Thursday, February 26, 2009

Obama's Questionable Citizenship

"The present occupant of the White House assumed residence while refusing to provide credible evidence that he is in fact constitutionally qualified to serve as President." ~ Alan Keyes

One of the big controversies that just won't seem to go away concerning Barack Hussein Obama is the one about his citizenship, and thus, his qualification to be President of the United States.

Dr. Alan Keyes is one of many who have filed suit alleging Obama is not an American citizen.

If Barack Hussein Obama was not born in the United States as some have charged, is he qualified to be President or not?

I have said I have always thought as long as one has at least one parent who is an American citizen, one is considered a naturally born American citizen and that should settle the issue, but upon researching what the Constitution actually has to say about it, I can now see why there is some confusion.

From Article II, Section I of the Constitution of the United States of America:

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.

What constitutes a “natural born” Citizen?

For that, we have to look at the fourteenth Amendment, to wit:

Amendment 14 - Citizenship Rights. Ratified 7/9/1868.

1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

That's it. That's all it says. That doesn't yet tell us everything we need to know, does it?

A President cannot be a naturalized citizen. He must be “natural born”, but the Constitution does not specify exactly what defines “natural born“.

I had always believed one only had to be born of at least one parent who is an American citizen, no matter what country he was born in to be a natural born American citizen, but the Constitution makes no such specification.

So, there must be a more specific definition of what constitutes an American citizen somewhere, shouldn't there?.

There is. In the U.S. Code.

According to the U.S. Code § 1401:

The following shall be nationals and citizens of the United States at birth:

(a) a person born in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof;

(c) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents both of whom are citizens of the United States and one of whom has had a residence in the United States or one of its outlying possessions, prior to the birth of such person;

(this provision covers Sen. John McCain's qualification, regardless of what the Liberals say)

(d) a person born outside of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year prior to the birth of such person, and the other of whom is a national, but not a citizen of the United States;

(e) a person born in an outlying possession of the United States of parents one of whom is a citizen of the United States who has been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year at any time prior to the birth of such person;

g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or periods of employment with the United States Government or with an international organization as that term is defined in section 288 of title 22 by such citizen parent, or any periods during which such citizen parent is physically present abroad as the dependent unmarried son or daughter and a member of the household of a person.

I don’t know if some of these provisions apply to Obama’s qualifications to be President, but, at least one of them would, regardless. Unless Obama’s mother didn’t satisfy the requirements pertaining to the length of continuous time spent in the United States, and that, I don’t know.

Q.E.D. It would appear that Obama is indeed a natural born American citizen, his suspect forged “certificate of live birth” notwithstanding.

If we need legal justification for removing Obama from the Presidency (and I believe he needs to be removed), it might be better to read further into the fourteenth amendment. There does appear to be a justification for questioning the qualifications of Obama to be President, to wit:

3. No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.

Obama has absolutely offered aid and comfort to America’s enemies with his overtures to Hamas and Iran, and his seeming commitment to facilitating further terrorists attacks on America, by dismantling the safeguards set up by the Bush administration, and cutting the budget for the military.

That alone should disqualify him to be President, depending on how one interprets the phrase “aid or comfort”.

Of course, if the multiple lawsuits raising questions about Obama's citizenship are successful in removing him from office, I would be comfortable with that as well.

As long as he goes.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

Not exactly sure why you think McCain is a Natual Born Citizen - and no, I'm not a liberal. I voted for McCain - but ONLY as a vote against Obama.

McCain was NOT born in an outlying possession of the US. He was born (according to his vault BC) in Colon, Panama; thus, McCain was a dual-citizen at birth of the US and Panama and as such was NOT a Natural Born Citizen. The hospital on the Naval base where his father was stationed was not built until AFTER his birth. He was not born on US controlled soil. If there had be no question about this issue, why would Congress (oddly enough supported by Obama) have issued a non-binding resolution stating McCain was eligible to be POTUS.

There is no real clear definition of Natural Born Citizen in our Constitution. Therefore, one must look at historical documents for the definiton the framers intended. For this I direct you to "Law of Nations". This text is of special importance to scholars of constitutional history and law, for it was read by many of the Founders of the United States of America, and informed their understanding of the principles of law which became established in the Constitution of 1787.

