By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WND
The Obama campaign for the 2012 presidential race has launched a new "fight the smears" type website, this time called "AttackWatch.com," with a personal attack on Dr. Jerome Corsi, the author of the best-selling "Where's the Birth Certificate?"
The ominous black and white website has a blood-red color overlay over a photograph of Corsi, whose book is credited with causing so much concern inside the bowels of the Obama White House that an attorney was dispatched on a special trip to Hawaii in April to obtain a purported copy of the state's "Certificate of Live Birth" for Obama, even though administration officials had said for years that was a document that wasn't available.
Corsi, who noted the Obama camp earlier tried to raise funds on supporters' fears of what is being revealed about Obama, said there's a reason for the Obama re-election campaign to be creating such sites.
"The White House is in panic mode," Corsi said. "The White House knows the truth – that Obama is not a natural born citizen, for many reasons, including that he was a dual citizen at birth due to his father being a Kenyan citizen."
The dispute centers around the U.S. Constitution's requirement that a president be only a "natural born Citizen." That was generally thought during the time the Constitution was being written to be the offspring of two citizens of a country on that country's soil.
Jerome Corsi's new book, "Where's the Birth Certificate?", is now available for immediate shipping, autographed by the author, only from the WND Superstore
There have been numerous legal challenges to Obama's eligibility to be president, and of late, WND has reported on an extensive list of experts in imaging, computers and other fields who have stated unequivocally that the "Certificate of Live Birth" that the president presented as a real document is, in fact, a fake.
There also are those who argue that even should Obama have been born in the U.S. as he claims, his father's status as an alien precluded him ever from qualifying as a "natural born Citizen."
The new website ignores that particular issue, by claiming "President Obama was born in the United States and is an American citizen – period."
Critics argue that even if he was "born in the United States and is an American citizen – period," that still doesn't meet the demands of the U.S. Constitution for only a "natural born Citizen" to be president.
"What is at stake is the Constitution of the United States and I do not intend to stop reporting on Barack Obama's ineligibility to be president, regardless how much the White House intends to attack me with Saul Alinsky techniques of ridicule and abuse," Corsi said.
He noted that instead of an elaborate website, the White House easily could put to the issue to rest.
"What the White House should do is answer the questions: Where is the real birth certificate? Why can't qualified forensic examiners have access to Obama's birth records in Hawaii to determine if they are authentic? Why doesn't the Congress hold hearings on Obama's eligibility, the same way the Senate investigated John McCain's eligibility in 2008?
"It is time for the White House to stop the lying and the smears. Obama needs to face the American people not only about where he was born, but with disclosure of all the hidden records in his background," Corsi said.
He said the White House is fully aware of the evidence reported by WND that suggests the document it released April 27 and presented to the world as a birth certificate is, in fact, "a forged document."
Spread the truth?'
"Rather than allow the U.S. public to see the original 1961 paper document still hidden in the Hawaii DOH vault, the White House has decided to attack me, threatening my freedom of speech by smearing my reputation as a journalist," Corsi said.
"Tea party activists are beginning to work with sheriffs like Joe Arpaio who are willing to do their sworn duty to enforce the law when citizens bring forth criminal complaints. The malfeasance and political nature of how Eric Holder runs the DOJ itself demands investigation," he said.
The announcement about the new website came from a Jim Messina with a return e-mail address of info@BarackObama.com. It asks recipients to "spread the truth to your friends and personal networks and let us know about new smears whenever you hear them."
The website specifically demands information regarding conversations, emails, websites, advertisements, radio shows and television shows.
"AttackWatch.com is exactly what it sounds like: a resource that allows us to nip these attacks in the bud before they show up on the airwaves and in emails – and then fight back with the truth," Messina wrote in the email delivered to WND.
The specific attack on Corsi came under the "myth" about questions regarding Obama's eligibility.
"Attackers: Jerome Corsi, Donald Trump, conspiracy theorists," the website explains. "Three years after President Obama's campaign released the president's certification of live birth, conspiracy theorists continue to question the document's authenticity – despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary.
"'Where's the Birth Certificate' author Jerome Corsi was unmoved by repeated validations of the authenticity of the president's birth certificate, saying, 'I was called by my insiders, several of my informants in Hawaii about three weeks before it was released, and I was told that the document had been forged."
The website references, apparently as its proof, the questioned short-form "Certification of Live Birth" released during the last presidential campaign, two articles from websites with links to Obama support, and the long form document that a multitude of experts have described as not even a good forgery.
