BORN IN THE USA?

Hawaii elections clerk: Obama 'caught fibbing'

But will president be 'frog-marched from office' over eligibility issue?

By Joe Kovacs

The former Hawaii elections official who maintains there's no long-form birth certificate for Barack Obama in the Aloha State is now saying the president and his aides have been "caught fibbing" about Obama's background, and the "embarrassing" situation is making it difficult to fess up to the truth.

President Barack Obama in the Oval Office April 4, 2011

Tim Adams, who was senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu during the 2008 campaign, made the statements in a two-hour interview with a group looking to disprove claims made by so-called birthers, those challenging Obama's legal qualification to be president.

"I think people believe there's been some kind of cover-up. And I don't think it's some big nefarious conspiracy. I think it's politics as usual," Adams said March 31 on Reality Check Radio, an Internet program on BlogTalkRadio.

"Barack Obama's official autobiography was put out to the public for the public's consumption and we all know politicians – they have a public persona, it's created for consumption by the electorate – and I think that they've been caught fibbing, and it's embarrassing."

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But Adams, who described himself as "pretty much a liberal" who backed Hillary Clinton in the campaign, thinks the president should produce a long-form birth certificate if he has one, even if it contains information that does not go along with the narrative proffered so far by Obama and his surrogates.

"I think as much trauma as all this has caused," Adams said, "I think if Barack Obama has lied about where he was born or if there's something about his birth that he doesn't want people to publicly know, if he would come out and simply say something like that, I think most people would go, 'Oh, OK,' and they would go on about their business 'cause they've got a thousand more important things to do."

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Adams burst onto the national scene last June after claiming his superiors at the elections office in Honolulu checked with the state health department and local hospitals, only to find out that none had Obama's long-form birth certificate, a document specifying the hospital where he was born and the attending physician.

Tim Adams, the former senior elections clerk for Honolulu in 2008

While not having access to Hawaii Department of Health birth records, Adams says his office had access to numerous databases to verify people's identities, including the Social Security database, driver's licenses, passports, tax and banking records, police files and the national crime computer.

He said elections officials themselves have been embarrassed by the disclosure about accessing criminal records, saying, "They were not happy about it when they found out about it."

He has since signed an affidavit swearing to his allegations.

As the controversy over eligibility has resurfaced recently with billionaire developer and potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump suggesting Obama's presidency could be illegal, Adams is not expecting the commander in chief to be removed from office.

"That gets into the extremist fantasies that somehow they're going to frog-march Barack Obama out of the White House – it's never going to happen," said Adams.

"Barack Obama was given permission to run for office. Barack Obama won the election. He is the president of the United States. The more extremist people out there try to, you know, bring up this issue that he's not legitimately president. It doesn't hold water. You can't say, once you give the man permission to run, and he wins the election, that he's not president. It's not going to happen."

At one point in the interview, one of the questioners, who ironically never provided his real name and only went by an alias, challenged Adams about the "short-form" birth certificate, also known as a certification of live birth, or COLB, that has been displayed on the Internet.

This short-form "certification of live birth" released by the Obama campaign in 2008 does not have the name of the hospital or an attending physician, which would be included on a long-form "certificate of live birth," which has never been produced by Obama.

It notes a birthplace of Honolulu, but does not specify a hospital or doctor.

The radio hosts suggested that Janice Okubo, the public information officer for the state health department had previously vouched for the authenticity of the COLB, though in reality she has refused to do so. But Adams maintained the online scanned image is fraudulent.

Adams was asked, "So you're calling Janice Okubo a liar?"

"Yes," Adams responded, "if she's saying that that document that is sitting out there on the Internet is an actual document because we can prove it's not in about 30 seconds. Because it's altered."

Long-form birth certificates from 1961 still exist, including one released by Susan Nordyke, who was born in Honolulu Aug. 5, 1961, the day after Obama's alleged birth.

Copy of original long-form birth certificate of Susan Nordyke, born in Honolulu the day after Obama's reported birthdate. Obama has never produced any document like this.

In response to a direct question from WND, Okubo refused to authenticate either of the two versions of President Obama's short-form certification of live birth, posted online – neither the image produced by the Obama campaign nor images released by FactCheck.org.

FactCheck.org image of COLB released August 2008

Image of date stamp on rear of FactCheck.org document

Image of seal on FactCheck.org document

Close-up of FactCheck.org document

"I happen to be a trained document researcher, by the way," Adams continued, "and have worked with the Hawaii Historical Association and have worked in the state archives. So I do know what a document is."

Adams says he even offered the current Democratic governor of the state, Neil Abercrombie, his personal assistance to help verify any long-form birth certificate if it were ever produced.

"Governor Abercrombie said that he was afraid that even if they managed to bring out the original birth certificate or a copy of the original birth certificate, there would still be people who would say, 'Oh, it's a forgery, oh, it's a fake,' whatever. I told him that if he wanted help convincing people it was real, I would be happy to do so. If he actually had the birth certificate. I got nothing back from the man."

Abercrombie made national headlines earlier this year when he publicly sought to bring closure to the issue, and then explained he couldn't find Obama's long-form birth certificate, only some sort of written notation.

"It was actually written, I am told, this is what our investigation is showing, it actually exists in the archives, written down," Abercrombie told the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

Adams explained, "He found a registration, he found an archive notation. He did not find a birth certificate. You'll never see one from him."

Adams also commented on a mysterious letter purportedly sent by Obama to Honolulu's Kapi'olani Medical Center in January 2009 in which the president ostensibly declared the facility his place of birth. It was read aloud by Abercrombie at the hospital's centennial celebration.

A photograph taken by the Kapi'olani Medical Center for WND shows a letter allegedly written by President Obama on embossed White House stationery in which he declares the Honolulu hospital to be "the place of my birth," The hospital, after publicizing the letter then refusing to confirm it even existed, is now vouching for its authenticity, but not its content. The White House has yet to verify any aspect of the letter.

"I know there was a letter that they refuse now to show to public scrutiny, that, as far as I can tell, didn't come from either President Obama – where it came from is a matter of conjecture. Some people think that somebody in Washington ... who's now a governor may have written it," Adams said. "Whether that letter is valid or not, all that letter proves is if President Obama wrote the Kapi'olani Hospital letter congratulating them on – I think it was their 100th anniversary."

As WND has reported, the White House has refused to confirm if it wrote or sent the letter, or if the information it contains is accurate.

Kapi'olani has used the letter for fundraising purposes, and the FBI has said there could be federal charges filed if the letter is not authentic.

Kapi'olani used a letter, allegedly written by President Obama in which he declares his birthplace to be at the facility, to solicit donations in its spring 2009 edition of its Inspire Magazine. The hospital, after refusing to confirm the letter even existed, is now vouching for its authenticity but not its content. The White House has refused to confirm both the letter and its content. The FBI and Secret Service have indicated criminal charges are possible if a fraudulent letter from the White House is being used to raise funds.

"It would be a charity-fraud scheme," said FBI spokesman Steve Kodak. "It would be investigated by us or the Secret Service. We both have jurisdiction over that."

Adams, who personally believes Obama is eligible for president simply because his mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was an American citizen, is hoping laws are passed clarifying the meaning of "natural born citizen," which is what the U.S. Constitution specifies for presidents.

Adams thinks anyone born on U.S. soil, irrespective of their parents' heritage or citizenship, should be eligible. Still, he's urging the president to release his long-form birth certificate from wherever he was born to resolve the controversy.

"The fact is, we've had one person all along who could simply end this, who supposedly has the document in his possession, and that's President Obama," said Adams. "He could end this. I really wish he would."

Despite the fact major newspapers and broadcast networks have avoided interviewing Adams or probing his allegations, the former official who supervised about 50 people in Honolulu said he seriously considered leaving the United States because of the disruption to his life and threats against him after going public with his claims.

"When all this happened, it was nuts. It was a mess," he said. "I really got to the point [where] I thought, 'I'm going to have to leave the country.' I don't get nearly as much grief now, either professionally or otherwise. But it was really bad for a while. It got really violent. There are some really kind of dangerous people out there."

Note: To listen to Tim Adams' online radio interview, click here. The program may take a few moments to load. A transcript can be viewed here.

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Thursday, April 7, 2011