Copy/pasted one of the pertinent clauses - there are more but this will get you started.

§ 212. Citizens and natives.

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. The society is supposed to desire this, in consequence of what it owes to its own preservation; and it is presumed, as matter of course, that each citizen, on entering into society, reserves to his children the right of becoming members of it. The country of the fathers is therefore that of the children; and these become true citizens merely by their tacit consent. We shall soon see whether, on their coming to the years of discretion, they may renounce their right, and what they owe to the society in which they were born. I say, that, in order to be of the country, it is necessary that a person be born of a father who is a citizen; for, if he is born there of a foreigner, it will be only the place of his birth, and not his country.

Therefore; Obama is NOT a Natural Born Citizen and not eligible to POTUS.

Mark said...

Anonymous, "There is no real clear definition of Natural Born Citizen in our Constitution. Therefore, one must look at historical documents for the definiton the framers intended."

Yes, that's why I included the U.S. Code, section 8 in the post.

Look under U.S. Code (g) if U.S Code (c) is inadequate for you to establish MCCain's citizenship. He is the child of American citizen parents, born in Panama, on a U.S Naval base. Both of those articles (c and g)pertain.

Article (g) is also the code under which you may find Obama's citizenship. He is a child born of an American mother. Regardless of where he was born, that makes him a natural born citizen.

By the way, any law not of THIS nation is not applicable to our law, thus a "law of nations" does not apply.

smrstrauss said...

Re: “No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof.”

You are stretching here. There are various laws defining what is “aid and comfort” to an enemy, and they are very strict. Making an offer to hold negotiations simply does not count.

Moreover, the actual intent of the phrase refers to the Civil War and its purpose was to bar from office such leaders of the Confederacy as Robert E. Lee and Jefferson Davis.

But, what it does instead—and it is in keeping with Lincoln’s “with malice towards none” is that it ALLOWS ordinary soldiers in the Confederate army to become US officials and even president, so long as they had not sworn an oath to support the Constitution before they joined the Confederate Army. Think of the incredible generosity of this decision. A confederate sniper may have killed 15 or 20 US soldiers, some even carrying the flag of the United States, and yet the 14th Amendment would allow them to be Senators, other federal officials, even possibly president.

Most Rev. Gregori said...

Mark,
I have been following this controversy from the beginning, and there is a bit more to it then you have mentioned.

There is the fact that Obama's paternal grandmother, and a half brother and sister on his father's side, stated that they witnessed his birth in Kenya. Secon under the laws of the time he was born, if he was born in Kenya, his mother was too young to confer citizenship to him.

Then there is the fact that he did post a Certificate of Live Birth (which is not the same as a Birth Certificate) to his web site, but several document experts declared it to be a "forgery".

After his American born mother divorced his biological Kenyan father, she married an Indonesian citizen and moved to Indonesia with him, taking Obama with her. Now, Obama DID attend school in Indonesia, but according to Indonesian law, only Indonesian citizens are allowed to attend school there, which means that his Indonesian step-father had to adopt Obama under Indonesian Law, and Indonesia does NOT allow dual citizenship. On his school records in Indonesia, he IS listed as an Indonesian citizen and as a Muslim.

When he returned to the U.S., at some point he would have had to take an Oath of Allegiance to regain American citizenship (if he ever was a American citizen to begin with)and if he took such an oath, it would have to have been done before a federal judge or a member of the State Department and there would have had to be a record of it. NO SUCH RECORD EXISTS.

Then there is another problem, and that is the FACT that in 1980, when Obama was between 19 and 20 years old, he took a trip to Pakistan, at a time when it was forbidden by both Pakistani and American law for Americans to enter Pakistan. Obama traveled there on an Indonesian passport. Nobody except Indonesian citizens can obtain an Indonesian passport.

All of the above reasons are why Dr. Alan Keyes has brought his lawsuit.

Lone Ranger said...

The Senate passed a resolution recognizing McCain as a natural-born citizen. As for Obama, you have to wonder why he would spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight these lawsuits rather than just ponying up 10 bucks to produce a Hawaiian birth certificate. Why would he NOT want this to go away immediately?

