/30/hi-state-senator-responds-to-hawaii-petition-campaign-3/
“In addition to the doubts raised by the foregoing facts, Obama admitted himself on his “Fight the Smears” website that he was born a dual citizen of Great Britain and the U.S. Article II, Section 1, paragraph 5 of the U.S. Constitution 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; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.” The term “natural born Citizen” is defined by Emmerich de Vattel in his treatise “The Law of Nations,” in which he states, “The citizens are the members of the civil society: bound to this society by certain duties, and subject to its authority, they equally participate in its advantages. The natives, or natural-born citizens, are those born in the country, of parents who are citizens. As the society cannot exist and perpetuate itself otherwise than by the children of the citizens, those children naturally follow the condition of their fathers, and succeed to all their rights. . . .”
Our nation’s Founding Fathers relied heavily upon de Vattel’s work when they wrote the Constitution.”
and;
“Moreover, Senator Hemmings apparently does not understand that Article II, Section 1, paragraph 5 of the U.S. Constitution requires that the president be a “natural born Citizen,” which means more than simply being born in the United States. It means that both parents would have had to be citizens at the time of the child’s birth to avoid the confict of dual citizenship and foreign allegiances.”
I think the birthers feel if they repeat a lie (the founders relied heavily on de Vattels work) it will somehow become true. We know Mario believes that.
“Your letter’s sentiment is vastly misplaced. For you to dismiss a matter of Constitutional importance and with huge ramifications for this country is incredulous. Obama could have been born in Hawaii, Timbuctu, or under Philadelphia’s liberty bell. We who love this country and clearly understand the Constitutional issue simply do not care where he was born. We do care that he most decidedly is not a natural born citizen. Only such a person would have undivided allegiance to his country. Obama, if his mother had been a U.S. citizen five years after her 14th birthday (she wasn’t), would have received both American and British/Kenyan citizenship. Dual citizenship = dual allegiance. The best Obama could be is a dual citizen. Since he is not eligible to serve as president, his “disastrous policies” stem from a disastrous fraud. You can’t just treat the symptoms; you must treat the disease. The disease is his ineligibility to sign any kind of laws, or pursue any kind of agenda.”
That is amazing, imagine living in the beautiful State of Hawaii, which has had universal health care among many other great local benefits, and then spending your time fuming that the native-born son of your State is “not an American.” It’s truly insane. Then imagine attacking one of the few elected “conservative” or right-wing officials in the state for not being crazy enough. There’s not even a word for that.
Want to ask a question here: What about all those mothers who give birth at age 16 or 15? so by the birfer definition, their children will never be considered Natural Born?