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WorldNetDaily We Had “‘Journalistic Responsibility’ to Post Forged Kenyan Birth Certificate”

Alex Constantine - August 5, 2009

By Alex Constantine

I'm certain that the "birther" lobotomizers will hold hoaxter Orly Taitz to the same standard of honesty that they've insisted on from the White House ... on a cold day in Dante's Neverland, perhaps ... We all want to know who's doing the forging aroung here, rabid right-wing "birthers" or liberal "Kenyan" Barry Obama on his sinking swift boat ...

WorldNetDaily has issued a news release on its, uh, “scoop” about the forged “Kenyan birth certificate” that Orly Taitz has filed in court as proof of the president’s foreign ties. WND, says editor-in-chief Joseph Farah, is “working with document experts in the U.S. and with sources in Kenya” to verify the document.

Which experts? Which sources? Don’t ask. Listen to Farah:

Our goal, as always, is to seek the truth. This is not our document. It is evidence that has (sic) presented in a high-profile court case. And, thus, I believe we had a journalistic responsibility to publish it — just as I think every other news organization does.

WND has a deeply amusing idea of what “journalism” is supposed to be.

‘Birthers’ Latch Onto Forged Kenyan Birth Certificate
By David Weigel
8/3/09

On Sunday night, the online community of “birthers” erupted after Orly Taitz released a photo of a “Kenyan birth certificate” for Barack Obama. The “birther” movement quickly divided between the credulous — people who believed that the new certificate was genuine — and skeptics who believed that their movement was being taken for a ride.

This story needs a little bit of prelude. Last year, as the bloggers at ObamaConspiracy remember, Philip Berg included an obviously forged birth certificate with his lawsuit against the Democratic National Committee. (The certificate was Canadian and signed by “Dudley Do-Right.”) Foreign birth certificates, unlike, say, American passports, are prime targets for forgery — few people stateside know what the real ones look like, and the penalties for forging them are basically non-existent.

So here it is: the “certified copy of registration of birth” that Orly Taitz obtained and is submitting as evidence in her lawsuit on behalf of Alan Keyes. The most obvious problems:

- It records Barack Obama Sr’s age as “26.” Obama Sr was born in 1936; his son was born in 1961.

- Its publication date is February 17, 1964, but it purports be a document of the “Republic of Kenya.” Kenya did not become a Republic until December 12, 1964, a year after it won independence from Great Britain.

- It’s signed by “registrar E.F. Lavender.” Earth Friendly Lavender is a kind of detergent, and government officials who use vanity initials on official documents are, to put it mildly, rare.

- The kicker? The image is part of the extremely ill-informed conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Mombasa—conveniently, one of the more Muslim parts of the country.

This has always been a red flag for conspiracy theorists, so it deserves some explanation. Barack Obama Sr. was born and educated in Nyanza Province, in southwestern Kenya, on Lake Victoria. This is the area where Obama’s family lived and continues to live; Sarah Obama, the step-grandmother of the president, lives in Nyang’oma Kogelo, a small town in the province. But Mombasa is a city on the Indian Ocean, a thousand miles to the east. It didn’t even have an international airport until 1979. And the city wasn’t even part of Kenya when the future president was born. Mombasa was a part of Zanzibar until December 12, 1963, when it became part of the newly independent Kenya.

The new forgery? Why, it claims that the president was born in Coast General Hospital in Mombasa.

- As some FreeRepublic posters have pointed out, the document contains a number that’s either a humorous coincidence or a wink by the forger. It’s number 47,044. Barack Obama, 47 years old, is the 44th president of the United States.

So what’s the likeliest story here? One popular theory right now is that the document was faked to discredit the “birther” movement. That wouldn’t be surprising: another document that circulated over the weekend was a “certificate of birth” from “Kenya colony,” and its creator tipped his hand, telling readers that it was a “work of parody.”

http://washingtonindependent.com/53494/birthers-latch-onto-forged-kenyan-birth-certificate

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