AP photo of school register reveals "Barry Soetoro" as a Muslim Indonesian



A 2007 Associated Press photograph, suppressed until now, shows the school register of the child who is today known as Barack Hussein Obama but was officially listed then as Barry Soetoro, whose citizenship was listed as "Indonesian" and whose religion was listed as "Islam." The visual evidence starkly contradicts the Obama campaign's claim that he was not a Muslim and confirms that he is a national of at least one other country.

In addition, it raises the highly problematic issue of what is Obama's official name. If it turns out to Barry Soetoro, and no official change of name was ever made, Obama may face an array of charges of deception and misprision that may throw into doubt, at the very least, his fitness to run.

Deep doubts remain about the veracity of the "certificate of live birth" image produced for his campaign by the radical left-wing Daily Kos blog. There are reports that investigative teams -- from the Republican and Democratic parties as well as various intelligence agencies -- are seeking out the details of his murky childhood from Kenya to Indonesia. There are indications of growing disquiet in the circles of power that the so-called "smears" may have understated the gravity of the candidate's identity problem: he may not be American, he was not raised Christian and, it appears, he was not Barack Hussein Obama.

The evidence of the candidate's un-American, un-Christian upbringing is nothing new, and has been documented by bloggers as early as 2007 and by Israel Insider in our very first report on this subject in June of this year. But until now the photograph of his school record has been lacking. The image is dated from 2007 and was apparently taken to accompany an AP article that appeared in January of that year. Ironically, that article was about how Obama was rejecting the untrue charge that the public school he attended was a radical Indonesian madrassa.

Some excerpts:

"We will not be swift-boated," said Obama communications director Robert Gibbs. "And we won't take allegations that are patently untrue lying down."

"Obama's mother, divorced from Obama's father, married a man from Indonesia named Lolo Soetoro, and the family relocated to the country from 1967-71. At first, Obama attended the Catholic school, Fransiskus Assisis, where documents showed he enrolled as a Muslim, the religion of his stepfather. The document required that each student choose one of five state-sanctioned religions when registering -- Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Catholic or Protestant. Gibbs said he wasn't sure why the document had Obama listed as a Muslim."

Gibbs may not have been sure, but it appears that the Obama campaign made sure that this image did not see the light of day, because the photographic listing of the candidate, even as a child, as an Indonesian whose religion was Islam was worth, well, a thousand words. "Senator Obama has never been a Muslim," Gibbs said in the article. "As a six-year-old in Catholic school, he studied the catechism."

That may be Gibbs' assertion, but evidence from grown-up school chums of little Barry Soetoro indicates that he studied, and excelled in, the teachings of the Koran in the original Arabic and could recite the Shehada, the Islamic article of faith, by heart, and with a decent tune, according to the New York Times roving columnist Nicholas Kristof, to whom "Obama" remarked that the sound of the Muslim call to prayer was one of the world's most beautiful sounds.

The AP article quoted Iis Darmawan, 63, Obama's kindergarten teacher, who "remembers him as an exceptionally tall and curly haired child who quickly picked up the local language and had sharp math skills. 'He wrote an essay titled, "I Want To Become President,"' the teacher said." She didn't indicate which country he wanted to become president of.

The AP caption reads: "This registration document, made available on Jan. 24, 2007, by the Fransiskus Assisi school in Jakarta, Indonesia, shows the registration of Barack Obama under the name Barry Soetoro into the Catholic school made by his step-father, Lolo Soetoro. The document lists Barry Soetoro as a Indonesian citizen, born on August 4, 1961 in Honolulu, and shows his Muslim step-father listed the boy's religion as Islam. (AP Photo/ Tatan Syuflana)" Syuflana is a well-known and frequently published photographer, specializing in Indonesia.

A representative of the AP confirmed that the photo is authentic.

