I see demands for information on the blog here and in my email box. People want to know the name of the doctor who delivered Obama, and they want his college transcripts and a list of his clients when he was a lawyer. But there are also many things they don’t know and that they aren’t asking for. Let me point out some other things you don’t know.
Where does the “born in Africa” story come from?
Do you think Barack Obama might have been born in Africa? Where did that idea come from? Who raised it and when? What is it based on? There are thousands of web sites copying the story, but none of them say where they got it from.
You say, the story came from Bishop Ron McRae’s telephone interview with Obama’s Grandmother? Guess again. That interview took place October 16, 2008. The Berg v. Obama lawsuit that mentions the story is months before. Where did Berg get it? He doesn’t say, but it looks like most of his allegations were copied from the Internet. Where did this story come from?
Investigative Team Visits Africa
This from WorldNetDaily:
The Washington state case also alleges, “Wayne Madsen, Journalist with Online Journal as a contributing writer and published an article on June 9, 2008, stating that a research team went to Mombassa [sic], Kenya, and located a Certificate Registering the birth of Barack Obama, Jr. at a Kenya Maternity Hospital, to his father, a Kenyan citizen and his mother, a U.S. citizen.
Do you know the name of any member of this investigative team? Does anybody? Where is this Kenyan certificate? Is there so much as a cell phone snapshot of it?
Do you know what the last part of the “grandmother tape” says?
The Berg v. Obama transcript and the YouTube video end abruptly. Do you know what’s on the rest of the tape? I can help you out on this one. Links are here.
Shuwhoosit?
What is the name of the person who signed the affidavit, who was actually in the room with Sarah Obama and who could actually hear the transatlantic telephone conversation. Bishop Kweli Shuhubia? No. That’s a pseudonym (false name). What’s his real name?
Calls to Honolulu Hospitals
You may have heard that someone called all the hospitals in Honolulu and they said they had no record that Obama or his Mother was ever a patient there. Orly Taitz said this in her National Press Club appearance. Do you know the names of anyone who made those calls? (Hospital spokespersons say they are prohibited by federal privacy laws from saying anything.)
Maya Soetoro-Ng Hawaiian Birth Certificate
So you think the President’s half sister (born in Indonesia) has a Hawaiian birth certificate? How do you know that? I’m not saying it’s not true, but how do you know? Where did the story come from?
Travel Ban to Pakistan
Janet Porter in an article on WorldNetDaily says that there was a travel ban to Pakistan in 1981, so that if Obama went there, he had to have a non-US passport. Do you know what documentation supports this claim, where it is published, the State Department bulletin number, the date on it? [Don’t waste your time on this one; the ban is a hoax.]
Do you know the difference between a certificate and a certification?
It is claimed that there is a big difference between a certificate and a certification. Do you know what it is?
Three document analysts prove Obama birth certificate image fake
Do you know the names of any of these? Ron Polarik? That’s a pseudonym. Sandra Lines? She just said images on the Internet couldn’t be relied upon, not that Obama’s was fake. Do you know the name of any document analyst who says the birth certificate image is a fake?
Foreigners getting legal Hawaiian Birth Certificates
Do you think anybody foreigner can just walk up to the health department in Hawaii and ask for a birth certificate that says they are born in Hawaii? What law or regulation do you think allows that? If you think you know, be sure to check your answer here.
Conclusion
So you’re telling me that you believe a story that you don’t know where came from, attested to by people whose names you don’t know, accompanied by a doctored tape transcript and all telling an utterly fantastic tale? 🙄 I believe this what the Bible calls “swallowing a camel.”
Dr. C.,
Yes, that is what they are saying. Pretty sad isn’t it.
No idea or clue if anyone has actually called hospitals in Hawaii; however, HIPAA and privacy laws do not cover events in the distant past. Ann Dunham would have had to sign a form exclusively preventing her name from being publicly available at the switchboard for anyone inquiring as to her presence at the hospital. Forms of that nature didn’t exist in 1961 and it is highly doubtful that she would have had the forethought to have specifically asked to be excluded from the public directory of patients.
I myself did research on this issue after seeing some responses stating it would be a violation of HIPAA to give out that information. Nope, not way back in 1961 it wasn’t is still isn’t. HIPAA is not retroactive.
Actually, I called the hospital where I was born and several other hospitals in my area and asked specifically if they would give out this information and the answer was NO.
Well if you get a time machine and fly back to 1961 maybe you can call and ask.
I seriously doubt that any hospital anywhere has 47-year-old admission/discharge records stored in any format that is easy to access from a hospital switchboard to give out info to random callers. I also seriously doubt that any hospital is training its present-day switchboard operators in the nuances of historic changes in the law- they are going to respond to inquiries based on their current training under HIPAA.
I have had difficulties verifying or locating patients in hospitals who were discharged only days before, and I went through a huge and ultimately fruitless effort a couple of years ago to try to retrieve vaccination records for one of my kids that were about 8 years old — the local practice was to cart everything off to “storage” after 5 years, or something like that.
in Hawaii law requires Hospital Birth records only kept for 25 yrs. My daughter’s Hosptial BC was not acceptable for passport, had to get State BC. In Calf it’s 7 years!
