COULD IT BE ANOTHER FORGERY?
by Sharon Rondeau
(Jun. 7, 2012) — The Post & Email had reported on an eligibility lawsuit filed by Atty. Orly Taitz against the Mississippi Democrat Party which alleged that Obama’s long-form birth certificate presented to the public on April 27, 2011 is a forgery and that the case had entered the discovery phase. At that time, Taitz was awaiting the assignment of a new judge given that Special Judge Coleman had recused himself shortly before the case was to be heard.
Taitz filed the case naming the Democrat Party of Mississippi, Barack Hussein Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Dr. Alvin Onaka, the Mississippi Secretary of State, and Obama’s 2012 campaign as defendants. Joining Taitz were three presidential candidates, Dr. Laurie Roth, Ms. Leah Lax and Mr. Tom MacLeran; and Mr. Brian Fedorka.
The case had been filed in the Circuit Court of Hinds County, MS, and then relocated to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi by the defendants.
Taitz had filed complaints with the Mississippi and California Bar Associations, respectively, against the attorneys defending the Mississippi Democrat Party, Samuel Begley and Scott J. Tepper, claiming that they submitted “documents representing forgeries” in their pleadings to the court and “acted knowingly, with malice and with moral turpitude, with an intent to defraud the court and to defraud the public at large.”
Last month, Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett had told a local radio show host that he “might” withhold Obama’s name from the state’s ballot for the 2012 presidential election given the questions surrounding his eligibility and his lack of response from the Hawaii Department of Health for a “Verification Letter” in lieu of a certified copy of Obama’s birth certificate. Hawaii law provides for a Verification Letter if certain criteria are met (13)(g).
Bennett said during the interview that to request the verification letter, he “went on Hawaii’s website, downloaded a form, went and got a $5.00 money order, and I sent in a request asking them to just confirm or verify whether they have a birth certificate in their records for Barack Hussein Obama II born in August 4, 1961 to…”
Bennett stated that his request to the Hawaii Department of Health included Obama’s birth date, which does not appear on the response he received. He waited eight weeks for a response, although about four weeks into the process, Hawaii Deputy Attorney General Jill Nagamine had asked Bennett to prove that he possessed the “authority” to be given the information by “her client,” the Department of Health.
The Hawaii Department of Health states, in regard to letters of verification:
Letters of Verification
Letters of verification may be issued in lieu of certified copies (HRS §338-14.3). This document verifies the existence of a birth/death/civil union/marriage/divorce certificate on file with the Department of Health and any other information that the applicant provides to be verified relating to the vital event. (For example, that a certain named individual was born on a certain date at a certain place.) The verification process will not, however, disclose information about the vital event contained within the certificate that is unknown to and not provided by the applicant in the request. [Emphasis The Post & Email’s]
Letters of verification are requested in similar fashion and using the same request forms as for certified copies.
The fee for a letter of verification is $5 per letter.
On May 23, 2012, Bennett’s office made an official announcement that a Verification Letter had been received from the Hawaii Department of Health and that Bennett “considered the matter closed.”
After Taitz filed an amended complaint and bar complaints against Attys. Begley and Tepper, on May 26, 2012, Tepper wrote to Director Loretta Fuddy of the Hawaii Health Department to request a Verification Letter, quoting Taitz’s claim that the long-form birth certificate presented by Obama is a forgery. Representing the Mississippi Democratic Party Executive Committee (MDPEC), Tepper asked Fuddy to verify that “the original Certificate of Live Birth for Barack Hussein Obama II, [sic] is on file with the Hawaii State Department of Health” and that a copy of the alleged birth certificate which they had attached “matches the information contained” within the Health Department’s files.
While Bennett waited more than eight weeks for a response from the Hawaii Department of Health, Attys. Begley and Tepper were apparently answered much more rapidly. On May 31, Fuddy responded with a “Verification of Birth” document which contained the image of a raised seal, unlike the electronic document which Bennett received. The Post & Email received a copy from the Arizona Secretary of State’s office and printed it from the PDF file and can verify that there is no indication of an official seal on it.
The form which the Hawaii Department of Health states is to be used to request a verification letter is entitled “Request for Certified Copy of Birth Record” and contains fields which the requester is asked to complete.
Tepper and Begley do not appear to have used such a form, although Tepper, who signed a request letter, alluded to having enclosed $5.00 in some form to “cover the cost of the requested verification.” Although only Tepper appears to have signed a letter requesting the verification, the Hawaii Health Department, if it is the originator of the verification letter, addressed it to both Tepper and Begley.
The certified-copy or verification letter request form on the Health Department’s website contains the code “OHSM 135 (Rev. 9/13/05) in the lower left corner. However, the letters bearing the Hawaii seal at the top and Onaka’s name at the bottom sent to both Tepper and Bennett contain the form number “OHSM FORM V01 (08/01/01).
A search for “OHSM FORM V01 (08/01/01) on the Hawaii Department of Health website yields “No Results,” as does a search for the same but substituting a capital “O” for the “0” after the “V.”
Based on the explanation of the Hawaii Department of Health as to the purpose of a Letter of Verification, each letter sent as a result would be unique and not require a form number. Where, then, did the “OHSM FORM…” come from?
A search on the Hawaii Department of Health website of “OHSM 135 (Rev. 9/13/05)” yields a reference to the website section about requests for certified copies of vital records as would be expected. The request forms found on the Hawaii Department of Health website for marriage records, death records, etc., do not contain the word “FORM” following “OHSM” and use sequential numbers such as “OHSM 136,” “OHSM 137,” etc.
Begley and Tepper did not ask Fuddy to authenticate the document or the information it allegedly contains in the possession of the Health Department.
On page 4 of the defense’s objection to Taitz’s request for sanctions, the defendant’s counsel states:
The Hawaii Verification of President Obama’s Hawaiian birth, which is signed (and initialed) by State Registrar Onaka, includes a certification by Hawaii State Register [sic] Onaka that “the information contained in the vital record on file with the Department of Health was used to verify the facts of the vital event.”
The signature of “Alvin T. Onaka, Ph.D.” appears on both verification letters, but beside each signature is a different set of initials, indicating that Onaka most likely did not sign either document. The initials on the image which the state of Arizona received are “GM” or “GK,” and on Tepper’s, perhaps “ATT.” While both images are titled “Verification of Birth,” neither states the birth date or hospital where Obama allegedly was born, and neither uses the official verification form from the Hawaii Department of Health’s website.
No explanation has been offered by the White House as to why a biography used by Obama’s literary agent from 1991 to 2007 stated that he was born in Kenya.
The Post & Email has contacted Matthew Roberts, Communications Director for Bennett’s office, to inquire as to whether or not a “hard-copy” document is expected from Hawaii. While initially Roberts responded in the affirmative, we have followed up twice to ask if it has arrived from Hawaii but have received no a response.
A researcher who had sent a request for a verification of birth for a child born on August 4, 1961 in Hawaii was told that nothing existed in the Health Department’s files, yet her name appears in both the Birth Index and Death Index books and a short-form birth certificate was generated at her brother’s request last fall. Medical information was also reportedly located at Wahiawa Hospital, but not at Kapiolani Medical Center, to which she was transported upon the discovery of a serious medical problem. Based on her date and year of birth, the brother does not believe that the certificate number generated by the Health Department, which had said that her records “didn’t exist,” is legitimate.
Mike Zullo, lead investigator of the Maricopa County, AZ Cold Case Posse, has stated that his research shows that there is “a problem” with Obama’s claimed birth date of August 4, 1961. A press conference on recent findings will be held by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office and Cold Case Posse later this month.