The most damaging revelation in the AP photo (registration required to see the large-scale image. A derived image is here.) may turn out to be the listing of his name as Barry Soetoro. It has been reported that he used the name Barack Hussein Obama and failed to mention Barry Soetoro when asked to provide any former names. (He reportedly also did not respond honestly when answering negatively to a question concerning illegal drug use, which he has since admitted.) It is believed that failure to report his previous name is not an isolated instance, and may have contributed to the perceived need to manufacture a forged birth certificate listing Obama's preferred identity as if it were present from the start.

The listing of Barry Soetoro as a Muslim contradicts what appears on his campaign's Fight the Smears website, where he says that "I have never been a Muslim." In a private meeting with Jewish leaders in February, Obama emphatically re-stated the claim, but with a bit of a twist, declaring: "I am not, nor have I ever been, a Muslim (especially an anti-American one)."

Does the candidate protest too much here? Indeed, he is echoing language used in the 1950s by those who denied Communist ties. No one is claiming, here, that Obama is anti-American. But the image of his school registration doesn't lie, and indicates clearly that he was registered as a Muslim, and thus, despite the claim of his spokesman, he didn't study the catechism. Barry Soetoro studied the Koran.

Source

You can see the full photo on the AP Images site if you can be bothered to register. Registration is free but tedious -- JR





Birth Certificate Issue is Beyond Politics

Recently, Candace de Russy followed up on developments in the drama of Obama's fraudulent birth certificate and possible dual citizenship. The existing images of Barack Obama's alleged birth certificate on the Daily Kos site and his own campaign site Fight the Smears have been proven forgeries according to diligent forensic detective work which I discussed here. De Russy reports:

It appears that Barack Obama's official birth certificate actually reads Barry Soetoro. His named was changed from Barack Obama to Barry Soetoro when his mother's husband Lolo Soetoro adopted Barack. Therefore, the original birth certificate provided by the Barack campaign, is either a fake or his name has been changed back to his birth name. Considering this new development, is Barack a dual-citizen of Indonesia and the United States? And did he use his Indonesian passport to travel to Pakistan in 1981?

It is important to look into this because Barack Obama has purportedly deceived the public regarding his true identity and dual citizenship. He may still be a citizen of Indonesia or not. But naysayers and those who argue that this is not a substantive issue miss the point. A reader responds to de Russy's report as follows:

The Constitution simply states the requirement that a president be a natural-born citizen, but sets forth no requirement to prove it. That's hardly surprising: it's not like the Framers were familiar with Departments of Vital Statistics or Birth Certificates.

Absent any formal question concerning his citizenship status - and there is none - you might as well chalk this up to innocent until proven guilty. Mr Obama does not have to provide a birth certificate; his opponents have to provide evidence that he does not qualify.

The point is that this issue is not about Obama. It is a much more weighty issue than apparent political attacks to derail the Obama presidential campaign by either right-wing bloggers or supporters of Hillary. Clinton supporter TexasDarlin reveals a report that a Republican operative in Hawaii has in his possession the real Obama birth certificate with the name Barry Soetoro, and is waiting until after the convention to drop the bomb. But Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs takes the news as the straw that breaks the camel's back, alleging this and possibly other revelations about Obama are planted by stealthy Clinton operatives in order to steal the nomination while pinning the blame on Republicans. Not wanting to further aid and abet the greater threat, Hillary, she chooses to wait until after the nomination for further investigation. Similarly she misses the critical point of holding all public officials and candidates accountable to the Constitution, whether they are an Obama, Clinton or McCain. No one is beyond reproach.

The reader above says that this is a matter of "innocence until proven guilty." However, the "presumption of innocence" is only true in criminal law where the court system is required to prove the guilt of a criminal beyond a reasonable doubt. However, in vetting candidates for public office the American public must take a critical stand and make informed choices. This entails investigating documentation of natural-born citizenship for eligibility to be President of the United States as stated in Article II of the Constitution.

Mitchell Langbert argues the point best saying that there is an issue here that is beyond politics:

The issue of the birth certificate is a matter of ethics, not just politics. The public has a right to know. Whether that results in Hillary Clinton's nomination or not is not the core of the issue.

