The Debunker’s Guide to Obama Conspiracy Theories

The following is an index of links to articles on this web site (and a few to others) that debunk various claims made about Barack Obama. The claims are arranged by category. Updated January 30, 2013.

Table of Contents:

• Obama’s birth certificate
• Other claims about Obama’s birth in Hawaii
• Obama born in Kenya stories
• Obama in Indonesia stories
• Obama’s Selective Service registration
• Obama’s social-security number
• Obama legal fees and sealing records
• Obama higher education myths
• Obama is not a natural born citizen because of his parentage
• Other crank claims

Let the claims begin!

Obama’s birth certificate

Nothing defines the birther movement more than controversy over Barack Obama’s birth certificate. Birthers demand that Obama release his birth certificate, when in fact he did already, back in June of 2008. For more information debunking birth certificate claims, see also here, here, here and here.

• The document has been amended.
• The location of birth is a clerical error.
• The location of birth is really the location of registration.
• Hawaii allows registration of any child in Hawaii over one year old as being born in Hawaii.
• Hawaii allows residents to register foreign-born children as being born in Hawaii.
• Obama was adopted from a foreign country
• Block 7(c) of the birth registration form allows the entry of a foreign country for place of birth.
• The Obama document is a “Certification”, not a “Certificate”.
• A Certification of Live Birth is not a birth certificate. See also here.
• There were no laser printers when Obama was born in 1961.
• Recorded information may have been altered and a new birth certificate issued showing different information pursuant to §338-17.7.
• Sun Yat-Sen the first President of China has a Hawaiian birth certificate and he was born in China so this proves anybody can get a Hawaiian birth certificate. See also here.
• The Department of Hawaii Homelands declared that the short-form birth certificate was not sufficient evidence and also that such a certificate is not proof of birth in Hawaii.
• Obama’s mother didn’t live at the address listed on the birth certificate. See also.
• Obama’s birth registration was created by his grandparents, and not by a physician. The attending physician was David A. Sinclair, MD.
• Obama’s birth certificate lacks the state seal.
• Obama’s birth certificate lacks an official’s signature.
• Obama’s birth certificate lacks a certificate number.
• Image recovery techniques prove the certificate number is missing in original scanned images.
• Obama’s birth certificate was invalidated when the certificate number was covered.
• The certificate number proves Obama was not born in a hospital. See also here.
• Obama’s birth certificate is a forgery. See also and also.
• Barack Obama has a Canadian birth certificate.
• The Hawaii elections clerk Tim Adams verified that Obama has no long-form birth certificate.
• Obama’s refusal to release his long form birth certificate proves he has something to hide. See also.
• Obama’s birth certificate is a fake because the father’s race was “African.” See also.
• Obama’s long form birth certificate is a fake because the PDF version has “layers.”  A detailed analysis of various claims that Obama’s long form certificate is a fake is found in John Woodman’s book: Is Barack Obama’s Birth Certificate a Fraud?
• The raised seal on Obama’s 2007 Certification of Live Birth is debossed instead of embossed. (It’s normal.)
• Obama’s long form has curved text but the background is not curved.
• The letters on Obama’s long form are not all the same shape, suggesting a composite image from multiple typewriters. See also.
• Some letters on Obama’s long form are curved less than the surrounding text.
• The long form says Obama’s father was born in Kenya, East Africa. Kenya didn’t exist until 3 years later.
• Obama attorney Alexandra Hill admitted Obama’s birth certificate is fake. (She didn’t.)
• Penciled data entry codes are inconsistent with written values. (They aren’t.)
• A professional law-enforcement investigation of Obama’s birth certificate in Arizona proved the document a fake.

Other claims about Obama’s birth in Hawaii

• The newspaper announcement of Obama’s birth was an ad placed by his parents.
• All microfilm copies worldwide of the Honolulu Advertiser and Star Bulletin relating to Obama’s birth have been replaced by fake ones.
• No one remembers young Obama in Hawaii (except Governor Abercrombie of Hawaii and his kindergarten teachers and classmates).
• Obama relatives cannot agree on which hospital was Obama’s birthplace.
• Obama has never acknowledged the hospital where he was born.
• Hawaii hospitals all deny Obama was born there. All but one and see video here.
• Obama/Dunham Divorce Decree says One Child Born in Kenya.
• The letters “TXE” signal a forgery. See also.
• Scanner/software expert says Obama long-form birth certificate a forgery. (Also claims to know when, to the minute, that the Sun will go nova and start the next ice age.)

