Highway bill amendment defeated that would have sent billions to Soros, Pickens, Douglas companies

by S. E. Robinson and Audrey Hudson

03/13/2012

The Senate Tuesday killed legislation to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to encourage companies to use natural-gas powered vehicles. The legislation also would have benefited wealthy backers of the Democratic measure, including George Soros, T. Boone Pickens, and Kevin G. Douglas.

The amendment to the highway bill required 60 votes to pass but was defeated 51 yeas to 47 nays.

First reported by HUMAN EVENTS, the measure sponsored by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. Richard Burr (R- N.C.) would distribute billions in subsidies to these key entities and others for the purchase of natural gas vehicles and to build fueling stations. It would be funded through a new tax on consumers that charged 2.5 cents per gallon of natural gas beginning in 2014, with another increase to 12.5 cents in 2021.

“Gas prices are skyrocketing and meanwhile natural gas is $1.50 cheaper than gas, and we have 100-plus years of supply we can draw from,” Menendez said. “The only thing in our way is so few natural gas vehicles and gas stations on the road.” Menendez and Burr said their measure would give the natural gas market a needed jump-start by the federal government. “This gives it a five-hour energy drink,” Burr said. “This is essential if you want natural gas prices to stay down.”

With only a few minutes of debate allowed before the vote, no Senators on either side of the aisle spoke out against the New Alternative Transportation to Give Americans Solutions (NATGAS) Act.

Earlier in the day, Menendez said their measure would displace 20 billion gallons of petroleum. “Is this just another handout to energy companies? The answer to that question is a resounding no,” Menendez said.

The amendment was opposed by an unusual alliance of free market organizations and environmental groups who urged Senators in a letter Tuesday to vote against the measure.

“By providing billions in tax subsidies, the NATGAS Act interferes in the marketplace to favor natural gas over other transportation and energy technologies that may be more cost-effective or sustainable,” said the letter from Taxpayers for Common Sense, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Heartland Institute, Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, among others.

The NATGAS Act provides significant subsidies for natural gas at all levels of production -- from manufacturing and infrastructure to consumer tax credits -- carrying an estimated $5 billion price tag, the organizations said.

“While a consumer fee would be used as an offset over the long-term, the fee does not even begin (to) phase in until 2014, sticking taxpayers with the immediate fiscal impacts,” the organizations said.

The office of Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.) declined to comment on whether he will withdraw support for the House version of NATGAS, which he introduced April 6, 2011.

Among the bill's big beneficiaries would have been George Soros, T. Boone Pickens, Kevin G. Douglas as companies under their control stood to reap the rewards of billions of taxpayer dollars in subsidies contained in the Democratic-sponsored measure.

The act would have subsidized three different enterprises controlled by Soros, Pickens and Douglas, who consistently rank among the most generous political donors, according to Federal Election Commission Records.

Moreover, HUMAN EVENTS has learned that one of these companies, Fuel Systems Solutions based in Santa Ana, Calif., has and continues to conduct business, through its foreign subsidiaries, with customers in Iran, according to the company’s U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company acknowledges in those filings that tougher international economic sanctions levied in light of that nation’s civilian nuclear program may adversely affect its Iranian-based revenues in 2012, as such measures have in the past.

Douglas is a key shareholder in Fuel Systems, and he is the largest individual investor in Westport Innovations, a Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based supplier of natural gas engine systems and retrofit kits. Westport’s investors also include Soros Fund Management, an investment vehicle of the Soros family. Westport’s board previously included T. Boone Pickens, who currently owns Clean Energy Fuels Corporation, a Houston-based supplier of natural gas.

Fuel Systems, Westport and Clean Energy Fuels constitute what Robert Brown, a stock analyst with Craig-Hallum Capital in Minneapolis who specializes in the energy sector, referred to as “the big three” of the natural gas-powered automation arena in North America. The companies are all relatively small in terms of revenues and considered speculative as stock investments, but the NATGAS act would allow them to profit from their research, design and development.

Clean Energy Fuels supplies liquefied natural gas (LNG) and compressed natural gas (CNG), and specializes in the development of natural gas distribution platforms. Westport and Fuel Systems offer engine and fueling systems for vehicles that run on CNG, an alternative to gasoline, and LNG, an alternative to diesel.

Brown said that all three companies would profit handsomely on passage of the NATGAS act and that all three will be harmed should Congress scuttle the Menendez Amendment.