No mention
But it doesn't mention that Hawaiian officials refused to confirm when the "Certificate" was released that it was an accurate representation of their official state records, or that Hawaii's former Health Department chief Chiyome Fukino – the one official who claimed to have examined Obama's original birth document under lock and key in Hawaii – was interviewed by NBC News' national investigative correspondent Michael Isikoff, who reported that Fukino told him she had seen the original birth certificate and that it was "half typed and half handwritten."
However, the document released by the White House was entirely typed. Only the signatures and two dates at the very bottom were "handwritten." What Fukino described is apparently a different document from what Obama released to the public
It was not the first time the Obama campaign based its arguments on an attack on Corsi. Weeks ago, the campaign sent out fundraising emails that decried his book as delusional, laughable and a joke, even as it was moving up the charts to reach No. 1 at Amazon.
The "BarackObama.com" organization at that point was selling mugs as well as T-shirts with an image of Obama stamped with the slogan "Made in the USA" as well as an image of the challenged "Certificate of Live Birth."
That particular gimmick immediately prompted a flood of Internet opinions about what would be a better message, including the idea simply to stamp "Retire" in front of the "Obama in 2012" slogan.
Another suggested adding a line, "Adopted in Indonesia" to the "Made in the USA" line.
Yet another commenter pointed to a definition of "MADE" from Merriam Webster online, that says, "Fictitious, invented" … "artificially produced."
The "obama T-shirt is right!" the correspondent noted.
Over and over
If the opening salvo on Corsi gave readers the feeling of déjà vu, it was because the Obama election campaign did exactly the same thing in 2008 when it mobilized a major assault on Corsi's previous book about Obama, the No. 1 New York Times best-seller "The Obama Nation." And that was a response to the impact of his previous No. 1 New York Times best-seller, "Unfit for Command."
It's just the latest action by the White House to try to divert attention from Corsi's work. The president himself confirmed that he ordered the release of the "certificate" right after the best-selling "Where's the Birth Certificate? The Case that Barack Obama is Not Eligible to be President" was profiled on the Drudge Report.
"If what Barack Obama released is really a valid birth certificate that answers all the questions about this controversy, why is the Obama campaign in attack mode on Jerome Corsi's best-selling book?" asked Joseph Farah, CEO of WND.com and WND Books, publisher of "Where's the Birth Certificate?," at the time.
"Because he fears it is his undoing. Do you really think the $1 billion Obama campaign cares about selling a few coffee mugs? Give me a break. This is an effort to derail media attention from a successful book and media tour that is focusing renewed attention on his ineligibility for office."
'Fight the Smears' 2.0
It was in June 2008 Obama launched a website called "Fight the Smears" to stop "ideologues" from "spreading a 'pack of lies' about Barack." As WND reported, the site disappeared in July 2009.
"Whenever challenged with these lies we will aggressively push back with the truth and help our supporters debunk the false rumors floating around the Internet," Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor told the New York Times.
Some of the "smears" they intended to smack down included assertions that "Obama's campaign was funded by foreigners," "Obama sought endorsement from the (socialist) New Party," "Obama has connections to Bill Ayers" and "Obama is a Muslim."
The website reserved a special section for its counter-attack on Corsi's 2008 New York Times No. 1 best-seller, "The Obama Nation," featuring a 40-page rebuttal.
However, many of the so-called "smears" of 2008 have turned out to be widely recognized as factual. Moreover, many charges made against Corsi by the Obama campaign were themselves fabricated. For instance, not only did Corsi not state in "The Obama Nation" that the president is a secret Muslim, he said the opposite. In advice to John McCain's campaign, Corsi offered that it would be unwise to make that claim, because one can't "read another person's soul."
Obama's father was a convert to Islam and his stepfather was a Muslim. During the 2008 presidential campaign, the Associated Press published an image of a document that showed Obama's religion as "Islam" and his citizenship "Indonesian" when he lived in the Muslim-majority nation with his mother and stepfather, Lolo Soetoro.
Indonesian school registration for "Barry Soetoro" (AP photo)
Corsi also endured a fierce backlash to his previous No. 1 New York Times best-seller, co-authored with John O'Neill, "Unfit for Command," which charged that Democratic Sen. John Kerry fabricated his image as a Vietnam war hero. The book also recounted his radical anti-war effort that followed his deployment. Many political analysts believe "Unfit for Command" and the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth campaign that accompanied it was a decisive factor in Kerry's loss to President George W. Bush in 2004.
Media, including the Associated Press, typically call the book's claims "unsubstantiated" or "debunked," usually without evidence. Those who offered evidence contended the military's records supported Kerry's version of events, without mentioning the group's assertion that it was Kerry himself who wrote the "official record" in many instances, in after-action reports.