.in a nutshell, the American public has the right to an electoral system that functions coherently. Partisanship created an electoral system that does not require identification, birth certificates and fingerprinting of candidates. This is a more important problem than Hillary v. Obama.

There is another, more crucial point. I see no need to suspend coverage of this or to avoid attacking the most likely Democratic nominee. The Republicans should aim to win with good ethics, integrity and principle, not venom and anger at Democrats.

We must reclaim the moral high ground that both Republicans and Democrats lost in the turmoil of partisan politics. Thus Langbert is forging ahead to empower the public with the right to know and the duty to hold political candidates accountable. He has been circulating an online petition requesting that the Federal Elections Commission and Mr. Donald McGahan, FEC chairman verify the eligibility of Barack Obama to be President of the United States. The petition will close in another day or two and he has put out a last call for signatures. The fact that nearly 5000 people have already signed the petition is a heartening indication that more than a handful of people have risen to the occasion to say that they will not be deceived and to insist that the citizens of the United States have a right to know about their elected officials.

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Obama's Weirdness

The interview on faith and religion I mentioned the other day is a gold mine of weirdness. Let's look at what Obama thinks is going on when he is speaking to crowd as a political leader:

OBAMA: IT's interesting, the most powerful political moments for me come when I feel like my actions are aligned with a certain truth. I can feel it. When I'm talking to a group and I'm saying something truthful, I can feel a power that comes out of those statements that is different than when I'm just being glib or clever.

GG: What's that power? Is it the holy spirit? God?

OBAMA: Well, I think it's the power of the recognition of God, or the recognition of a larger truth that is being shared between me and an audience.

So, it seems clear that when Barack Obama feels strongly about something it is because he views it as touching something of the divine. So, if you hold a different political position on one of those matters you are at best a fool and at worst evil. Either way you are standing against the will of God, which happens to coincide with the political principles of Barack Obama. Aren't we lucky? Now, this I just found interesting:

GG: Who's Jesus to you?

(He laughs nervously)

OBAMA: Right. Jesus is an historical figure for me, and he's also a bridge between God and man, in the Christian faith, and one that I think is powerful precisely because he serves as that means of us reaching something higher.

And he's also a wonderful teacher. I think it's important for all of us, of whatever faith, to have teachers in the flesh and also teachers in history.

So what have we got here? Obama thinks Jesus is A) an historical figure, B) a bridge between God and man, and C) a wonderful teacher. The truth is there is nothing particularly Christian about those views. Muslims, for example, hold much the same view of Jesus. It is Christians who believe Jesus is the son of God, the redeemer of our sins, the maker of a new covenant.in short the Messiah. All of the specifically Christian views of Jesus seem to have escaped Obama's notice, or they have been rejected.

Which is it? I don't know, but it sure seems like Barry Obama is one weird guy.

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The egotist

This sure does fit a pattern many vainly try to claim doesn't exist. From The Dude Abides:

At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 27, 2004, when I was the religion reporter (I am now its religion columnist) at the Chicago Sun-Times, I met then-State Sen. Barack Obama at Caf‚ Baci, a small coffee joint at 330 S. Michigan Avenue in Chicago, to interview him exclusively about his spirituality. Our conversation took place a few days after he'd clinched the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate seat that he eventually won. We spoke for more than an hour. He came alone. He answered everything I asked without notes or hesitation. The profile of Obama that grew from the interview at Cafe Baci became the first in a series in the Sun-Times called "The God Factor," that eventually became my first book, The God Factor: Inside the Spiritual Lives of Public People (FSG, March 2006.) Because of the staggering interest in now U.S. Sen. Obama's faith and spiritual predilections, I thought it might be helpful to share that interivew.

The money quote:

GG: Do you believe in sin?

OBAMA: Yes.

GG: What is sin?

OBAMA: Being out of alignment with my values.