Pickens, Soros, Douglas fund NATGAS act proponents

The three investors and their affiliates are on record as financially supporting proponents of the NATGAS act, according to FEC reports. Douglas and his wife Michelle have contributed more than $130,000 to President Barack Obama, Democrats and Democratic super PACs since 2009, according to FEC records, including to Nat Gas act supporter Rep. Michael Capuano (D-Mass.).

Soros’ history of Democratic financial support is well known, such as $1.5 million to MoveOn.org from 2003 and 2004. In 2011, Soros gave $175,000 to the House Majority PAC and the Majority PAC, two super PACs whose donations have come mostly from American labor unions, according to FEC records. He has also given broadly to Democratic committees since 2009.

Pickens, his wife Madeleine and senior employees of Clean Energy Fuels have contributed more than $150,000 to politicians and committees that support the NATGAS act, according to FEC reports. Pickens and his wife gave $60,800 to House Representatives, including the act’s sponsor, Rep. John Sullivan (R-Okla.)

To Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) or related committees, the couple has given $20,800. To the Democratic Parties of New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada, all key states for the natural gas industry, the couple has given $30,000.

Clean Energy Fuels employees have given a combined $19,750 to congressional representatives who support the NATGAS act, and $10,500 to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, according to a HUMAN EVENTS review of FEC reports. Clean Energy Fuels employees have also given $7,800 to Sen. Reid and $4,400 to Sen. Menendez.

Fuel Systems in Iran

Details regarding Fuel Systems’ business in Iran are available in the company’s Form 10-K filed March 8, 2012 for the year ended Dec. 31, 2011. The company’s investor relations spokesperson declined to comment on the companies operations in Iran and phone calls to the company’s corporate office were not returned as of Tuesday morning.

The SEC document, filed March 8, 2012 for the year ending Dec. 31, 2011, contains the following:

Some of our foreign subsidiaries have done, and may continue to do, business in countries subject to U.S. sanctions and embargoes, including Iran.

Some of our foreign subsidiaries sell fuel delivery systems, related parts and accessories to customers in Iran, a country currently subject to sanctions and embargoes imposed by the U.S. government, the European Union (“EU”), the United Nations, and other countries. In addition to Iran, there are other countries that are also subject to sanctions. These sanctions are complex. We believe we have procedures in place to conduct U.S. and foreign operations without violating U.S., EU, or other sanctions. However, if we fail to comply with U.S. sanctions, EU sanctions or other sanctions in our foreign operations, we could be subject to material fines and penalties and incur damage to our reputation, which may lead to a reduction in the market price of our common stock.

In addition, our foreign subsidiaries’ sales to Iran could reduce demand for our common stock among certain of our investors for political reasons.

Recent Iranian sanction laws and regulations have adversely affected our revenues and may cause us other adverse consequences.

In June 2010, the United Nations Security Council by Resolution voted to impose a new and expanded round of sanctions against Iran. In July 2010, the European Union implemented the UN Resolution. On July 1, 2010, President Obama signed into law the new Comprehensive Iran Sanctions and Accountability and Divestment Act of 2010 (the “CISADA”). In November 2011, President Obama signed Executive Order 13590 imposing broad sanctions similar to those included within the CISADA and which expressly apply to any individual or entity (whether or not a U.S. person). In January 2012, the EU expanded its sanctions against Iran. The expanded round of laws and regulations imposing sanctions on Iran has not significantly impacted our revenues derived from this country. We can offer no assurance that any further expansion of Iranian sanctions will not further adversely affect our revenues and cause us other adverse consequences.

Afghans urge U.S. exit after killings; US says timetable unchanged

By Ahmad Nadem and Ahmad Haroon

Reuters

12th March, 2012

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The massacre of 16 villagers by a U.S. soldier triggered angry calls from Afghans for an immediate American exit even as the Obama administration vowed on Monday that the killings would not alter U.S. plans for the war.

Just days before Sunday's attack, Kabul and Washington had made significant progress in negotiations on a strategic partnership agreement that would allow American advisers and special forces to stay in Afghanistan after most foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

But securing a full deal may be far more difficult now after a U.S. Army staff sergeant walked off his base in the southern province of Kandahar in the middle of night and gunned down at least 16 villagers, mostly women and children.

"This could delay the signing of the Strategic Partnership Agreement," an Afghan government official told Reuters.

