1961–1966

Hawaii

Barack Obama Jr. is born on August 4, 1961 to Stanley Ann Dunham (1942–1995). Ann Dunham (who understandably dropped her first name Stanley, given to her because her father wanted a male child) had married Obama’s father, Barack Obama, Sr. (1936–1982), on February 2, 1961. Obama, Sr., a pro-Soviet Marxist, was a Kenyan studying at the University of Hawaii. Dunham met him in a Russian language class in the fall of 1960, as he was starting his second year at the university and she was beginning her first. Obama, Sr., an Arab-African Muslim by birth, but an atheist by admission, already had two children with a woman in Kenya named Kezia (b. 1938). The senior Obama may or may not have been legally married to Kezia. Some have speculated that their marriage was only a tribal marriage, and therefore not legally recognized. Depending on his marital status in Kenya, Obama’s marriage to Dunham may not therefore have been legal. (Obama and Kezia eventually reunite after he separates from Ann Dunham, and Kezia bears two more of his children.) After learning of the planned wedding to Dunham, Obama, Sr.’s father writes a long, angry letter to her parents saying he “didn’t approve of the marriage” and “didn’t want the Obama blood sullied by a white woman.” [1, 3, 7, 289, 299, 324, 2287, 2292, 2293]

            Barack Obama, Sr.’s Hawaiian education was sponsored partly by the Laubach Literacy Institute (LLI), which has links to the Nation of Islam, and which considers a socialist world without national borders one of its goals. A financial supporter of the LLI was Elizabeth Mooney Kirk, who co-authored books with its founder, Charles Laubach. Kirk was also a friend of civil rights activist and black nationalist Malcolm X (Malcolm Little). It is possible that Malcolm X met Obama, Sr. during a 1959 visit to the Secretary General of the Kenya Federation of Labour, prominent Kenyan politician Tom Mboya, because Mboya and Obama were close friends. [408]

            Obama Sr. was able to attend the University of Hawaii also through the efforts of Mboya, who visited the United States in 1959 to obtain financial support for the American education of 81 Kenyan students. Presidential candidate Obama was incorrect in relating that his father was part of the “Kennedy airlift” of Kenyan students; John F. Kennedy was not sworn in as president until January of 1961, when Obama, Sr. was already in his second year at the University of Hawaii. Obama’s “JFK helped my father” story was likely intended to attach some of the Kennedy mystique to his candidacy. [561]

            Obama states he was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. If that is the case, he was then both an American citizen and a British citizen at birth because his father was a citizen of the protectorate of British East Africa. Because the region had, in 1961, not yet declared its independence from Great Britain, Obama was, like his father, a British citizen under Section 32(1) of the British Nationality Act of 1948. Both Obama, Sr. and Obama, Jr. then automatically became citizens of Kenya when that independent nation was formed in 1963. Obama’s British/Kenyan citizenship automatically expired when he turned age 21, but he was born with dual citizenship and split loyalties, and thus was arguably not a natural born citizen of the United States. [219, 258, 492, 549]

Kenya Birth Allegations

Some speculate that Obama was born not in Hawaii but in Kenya. Only one of Obama’s parents was American. If Obama was born in Kenya (or any country other than the United States), he cannot legally serve as president of the United States because he is not a “natural born citizen,” even though he may have become a “naturalized citizen.” Obama’s American citizen parent, Ann Dunham, had to have been a resident of the United States for 10 years, at least five of which were over the age of 14. Dunham did not meet that requirement (of the Nationality Act of 1940, revised June 1952) until her 19th birthday in late November of 1961, almost four months after Obama was born. The law confers U.S. nationality on a child born outside the United States only under certain circumstances, including: “(7) a person born outside the geographical limits of the United States and its outlying possessions of parents one of whom is an alien, and the other a citizen of the United States, who prior to the birth of such person, was physically present in the United States or its outlying possessions for a period or periods totaling not less than ten years, at least five of which were after attaining the age of fourteen years.” Thus, if Obama was born in Kenya he was not only not a natural born citizen, he was not even a citizen of the United States. [801, 2040, 2462]

            A significant and understandable fuss has been made about Obama becoming the first African-American president. Obama is arguably not, however, “African-American.” His father, Barack Obama, Sr., was purportedly one-eighth African from his mother’s side (from the Luo tribe in Kenya) and his father’s ancestry is alleged to be Arabic. To the extent that is true, Obama is “Arab-African-American.” Obama is certainly not—like many black Americans—the descendant of African slaves owned by white American slave owners. There is insufficient publicly available evidence to state with certainty the percentages of Obama’s national ancestries, but if he has Arab ancestors Obama is more likely a descendant of slave owners than slaves because for centuries Arabs traditionally owned slaves and were active slave traders. The names “Barack” and “Hussein” are of Arab origin. “Barack” comes from the Arabic “baraka,” meaning “blessed,” and “baraka” means “blessing” in Kiswahili, a common language in Africa. “Hussein,” from the Arabic “Hussayn,” is a diminutive of “Hassan,” meaning “good” or “handsome;” it is a common Muslim name.  [513, 514, 2624, 2625]

            Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham were granted a divorce on March 20, 1964 and therefore appear to have been legally married—although the State of Hawaii (and Ann Dunham) certainly might not have been told of the existence of Obama, Sr.’s wife Kezia in Kenya when the marriage certificate was issued in 1961. (There are no known witnesses to a Dunham-Obama marriage, nor has any marriage certificate surfaced.) During the campaign Obama’s wife, Michelle stated in an interview that Ann Dunham was “very young and very single when she had him (Barack Obama, Jr.)” In any event, Dunham was unmarried and not even age 18—or possibly just barely 18—when she became pregnant in late 1960. (Michelle Obama may have meant to say that Dunham was “very young and very single” when she became pregnant.) [4, 6, 8, 10, 324, 352, 564, 772, 2287]

Stanley Ann Dunham

Ann Dunham was, at various times, an atheist, an Adlai Stevenson liberal, a secular humanist, leftist social-activist, socialist, and student of cultural anthropology.  She was reportedly an excellent debater at school, and allegedly excelled at defending the concepts of Karl Marx’s The Communist Manifesto. [2, 4, 5, 9, 10, 324, 612, 744, 2289]

            Ann Dunham was born on November 29, 1942 at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas while her father was serving in the Army. The Dunham family moved to Ponca City, Oklahoma after World War II, later to Vernon, Texas, and then to El Dorado, Kansas. (They may also have lived in California.) In 1955, the Dunham family moved to the Columbia City neighborhood of Seattle, Washington where her father landed a job managing a furniture store—located down the street from the regional headquarters of the Communist Party USA. (It has been rumored that Ann Dunham’s father, Stanley Armour Dunham, purportedly a Marxist, had been suspected of espionage during World War II and that Boeing has a 1944 security file on Dunham in connection with suspected sabotage of B-17 aircraft at its Wichita plant and the theft of B-29 blueprints. Those suspicions, if true, may have prompted Dunham to leave Kansas.) [2, 408, 558, 607, 612, 743, 2289, 2290]

            In Seattle, Ann Dunham attended Eckstein Middle School. The family then moved to Mercer Island in 1956 so she could attend Mercer Island High School. The Mercer Island School Board was led by John Stenhouse (a British immigrant raised in China), who, according to his testimony to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, was a member of the Communist Party USA. Dunham’s teachers included communists Jim Wichterman, whose assignments included the reading of The Communist Manifesto. The hallway between Wichterman’s class and that of another teacher, Val Foubert, whose reading assignments included Margaret Mead’s writings on homosexuality, was known as “anarchy alley.” (Foubert also had his students read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged, the monumental pro-individual, pro-liberty, anti-collectivist novel that, if she read, Dunham clearly did not understand and which certainly was not allowed to influence her son’s view of the world.) Dunham graduated from high school in 1960. Dunham also attended the East Shore Unitarian Church in Bellevue (of which communist Stenhouse was president), which was known as the “little Red church on the hill” because of its communist leanings. Obama claims his maternal grandparents were “conservative Methodists or Baptists from Kansas,” and his mother “was a Christian.” Obama also states, “I was not raised in a religious household… My mother’s own experiences… only reinforced this inherited skepticism. Her memories of the Christians who populated her youth were not fond ones…” and “In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology. On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to church…” Obama may have wanted the voters to believe his Kansas-born mother was just another innocent Dorothy Gayle from the Wizard of Oz (“My mother was a Christian from Kansas”) but she was anything but a traditional middle-American farm girl. [2, 408, 558, 607, 612, 743, 2289, 2290]

            In 1960, Dunham emphasized her free spirit with a statement to her high school friends that, “I don’t need to date or marry to have children.” Teacher Wichterman later recalled that Dunham would question anything, asking, “What’s so good about democracy? What’s so good about capitalism? What’s wrong with communism? What’s good about communism?” Her best friend in high school, Maxine Box, said Dunham “…touted herself as an atheist, and it was something she’d read about and could argue. She was always challenging and arguing and comparing.” [408, 612, 2289]

            Although Dunham hated her first name, she apparently used it for some time. Friend Susan Botkin recalls, “In those days she dealt head-on with her uncommon first name. No sense trying to hide it… ‘My name is Stanley,’ she would say. ‘My father wanted a boy, and that’s that.’ She owned the name. Only once or twice was she teased. She had a sharp tongue, a deep wit, and she could kill. We all called her Stanley.” [2289]

            Dunham was apparently also a free spirit sexually. One former friend said, “She couldn’t be the girl you went steady with, but she could be the one you spent time with.” That friend was not alone in that opinion. Dunham was also known to engage in interracial relationships; friend Susan Blake said that Dunham never dated “the crew-cut white boys.” Other friends state Dunham had no boyfriends while in high school. [564, 614, 2291]

            Shortly after Dunham’s high school graduation in 1960 the family abruptly left Washington and moved to Hawaii, where she reluctantly enrolled at the University of Hawaii. (She had wanted to attend the University of Washington.) Taking his daughter with him to Hawaii was perhaps Stanley Armour Dunham’s way of keeping an eye on her. He may have been reluctant to leave her behind at the University of Washington, after at least one false pregnancy scare. At the University of Hawaii in her freshman year Dunham was described as shy and reluctant to participate in classroom discussions. Out of the classroom, she was friendly with the boys, frequently flirting and repeatedly touching them. Classmates say, “When Dunham arrived in Hawaii, she was a full-fledged radical leftist…” She also stopped using her first name Stanley at that time. [558, 564, 2291]

            Knowing of her sexual reputation, Obama, Sr. supposedly told Dunham, “It’s not mine” when, in December of 1960, she informed him that she was pregnant. Obama, Sr.’s classmates knew he had a wife and children in Africa, but it has to be assumed that Dunham initially did not. She may have quickly found out, however, because Dunham left Obama, Sr. within a few weeks of her son’s birth. [564, 2287]

            Dunham’s acquaintances recall that they often had difficulties knowing when she was telling the truth. One remarked, “She would make you believe anything while you were face-to-face but, a few minutes after she’d leave, you’d realize what she said wasn’t very… realistic or true,” explained one. Another friend recalls joining Dunham for dinner with her parents. Dunham tells an incredible story about a car accident. Her mother, knowing the tale was fabricated, lets her finish… and then states, “That never happened.” [564]

            One Obama birth theory speculates that Dunham’s parents were disturbed by the news of the pregnancy (understandably, considering the scandal an interracial couple and an unwed pregnancy would have prompted in 1961), and likely tried to persuade her to give the child up for adoption and then claim she had miscarried. There is some speculation that Dunham left Hawaii and gave birth to Obama in Washington State (or perhaps British Columbia, Canada) at a facility for unwed mothers—and then decided to keep the baby. She then would have returned to Hawaii and registered the child’s birth there, claiming the child was born at home in Honolulu. (Had Obama been born in Washington State, Dunham would have had no need to later register his birth in Hawaii, but had he been born in Canada her doing so would have been understandable.) In August 1961, Dunham visited a friend in Seattle who had to show Dunham how to change the baby’s diaper. [564, 2655]

            Almost immediately after giving birth to Obama, Dunham returns to Washington State to attend the University of Washington, leaving her infant to be cared for by her mother in Hawaii. Obama, Sr. remains at the University of Hawaii. [408]

            According to the University of Hawaii (UH), Ann Dunham first attended classes at UH on September 26, 1960. Dunham was also a student at UH between the spring of 1963 and summer of 1966, and sporadically at other times between 1972 and 1992. She received a BA in Mathematics in the summer of 1967, an MA in Anthropology in the fall of 1983, and a PhD in Anthropology in the summer of 1992. [408]

            According to the University of Washington (UW), Dunham was enrolled at UW in the fall of 1961 (just weeks after giving birth), the spring of 1962, and the winter of 1962. The Obama campaign places Dunham only in Hawaii until she later moves to Indonesia with Lolo Soetoro, and omits any reference to her attending UW. These university dates indicate that Ann Dunham was not even living with Barack Obama, Sr., because she attended UW while he remained at UH. He spent virtually no time with his newborn son or with Dunham. She attended school in Washington while her mother, Madelyn, took care of her newborn son in Hawaii. Dunham, who had told her friends “I don’t need to date or marry to have children,” apparently also believed she didn’t even need to care for a child to have children. [408]

Barack Hussein Obama, Sr.

Obama, Sr. receives two fellowships, one to pursue a doctorate in economics at the New York School for Social Research in New York City, the other for Harvard. The former would have allowed him enough money to provide for his wife and child in New York; the latter would provide only enough for him. He chooses the latter, telling a friend, “How can I refuse the best education?” But Dunham had already left Obama, Sr. shortly after her son’s birth, so it was not illogical for him to choose Harvard over New York. Dunham does not attend the June 1962 graduation of Obama, Sr., and he leaves for Harvard shortly thereafter. Dunham seems not to have demanded any child support, and she receives food stamps for a time. [564, 842 p. 27; 2287]

            After Harvard, Obama, Sr. returns to Kenya with fellow student Ruth Nidesand. He works briefly for the Shell Oil Company, and then obtains employment as an economist with the Kenyan Ministry of Transportation. [2287]

            In 1965, Obama’s father writes an article for the East Africa Journal called “Problems Facing Our Socialism,” in which he criticizes Kenya for not being socialist enough. He writes, “Theoretically, there is nothing that can stop the government from taxing 100 per cent of income so long as the people get benefits from the government commensurate with their income which is taxed.” Obama, Jr. has so far suggested a maximum federal income tax rate of “only” 39.6 per cent (not counting Social Security and Medicare taxes). Obama, Sr. advocated the elimination of private farming in Kenya, the nationalization of businesses, and high taxes on the wealthy for “redistribution.” (Obama, Jr., with the eager assistance of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, may very well end up attempting to nationalize America’s banks and its auto, oil, and utility industries.) [271, 1008]

            In his second book (his campaign book, The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream) Obama clearly states that, like his father, he is also no great fan of the American system of free enterprise capitalism. He describes capitalism as “chaotic and unforgiving,” and says he has a desire to roll back the “ownership society.” [271]

            Obama, Sr. marries Nidesand in Kenya in 1967. They are eventually divorced, with Nidesand claiming physical abuse. With Obama, Sr., Nidesand has a son, a half-brother of Obama, who lives in Shenzhen, China and who reportedly works in the export business; his name is Mark Ndesandjo. (Another son of Nidesand and Obama, Sr., David Ndesandjo, was killed in a motorcycle accident.) Obama, Sr. eventually has at least eight children with four women. (Two of those children are borne by his ex-wife Kezia while Obama, Sr. is still married to Nidesand.) Obama, Sr. does not see his son Barack, Jr. again until 1971, when he visits Hawaii to attend a reunion of former UH classmates. Obama, Sr. is eventually killed in 1982, at age 46, in an automobile accident. Another accident a year earlier left him with both legs amputated. Alcohol is believed to have been a factor in the final, fatal accident. (Close friend Philip Ochieng, a journalist in Kenya, states that Obama, Sr. was “excessively fond of scotch” and ended up in poverty “without a job.”) The earlier automobile accident was, according to at least one source, an apparent attempted hit-and-run assassination in retaliation for Obama having testified against the man who murdered his friend Tom Mboya in 1969. Atheist or not, Obama is given a Muslim burial. [6, 7, 11, 271, 324, 408, 562, 842 p. 22; 2039, 2287, 2682]

Obama’s Birth Certificate

In the latter stages of the presidential campaign, a myriad of rumors arise suggesting that Obama was born not in Hawaii but in Kenya. Those stories are fueled partly by reports that his father’s relatives had witnessed his birth in Kenya.

            In an effort to squelch the born-in-Kenya rumors, Obama’s campaign posts an image of his Hawaiian birth certificate on the Internet; it is immediately suspected of being a forgery. The story breaks on Pamela Geller’s AtlasShrugs.com Web site (which has consistently had the most thorough coverage). The birth certificate image shows evidence of being computer-generated, and it represents the limited short form birth record document rather than the more detailed long form document (sometimes referred to as the “ribbon copy” because it is produced with ink from the typewriter’s ribbon). Obama’s legitimate long form birth certificate may possibly list a place of birth other than Hawaii, a father other than Obama, Sr., or no father at all. Of course, a newborn infant’s mother can give the hospital the name of just about anyone as the father and it will likely be recorded. (By July 2008, there were allegations that the short form birth certificate forgery had been performed by a Jay McKinnon, who describes himself as a “Department of Homeland Security-trained document specialist.”) [12, 325, 494, 548, 564, 2040, 2612]

            Researcher Dr. Ron Polarik performed an exhaustive examination of the various Obama birth certificate images available on the Internet and states that the document is a fake. Polarik alleges that no original paper Certification of Live Birth (COLB) corresponding to the image on the Internet exists. He states that the online document was computer-generated and not a scanned image of any authentic Obama COLB. Polarik also points out that the 2007 seal shown on Obama’s alleged 2007 COLB looks nothing like the authentic 2007 Hawaiian seal on actual documents for that year. [548]

            The birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign lists the father’s race as “African,” a term that likely would not have been used for a newborn child’s race in 1961. A birth certificate in that period would probably have listed the race as “Negro” or “colored.” Those may not be politically correct terms today, but they were in widespread use in 1961. The use of the word “African” on the Obama form thus further suggests that the document provided by his campaign was a newly created fabrication, prepared by someone unfamiliar with 1961 society. [372]

            The Internet site FactCheck.org states that the birth certificate provided by the Obama campaign is legitimate, but it should be noted that FactCheck.org is politically left leaning and is affiliated with the Annenberg Public Policy Center of Pennsylvania, which, in turn, is run by Obama supporters and funded by the Annenberg Foundation. (The Annenberg Foundation also funded the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, from which Obama and William Ayers distributed tens of millions of dollars to predominantly leftist organizations). In defense of FactCheck.org, some point out that the Annenberg Foundation was originally funded by a wealthy Republican, the late Walter Annenberg, and therefore it could not possibly have contributed to leftist causes. That argument fails to consider the fact that wealthy benefactors often do not retain strict control over—or live long enough to control—the foundations they set up. Annenberg donated $50 million to the United Negro College Fund and supported public television, and neither of those would be considered conservative leaning. “If it’s Annenberg it must be conservative” is not a valid argument. The Ford Foundation, for example, has distributed funds in ways that clearly would not have been advocated by Henry Ford. In fact, Henry Ford II quit the Ford Foundation in disgust in 1977. The fact that Annenberg is no longer alive to influence the spending of his foundation is not irrelevant. The truth is that as time passes tax-exempt foundations frequently lurch left in their distribution of funds. (They have also been used as covers for CIA activities, precisely because of the lack of accountability in their funding and expenditures.) [302, 548, 733, 842 p. 90]

            On August 13, 1961, nine days after his birth, an Obama birth notice appears in two Honolulu newspapers. The Sunday Advertiser and the Star Bulletin announcements read, “Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy., son, Aug 4.” The address listed in the notices is purportedly that of Ann Dunham’s parents. The place of birth is not indicated. Many argue that the newspaper birth notices prove Obama was born in Hawaii, others argue that they prove only that Obama’s mother, father, or grandparents placed the notice in the newspapers. (One individual who is familiar with Linotype machines used by newspapers in the 1960s argues that the spacing of the lines in the Obama birth notice suggests it is a forgery.) Current long-time (since before 1961) residents of nearby 6075 Kalanianaole Highway state that the residents of 6085 in 1961 were neither Obama and Dunham nor Stanley and Madelyn Dunham, but Orland and Thelma Lefforge. Regardless of where Obama was born, in late August of 1961 his mother was living in a Seattle apartment (516 13th Avenue E), ready to begin classes at the University of Washington. (The telephone book entry is “Obama Anna Mrs EA3-3348”) [362, 1902, 1908, 1909, 2655]

            Some believe that Dunham and Obama, Sr. visited his homeland of Kenya at the beginning of their long summer break from the University and that Obama was born in Africa. As the summer progressed, the airlines would not have allowed a very pregnant Dunham fly all the way back to Hawaii, and Dunham therefore would have given birth in Kenya. (The airlines were more strict about such issues in 1961 than they are today.) Several of Obama’s relatives in Africa, who likely are unaware of the eligibility requirements of the U.S. presidency, state that he was born in Kenya. [197, 199, 248]

            Dunham’s high school classmate Susan Blake recalls that during a 1961 visit to Seattle Dunham was excited about her husband’s plans to return to Kenya. Blake does not indicate whether Dunham was going to Kenya with her husband, but it is not illogical to believe that the newlyweds would travel together to Obama Sr.’s homeland in order for Dunham to “meet the parents,” with the trip taking place over the summer when university classes were not in session. Such a trip would also be consistent with reports that Obama’s family in Kenya was less than thrilled when they met his new wife, a white woman. The summer of 1961 is the only logical time the Kenyan family could have met Dunham, as both she and Obama, Sr. returned to the United States to attend their fall school sessions. Dunham’s trip to Kenya would not have been during the 1962 summer break because by that time Obama, Sr. had already decided to attend Harvard and leave both Dunham and her child. If Dunham traveled with Obama, Sr. to Kenya, it was in the summer of 1961. [743]

            Obama’s campaign has given the names of two different Hawaiian hospitals where he was supposed to have been born (Kapiolani Medical Center and Queens Medical Center, both in Honolulu). No one has been able to confirm the birth from either hospital’s records. There is allegedly a register of the birth in the public records office, dated August 8, 1961, one week after the birth, but it purportedly does not list a place of birth. (A register of birth is not the same as a birth certificate.) [248]

            Between November 20 and December 2 of 2008, 13 separate Hawaiian hospitals were contacted to determine if Obama had been born there. None of them could or would confirm it was the facility where he was born. The hospitals contacted included Queen’s Medical Center (where Obama says be was born) and Kapiolani Medical Center (where Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng says he was born). [584]

            A writer for Online Journal published an article (June 9, 2008) claiming that a research team went to Mombasa, Kenya, and located a certificate of the Kenyan birth of Barack Obama, Jr. There are also rumors that certified copies of a Kenyan birth certificate, with embossed raised seals and with birth witness signatures, are now in the hands of three individuals. Those documents purportedly state that Obama was born at 7:24 p.m., on August 4, 1961, at Coast Provincial General Hospital, in Mombasa, Kenya. Government authorities in Kenya have stated that all documents regarding Obama would be “under seal.” That statement itself raises questions, because if Obama were born in Hawaii, Kenya would have no Obama birth records to seal. [248, 299, 301, 407]

            Some believe that the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, has done some investigating and believes Obama was born in Mombasa, Kenya. The British Secret Service, MI6, according to others, allegedly has documents relating to Obama, Sr. because he was a politically active communist at a time when Kenya had not yet received its independence from Great Britain. [558, 2038]

            There have been claims that Obama’s step-grandmother, Sarah Onyango Obama (Obama’s paternal grandfather’s second wife, born in 1922), told reporters that Barack Obama, Jr. was born in Kenya when her stepson came to visit—accompanied by a pregnant Ann Dunham. Sarah Obama further states that she was present in the Mombasa delivery room when Obama was born. One half-brother and one half-sister of Obama also claim he was born in Kenya. That would be consistent with a purported stop by Dunham to the state of Washington on the return trip to Hawaii, and with the possible existence of only a Hawaiian register of birth, rather than an actual Hawaiian birth certificate. The Chicago Tribune was told by Dunham’s friend Susan Blake that Dunham visited her in Seattle with the newborn infant shortly after his birth. That visit to Blake makes more sense as part of a necessary return trip from Kenya to Hawaii through Seattle than as an optional pleasure trip from Hawaii to Seattle and back to Hawaii simply to show off a newborn baby. [248, 289, 299, 324, 367, 2660]

            A critical issue with regard to the Obama long form birth certificate is that Hawaiian law (Hawaii Revised Statute 338-17.8) allows the State of Hawaii to issue a certificate of live birth even if the child is born outside the state provided the parents have been legal residents of Hawaii for at least one year immediately preceding the birth. Obama, Sr. had been a resident of Hawaii for at least one year prior to August 1961. Ann Dunham graduated from Mercer Island High School in Washington in 1960. If, as of August 1961, she had been a legal resident of Hawaii for one year, it was just barely one year. Such a Hawaiian certificate of live birth does not require that the child be born in Hawaii, only that the parents be Hawaiian residents for one year. Thus, had Obama been born in Kenya (or anywhere other than Hawaii) and shortly thereafter brought to Hawaii, Dunham could nevertheless have requested a Hawaiian birth certificate for her son; that document would have been in addition to the birth certificate issued in Kenya. Such a Hawaiian certificate does not make the child a natural born citizen of the United States, it is merely a birth-recording convenience offered by the state. If Dunham expected to remain in Hawaii or any other U.S. state it would have been logical for her to want to register Obama’s birth there. (It certainly would not have been necessary for her to “think ahead” to a time when he might decide to run for president, as some have suggested.) Dunham could also have returned to Hawaii from Kenya, claimed to have given birth at home, and simply registered the birth as Hawaiian. Obama would then have both a Kenyan and a Hawaiian birth certificate; he wouldn’t be the first person to have two such documents from two different countries. [301]

            The Hawaiian statute reads, in part, “Certificates for children born out of state. (a) Upon application of an adult or the legal parents of a minor child, the director of health shall issue a birth certificate for such adult or minor, provided that proof has been submitted to the director of health that the legal parents of such individual while living without the Territory or State of Hawaii had declared the Territory or State of Hawaii as their legal residence for at least one year immediately preceding the birth or adoption of such child.” Those who argue that a Hawaiian birth certificate undeniably proves a birth was in Hawaii have to reconcile their argument with Hawaii Revised Statute 338-17.8. [301, 583]

            Some suggest that the Hawaiian statute was intended to increase the number of Hawaiian citizens in order to get additional federal money. Welfare benefits were not then provided to illegal immigrants, and Hawaii was overburdened with immigrants—most in poverty and many involved in crime. The Hawaiian practice of issuing birth certificates to children born somewhere else allowed it to improperly boost the official population numbers of citizens, thus increasing the amount of welfare money it received from Washington, D.C. (In other words, the State of Hawaii may have been engaged in massive welfare fraud to obtain federal tax dollars.)

            Some have also argued that Hawaii’s status as the nation’s 50th state is questionable because the proposition voted on by its citizens only asked the question, “Should Hawaii immediately be admitted into the Union as a State?” and did not also offer the option of total independence. The legal choice should therefore have been not solely between statehood and remaining a territory of the United States, but between statehood, remaining a territory, and independence. Further, the statehood vote (on June 27, 1959) was open to any U.S. citizen who had resided in Hawaii for at least one year, including members of the military and their families—non-Hawaiians who should perhaps have had no say in the matter. The argument persists in the minds of many island residents that Hawaii has never legally been a state. [1589]

            States typically have a long form (certificate of live birth) and a short form (certification of birth or certificate of birth registration) for their birth documents. The long form, or vault copy, contains the more detailed information, such as the hospital name, names of parents, date, time, infant’s weight and length, footprints, doctor’s name, mother’s signature, and signature of the doctor. (The physician’s signature is sometimes certified.) In the pre-computer era of 1961, the long form document would have been filled in by hand or with a typewriter. The short form (or “abstract”) contains limited information, and is the less desirable of the two forms when absolute proof is desired. When someone requests a copy of a birth certificate from a state (or county), the document provided is often the short form, typed or (nowadays) computer-printed at the time of the request, and based on information on computer databases; the vault copy is generally not retrieved and examined. The short form is then stamped or embossed with an official seal before being given to the person who requested it. Had Obama been born in Kenya, Ann Dunham could have returned with him to Hawaii and had his birth recorded there. The long form would state the place of birth as Kenya, while the short form might make no mention of Kenya—especially if it is a forgery. [694, 2079]

            The birth document provided by the Obama campaign—whether valid or a forgery—is the short form. But having a Hawaiian certification of birth proves only that the birth was registered in Hawaii, it does not prove that the named individual was born in Hawaii. The place of birth is recorded on the vault copy document, but that is precisely the document that Obama refuses to produce. Some suggest that Obama has people preparing a forged long form birth certificate in order to quash rumors and end lawsuits. If a long form document is eventually released to the public (whether original or forged) the question of why it took so long for Obama to release it will be raised—especially since he has been paying attorneys to fight the release of documents. (Further, most observers would assume that skeptics will not be allowed to subject the document to exhaustive forensic tests.) [492, 574]

            To those who argue, “That’s all nonsense, if you have a Hawaiian birth certificate you must have been born in Hawaii,” they need to account for the fact that Obama’s half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng also has a Hawaiian short form certification of birth yet readily admits she was born in Indonesia in 1970. They also need to consider Chinese leader Sun Yat-Sen. Sun Yat-Sen (1866–1925) was born in China but was granted a Hawaiian registration of birth showing he was born in the Kingdom of Hawaii on November 24, 1870, four years after his actual 1866 birth in the Guangdong province of China. Sun Yat-Sen lived in Hawaii for a time, studying at the Iolani School where he mastered the English language. He eventually became a naturalized citizen of the United States and was issued a U.S. passport. Although Sun Yat-Sen had a Hawaiian birth certificate and was an American citizen, he was born in China and would therefore not have been eligible to serve as president of the United States because he was not a natural born citizen. (Sun Yat-Sen also attended Oahu College, which later became the Punahou School attended by Obama.) [783, 1987]

            Only a few sources have been listed here for the many Obama birth speculations; there are far too many, and rumors and stories can readily be found on the Internet. (One can no doubt find stories suggesting that Obama’s father was a visitor from another planet.) The speculation will not end until original birth, citizenship, and school documents are released, and the likelihood of that is minimal. Various lawsuits have been filed to block Obama from running for or serving as president without his first proving he is an eligible, natural born citizen of the United States. Whether those lawsuits lead to anything remains to be seen, but if the truth damages Obama, there will certainly be continued efforts by many to keep that truth successfully hidden. (Even if Obama was born in Hawaii, an important issue may be whether he became and may still be an Indonesian citizen; his school records and passport records may hold the key to why he is keeping his past shrouded in secrecy.) [13, 258, 305, 543]

            One of Obama’s Web sites, FightTheSmears.com, affirms, “When Barack Obama Jr. was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu, Kenya was a British colony, still part of the United Kingdom’s dwindling empire. As a Kenyan native, Barack Obama Sr. was a British subject whose citizenship status was governed by The British Nationality Act of 1948. That same act governed the status of Obama Sr.’s children. Since Sen. Obama has neither renounced his U.S. citizenship nor sworn an oath of allegiance to Kenya, his Kenyan citizenship automatically expired on Aug. 4, 1982.” This statement by the Obama campaign admits that he was a British citizen at birth and thus had dual citizenship (even if he was born in the United States) With dual citizenship and split loyalties at birth, Obama is arguably not a natural born citizen and is ineligible to serve as president of the United States. [507]

            Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5 of the U.S. Constitution states that “No person except a natural born Citizen or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution shall be eligible to the Office of President.” The grandfather clause portion of the rule refers only to those persons who were living in the United States at the time the Constitution was ratified in 1787, and is therefore irrelevant to living Americans. Thus, for all people alive today, the Constitution requires that “No person except a natural born Citizen shall be eligible to the Office of President.” [923]

            Some have argued that Section 1 of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution allows Obama to serve as president. The relevant part reads, “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This Amendment was meant to prevent the Supreme Court from ruling as unconstitutional the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which granted citizenship to former slaves. Nothing in the 14th Amendment, however, changes the requirement that a president must be a natural born citizen, rather than simply a citizen or a naturalized citizen. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was born in Austria, is a naturalized citizen, but he cannot legally serve as president because he is not a natural born citizen. The 14th Amendment notwithstanding, an individual can serve as president only if he or she is a natural born citizen of the United States. (Note that the term natural born citizen appears in the U.S. Constitution only in Article 2, Section 1, Clause 5.) [509, 923]

            One Internet Web site offers to pay Obama $2 million if he will produce his original long form birth certificate. The amount of the reward will be increased until “…it is so huge that the American people will begin to question why he has sealed all his background info to hide something.” Some might argue that the $2 million reward is already large enough to prompt those questions. (The reward is later increased to $25 million.) [1939, 2525]

            Further complicating the Obama history and fueling rumors are the existence of photographs taken by a school friend of Ann Dunham on a Honolulu beach, allegedly in July of 1961. Dunham, who is wearing a bikini in the photographs, is decidedly not eight months pregnant. The media has not broadcast interviews with any former school friends of Dunham who remember her being pregnant. (The media has not broadcast many interviews at all of people from Dunham’s or Obama’s past.) The bikini-at-the-beach photos were more likely from July of 1960 than July of 1961. Their very existence, however, prompts some to suggest that Dunham was not even Obama’s mother and that she merely agreed to raise the illegitimate child of Malcolm X. Why she would have agreed to do that (beyond a large sum of money) is not explained by those who make the claim, although Dunham did tell high school friends “I don’t need to date or marry to have children.” The originator of the July bikini story also suggests that Dunham attended Notre Dame de Jamhour in Lebanon, because of a possible NDJ emblem seen on a Dunham school uniform in a childhood photograph. That school, however, says it did not admit female students before 1975, and there is no evidence that Dunham left the United States in her youth. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that Obama’s parents were Malcolm X and Madelyn Dunham, and that Ann Dunham pretended the child was hers to protect her mother from scandal. (Malcolm X was much closer in age to Madelyn Dunham than Ann Dunham.) One Internet story even argues that the CIA has proven that Stanley Ann Dunham is not Obama’s mother through DNA tests of her parents, using saliva from drinking glasses. (That story does not explain why a drinking glass used by Stanley Armour Dunham would never have been washed after his 1992 death.) Clearly, jumping to conclusions is not only possible, it can readily be stimulated by a candidate who is less than forthcoming about his past. [408, 558, 2038, 2516]

1966–1970

Indonesia

In 1966 or 1967, Ann Dunham marries Indonesian Muslim Lolo Soetoro Mangunharjo (1936–1987), who she had met at the University of Hawaii. By birth, Soetoro was Malaysian, but he lived in Indonesia most of his life. Soon after his marriage to Dunham, Soetoro returns, alone, to Jakarta, Indonesia. Obama and Dunham later move to Indonesia to join Soetoro, probably in 1967. (Soetoro’s U.S. visa was purportedly revoked in 1967 due to political unrest in Indonesia.) Soetoro then adopts Obama, whose name is changed to Barry Soetoro. Elementary school records in Indonesia list Obama’s name as Barry Soetoro, his religion as Islam, and his citizenship as Indonesian. While in Jakarta, Obama attends Franciscus Primary School (1967–1969) and Besuki State Elementary School Menteng 01 (1969–1971). [6, 14, 172, 289, 324, 329, 801, 2270]

            Interestingly, while in the third grade in Indonesia, Obama writes an essay saying he wants to become president. Perhaps as a foreshadowing of future questions about his status as a natural born citizen of the United States, and the constitutionally relevant issue of divided loyalties, Obama includes in his essay the remark that he is not sure of “what country” he would like to be president. In fact, he wrote, “I want to be a president” rather than, “I want to be the president,” according to his teacher, Fermina Katarina Sinaga. [842 p. 30; 2039]

            Lolo Soetoro had been an official of the Director General’s office in the TNI Topography division of the Indonesian Army. He later becomes an executive with American Mobil Corporation, where he is a key liaison between the oil company and the Suharto regime. Suharto had been “installed” as the American friendly Indonesian president in 1967, after a CIA-engineered 1965–1967 coup that deposed President Sukarno—who was considered soft on communism and a threat to American oil interests. Strangely, the leftist Ann Dunham, who would have been more politically sympathetic to the deposed Sukarno, marries Soetoro, a man with ties to the bloodthirsty dictator Suharto. [615, 842 p. 29]

            Obama practices Islam while in Indonesia, irregularly attending prayer services at the mosque. According to one of his Indonesian school principals, Tine Hahiyary, the young Obama studied “Mangaji” (or “Mengagi”), which involves the recitation of the Quran (or Koran). Note that Mangaji, in Indonesian schools, requires learning to recite the Quran in the Arabic language, not the student’s native tongue; non-Muslims or even moderate Muslims would not send their child to Mangaji classes. Mangaji is much more demanding than what is expected of a Christian child who attends “Sunday School.” Obama likely was taught to read and write in Arabic, to recite from the Quran, and study the laws of Islam. (In his book, Dreams From My Father, Obama relates, “In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell mother I made faces during Koranic studies.”) Although Obama may insist he was never a Muslim, many Indonesians wonder why Obama is hiding his Muslim past. Former classmate Emirsyah Satar (now CEO of Garuda Indonesia) states that Obama “…was quite religious in Islam but only after marrying Michelle, he changed his religion.” [15, 251, 332, 336, 2039]

            Another former Indonesian classmate, Rony Amiris, describes Obama as having enjoyed football, playing marbles, and being a very devout Muslim. Amiris states, “Barry was previously quite religious in Islam.” Classmate Emirsyah Satar relates that Obama “was often in the prayer room wearing a sarong.” Obama is frequently observed in the school’s prayer room and at the local mosque for traditional Friday prayers. (Obama’s official campaign Web site states, “Obama has never been a Muslim, and is a committed Christian. Obama never prayed in a mosque. He has never been a Muslim, was not raised a Muslim, and is a committed Christian who attends the United Church of Christ.”) [332, 521, 2039]

            Publicly, Obama denies he was ever a Muslim and claims he is a devout Christian. (Obama also alleges he was never in church when his pastor of 20 years, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, was spewing anti-white and anti-American rhetoric in one of his many angry sermons.) Many, if not most, of the world’s Muslims feel that “Obama may not want to be counted as a Muslim, but Muslims are eager to count him as one of their own.” If Obama is seen by radical Islamists as someone who denounced the Muslim religion to become a Christian, his background can be exploited to “argue that an apostate is leading the war on terror…” which can then help terrorists “…galvanize sympathizers into action.” But many Muslims may not care that Obama professes to be Christian as long as his policies are pro-Muslim and anti-Israel. (Muslims are permitted, and even encouraged, to lie if it furthers the cause of Islam; the term for the practice is “taqiyya.”) [252, 2626]

            Purportedly, Obama was legally adopted by his stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, which made Obama an Indonesian citizen according to Indonesian law. Because Indonesia does not allow dual citizenship, Obama thus lost his U.S. citizenship (if he even had it) when he became an Indonesian citizen in or about 1967. At that point, Obama also ceased to be a Kenyan citizen, according to both Indonesian and Kenyan law. Indonesian law would also have required Ann Dunham to renounce her U.S. citizenship for her marriage to Lolo Soetoro to have been considered legal in that country. If, after Obama returned to Hawaii, he applied for and was granted American citizenship he would be a naturalized citizen (like California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger) and not a natural born citizen, and would therefore be ineligible to serve as president of the United States. It is possible that Obama did not even bother to become a naturalized citizen of the United States and remains an Indonesian citizen even today. Appropriate federal records would be on file if Obama made application for naturalization. If they exist, they have not been made public. [258, 300, 305, 492]

            Indonesia’s policy of not allowing dual citizenship must be respected by the United States in accordance with the Hague Convention of 1930. Further, Obama, as a child, was not specifically required to renounce his U.S.—that would have been an automatic result of his adoption by Lolo Soetoro. Fair or not, the consequence of Dunham’s marriage to Soetoro and Soetoro’s adoption of Obama was that he became an Indonesian citizen… regardless of whether he understood the situation at age five or six. [492]

            According to Indonesian legal experts, it is extremely difficult for non-Indonesian citizens to enroll in public schools in that country. That was especially true during the 1960s, when Indonesia was a police state and Indonesian immigration officials and the police performed weekly checks on public schools to confirm citizenship compliance. This further supports the assumption that Obama was adopted by Soetoro. Obama’s half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, has stated that Obama was adopted by their father, Lolo Soetoro. Soetoro-Ng, who was born in Indonesia on August 15, 1970, also has a Hawaiian birth registration. It is therefore illogical to argue that Obama’s short form Hawaiian certification of birth proves he was born in the United States when his half-sister has the same document yet was born in Indonesia. [329, 801, 1810, 1988]

            Indonesia today still does not allow dual citizenship. Under Indonesia law, once Obama became a naturalized citizen by virtue of adoption he could not lose that status without relinquishing his citizenship in writing, under oath. If he did that, the government of Indonesia would have those records. If he did not do so by age 21, Obama is to this day still considered an Indonesian citizen by that country. His place of birth or the nationality of his mother is irrelevant; Indonesian law takes precedence under The Master Nationality Rule of Article 4 of the Hague Convention on 1930. Upon returning to the United States from Indonesia, Obama eventually satisfied the “five-years-after-age-14” residency requirement of the 1952 Immigration and Nationality Act, thus making him a naturalized citizen of the United States at age 19. Residing in the United States for five or more years after attaining age 14 established the intent of Obama to become a U.S. citizen under the law, which supersedes the Indonesian citizenship over which he had no control because of his age at adoption. Nevertheless, while Obama may be a U.S. citizen he is likely not a natural born citizen. [801]

            Obama claims that at age 9, while still in Indonesia, he ran across an article in Life magazine about a black man who had destroyed his skin with chemicals in an attempt to make it white. “I imagine other black children, then and now, undergoing similar moments of revelation,” Obama later writes. Life magazine, however, states that no such article ever appeared in its pages. The article was never in Ebony magazine either, which Obama later named as the source after he was told that Life did not run the story. [2288]

1971–1979

Hawaii and Frank Marshall Davis

In 1971, Obama is sent back to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents, while his mother remains in Indonesia. (Dunham may have traveled with Obama to Hawaii, promptly returning to Indonesia without him, but with his half-sister, Maya Soetoro—possibly after registering her birth in Hawaii.) Obama’s grandfather, Stanley Armour Dunham (1918–1992), manages a furniture store, and his grandmother, Madelyn Lee Payne Dunham (1922–2008), is a bank employee. She eventually becomes bank vice-president. Salesman Stanley Dunham was “a loose wheel at times” but he could “charm the legs off a couch,” said one acquaintance. [16, 289, 324, 329, 2270, 2289]

            In December of 1971, Barack Obama, Sr. returns to Hawaii to attend a party and visit with former university friends Neil Abercrombie and Pake Zane. Obama, Sr. spends minimal time with his son during that visit. A few photographs of Obama, Sr., Ann Dunham, and Obama, Jr. are taken at the airport. In later years, Abercrombie and Zane state they have no recollection of ever seeing Ann Dunham and Barack Obama, Sr. together. Abercrombie later becomes Hawaii’s first district’s Congressman and member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus; he works openly with the Democratic Socialists of America. [408, 562, 1362]

            Obama’s maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, age 86, resides in Hawaii until her death. The Obama campaign keeps her off limits, prohibiting interviews with her. (Madelyn Dunham dies on November 3, 2008, the day before the election.) [329, 515]

            Dunham leaves Lolo Soetoro in 1972 (possibly due to heavy drinking and womanizing) and returns briefly to Hawaii. She lists her name as “Sutoro” in her 1992 PhD dissertation, rather than the name “Soetoro,” which appeared on her 1980 divorce decree; no explanation for the discrepancy has been uncovered. Dunham rarely sees her son after 1975, when Obama was age 14. [289, 324, 747, 2288]

            Ann Dunham spends most of the rest of her life based in Indonesia, but she travels extensively, to Ghana, Thailand, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, and China. Dunham takes her daughter Maya with her on a 1986 trip along China’s Silk Road. Dunham eventually returns to Hawaii before her death in 1995. [329, 614]

            While in Indonesia Dunham spends time in Yogyakarta, where she studies native handicrafts. She eventually returns to the University of Hawaii to receive a 1992 PhD in anthropology, and writes her dissertation on “Peasant Blacksmithing in Indonesia: Surviving and Thriving Against All Odds.” Dunham’s employment includes teaching English at the American embassy in Jakarta, consulting (setting up a village credit program) for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID, also known as the International Development Agency), program officer specializing in women’s work for the Ford Foundation in Jakarta, bank consulting work in Pakistan (microfinance programs for the poor), and employment with Women’s World Banking. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is alleged to have used both the USAID and the Ford Foundation as front agencies. (One infamous employee of the International Development Agency was David Sanchez Morales, a CIA operative who many believe was involved in the assassination of President Kennedy.) Whether Dunham had any CIA connections is unknown, but it is also unclear how Dunham could afford a life of globetrotting and post-graduate education without better-paying employment. Dunham was passingly fluent in Urdu (the national language of Pakistan) and several other languages, something the CIA normally finds valuable. [607, 608, 609, 610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 933]

            Obama, after returning to Hawaii from Indonesia and upon turning age 18, could possibly have relinquished his Indonesian citizenship and become a naturalized U.S. citizen, with the proper paperwork filed through the U.S. State Department and by swearing an oath of allegiance to the United States. Some believe that Obama did not do so, and that he never legally changed his name from Barry Soetoro (granted upon adoption) back to Barack Obama, Jr. [258, 300, 301]

            If Obama did not relinquish his Indonesian citizenship and become a naturalized U.S. citizen upon his return to Hawaii, he remains an Indonesian citizen with the legal name of Barry Soetoro and has not been a U.S. citizen since being adopted by Lolo Soetoro in Indonesia in 1966 or 1967. Thus, he is ineligible to be president of the United States. (He would also have been ineligible to be a U.S. Senator.) Obama’s repeated failure to provide documentation to prove he is a U.S. citizen suggests to many that it does not exist, and he is therefore possibly perpetrating a colossal fraud on the 300 million citizens of the United States. Obama may in fact be an illegal alien… subject to arrest and deportation to Indonesia. Obama could also be subject to a massive class action fraud lawsuit on behalf of everyone who submitted donations to his presidential campaign (over $600 million) under the incorrect belief that he was legally eligible to serve as president. Arguably, Obama and key leaders of the Democrat National Committee could also be prosecuted under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). [258, 300]

            In Hawaii Obama attends the elite, expensive, private Punahou School (1971–1979). The school is racially diverse and whites are not in the majority. The young and pudgy Obama is sometimes called “Barry the Butt.” In public schools in Hawaii (but perhaps not at the Punahou private school), the final day of school is traditionally known as “Kill Haole Day” (“Kill Whitey Day”), where Caucasian students are beaten up, usually in the school bathrooms. [16, 17, 324]

            Because of his drug abuse, Obama’s grades are poor in his final two years of high school. Obama later writes that “Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it. Not smack, though.” (Note: by “blow” and “smack” Obama means cocaine and heroin, respectively.) His grades may also have been affected by peer pressure, because his “choom gang” friends on the basketball court and football field would likely have teased him if he had earned good grades. Obama is called “Barry O’Bomber” by his basketball teammates for his ability to make long jump shots. His jock friends are known as “choomers” (smokers), who smoke pakalolo (pot) and drink beer (alcohol could be legally purchased at age 18 in Hawaii). Obama also sang in a school chorale group. [18, 575]

            Bryon Leong, a former classmate of Obama at Punahou, states that Obama “…was known as a partier, as a guy looking for a good time, but not much more,” and, “There was pot in Hawaii in the 1970s, but it wasn’t a big deal.” [332]

            By his own admission, Obama’s high school grades are not exemplary. Rather than do homework he reads the works of black authors like James Baldwin (who believed that America was hopelessly irredeemable), communists Richard Wright, Langston Hughes, Ralph Ellison, and W.E.B. DuBois, and civil rights activist Malcolm X, who was killed in 1965. Obama wrote in Dreams From My Father, “Only Malcolm X’s autobiography seemed to offer something different. His repeated acts of self-creation spoke to me.” Malcolm X stated that the white race was created by an evil scientist named “Yakub,” and “history proves the white man is the devil.” He was largely responsible for the spread of Islam among blacks in the United States, and stated that Islam was the “true religion of black mankind” while “Christianity was the white man’s religion.” Malcolm X wrote, “We’re not Americans, we’re Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will from Africa. We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock; that rock landed on us.” (His “Plymouth Rock” line was lifted from composer Cole Porter’s song, Anything Goes.) [20, 190, 558, 1091, 1092, 2421]

            High school friend Keith Kakugawa relates later that Obama “…made everything out like it was all racial.” After Obama complains about being picked on at the basketball court because of his race, Kakugawa’s father tells Obama, “No, Barry, it’s not because you’re black, it’s because you missed two shots in a row.” Kakugawa denies Obama’s claims that they often had heated discussions about race. The talks, Kakugawa says, were not about race, “Barry’s biggest struggles then were missing his parents. His biggest struggles were his feelings of abandonment. The idea that his biggest struggle was race is bull shit.” [20, 2288]

            While a teenager in Hawaii, Obama spends considerable time with Frank Marshall Davis (whose identity Obama hides by describing him only as “Frank” in his self-absorbed book, Dreams From My Father). Davis is a dope-smoking drinking pal of Obama’s grandfather, Stanley Dunham, and the two had known each other in Kansas. (Davis was born in Kansas.) Obama meets Davis shortly after arriving in Hawaii, at age 10, but was most influenced by him during his high school years. In place of his absent father, stepfather, and mother, Davis becomes Obama’s mentor. [19, 21, 389, 2656]

            Frank Marshall Davis (1905–1987) is a member of the Communist Party of the USA, a poet, propagandist, “bitter opponent of capitalism,” and radical agitator. In 1948, Davis had fled Chicago (at the suggestion of his friend Paul Robeson, a prominent actor, singer, and fellow member of the communist party) after the FBI and the House Un-American Activities Committee investigated his subversive anti-American activities. In Chicago Davis had worked at various newspapers (like the communist Chicago Star), as a south side community organizer, and for various communist front groups. In Hawaii Davis is kicked out of the NAACP because of his organizing activities with the Communist Party. Davis is also a bi-sexual, sex pervert, child molester (bragging of repeated sexual encounters with a 13-year-old girl), and pornographer, and is the author of the book Sex Rebel: Black under the pseudonym “Bob Greene.” Davis “…would cruise in Hawaii parks looking for couples or female tourists to have sex with. He derived sexual gratification from bondage, simulated rape and being flogged and urinated on. He boasted that ‘the number of white babes interested in at least one meeting with a Negro male has been far more than I can handle’ and wished ‘America were as civilised as, say, Scandinavia.’ I regret none of my experiences or unusual appetites; for me they are normal.” [21, 259, 261, 2291, 2656]

            Obama joins Davis at his home on most evenings, shares alcohol and drugs, is tutored in socialism, and taught not to trust the white establishment. “They’ll train you so good,” Davis warns, “you’ll start believing what they tell you about equal opportunity and the American way and all that shit.” Davis teaches Obama, “Black people have a reason to hate” and “You may be a well-trained, well-paid nigger, but you’re a nigger just the same.” [22, 33, 261]

            Davis’ Marxist-inspired poetry includes lines like, “Smash on, victory-eating Red Army!” Titles of his poems include, “Christ is a Dixie Nigger.” [261]

            Davis sometimes works as a street vendor, selling hot dogs from his Chicago-style wheeled cart near his home in Waikiki. From the cart Davis also sells drugs (marijuana and cocaine), frequently accompanied by Obama and his grandfather, Stanley. Davis is probably the main source of drugs used by Obama while in high school. Davis likely also supplied his grandfather as well, and marijuana was a part of the frequent Marxist meetings held by Stanley Armour Dunham in his Honolulu apartment. [429, 2289]

            It is believed that Davis was a close friend of Thomas Ayers (father of William Ayers) in Chicago, and that it was Davis who encouraged Obama to attend Columbia University in New York and hook up with William Ayers (former Weather Underground domestic terrorist, Pentagon bomber, radical, leftist, communist, and fugitive from the FBI). [33, 204, 259]

Was Frank Marshall Davis Obama’s Father?

In Davis’ autobiography he writes of his seduction of a young white girl, age 13, named “Anne.” This fuels speculation that the “Anne” in Davis’ book is Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, and that Obama may be the child of Frank Marshall Davis. Obama’s grandfather and Davis were close friends, but there is no known evidence that Obama’s father was Davis. When Ann Dunham moved to Hawaii with her parents in 1960 she was already age 17. Davis had known the Dunhams in Kansas, however, so Davis would have had contact with Ann Dunham before she moved to Hawaii. The Dunhams also lived in Seattle, where Ann Dunham attended Mercer Island High School. There is speculation that Davis had been in Seattle doing organizing work for the communist-infiltrated International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), and that would have placed Davis with Dunham when she was about 13. The ILWU is linked to the Honolulu Record, the newspaper Davis worked for in Hawaii. Nude photos of a woman purported to be Ann Dunham and alleged to have been taken by Frank Marshall Davis are circulating on the Internet, but faked photos are not terribly difficult to produce using computers and can thus be the work of simple mischief-makers. (Or the photos may simply be of a young woman who resembled Dunham.) [21, 259, 260, 365, 370, 389, 2291]

            The Davis-as-father speculation is listed here only to provide the reader with as much information as possible about Obama’s background; it is not meant as an endorsement of the speculation itself.

            Some have noted that Frank Marshall Davis’ son, Mark Davis, bears a reasonable resemblance to candidate Obama (and what some would consider a much stronger resemblance than shared by Obama Jr. and Obama Sr.). The mother of Mark Davis, Helen Canfield, was, like Ann Dunham, a white woman. One might speculate that Obama’s father was not Barack Obama, Sr., but Frank Marshall Davis. Because Davis and Ann Dunham could certainly not have let such a relationship be known (Davis was black, married, and age 55; Dunham was white, single, and only 17; and Davis was Stanley Dunham’s close friend), Dunham may have tried to convince Obama, Sr. that he was the father-to-be. When he later learned that was not the case, he abruptly left Dunham, moved on to Harvard, and then returned to Kenya. There has been speculation that Dunham and Obama, Sr. never lived together in Hawaii; this is supported by the fact that Obama, Sr. continued to attend the University of Hawaii while Dunham attended the University of Washington during late 1961 and early 1962, before she returned to Hawaii to attend UH again. [369, 408]

            If the Davis-as-father speculation is true Dunham may have continued the lie for the benefit of her son and her parents. Davis would later be eager to be Obama’s mentor if he was, in fact, Obama’s father. Obama may not even have learned the identity of his father for some time, perhaps not until after the death of his grandfather, Stanley Dunham, in 1992. It was not until after his grandfather’s death that Obama began work on his book, Dreams From My Father. At that point, he may have understood who his real father was. His book needed to include the Kenyan history in order to continue the charade for the sake of his family and his planned political career, but the “dreams” Obama needed to pursue perhaps had more to do with a continuation of Davis’ legacy than those of an unaccomplished alcoholic bureaucrat in Kenya. It is worth noting also that Obama’s reluctance—if not outright refusal—to give financial support to his poverty-stricken half-brother George Obama in a Nairobi slum or to his destitute aunt living in Boston public housing may be due to his knowing that they are not in fact related to him. This is speculation based only on circumstantial evidence; the disclosure of appropriate original documentation by Obama would resolve unanswered questions and end speculation. [369]

Was Malcolm X Obama’s Father?

There is also speculation that Obama is the son of the civil right activist Malcolm X (Malcolm Little), who was murdered in 1965, allegedly by members of the Nation of Islam. Ann Dunham graduated from high school in the Seattle area in 1960. Malcolm X formed the Nation of Islam Temple No. 67 in Seattle that same year and was a popular guest speaker at many universities, including the University of Washington. Dunham was certainly the type of person who would have been attracted to a Malcolm X speaking event. She also had a history of dating non-white students, and could have met the civil rights leader at one of his public events. It is not difficult to see that Obama resembles Malcolm X considerably more than he resembles Barack Obama Sr. and his speech patterns are also remarkably similar… but resemblance is certainly not the same as evidence. (Obama’s speaking voice is not only similar to that of Malcolm X it is also remarkably dissimilar to that of Barack Obama, Sr., who had such a deep voice that friend Neil Abercrombie remarked, “He made James Earl Jones seem like a tenor.”) Perhaps the truth will never be known without the release of original birth records or DNA testing, and the likelihood of either is close to zero. (Obama himself may not even know his real history.) However, Dunham was already in Hawaii when she became pregnant in late 1960. In order for Malcolm X to be Obama’s father, the civil rights leader had to have been in Hawaii in late 1960 or Dunham had to leave Hawaii to be with him. No evidence of either has been produced, but it is not out of the realm of possibility. [408, 524, 526, 1095, 2293, 2421]

            Far-fetched or not, the Malcolm-X-as-father scenario would explain why Obama seemed to be “looked after” (both financially and otherwise) throughout his college years and his political career. Obama would later receive a letter of recommendation to attend Harvard Law School from Percy Sutton, who had been Malcolm X’s attorney. Khalid al-Mansour (aka Donald Warden) became the main financial backer for Obama. Al-Mansour has been a close associate of Nation of Islam (NOI) leader Louis Farrakhan and of Malcolm X, who was the national spokesman for NOI. It is not unreasonable to assume that if Obama was indeed the son of Malcolm X, those who were close to the civil rights leader would promise to “look after him” in any way possible, making sure he was taught in the ways of Islam and socialism, funded perhaps by Saudi and Syrian financiers. Obama’s financial and political benefactors eventually included (Syrian) Tony Rezko, Percy Sutton, Khalid al-Mansour, Muhammadian Mian Soomro, Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said, and William Ayers and Bernardine Rae Dohrn. A close neighbor of Obama’s in Chicago is Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Malcolm X split with the Nation of Islam partly over the issue of the illegitimate children of its leader, Elijah Muhammed. If Malcolm X then fathered his own illegitimate child (Obama) with a white woman, he certainly would have had to cover that up in order to retain his reputation of being “above the fray”—and to protect his son from the criminal record, death threats, and violence he himself had experienced. Barack Obama, Sr., who Malcolm X may have met in Kenya in 1959, then became the fall guy. Many pieces of the puzzle would fit… and the Obama birth certificate may be one of the key missing pieces. [408, 524, 526, 1095]

            That the father of candidate Obama was someone other than Barack Obama, Sr. is, of course, only speculation. Right or wrong, therefore, the remainder of this timeline continues with the assumption that the father of Barack Obama, Jr. was Kenyan Barack Obama, Sr.

1979–1981

Occidental College and the Pakistan Visit

Obama moves to Los Angeles to attend Occidental College, where he plays basketball and continues taking drugs. He becomes friends with Pakistani Muslims Mohammed Hassan Chandoo (perhaps spelled Chando or Chandio) and Wahid Hamid, and Indian Vinai Thummalapally. At Occidental, Obama indulges in alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. He becomes interested in the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa and is mentored by an openly gay professor, Lawrence Goldyn, who has a strong influence on Obama’s acceptance of gays. Fellow student Thummalapally lives with Obama in the summer of 1980. Obama’s freshman year roommate at Occidental is Imad Husain, a Pakistani. [20, 28, 188, 189, 191, 245, 332]

            Safely away from his grandparents, Obama starts smoking cigarettes while at college and continues the habit until an attempt to quit in February of 2007. On the campaign trail in 2008, however, reporters with a keen sense of smell recognize that Obama is still sneaking occasional cigarettes. (Obama’s refusal to release his medical records may relate to his 25-year smoking habit and use of drugs.) [842 p. 50]

            Obama’s friends at Occidental are the more politically active blacks, foreign students, Chicanos, Marxist professors, feminists, and punk-rock performance poets. Obama is rebuked on one occasion for calling another black student, who “wasn’t black enough,” an “Uncle Tom.” One female student criticizes Obama with the remark, “You always think it’s about you” [187, 192]

            While at Occidental, Obama joins the Students for Economic Democracy (SED). SED is a branch of the Campaign for Economic Democracy (CED), a group that was founded by radical, anti-American, Marxist activist Tom Hayden (former husband of actress and Viet Cong supporter Jane Fonda), who was also active with the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). William Ayers’ subsequent radical group, the Weather Underground, was comprised of many former SDS members. (In 1969 the Weather Underground, then called simply “Weatherman,” declared “war on Amerikka.” In 1970, Ayers explained the philosophy of the movement, “Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home; kill your parents; that’s where it’s really at.” Ayers dedicated his book, Prairie Fire, to Sirhan Sirhan—Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin—and others he considers political prisoners.) Obama’s first known public speech takes place at an Occidental College event sponsored by the SED. [259, 332, 432, 454, 2271]

            An FBI informant who had infiltrated Ayers’ Weather Underground witnessed a meeting at which the group discussed a future communist takeover of America in which some 25 million “diehard capitalists” would need to be killed. The members discussed a future in which Cuba, North Korea, China, and the Soviet Union would establish “re-education centers” in the Southwestern United States. [373]

            Obama may have made a 1980 trip to Kenya to visit his father. During that trip, he may also have visited Pakistan, and Indonesia (to visit his mother). It is likely, however, that the reports of a 1980 trip are mistaken, and Obama’s only such trip was in 1981. [194, 195, 196]

            On November 5, 1980, Ann Dunham is granted a divorce from Lolo Soetoro. The divorce decree states, “The parties have 1 child(ren) below age 18 and 1 child(ren) above 18.” This further suggests that Obama was adopted by Lolo Soetoro. (Dunham’s attorney in the divorce, Gilardy H. William, Jr., later becomes the Hawaii attorney for the Democrat National Committee.) The divorce decree lists the names as Stanley Ann Soetoro and Lolo Soetoro. [719, 746]

            During his college years, Obama maintains limited contact with his father, through correspondence, until his death in 1982. [271]

            Probably in late 1980, Obama decides to stop using the name Barry Soetoro and returns to the name Barack Obama, Jr. Whether that was done legally through the courts is not known. [194]

            Obama is disappointed in a grade he receives from political science Professor Roger Boesche, and complains he is being graded “on a different curve” because of his race. [20]

            In 1981, Obama visits his mother and half-sister in Indonesia, and then continues to Karachi, Pakistan and Hyderabad, Pakistan, with his friends Mohammed Hassan Chandoo and Wahid Hamid, and finally to Kenya to visit his father’s family. (Most accounts suggest Obama visited Hyderabad, India, but he perhaps visited the city of the same name in Pakistan, a few hours drive from Karachi.) [23, 25, 26, 194, 195, 196, 245, 549]

            The Defend Our Freedoms Foundation notes that “Many young fundamentalist Muslim ‘scholars’ have traveled to Hyderabad to witness what they believed was stolen from Islam by India’s Hindu majority. Karachi is favored by young radical Muslims because Pakistan was the first former British colony that abandoned English common law for Islamic law following the coup d’etat of General Mohammed Zia, who overthrew the democratically elected government of Ali Bhutto in the late 1970s. …Obama admitted that he traveled to Karachi while under military rule of madman and dictator General Zia.” [2014]

            Indonesian passports expire every five years. If Obama became a citizen of Indonesia through adoption by Lolo Soetoro in 1966 and was then issued a passport, he may have renewed it a third time by 1981. Obama turned age 18 in 1979. If he renewed his Indonesian passport at any point after his 18th birthday, Obama would have officially lost U.S. citizenship—if he even still had it—according to 8 USC Sections 1481(a)(2) and 101(a)(1), because of “…taking an oath or making allegiance or other formal declaration of allegiance to a foreign state… after having attained the age of 18.” [549]

            Obama stays with the family of Hassan Chandoo while in Karachi. Another of Obama’s hosts, in Jacobabad, Pakistan, is Muhammadian Mian Soomro, Obama’s senior by 11 years, son of a Pakistani politician (Ahmadmian Soomro, the deputy speaker of the West Pakistan Assembly) and himself a politician, who later becomes interim president of Pakistan when Pervez Musharraf resigns in August of 2008. Soomro states that “someone” personally requested that his father “watch over” Barack Obama, but Soomro will not name that individual—who allegedly is an American, possibly with CIA ties, now living in South America. [24, 615, 617]

            Who financed Obama’s costly, multinational 1981 trip is unknown. There are also allegations that Obama may have visited several close gay friends on the journey. [842 p. 46]

            Note that a trip to Pakistan in 1981 was generally not possible for Americans, except for those who were on official government business, because it was on the list of dangerous nations banned by the State Department for U.S. travelers. Pakistan was also under martial law at that time. It is likely that Obama entered Pakistan on an Indonesian passport—but he would have had that document only if he was an Indonesian citizen. If he was still an Indonesian citizen, he was no longer an American citizen. Pakistan, being almost one hundred per cent Muslim, would have welcomed foreign Muslim visitors in 1981. The U.S. State Department would not have known Obama was in Pakistan had he traveled on an Indonesian (or a Kenyan) passport. [549]

            Obama’s Pakistani host, Soomro, worked for several major banks including the Bank of America, which owned the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). BCCI has been involved in money laundering, bribery, terrorist support, tax evasion, smuggling, and illegal immigration; its nickname is the “Bank of Crooks and Criminals International.” American intelligence used BCCI for funneling money to the mujahadeen to assist in its fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. [617]

            Obama’s school records from Occidental College have been kept secret. That may simply be to hide poor grades or an embarrassing list of non-challenging classes he took, or to cover up some affirmative action/quota assistance he received. But it is also possible that those records list Obama as a foreign student from Indonesia, rather than an American student. Being classified as a foreign student may have allowed Obama to tap into government education grants. (Some claim that California records show evidence of an educational grant to a foreign exchange student named “Soetoro” from Indonesia, but it appears that student was someone named “Soetoro Moestabjab.”) The records may also indicate that Obama actively applied for affirmative action treatment and support. If Obama accepted foreign student education grants at Occidental College because he was a foreign student, then he is not a natural born citizen and is ineligible to serve as president of the United States. If, however, Obama was born in Hawaii  but used his Indonesian adoption papers and Jakarta school records to make it appear as though he was a foreign student in order to obtain foreign student grant money, then he was committing fraud to obtain government funds. Either scenario would be a reason for Obama to want his school records kept secret. [259, 380, 1182, 2533]

            While at Occidental College Obama studies the works of Frantz Fanon, a critic of Europe and, even more so, of the United States. The origins of some of Obama’s anti-American attitudes can perhaps be found in Fanon. [842 pp. 47–49]

1981–1984

Columbia University

Obama leaves California and Occidental College and heads to New York City in 1981. He arrives in August, late one evening, and is not able to get into an apartment he was offered by a friend of a friend, at 339 East 94th Street. Although he had just returned from an expensive trip to Indonesia, Pakistan, India, and Kenya, Obama does not have the money for a hotel room and he allegedly spends his first night in New York in an alley on West 109th Street. [1807, 2271]

            Obama enrolls at Columbia University, where he attends socialist conferences “for inspiration.” His roommate is Pakistani Muslim Sohale Siddiqi. Siddiqi is a drug user, but Obama purportedly stops using drugs while at Columbia. From his apartment window, Obama says he watched “white people from the better neighborhoods” bring their dogs to defecate on his street. Living at 520 West 123rd Street is William Ayers. Ayers attends Bank Street College of Education (for a Master’s Degree in early childhood education), which is located within walking distance of Columbia University. Ayers also attended the Teachers College of Columbia University. Obama’s English professor at Columbia is Edward Said, a pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel, political activist. (Said was called the “professor of terror” by the magazine Commentary. Both Ayers and Obama remain friends of Edward Said. In 1998, Obama and his wife attend a banquet at which Said is the keynote speaker. Obama is seated next to Said at the well-attended dinner.) [26, 27, 206, 297, 332, 334, 335, 387, 1006, 2218, 2271]

            Obama meets Zbigniew Brzezinski while at Columbia. Brzezinski, a CIA expert on the Soviet Union, teaches International Relations and is the head of the Institute for Communist Affairs at Columbia. (Obama is one of only eight students chosen to study Sovietology under Brzezinski.) Obama is heavily influenced by Brzezinski—who, as National Security Advisor for President Jimmy Carter, was instrumental in encouraging America’s betrayal of the Shah of Iran (which then led to the Islamist revolution in 1979, the takeover of Iran by Ayatollah Khomeini, the 444-day American hostage debacle, and the eventual rise of the Islamofascist regime’s nuclear weapon-seeking Mahmoud Ahmadinejad). Brzezinski also served as director of the Council on Foreign Relations. In his book, Between Two Ages, Brzezinski wrote, “National sovereignty is no longer a viable concept,” and “Marxism represents a further vital, and creative stage in the maturing of man’s universal visions.” [615, 616, 618, 842 p. 53; 1661, 2327, 2330]

            Obama studies political science and international relations. His thesis is purportedly on Soviet nuclear disarmament. (Obama refuses to release copies of his thesis, likely because it is either poorly written or anti-American in tone. He will not make public any of his Columbia records.) Obama graduates without honors in June of 1983, with a degree in political science. [29, 264]

            At both Occidental College in California and at Columbia University in New York, Obama’s roommates are foreign Muslims. That may be indicative of something significant; it would be worth knowing if the students themselves chose roommates or had them assigned to them. Whether chosen or assigned, the pairings may have been due to Muslim backgrounds, foreign backgrounds, or foreign citizenship. Obama’s hidden college records may reveal that information.

            While attending Columbia, Obama lives off campus near William Ayers. It is likely that Obama first met Ayers during those years, 1981–1983. There is speculation that Frank Marshall Davis arranged for Obama to meet William Ayers in New York; their having met was not a chance event. Ayers then possibly suggested that Obama return to Chicago with him. Years later, Obama and Ayers are again neighbors in Chicago’s Hyde Park. (His long-time association with Ayers leads some to refer to Obama as the “Fresh Prince of Bill Ayers.”) [259]

            Looking for evidence of Obama’s past, Fox News contacted 400 Columbia students from that period but none remembered Obama. Wayne Allyn Root was, like Obama, a political science major at Columbia who also graduated in 1983. In 2008 Root says of Obama, “I don’t know a single person at Columbia that knows him, and they all know me.  I don’t have a classmate who ever knew Barack Obama at Columbia. Ever! Nobody recalls him. I’m not exaggerating, I’m not kidding.” Root adds that he was also, like Obama, “Class of ’83 political science, pre-law” and says, “You don’t get more exact than that. Never met him in my life, don’t know anyone who ever met him. At the class reunion, our 20th reunion five years ago, 20th reunion, who was asked to be the speaker of the class? Me. No one ever heard of Barack! Who was he, and five years ago, nobody even knew who he was… the guy who writes the class notes, who’s kind of the, as we say in New York, the macha who knows everybody, has yet to find a person, a human who ever met him. Is that not strange? It’s very strange…” Obama’s photograph does not appear in the school’s yearbook, and Obama consistently declines requests to talk about his years at Columbia, provide school records, or provide the name of any former classmates or friends while at Columbia. [332, 346, 1182]

            While attending Columbia, Obama regularly attends Marxist-socialist conferences at Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in Manhattan. [332, 337]

            Obama writes an anti-war article for Columbia University’s magazine, Sundial. “Breaking the War Mentality” contains grammatical errors, atrocious punctuation, bad spelling, and contradictory statements. Even the best English teachers would be hard-pressed to diagram this distorted and confused sentence from Obama’s article: “When Peter Tosh sings that ‘everybody’s asking for peace, but nobody’s asking for justice,’ one is forced to wonder whether disarmament or arms control ensues, severed from economic and political issues, might be another instance of focusing on the symptoms of a problem instead of the disease itself.” In the article Obama bemoans the fact that the military’s introduction of additional Pershing II and Cruise Missiles will “cut down (the) warning time for the Soviets to less than ten minutes,” suggesting that Obama apparently prefers a U.S. policy that gives the Soviets as much advance warning as possible in order to provide them with a better chance of defeating the United States. [990]

            After graduation from Columbia, Obama joins the New York Public Interest Research Group, an organization founded by Ralph Nader. Obama becomes an organizer at Harlem’s City College, working with student volunteers on recycling programs. [31]

            Obama works briefly for Business International Corporation in New York, a small newsletter publishing and advisory firm that prints articles relating to global business and which assists American companies operating overseas. Obama later embellishes his job description, saying he was hired as a research assistant by a “consulting house to multinational corporations” where he had his own private secretary and dealt with Japanese financiers and German bond traders. His former co-workers say Obama’s accounts of his job are grossly inflated and that he wore jeans, shared cubicles with others in a dumpy office, had no secretary, and mostly rewrote articles for newsletters. Employees referred to the environment as “high school with ash trays.” Obama remarks later in life that the job exposed him to the “coldness of capitalism.”  (The company has reportedly been used by the CIA as a “front operation.”) [30, 31, 32, 1038, 2218, 2327]

            In 1983, Obama falls in love with a white woman but ends the relationship after he realizes he will have to adapt to her white world, rather than the other way around. [357]

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