Don't share the O's values? Welcome to sin my friends.

Source

The usual Christian definition of sin would be disobedience to the will of God. So it would seem that Obama regards himself as God. Is anyone surprised? The video below is an oldie but I still love it -- JR



Even a birdbrain understands Obama's message. LOL.





Obama on Clarence Thomas

Barack Obama likes to portray himself as a centrist politician who wants to unite the country, but occasionally his postpartisan mask slips. That was the case at Saturday night's Saddleback Church forum, when Mr. Obama chose to demean Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

Pastor Rick Warren asked each Presidential candidate which Justices he would not have nominated. Mr. McCain said, "with all due respect" the four most liberal sitting Justices because of his different judicial philosophy.

Mr. Obama took a lower road, replying first that "that's a good one," and then adding that "I would not have nominated Clarence Thomas. I don't think that he, I don't think that he was a strong enough jurist or legal thinker at the time for that elevation. Setting aside the fact that I profoundly disagree with his interpretation of a lot of the Constitution." The Democrat added that he also wouldn't have appointed Antonin Scalia, and perhaps not John Roberts, though he assured the audience that at least they were smart enough for the job.

So let's see. By the time he was nominated, Clarence Thomas had worked in the Missouri Attorney General's office, served as an Assistant Secretary of Education, run the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sat for a year on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nation's second most prominent court. Since his "elevation" to the High Court in 1991, he has also shown himself to be a principled and scholarly jurist.

Meanwhile, as he bids to be America's Commander in Chief, Mr. Obama isn't yet four years out of the Illinois state Senate, has never held a hearing of note of his U.S. Senate subcommittee, and had an unremarkable record as both a "community organizer" and law school lecturer. Justice Thomas's judicial credentials compare favorably to Mr. Obama's Presidential resume by any measure. And when it comes to rising from difficult circumstances, Justice Thomas's rural Georgian upbringing makes Mr. Obama's story look like easy street.

Even more troubling is what the Illinois Democrat's answer betrays about his political habits of mind. Asked a question he didn't expect at a rare unscripted event, the rookie candidate didn't merely say he disagreed with Justice Thomas. Instead, he instinctively reverted to the leftwing cliche that the Court's black conservative isn't up to the job while his white conservative colleagues are.

So much for civility in politics and bringing people together. And no wonder Mr. Obama's advisers have refused invitations for more such open forums, preferring to keep him in front of a teleprompter, where he won't let slip what he really believes.

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Barack Obama's elitist campaign alienates the South



The sea of shining, hope-filled faces that routinely flood Barack Obama's rallies would be an alien environment for the grizzled features and tobacco-stained temperament of Dave "Mudcat" Saunders. His preferred habitat is up a tree gunning down deer or on the mud flats - which lent him their name - catching catfish, part of an endless struggle with Appalachian wildlife. Along with his Confederate flag bedspread, the stag heads on his walls, his preference for profanity over punctuation, he would horrify what he calls the "northeastern elitist, Metropolitan Opera wing of the Democrats".

But, as one of the party's few (some say only) rural strategists, this might just be part of Mr Obama's problem. "The Democrats talk of tolerance, but in reality the only tolerance they ever exhibit is for their own intellectual arrogance - and they don't have tolerance for my culture," says Mudcat. "They think we're a bunch of hillbilly heathens who go out and burn crosses and do crazy bullshit. "They don't give a f*** if we're with them or not, because it doesn't matter. The f***ing Republicans have stolen the individual liberties thing and that's why the gun thing is such a big deal."

After a summer marked by soaring hyperbole about electing America's first black President, the sweep of Obama-mania across Europe and a generally feeble Republican campaign, Mr Obama's poll lead has evaporated. Many white, rural and working-class voters are stubbornly refusing to share the excitement about Mr Obama.

Yesterday The New York Times carried a front-page article in which more than a dozen senior Democrats urged Mr Obama to climb down from his sermonising mount and tell ordinary voters how he would improve their lives.