The attack was the latest incident to ignite Afghan anger at the United States, coming on the heels of U.S. soldiers' burning of copies of the Koran on a NATO base last month, and other incidents that have intensified America's perception problem in Afghanistan.

U.S. President Barack Obama and his NATO partners intend to pull most of their troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014, leaving an inexperienced local army in charge.

Officials in Washington denied suggestions that the killings might alter U.S. plans.

"I do not believe this incident will change the timetable of a strategy that was designed and is being implemented in a way to allow for the withdrawal of U.S. forces, to allow for their transfer of lead security authority over to the Afghans," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

The soldier, who has not been publicly identified, is now in U.S. custody in Kandahar, a congressional source said on condition of anonymity. After leaving the Belambai base, the soldier began shooting people in two nearby villages, the source said. Five Afghans were wounded in addition to those killed.

The motive for the shooting was not immediately clear. The soldier was part of the 2-3 Infantry, 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, from the Lewis-McChord base in Washington state. After serving three tours in Iraq, he arrived in Afghanistan in December and has been at the Belambai base since February 1.

General John Allen, who commands U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, told CNN that an Afghan soldier reported seeing the soldier leave the base, and that a search party was being assembled when reports of the attacks started to come in.

Allen declined to comment on reports that the sergeant had suffered a brain injury in the past.

U.S. officials, who have rushed to distance the shootings from the efforts of the 90,000-strong U.S. force that over the past year has beaten the Taliban back from much of southern Afghanistan, say an investigation was under way but did not know when it would conclude.

Afghanistan's parliament condemned the killings, saying Afghans had run out of patience with the actions of foreign forces and the lack of oversight. Civilian deaths have long been one of the main sources of tension between Kabul and Washington.

"We have benefited little from the foreign troops here but lost everything - our lives, dignity and our country to them," said Haji Najiq," a Kandahar shop owner.

"The explanation or apologies will not bring back the dead. It is better for them to leave us alone and let us live in peace."
UNWELCOME CHALLENGE

The incident is another unwelcome challenge for the Obama administration's efforts to establish stability - which will require the support of ordinary Afghans - more than 10 years after the Taliban government was toppled in an American invasion.

U.S. Representative Howard McKeon, Republican chairman of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, said through a spokesman that "now is not the time to abandon hope and freedom's cause, but to persevere," and urged Obama to "rally the American people to this cause and demonstrate the will to win."

U.S. officials warned of possible reprisal attacks after the villagers were killed in the likely "rogue" shooting.
Fury over the killing spree, which brought demands that the United States withdraw earlier than scheduled, could be exploited by the Taliban to gain new recruits.
Anti-Americanism, which boiled over after the Koran-burning incident, might deepen after the Kandahar carnage.
"The Americans said they will leave in 2014. They should leave now so we can live in peace," said Mohammad Fahim, 19, a university student. "Even if the Taliban return to power our elders can work things out with them. The Americans are disrespectful."

The civilian deaths may also force Afghan President Hamid Karzai to harden his stance in the partnership talks to appease a public already critical of his government's performance.

"The Americans are not here to assist us they are here to kill us," said Najibullah, 33, a house painter in Kabul.

"I hate the Americans and I hate anyone who loves them, so I hope there is no long-term partnership between our countries."

The partnership agreement, which Washington and Kabul have been discussing for more than a year, is expected to be a framework for U.S. involvement in Afghanistan after foreign combat troops leave at the end of 2014.

Without a pact that keeps U.S. advisers or special forces in the country, there is a danger that civil war could erupt again in Afghanistan.

DETENTION CENTER

The Kandahar violence came just days after the United States and Afghanistan signed a deal on the gradual transfer of a major U.S.-run detention center to Afghan authorities, overcoming one of the main sticking points in the partnership negotiations.

Afghanistan wants a timeline to take over detention centers and for the United States and NATO to agree to end night raids on Afghan homes as preconditions for signing the pact.

Pentagon spokesman George Little said U.S. strategy would continue as it had before Sunday's shooting.

"There has been a series of troubling incidents recently, but no one should think that we are steering away from our partnership with the Afghan people, our partnership with Afghan National Security Forces, and our commitment to prosecute the war effort," he told reporters.
Allen acknowledged the shooting was a "setback" but said: "We're going to ensure that this relationship, which is resilient and possesses a lot of shock absorbency, that this relationship is the one that defines the success of our campaign."