Jim said...

He HAS produced a birth certificate.

This is some of the most useless waste of time imaginable. You are NEVER going to get him out of office except by voting him out.

Knock yourself out.

The Liberal Lie The Conservative Truth said...

Hey Mark, I can put this whole argument to rest. Whether he is or is not a citizen, his very actions and ignorance based inexperience proves he is unqualified to be president.

There is also the distinct violation of the tenth amendment of the Constitution. He is transfering vast amounts of power to the federal government which violates the amendments premise that all powers not listed specifically in the 7 articles are then to go to the state or the people.

This is a violation of his oath to preserve and protect the Constitution which may or may not be a crime, but violating the Constitutional requirements of the tenthe amendment violates the law which is a high crime or misdameanor.

I doubt though that anyone will charge him for this. He doesn't beleive in the Constitution anyway so how can he preserve and protect something he doesn't believe in.

Mark said...

Ken, You cant' put this matter to rest as long as Obama's Libtard devotees continue to argue.

My point, is that from my research it appears he is a citizen. His mother was a natural born American citizen so that makes him one wherever he was born. It's in the US Code.

LR, you have raised interesting questions. I suppose the only answers to them would be if they come from Obama himself. Otherwise, we may never know.

Smrstrauss, I did say the whole aid and comfort thing depends on their definition.

Jim, as Father Gregori mentioned, the certificate Obama presented is highly suspect, and may even be a forgery, so that doesn't constitute definitive "proof", at least for such an important matter as qualification to be President.

Father, as to your statement, "On his school records in Indonesia, he IS listed as an Indonesian citizen and as a Muslim.

When he returned to the U.S., at some point he would have had to take an Oath of Allegiance to regain American citizenship
"

That may be true. I don't know. I relied wholly on the Constitution and the US Code to determine his citizenship. As I understand it, once born a citizen, always a citizen, but I may be wrong.

Believe me, if I thought we could get him out on the citizenship thing, I'd be all for it, but I don't think Dr. Keyes and the others have much of a case.

I want him out, and if we can't get him out that way, we need to explore further avenues. Ken's suggestions are good ones. He took an oath to protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution, and he is undoubtably violating that oath.

But let's get him out before he destroys this country.

Trader Rick said...

You CAN lose your citizen ship, Mark. Now if we can just prove Obama was a U.S. Army Officer, or federal or state official prior to the Civil war, and then became a Confederate, we could get him out...

The fact that he has not produced a Birth Certificate, AND HAS NOT EXPLAINED WHY, alone disqualifies him from the office of the Presidency.

My personal "birth certificate" was issued by the State of New York when I was 18 months old and adopted. New York has chosen to seal those records, so I will never know the name I was born with or the names of my parents, altho I have found out a little on my own. I can explain why I don't have an actual hospital birth Certificate, and I'm thinking a state or federal judge could get it released, even just temporarily should I run for president. Obama chooses not to follow that route, because he was born in Africa and it either does not exist or shows he was born there...

In any event he is not a natural born citizen, and can't prove he is, or he certainly would have. He is a great deceiver.

Joe said...

Anonymous: Do not (c), (d) and (e) of the code cover McCain?

As for President BO, I have no apriori knowledge of his heritage, but I have knowledge of many of his actions, some of which have given, are giving and will give aid or comfort to our enemies.

For that, IMHBCO, he should be impeached.

smrstrauss said...

Re: "There is the fact that Obama's paternal grandmother, and a half brother and sister on his father's side, stated that they witnessed his birth in Kenya."

Simply not true. In the grandmother tape you can hear her say born in Hawaii. Listen, please, to the complete tape. Listen until after she is asked: Whereabouts is he born? The answer is "Hawaii, America."


To hear the full recording of the Obama grandmother interview, go to: ?” http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2009/01/independent-grandmother-transcript/ (Click on full Sarah Obama Tape.)

There are quite a few recordings and transcripts that cut the tape at the five minute mark. It is important to go to the full recording, which runs about nine minutes.