When the Kerry campaign did respond to specific claims in "Unfit for Command," it was to backtrack, such as in the case of Kerry's long-held assertion – which he later was forced to recant – that he was in Cambodia illegally Christmas Eve 1968.
Instead of addressing the Swift Boat Veterans' specific claims, the Kerry campaign threatened lawsuits against the television stations that aired the group's ads, demanded publisher Regnery pull "Unfit for Command," accused the group of being run by the Republican Party and attacked the character of co-authors O'Neill and Corsi.
But the lesson the Kerry campaign's ineffectual response to the devastating Swift Boat campaign was this: When Corsi writes a book, counter-attack swiftly and with all barrels. That was the strategy followed by the Obama campaign in 2008 with "The Obama Nation," and again now with "Where's the Birth Certificate?"
Of course, sometimes publicity – even bad publicity – is a good thing.
"Obama's campaign skyrocketed Corsi to immediate and certain fame," wrote commentator Judi McLeod at Canada Free Press.
"Marxists liking to mock their enemies is no guarantee folks will buy Obama's silly coffee mugs," she wrote. "There are too many out there worried they won't be able to come up with the scratch for the coffee to pour into them."
"Meanwhile, the big question 'Where's the Birth Certificate?" just got replaced with 'Why would the president of the USA publicly mock the man who asked?' on a coffee mug?"
Half of Americans still doubt Obama's birth story
It was on April 27, with great fanfare, that Obama finally released his "birth certificate" after years of stonewalling, spending a fortune on attorneys to block its release and defend against dozens of lawsuits brought by citizens wanting to see it, claiming he had already released it and ridiculing everybody who said he had not released it.
Yet a stunning Gallup Poll taken more than a week later (May 5-8) showed more than half of all Americans remain unconvinced Obama was born in the U.S.
Perhaps that's because, while the establishment press continues to ridicule "birthers" as conspiracy nuts, the White House's April 27 document release has generated vexing new questions and outright contradictions regarding the president's "birth certificate."
For instance, there is Fukino's description of the "original" document in state records that simply doesn't align with what Obama released.
Since the document's late-April release, a flood of expert analyses, some by Obama voters, has cast serious doubt on the legitimacy of the president's belatedly produced "birth certificate."
Among topics dealt with in "Where's the Birth Certificate?":
• The mainstream media feverishly investigated the presidential eligibility story – that is, when it focused on Obama's Republican opponent, John McCain.
• Obama was born a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and the United States, a circumstance the Constitution’s framers considered an iron-clad roadblock to the presidency. The book documents the clear, original intent of the Constitution's founders, which was that no one with dual loyalties would ever be president and commander in chief.
• As a boy, Obama was officially registered in school as a Muslim and Indonesian citizen, another barrier to U.S. natural-born citizenship.
• The press and blogosphere widely reported Obama was born at Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu – before deciding he was born across town at Kapiolani Women's and Children’s Hospital. To this day, Kapi'olani is bizarrely secretive about Obama's alleged birth there.
• The Congressional Research Service, a public policy arm of Congress, officially admits no one in the government ever vetted Obama’s constitutional eligibility.
• In preparation for the 2012 election, more than a dozen states are considering legislation to force all presidential candidates to prove they are constitutionally qualified before they can be placed on that state’s ballot
• Going far beyond the issue of birth certificates, Corsi not only documents inconsistencies, blackouts and outright fabrications in Obama's life narrative that have generated widespread doubts, but lays out a compelling body of evidence that Obama is not a natural-born citizen as is required of all presidents by Article 2, Section 1 of the Constitution.
One of the biggest disputes that remains unaddressed is why Barack Obama, who lived in Hawaii as a teen, has a Social Security Number that indicates he had a Connecticut address.
The controversy over Obama's Social Security number traces back to a WND story May 11, 2010, when it was reported that two private investigators working independently were asking why Obama was using a number set aside for applicants in Connecticut while there is no record he ever had a mailing address in the state.
The records indicate the number was issued between 1977 and 1979, when Obama was between 16 and 18 years old and living in Hawaii.
The Social Security website confirms that the first three digits in Obama's Social Security number are reserved for applicants with Connecticut addresses, 040-049.
Since 1973, Social Security numbers have been issued by one central office, and the first three digits of a person's Social Security number have been determined by the Zip code of the mailing address on the application.
Read more: Obama campaign attacks author probing eligibility http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=345037#ixzz1Y2Hh0mm1