U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 to topple the Taliban rulers who had harbored the al Qaeda network responsible for the September 11 attacks of the United States. Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban.

Southern and eastern provinces have seen some of the fiercest fighting of the war.

"The Kandahar shootings will give the Taliban the chance to prove to Afghans that they are the freedom fighters and the Americans are the evil ones," said Waheed Mujhda of the Afghan Analysts Network.

Sunday's attack may also harden a growing consensus in Washington about what can - and can't - be accomplished in Afghanistan.

The bill for the war has already exceeded $500 billion and more than 1,900 U.S. troops have been killed, with the total number of foreign troops killed approaching 3,000.

"Not only will this horrific incident enrage average Afghans, it will likely significantly impact the American public attitude toward the war and renew calls for speeding up the pace of U.S. troop withdrawals," said Lisa Curtis, a security expert at the Heritage Foundation.

Karzai, whose relationship with his Western backers is troubled even in the best of times, condemned the rampage as "intentional murders" and demanded an explanation. Karzai's office released a statement quoting a villager as saying "American soldiers woke my family up and shot them in the face."

Amnesty International warned that those behind such attacks must be brought to justice or it would risk reinforcing a perception among many Afghans - fueled by the Taliban - that NATO had not done enough to keep Afghan civilians safe.

(Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi and Mirwais Harooni in KABUL; Susan Cornwell, Missy Ryan, Alister Bull in WASHINGTON; Michelle Nicols, Louis Charbonneau and Emily Flitter in NEW YORK; Writing by Michael Georgy; Editing by Missy Ryan and Cynthia Osterman)

Arpaio investigation: Obama might be Kenyan

WND
9th March, 2012

Among the records missing for Barack Obama that would be available for an ordinary president are passport records, school records such as those from Punahou, Occidental, Columbia and Harvard, Harvard Law Review writings, scholarly articles for the University of Chicago, state bar association records from Illinois, Illinois state senate records, the marriage and divorce documents for his mother, his adoption records and others.

Now it has been revealed that the Cold Case Posse assembled by Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Maricopa County, Ariz., cannot confirm yet that Obama was not born in Kenya and brought to the United States as a days-old infant for his birth to be registered in Hawaii.

The reason? Missing records.

Speculation has held that Obama actually was born in Kenya, and as the son of an American woman and Kenyan father, probably would not have been considered under any circumstances to be a “natural born citizen” of America, as the Constitution demands for presidents.

It’s been revealed that the Kenyan government actually investigated that possibility earlier, without conclusive results.

Now Arpaio’s team, which was assembled to work on a volunteer basis after hundreds of constituents expressed fear that Obama was having his name put on the 2012 election ballot in Arizona using a fraudulent document, has reported that it checked to determine whether a young mother arrived in the United States from Kenya in the days after Obama’s reported Aug. 4, 1961, birth date.

The investigation report said that the records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service cards, which were filled out by passengers of that era arriving on international flights originating outside of the United States, cannot be found.

The investigation sought the records from part of the month of August 1961, and took a researcher to the National Archives in Washington, D.C., where other records of that time and from that time frame are stored.

NOTE: In case you missed the news conference of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s “Cold Case Posse,” you can view it here.

It is the records from the week of Obama’s birth that cannot be tracked, investigators confirm.
The Arpaio report said the hunt for airline passenger flight manifests for 1961 for foreign flights landing in Honolulu was an attempt to see if Obama’s mother returned at that time.
“The idea was that if Barack Obama had been born in Kenya, or any other location outside the United States, there should be a passenger record of the airline flight on which she, a new mother, returned to Hawaii with her newly born infant son,” the report said.

But “to date, investigators have not been able to locate the relevant airline passenger flight manifests for 1961.”

What was found were records of cards the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service required all
passengers – including both U.S. citizens and foreign citizens – to fill out and file with passport control when arriving in Honolulu from a foreign city of origin.

The report said, “Microfilm records of INS cards for passengers arriving in New York on foreign files in 1961 have been found in the National Archives only recently; consequently these records have not yet been examined. Microfilm records of INS cards for passengers arriving in Honolulu on foreign files originating around the Pacific rim in 1961 have been examined at the National Archives in Washington, D.C.”

The microfilms that were found for the time period include “NARA Record Group A3573, Reel 184, INA records from July 28, 1961 through Aug. 7, 1961″ and “NARA Record Group A3573, Reel 185, INA records from Aug. 8, 1961 through Aug. 12, 1961.”