Obama born in Kenya stories

• Obama’s step grandmother, Sarah Obama, said on tape that the President was born in the Kenya and she was there. See also here.
• Obama family members say President Obama was born in Kenya. See also here.
• There is a Kenyan Birth Certificate for Barack Obama. See here, and also here.
• There is another Kenyan Birth Certificate for Barack Obama.
• The Kenyan ambassador to the US said that Obama was born in Kenya.
• The Associated Press said in 2004 that Obama was born in Kenya.
• The Kenyan minister of lands said Obama was born in Kenya. He did, but he never explains how he knew. See also here.
• Kenyan newspapers say Obama was born in Kenya. See also here and here.
• Michelle Obama said Barack Obama was born in Kenya.
• Road signs entering Kenya say “Welcome to Kenya: Birthplace of Barack Obama.”

Obama in Indonesia stories

• Obama’s school registration proves he was an Indonesian citizen
• Obama was an Indonesian national because he went to school in Indonesia where only Indonesians could attend.
• Obama was adopted by his Indonesian step-father. See also here.
• Obama automatically became an Indonesian citizen when he was adopted at age 5 .

Obama’s Selective Service registration

• Obama is ineligible to be president because he failed to register for the Selective Service, a prerequisite for a federal job. See also here.
• Obama’s Selective Service registration document is fake, see also here.

Obama’s social-security number

• Obama has 39 social-security numbers.
• Obama has a Connecticut social-security number and that means fraud. See also here.
• Obama is using the social-security number of a deceased individual.
• Obama is using the social-security number of Jean Paul Ludwig.
• eVerify response indicates Obama’s number is fraudulent.

Obama legal fees and sealing records

• Obama has spent millions in legal fees keeping his birth certificate secret. This is further nonsense since Obama freely released his birth certificate.
• An Obama executive order sealed all his records.
• Obama’s records are all sealed.

Obama higher education myths

• Obama registered as a foreign student at Occidental College to get financial aid. This was actually an April Fool joke, but it is still widely believed. Follow-up story here and here.
• Obama went to Occidental College under a Fulbright scholarship. Silly since Fulbright scholarships are for graduate study and Obama was an undergrad at Occidental.
• Obama went under the name “Barry Soetoro” at Occidental College. See also.
• Nobody remembers Obama at Columbia College
• Obama funneled guns to the Taliban for the CIA while a student. Too silly to debunk, but listed for reference.

Obama is not a natural born citizen because of his parentage

The idea that Barack Obama is not a natural born citizen even if born in the US is not a “conspiracy theory;” it is a crank legal theory. The best compilation debunking this claim is the report of the Congressional Research Service: Qualifications for President and the “Natural Born” Citizenship Eligibility Requirement.

For a general review, see: Natural Born Citizen for Dummies. For a compendium of citations about natural born citizen, see The Great Mother of All Natural Born Citizen Quotation Pages, other articles on citizenship on this site, our Citizenship bookmarks, and Books on Google that define “natural born citizen”. See also John Woodman’s series of articles. Since 2008 at least 8 courts have ruled specifically on this question as it pertains to Barack Obama and all have affirmed that if born in Hawaii, Obama is a natural born citizen.

• The Supreme Court in Minor v Happersett defined natural born citizen as requiring two citizen parents.
• The Law of Nations by E. Vattel defined natural born citizen as requiring two citizen parents.
• The US Constitution incorporates the Law of Nations by reference.
• The Supreme Court cited Vattel in United States v Wong Kim Ark.
• Supreme Court Case Perkins v. Elg proves a natural born citizen must have two US parents.
• No court has ruled on the merits of claims that Obama is not a natural born citizen because of his father’s British citizenship.

Other crank claims

• Barack Obama traveled to Pakistan on an Indonesian passport. See also.
• Barack Obama was raised by communists.
• Google says Obama is a socialist.
• Barack Obama Committed Perjury on his Illinois Bar Application.
• Michelle Obama was disbarred. See also.
• Barack Obama was forced to surrender his law license or face ethics charges.
• CIA DNA Test Reveals Barack Obama was ADOPTED. This one is too silly to debunk but I wanted to document the incredible story.
• Obama sat on the board of the Annenberg Foundation that runs FactCheck.org.
• Barack Obama is a British citizen.
• Barack Obama was going to change the military oath so that soldiers would swear allegiance to him personally. This was meant to be a joke, but, well…
• Barack Obama’s best-selling 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, was ghostwritten by Bill Ayers.
• Barack Obama told veterans to “stop whining” about having to pay for their own health care.
• Obama has issued more executive orders than any president in history (actually fewer).