Federal law only requires medical records be retained for 7 years. Hawaii has a 25 year retention law. Obama’s hospital birth records would have been retained for 25 years after Obama reached 18 yrs. of age. The hospital where I was born retained hospital birth records for 21 years period.
http://www.miec.com/htmldocs/practic1B.htm#law
Hawaii’s 25-Year retention law
“Hawaii law requires that medical records be retained for a minimum of seven (7) years after the last entry. After seven years, medical records can be destroyed, but basic information must be retained for twenty-five (25) years after the last chart entry. “Basic information” includes the patient’s name and birth date, a list of dated diagnoses and intrusive treatments, and a record of all drugs prescribed or given. Medical records of minors must be retained for seven (7) years after the minor’s eighteenth birthday; “basic information” must be retained twenty-five (25) years after the minor’s eighteenth birthday.”
However, there is a hospital birth registry that is permanent but I suspect this would have minimal information. The hospital where I was born does not even provide maternity services anymore. And, has been sold since I was born. So, that could also be a issue.
Well, by that math then it would be proper for the hospital to have destroyed all records pertaining to Obama’s birth in 2004 (1961+18+25=2004)
So my “doubt” above is well founded — there is no law that would require any hospital to be retaining any records pertaining to Obama or his mother.
I believe they said “Medical Records”. Not the same as Birth Certificate you get from the County or City, depending on your location.
The Archivist and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences newsletter said:
My personal experience is that providers are treating all records as covered by the 2002 HIPAA Privacy Rule. There are two good reasons for it: 1) they’ll never get into trouble and 2) their policies are simplified. According to newspaper accounts, Hawaiian hospitals believe that some law prevents them from releasing the information. Of course, state laws can be more restrictive.
I believe that the Kapi’Olani hospital keeps their birth registry indefinitely (which would be in line with recognized “best practices”). If they had no records that old, the hospital spokesperson could have simply said “we don’t keep records that old” rather then relying on privacy regulations to decline information.
As far as I know the federal Health Information Privacy Act of 1999 wasn’t passed.
When I got my first driver license about a million years ago, I had brought my hospital birth certificate with me. it was lovely, pink and white, with a hospital seal, and the general information, including my name.
It wasn’t good enough.
I had to send off to Louisiana to get an “official” state copy.
Angi, silly girl those rules only apply to us common folk. You get Senator status one day and you won’t have to answer all the tough questions or show some responsibility by coughing up Ten Bucks and clearing up all the rumors, instead just let it go on a mystery.
What Angi got is what Obama provided. The copy you get from the County. Not the Hospital Birth Certificate with the feet thing or baby buggy or stork picture.
It is amusing that the Kenya-born theorists have the ability to prove that he was born there, IF he was born there. Unfortunately, the same evidence would also prove that he was not born there, so they don’t want to investigate.
The way to prove it, and by the way I don’t think that he was born in Kenya, would be to launch a Freedom of Information Act request with the US State Department to determine whether a visa was issued to baby Obama in Kenya in 1961.
IF Obama had been born in Kenya in 1961, he would be considered a Kenyan (or perhaps British) citizen by the State Department. He would not have been allowed into the USA without a visa.
Since he obviously got to the USA, and there is evidence that he did it in 1961, if he were born in Kenya he would have to have a visa, and that visa would be on file at the State Department.
I suppose it is a remote possibility that the Sate Department would have considered him a US citizen based on his mothers’ location of birth. If so, Obama would have had to be issued a passport in Kenya, or be entered on his mothers’ passport to get to Hawaii.
Either way, he would have to have a US travel document–either a visa, a passport, or be entered on his mothers’ passport. If any of those took place, there would be records at the State Department, and they would not be considered private records under the FOIA, since Obama is a public official and his mother and father are dead.
Thus a FOIA request would prove either way whether he was born in Kenya or was not born in Kenya.
The possibility of him being born in Kenya is about one in a million, but the Kenya-born theorists still insist that he was born there. So, here’s the way to prove that he was or was not.
I wonder why they don’t use it?
There is a specific exemption to the FOIA in regards to a living person that prevents these particular kinds of FOIA requests on President Obama. One such request was made and refused by the Department of State.
Stanley Ann Dunham is deceased and records for her could be requested and in fact have been requested. A request for passport applications for Stanley Ann Dunham was made by Christopher Strunk and acknowledged by the Department of State as acceptable. However, the results of that request are not published. Visa and entry information FOIA requests would have to be directed to the Department of Homeland Security, and I don’t know whether this has been done or not.
Pardon my jaded view, but I believe the nObamas have FOIA information that they are not publishing because it is harmful to their cause. Either that or the FOIA is really slow.
Re: “There is a specific exemption to the FOIA in regards to a living person that prevents these particular kinds of FOIA requests on President Obama. One such request was made and refused by the Department of State.”
Is this really true. I made FOIA requests some years ago, and pointed out that the files of a public official could not be considered private, and they honored it. But that was not with the State Department.