You might ask yourself why anyone would want to cut the tape at five minutes when the answer to the question WHERE WAS HE BORN is after five minutes. The answer, sadly, is that they are not anxious for people to make up their own minds, they want to create zealots.

Some say that there are other Kenyan relatives who said that Obama was born in Kenya, but this cannot be proven. Only WND has said this, and WND has not shown the interviews to anyone.

There are no physical documents showing that he was born in Kenya, but the theorists explain this by saying that the Kenya government is part of the conspiracy and that it has blocked access to those documents. The very fact that Kenya had blocked access to certain documents would be possible to prove or disprove. WND’s claim that the files were blocked has not been substantiated by any news agency other than WND.

Obama's paternal uncle says that he was not in Kenya until 1987.

http://www.obamaconspiracy.org/2009/01/obama-uncle-confirms-not-born-in-kenya/


So there is NO evidence that he was born in Kenya. Indeed, the majority of the evidence from Kenya indicates that he was not born in Kenya (the grandmother and the Uncle). And there is an official document that shows he was born in Hawaii.

It is absurd to think that that document was forged. And it is NOT possible under Hawaii law to issue a birth document that says "born in Hawaii" to someone who was not born in Hawaii. Obama's Certification of Live Birth says that Obama was born in Hawaii.

smrstrauss said...

Re: "several document experts declared it to be a "forgery".

Who are they? At least one of them is using a pseudonym.

What does it mean if a couple of so called "experts" say that a document that they saw only on the Web is forged when there must be hundreds of document experts in the country who could comment.

What does it mean if a couple of "experts" at least one of whom is not using his real name say that the document is forged, but the Hawaiian government--which has its own experts in forgery--has done nothing?

What it means is that the couple of "experts" are a couple of people who do not like Obama. Unless real experts, such as the FBI and the Treasury Department (which always has had experts looking into forged money and forged bonds) say that something is a forgery, you should not have much faith in a couple of "experts."

smrstrauss said...

Re: Now, Obama DID attend school in Indonesia, but according to Indonesian law, only Indonesian citizens are allowed to attend school there, which means that his Indonesian step-father had to adopt Obama under Indonesian Law, and Indonesia does NOT allow dual citizenship. On his school records in Indonesia, he IS listed as an Indonesian citizen and as a Muslim."

The question of whether Obama was ever an Indonesian citizen is easy to check out. Simply call the Indonesian Embassy and ask them.

The telephone number is: (202) 775 - 5200.

It is true that there is a document on line that apparently shows that Obama's father and mother listed him as an Indonesian citizen to get him into school.

So, what does this mean? It means that they probably lied.

This is embarassing, but the fact that his parents lied on an application cannot affect the citizenship of Obama, who was never an Indonesian citizen, and never received an Indonesian passport.

Jim said...

Jim, as Father Gregori mentioned, the certificate Obama presented is highly suspect,

Highly suspect? Only by nutballs. The state of Hawaii verifies its authenticity.

Speaking of nutballs, here's Trader Rick: The fact that he has not produced a Birth Certificate,

He has. Nutball. Case closed.

Most Rev. Gregori said...

smrstrauss,

You said:
"This is embarassing, but the fact that his parents lied on an application cannot affect the citizenship of Obama, who was never an Indonesian citizen, and never received an Indonesian passport."

If Obama NEVER received an Indonesian passport, then on what country's passport did he use to travel to and enter Pakistan in the 1980's at a time when it was illegal under both American and Pakistani Law for Americans to enter Pakistan? Obama did go there, he said so himself.

Mark said...

For the record, although already stated:

I don't like Obama. I want him thrown out of office before he can do any more damage. I wish we could definitely prove he isn't qualified, by any means necessary. Anything to get him out.

But I don't think trying to prove he isn't a citizen is going to fly.

According to my research, which I outlined in my post, it seems to me pretty clear what defines a natural born citizen, and except for some unknown quantities, (such as mother's age and length of residency, and whether it is possible to lose one's citizenship without renouncing it)it looks to me that he qualifies.

Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am, and I hope the ongoing lawsuits can prove me wrong. But so far, it looks much like a blind alley.

I think we can find better, more clear Constitutional abuses to reference to throw the bum out.