Nowhere does he have a bigger problem than in the Appalachians, a vast, rugged, mountain region. It was here, in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Kentucky that Mr Obama was beaten badly by Hillary Clinton - and his strategy towards them has altered little since.

Although Mr Obama won Virginia and has since identified it as a prime target in November's general election, Mudcat cautions that Democrats cannot rely on urban liberals and African Americans in the north of the state. He describes his hometown of Roanoke as "a trading post, like Tombstone", belonging to a different culture west of the Blue Ridge mountains of which Mr Obama has no more understanding than Al Gore and John Kerry before him - who lost the rural vote by 16 and 19 per cent respectively.

Mudcat has previously helped both Mark Warner, the former Governor, and Senator Jim Webb win in traditionally Republican-leaning Virginia. He was also a senior strategist on the failed presidential campaign of John Edwards, a close friend. Has he been asked to help Mr Obama? "I got a call from them right after Johnny got out. I never heard back." What does he think of the Illinois senator's campaign? Mudcat pauses and lights another Camel. "Sometimes they remind me of another bunch from Chicago, the Blues Brothers: they seem to think they're on a mission from God."

He is scathing about the reliance on registering new voters. "If that's how he runs his campaign, he is going to lose. I'd rather bet on those who voted before. When he stands up and says that I'm gonna get 30 per cent more black voters - I'm gonna get 30 per cent more of my people to turn out for me - what is Joe Six-Pack thinking?"

Mudcat suggests that John McCain could win Michigan while holding Ohio and Florida. And, unless Mr Obama changes course, "he ain't gonna win Virgina either. "Instead of all the high-falutin' exhortation about listening to the better angels, Mr Obama has gotta come out here - and time is short - and emphasise social justice. "He should say, 'I'm a black guy. I'm not gonna take the Michael Jackson treatment, but the problems of South Side Chicago are the same problems of the Appalachian mountains'. Big sonsofabitches are kicking the little sonsofabitches in the ass. Now I'm one of the little sonsofabitches, so I'm pissed off. Inside every rural Republican is a rural Democrat begging to get out. But we always trip over our johnsons."

"The campaign," he says scornfully, "think this election will be won on the internet. But here, at 5.30 in the afternoon, they don't go on the goddamn internet, they go watch The Andy Griffith Show [a 1960s sitcom]."

The nominee's difficulties are not about the colour of his skin but the tin in his ear. "White people in the South and throughout the Appalachians love black culture. I mean, Southern-style cooking is black food. Everything I eat is fried. Your swing vote in the Appalachians comes down to common-sense thinking people who have strong faith, and what Barack Obama needs to do is embrace his culture. Because we like his culture. But nobody knows anything about him; over 10 per cent of the rednecks out here - and I'm a redneck - think he's a Muslim 'cause nobody's ever told 'em any different."

His own Appalachian method of persuasion is best summed up in his campaign against a constitutional amendment forbidding gay marriage in Virginia. "I'm pretty sure I ain't a queer. And I've never had queer thoughts," he told a newspaper, "but God loves them queers every bit that he loves the Republicans." Or, as he says these days: "It's their mouth, they can use it to haul coal if they want to."

The Confederate bedspread is a tribute to "the gallant kids from around here who lost their lives" - not a racist symbol, says Mudcat, adding that he has no doubt "the right side won" the American Civil War.

He says a "cultural wedge" has been placed between Democrats and Scots-Irish voters just as Hadrian built a wall to keep them back in Britain. "It is the same exact people. It's the same f***ing bunch of fight, sing, drink, pray people who are over there who are over here in these mountains."

And the Democrats are on the wrong side of it? "You're damn right. They're on Hadrian's side of the wall is where they are. And they want the Scots-Irish vote. Well it's true. It's f***ing genes. It's who we are as a people. We'll say 'f*** you' to Bush, Longshanks [King Edward I of England] or Maggie Thatcher. F*** any of 'em."

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