However, “Remarkably, all INS records for the week of Obama’s birth, Aug. 1 – Aug. 7, 1961, were missing from the end of Reel 184 and were not discovered anywhere on Reel 185, or any other microfilm reel in the record group,” the report said.

“The National Archives confirmed in a letter written on National Archives stationary that the INS records for foreign flights arriving in Hawaii during the week of Obama’s birth were missing, not only on the microfilm reels examined, but also in the primary database itself,” the report said.

That leaves open the door that Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was, as others have reported, visiting her husband’s family in Kenya shortly before the birth. Airlines at that time likely would not have allowed a woman expecting to give birth any day to board an extended international flight, thus creating the circumstances for Obama’s birth in Kenya.

WND reported earlier that internal Kenyan government documents reveal Obama’s step-grandmother was interviewed by agents of the National Security Intelligence Service about reports she said Obama was born in the East African nation.

As WND reported that while there’s no proof to date placing Obama’s mother in Kenya for the birth, a disputed taped telephone conversation in which step-grandmother Sarah Hussein Obama purportedly claimed he was born in the coastal city of Mombasa became an Internet sensation after its submission in a lawsuit challenging the president’s eligibility.

Philip J. Berg, a former Pennsylvania deputy attorney general, included a transcript of the taped Oct. 16, 2008, telephone interview and sworn affidavits in a filing with the U.S. Supreme Court after lower courts dismissed as frivolous his Aug. 21, 2008, complaint alleging Obama was born in Mombasa.
Critics challenge statements on the telephone call, which was conducted through an interpreter. But two members of the Obamas’ Luo tribe who are fluent in the local Luo dialect, Swahili and English, have told WND that after carefully listening to the tape they believe she declared Barack Obama Jr. was born in Kenya and that she was present at the birth.

Kenya’s NSIS later investigated those statements, according to official government letters. WND also confirmed two letters purportedly written by Kenya’s immigration secretary during the 2008 U.S. presidential election campaign stated that officials in Nairobi could not find evidence Obama was born in Kenya. But the official said the government had “information” that relevant birth records may have been removed or were missing.

An “interim report” by the NSIS issued in September 2008 “concludes that a birth certificate in the name of Barack Hussein Obama may have been issued” in Kenya “but to confirm this would require a further thorough joint investigation” by the NSIS and Kenya’s Central Intelligence Department, or CID.

The report said that none of several investigations by various officers has been conclusive and that some leads require further investigation “because it appears some powerful forces as it were are hell bent in defeating this investigation.”

The government reported some hospital records appeared to be missing.

Further, a 2009 internal NSIS report (page 1 and page 2) said conflicting stories suggest the “the Obama family is trying to hide something but are not doing a very good job of it.”

The report said, “We have also investigated Mama Sarah to find out if she is speaking the truth but she had come out as vague and incongruent. In one interview with Mama Sarah Obama our officers recorded that Mama Sarah says she cannot remember if she attended the birth of Barack Obama or visited his parents at the Coast Provincial General Hospital around the official birthday of Barack Obama. But she confessed to have had part of her family there at around the same time. Some of her brothers were already working in Mombasa. In a second interview done much later, she says that she is sure Barack Obama was born in Mombasa because she was visiting her family there when he was born, and they were called to the CPGH (Coast Provincial General Hospital) where she met Barack Obama’s mother for the first time.”

The report said she later was hostile and gave conflicting testimony about the issue.

The NSIS also reported that there were multiple alterations and insertions in the hospital records, suggesting that someone was trying “keep off track any investigations into this case.”
There also was official correspondence involving Emmanuel Kisombe, the permanent secretary in the Ministry for Immigration and Registration of Persons, who in July 2008 told the U.S. ambassador about the possibility that Obama was born in their country.

He suggested an investigation. He wrote, “We have instructions from the Head of Civil Service and Secretary to the Cabinet carrying out directions of the Cabinet sub-committee on Security and Foreign Relations to investigate and report on efficacy of reports that Senator Barack Obama, the Democratic Party aspirant in the United States could be Kenyan-born.”

He cited “numerous intelligence reports that [Obama] might have been born in Mombasa at the Lady Grigg Maternity Wing of the Coast Provincial Hospital.”

Harvard-educated Dr. Jerome Corsi, who has written several books about Obama, wrote a year ago about the theories involving a Kenyan birth for Obama.

He cited the documentation that the Immigration and Naturalization Service suspected the marriage between Obama’s mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, and Barack Obama Sr. to be a sham.

And there is the fact that within weeks of the birth, Dunham moved to Seattle to take night classes at the University of Washington.

Because of the absence of information, the reasons for some of those events remain unclear. But he noted in a column, “That Ann Dunham did not return to Honolulu until after Obama Sr. left in September 1962 to begin his graduate studies at Harvard suggests the possibility an estrangement between the conception of the baby and the birth had eliminated or eroded whatever bond might have existed between the two.

“Perhaps Ann hoped that she could persuade senior members of the Obama family in Kenya that she was a well-chosen daughter-in-law and her son was a desirable grandson,” he continued. “With her leftist ideological vision and the many comments she made to friends after arriving in Seattle with her infant son, Ann Dunham may well have harbored the hope of becoming the Eva Peron of Kenya.
“If Ann Dunham had been successful in persuading Obama Sr. and his family in Africa to accept her, she might have ended up in the desirable position of being the U.S.-born wife of a U.S.-educated Kenyan husband, who faced bright political prospects after he returned to Kenya with an advanced graduate degree obtained from a prestigious U.S. university,” his analysis said. “With the last six months of her pregnancy missing in her documentable chronology, it’s possible she was not in Hawaii during that time. Air travel from Honolulu was becoming increasingly more accessible to the average person by 1961.”

He said, “That Ann Dunham was rejected both by the Obama family in Kenya and by Obama Sr. in Honolulu also provides an explanation for her precipitous decision to leave Honolulu as quickly after the baby’s birth as possible. Hope followed by rejection would then define the emotions that explain Dunham’s behavior during her 1961 pregnancy.”

He said, “Moreover, if the baby was born in Kenya, the actual date of birth might have been earlier than Aug. 4, 1961. Very possibly, the grandparents decided to register the baby’s birth with the Hawaii Department of Health when they knew their daughter was returning to Honolulu from Africa.
“That Ann Dunham as an 18-year-old took an infant baby to Seattle by herself to rent an apartment and begin night courses would make more sense if the baby had been born in Kenya earlier than Aug. 4, 1961, the date of birth consistently advanced in the official Obama nativity story.”

The Cold Case Posse dismissed so-called evidence of two newspaper announcements in Honolulu citing Obama’s birth, explaining that those same announcements also listed foreign infants as Hawaii-born, as well as listing 3-year-olds as newborns.

Under Chapter 57 of the 1955 Revised Law of the Territory of Hawaii, a family in 1961 could report a birth as Hawaiian with merely the word of a family member or witness.
That there was reason for members of his family to claim a Hawaiian birth was documented by the state of Hawaii. In a 1955 paper by Robert Bennett, the chief of the Bureau of Health Statistics of the Hawaii Department of Health, he explained the vital records system he was then implementing for the Hawaiian Islands, which soon would be a state.

In an article entitled “Vital Records in Hawaii,” published in the Hawaii Medical Journal, Vol. 15, No. 2, November-December 1955, Bennett and his co-author, George Tokuyama, chief of the Registration and Records Section, wrote:

“The requirement of a birth certificate throughout the country to show citizenship, during World War II, gave a great impetus to the completeness of registration. This and other factors have made a birth certificate the principal document an American citizen uses to prove legal facts about himself. Almost every parent knows that a baby must be registered soon after birth, not only to meet requirements of the law, but to protect the child later in life.”

There also have been conflicting reports from Obama family members about which Hawaii hospital was his birth location, and neither has been able to provide any documentation confirming it.
There also have been discrepancies reported in the image of Obama’s birth certificate that the White House purported was “proof positive” of a Hawaiian birth, including an out-of-sequence number.
Further, research has revealed that on his INS paperwork filled out the same month Barack Obama Jr. was born, Barack Obama, Sr. incorrectly lists his wife’s name as “Ann S. Dunham” instead of “Stanley Ann Dunham,” and he neglected to mention that he had any children.

Obama Sr. also listed his address at 1482 Alencastre St. in Honolulu, a bachelor apartment he never shared with his wife or child.

And passport documents released for Barack Obama Jr.’s mother by the State Department on July 29, 2010, did not include any birth certificate documentation for him, despite one hand-written memo to the file claiming he was born in Honolulu.