I'll do further research, and if it can change my mind, I will be at the forefront of those who wish to get rid of him based on this issue.

Mark said...

OK. As promised, here is further research:

Stanley Ann Dunham (Obama's mother)was born on November 29, 1942 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, USA while her father was serving in the U.S. Army.

(Oh my God! Obama's mother and I lived less than 20 miles from each other when I was born in Kansas City! Yuck!)

Her parents, Madelyn Payne and Stanley Dunham, were born in Kansas, met in Wichita, and married on May 5, 1940.

In 1960, after she graduated from high school, the Dunham family moved to Hawaii so that her parents could pursue further business opportunities in the new state, and she enrolled at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa. There she met Barack Obama, Sr., a student from Nyang’oma Kogelo in Kenya and the school's first African student, during a Russian language class. She married him on February 2, 1961 in Maui, Hawaii despite some parental opposition to the marriage from both sides. Dunham was three months pregnant at the time of her marriage.

On August 4, 1961, at age 18, she gave birth to her first child, Barack Obama II.

Now, according to the U.S. Code, "g) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States who, prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than five years, at least two of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years: Provided, That any periods of honorable service in the Armed Forces of the United States, or periods of employment with the United States Government or with an international organization as that term is defined in section 288 of title 22 by such citizen parent, or any periods during which such citizen parent is physically present abroad as the dependent unmarried son or daughter and a member of the household of a person."

Obama's mother was a natural born citizen, who lived in the United States (Hawaii became a state in 1959 or 1960)for more than 2 years after the age of fourteen. She was 18 when Obama was born. That's 4 years after 14 and that qualifies Obama as a Citizen. Besides that, Hawaii was an outlying possession of the United States even before 1960, so one cannot use the argument that Hawaii wasn't part of the United States when he was born.

Now the only thing left to consider is whether Obama renounced his citizenship later to become an Indonesian citizen. Let me explore further.

Mark said...

OK. Upon further research, I came across this gem form World Net Daily, a publication that is so far right wing, that I refuse to reference it on my regular blogposts:

Concerning Obama's schooling from ages 6 to 10 in Indonesia, "Indonesian law at the time also did not recognize dual citizenship, meaning if Obama became Indonesian, then as far as that country was concerned, his U.S. citizenship was no longer recognized by Indonesia. But U.S. law would still recognize Obama as an American citizen."

Conclusion Unless we can ascertain Obama renounced his American citizenship when he was 6 years old, all research points to Obama being a legal natural born U.S. Citizen.

Trader Rick said...

"Jim" says:


Speaking of nutballs, here's Trader Rick: The fact that he has not produced a Birth Certificate,

He has. Nutball. Case closed.


Well, "Jim" if you think calling me names furthers your case, have at it. The FACTS remain that Obama has NOT produced a hospital Birth Certificate, and everyone knows it. But cling to your delusions, "Jim". It's all you seem to have. Case not closed by a long shot.

Jim said...

At last some shred of sanity. Can we put it to bed now?

Mark said...

Hey, I just did research! I don't want to believe it!

smrstrauss said...

Re: "on what country's passport did he use to travel to and enter Pakistan in the 1980's at a time when it was illegal under both American and Pakistani Law for Americans to enter Pakistan?"

Who told you that it was illegal under born American and Pakistani law for Americans to enter Pakistan?

Who?

Because it was never true. In 1981, when Obama is said to have visited Pakistan, there were flights from Kennedy Airport in New York to Karachi in Pakistan on Pakistan airlines. I even saw a nice 1981 travel article in the New York Times about how wonderful it is to visit Lahore in Pakistan.

So, on what passport did he travel to Pakistan? On a US passport, of course. He never had an Indonesian passport, and he was never an Indonesian citizen.

smrstrauss said...

Re: "Now the only thing left to consider is whether Obama renounced his citizenship later to become an Indonesian citizen. Let me explore further."

I recommend calling the Indonesian Embassy in Washington. They will tell you that Obama was never an Indonesian citizen.

Anonymous said...

of course they never told you stupid, for if all Americans find out about this, then they shall lose control over Americans. Who told Americans what to do? it's obviously Jakarta. Not Washington. The school record is real deal dude.