Did you make the FOIA request, or someone else? Either way, when? (New Administration now, Obama has said that FOIA requests should get priority.)
Common sense tells me that Hillary and McCain would have checked there first and used this information don’t you think?
Travel Ban to Pakistan:
Not only is it a hoax, but in 1981 publications were even running articles about how nice it is to visit Pakistan. Here’s one published in June 1981:
“LAHORE, A SURVIVOR WITH A BITTERSWEET HISTORY
“By BARBARA CROSSETTE; BARBARA CROSSETTE IS AN ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR OF THE NEW YORK TIMES.
“Published: June 14, 1981
“History has dealt the lovers of Lahore more than their share of broken hearts. This graceful and cultured city, with a history that stretches by some accounts back into the days of the epic Ramayana, passed through many conquering hands – Hindu, Mogul, Persian, Afghan, Sikh and British -on the way to becoming an intellectual center of the Indian subcontinent, only to be relegated with the partition of British India to the status of a provincial Pakistani capital.
“Over the years monuments rose, monuments fell and charges flew: Sikhs decried Muslim damage to their shrines, Muslims pointed to desecrations perpetrated by Sikhs. A generation of Hindu and Sikh Punjabis, forced in l947 to flee bloody religious violence, still mourns the loss of a city they can longer visit but can never forget, and to which they will always belong.
‘”Lahore,” the elderly Sikh photographer in Chandigarh said in a low, choked voice as he held up to the light the negatives I had brought to him for printing. ”My god, you have been in Lahore. Tell me, how is it now?”
“Lahore is fine. Lahore is a survivor, and all of its bittersweet history is here for the tourist to see, in the tombs and mosques, palaces and fortresses, museums, gardens and parks that make this one of the most fascinating and pleasurable of the subcontinent’s attractions. Pakistan – Lahore is its second-largest city – has restored and preserved historical buildings while developing a clean, modern town around them.”
End quote
“…and pointed out that the files of a public official could not be considered private, and they honored it.”
What type of info did you request?
My comment above to the Strunk request links to a letter from the State Department (very end) stating the rule under which they refused Obama’s information. I guess it depends on the type of information and the agency. Obama’s Draft Registration application form was obtained through FOIA.
I have FOIA requests pending but they would not be affected by the privacy rule.
Yes, and the 1981 State Department Travel Advisory on Pakistan gives advice on how to get a visa. There’s a feature article here on this.
Actually I doubt anyone in the Clinton or McCain campaigns would have taken it seriously to have checked. Remember, the African Birth legend didn’t exist until relatively late in the campaign.
Dr. C.,
No, John McCain could have brought this out, if indeed Obama was born in Keyna, prior to the election. Remember Andy Martin’s lawsuit in Hawaii? Right before the election. And I’m sure Bushey boy could have gotten anything McCain wanted regarding this, don’t you?
Rumor has it McCain was born in a hospital in Panama that was NOT part of a military base. I don’t know if it would be a problem, but I doubt McCain would have wanted to get into the mess.
I’m sorry. I was unable to find the Strunk reference you listed “above.”
Could you please give me a link to it?
(I still believe that the travel documents of a public official cannot be considered private.)
A thought just struck me.
Would it be possible to file a FOIA asking if there were ANY US visas or US passports issued in Kenya to anyone under the age of one years old? If not, then no Obama, of course.
First, a visa to Kenya would be issued by Kenya and that’s where you’d have to go looking. Second, FOIA requests are chargeable to the requester (by the hour and by the page). If you triggered a massive global search, you might be asked to pay a large sum in advance. Finally be advised that as of 2007 there were FOIA requests at the State Department from 1989 still being worked on. I don’t know how fast you’d get your results.
However, you can take a shot. If it’s more than $25 to process your request, they’ll contact you first.
http://foia.state.gov
McCain had time before the election, but I sincerely doubt he or any close adviser would fall for an urban legend like this.
“Hospital spokespersons say they are prohibited by federal privacy laws from saying anything.”
This is not true. HIPAA is only retroactive to 2002. In 1961 Stanley Ann would have had to have signed a form specifically requesting that she not be listed as a patient for the PBX operator in order for any such privacy laws to kick in. I’m not suggesting that she didn’t sign such a form, but it was highly unusual for people to be privacy paranoid in 1961.
At any rate, there really should be no reason why any hospital in Hawaii would not be able to either confirm or deny whether Stanley Ann Dunham/Obama was or was not a patient at the time of his birth. Since she is now deceased, I’m not sure she would care – and it’s not like you are asking whether B.H. Obama was a patient. Not sure there is any privacy issues available after a person is deceased and since she had relatively few privacy rights prior to death, I’m sure the few available to her eroded quickly upon her death.
While there is some debate as to whether HIPAA covers data collected before the Privacy Rule went into effect (April 14, 2001 with compliance required by 2003), my reading of hospital policies available on the Internet indicates that they are taking it safe and assuming that it does. A hospital spokesperson for the Kapi’Olani Medical Center cited HIPA [sic] as the reason that the hospital could not disclose information. And yes, HIPAA protection extends after death.
The Archivist and Librarians in the History of the Health Sciences newsletter said: