What Do We Really Know About Obama’s Mother?

DISCREPANCIES IN HER LIFE AND DEATH LEAVE MORE QUESTIONS THAN ANSWERS

by Sharon Rondeau

(May 13, 2012) — In an article published at Yahoo! News on May 13, 2012 by “Ani,” several assumptions are made about Obama’s family life which are yet unproven.

The author states that Obama’s parents were married for “four years.”  However, there is no evidence that Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr. were ever married.  Obama’s own autobiography states that they were married in 1960, yet publicly-available information contends that the year was 1961.  No marriage certificate has ever been produced, although a researcher who traveled to the Hawaii Department of Health during the summer of 2010 stated that Stanley Ann Dunham’s name was found in the “marriage index” book with both Barack Obama Sr. and later, Lolo Soetoro.

Janny Scott, who wrote a biography of Stanley Ann Dunham, stated that the marriage was “brief.”

The article by “Ani” lacks punctuation and contains typographical errors possibly indicative of hastily-prepared work to mark Mothers’ Day.

The author cites Stanley Ann’s later marriage to Lolo Soetoro, for which the State Department has provided two different dates purportedly supplied by Dunham herself.

The photos which exist of Obama’s purported mother and background in general have been labeled “sloppy, composite fabrications” by writer Don Nicoloff, who stated in April 2009:

Through careful forensic study of the now-popular photos of Obama’s ‘family’, it is evident that all of those published photos representing Obama’s childhood days, purportedly taken in Indonesia, Africa, the Punahou School in Hawaii, Occidental College in Los Angeles, CA, Columbia University in New York, NY and elsewhere, have been doctored through the use of photo editing software — predominantly Photoshop 3.0.8.

Nicoloff also referred to “The Dunham clan photo composites.”  Obama has admitted to using “composite” characters in his book, Dreams From My Father.

Various photos appear unclear, and her weight appeared to fluctuate considerably.  Is this woman the same one in the later passport photos or here?  Is this toddler the same child as this baby?  Is this stocky boy “Barack Obama?”

Last July, Atty. Orly Taitz reported that Stanley Ann Dunham’s social security number application was forged as evidenced by two “5s” which appear to have different fonts.  Dunham was reportedly known by several different names during her life.

Barack Obama and Michelle Robinson were reportedly married in 1992, with Obama’s mother in attendance.

The same person who wrote articles about and a biography of Stanley Ann Dunham in 2011 also covered Obama’s political career in Illinois in a favorable light.

Author David Maraniss, whose upcoming book Barack Obama:  The Story reportedly details “love letters” and relationships from Obama’s early 20s, has written that Obama’s mother died from uterine cancer in one of a series of columns about Obama. However, Obama himself stated that she died of ovarian cancer.  Didn’t Maraniss interview Obama about his upcoming book?  Why, then, would Maraniss and Obama tell two different stories?

Another source states that Stanley Ann died of both types of cancer.  While one writer states that she died “shortly after turning 52” as well as at age 53, others say that she was close to 53.  About one month after her death, Obama filed papers to run for the Illinois state senate, his first bid for public office.

Are these photos, supplied by “the Obama family” and allegedly taken during the same time frame, of the same woman?  There are numerous signatures connected with her various names.

According to The New York Times, Obama’s mother “worked in New York City in the early 1990s,” purportedly at the time she was composing her doctoral dissertation.  Although numerous reports of her death in 1995 have been published, “Ani” stated that she died “two years after” completing her dissertation, which was said to have been in 1992.

Toby Harden of the UK Telegraph, stated in August 2008 that Obama was in Hawaii at the age of nine with his grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham.  However, public information states that Obama was in Indonesia until age 10. Is the child pictured here the same child here, just several years later?

In the lengthy article about Obama’s alleged background, no sources for the narrative presented are provided, and Obama is presented as “The One.”

Obama’s mother reportedly “read him the biography of Malcolm X” and taught him about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The research for the article is stated to have been performed by one Guillaume Simard-Morissette, whose background is reportedly having hailed from Quebec, Canada and attended George Washington University.   He served as an intern in the U.S. House of Representatives, as an editor and reporter for a Chinese radio station,  and currently as an intelligence analyst at a company named Kroll Risk & Compliance Solutions.  Simard-Morissette reportedly began working as an intern to Democrat Rep. Maurice Hinchey shortly after the UK Telegraph article was written.

The author of the piece states that Obama “stood out” at the Punahou School and references photos in the school yearbook where Obama was allegedly “grinning.”  Some photos claim to depict Obama in the “Student Life Section” of a yearbook, but it is difficult to discern because there is no close-up view.  The emphasis of both articles appears to be on race relations as portrayed by Obama.

The “senior yearbook page” referenced in the article is not shown.  While this photo shows Obama or a chunkier child and describes him as an “undistinguished student” at Punahou, another writer stated that he “stood out” there.  Both articles, however, reference that Obama had his photograph taken while he stood under a sign which said, “Mixed Races of America.”

With people coming from all over the world to live in Hawaii, was there really such an emphasis on race, particularly in schools?

A woman with the last name of “Weatherly-Williams” friendly with Frank Marshall Davis reportedly “recalled Davis meeting Obama for the first time that day in 1970, even though it is frequently stated that Obama lived in Indonesia until 1971.  She is also quoted as having said that “Obama had a full face – it wasn’t pointed like it is now.”  However, a WorldNetDaily report states that first-hand information from a student friend of Obama’s claims that Obama spent third grade in Hawaii in 1969 and therefore could not have been in Indonesia.  In the accompanying photo, “Barry” does not have a chunky face.

Obama’s former press secretary contradicted the assertions of people allegedly interviewed in Hawaii about Obama’s presence there in 1970.  Janny Scott, Stanley Ann Dunham’s biographer, places the young “Barry” in Indonesia at the age of nine, which would have been 1970.

“Research” performed by the same Guillaume Simard-Morisette on presidential candidate John McCain states in the second paragraph that “On the face of it, John McCain is not a great candidate for President of the United States. His White House rival Barack Obama is young, elegant and new, and can make crowds swoon with his oratory. McCain is old, unexciting and very well-worn, and his speeches can be teeth-grindingly awful.”  Later in the article, which is again completely unsourced, the author makes the statement that “If McCain’s career was taking shape, his private life was a mess.”  Is this true research and reporting or an attempt to influence public opinion?

An alleged school registration record from Indonesia procured by the AP identifies a child named “Barry Soetoro” as having been registered on January 1, 1968 by his alleged stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.  A former Indonesian citizen fluent in the language stated that at that time, both mother and child would have had to have become Indonesian citizens to reside there because of the political upheaval occurring.  Nicoloff describes Obama’s Indonesian family as “fictional.”

There is an Indonesian school record, but no U.S. school records on Obama have been produced.

 While this story contends that Obama’s father left Hawaii in 1962, when Obama was “a year old,” but Obama stated in Dreams From My Father that is was 1963.

Israel Insider had begun questioning the authenticity of Obama’s short-form birth certificate and other details of his life in June 2008, and the following month, a blogger reportedly admitted to “manipulating” the image of Obama’s purported birth certificate “as a joke.”

In the midst of many contradictions and inconsistencies, researcher Martha Trowbridge contends that “Stanley Ann Dunham” never existed at all, but is a fictitious character based on Obama’s real mother, Jo Ann Newman.