Obama Mystery Theater: Stanley Ann’s Passport Renewal of 1968 (Part Two)

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This is the second part of a closer look at Stanley Ann Dunham Obama Soetoro’s passport records. In part one, we examined a portion of a passport renewal application dated August 13, 1968, nearly two years before her passport, issued July 19, 1965, would have expired. We looked into the background of the “vice consul” who processed this passport-renewal: Mr. Alphonse F. La Porta. Because no passport records for “Ann”  Soetoro dated before 1965 were found or released, we speculated about whether the 1965 passport was the first-ever passport for Ann, or whether she had a previous passport, perhaps one issued five years before July 19, 1965.

Subsequently, one of our new commenters shared an insightful observation.   The page below comes from a memo found in Immigration and Naturalization (INS) records relating to Ann’s first husband, Barack Hussein Obama Sr. (BHO Sr.), which were released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

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The notations were all made in late April, 1964, which is little more than a month after BHO Sr.’s divorce from Ann was finalized by a court in Honolulu.  BHO Sr. was living then in Cambridge, Massachusetts, allegedly attending Harvard University. He was applying to extend his stay in the U.S. for a year. See here and here. The memo displayed above was necessary because BHO Sr. didn’t fill out the extension request fully–he left out his marital status and his employment. This entire process apparently took place in Boston. For the purposes of our current discussion, the pertinent portion of the memo reads as follows

After alien stated he was married, he said he was separated and that they may get a divorce.  The wife in the Philippines from whom he is separated is a U.S.C. [U.S. citizen].

That same memo mentions BHO Sr.’s wife in Kenya (Kezia) as well as the fact that Miss Frost, of Harvard, stated that “authorities” at the university suspected that he was already married to yet another woman there in Cambridge. Perhaps this was Ruth, but if so, there’s a discrepancy: BHO Sr. and Ruth Beatrice Baker were said to have married in Kenya in December 1964, and to have first met in June 1964, according to Sally Jacobs. However, the part of the memo that mentions a wife in Cambridge is dated April 29, 1964. If that wife was Ruth, then BHO Sr. was a bigamist right here in the USA, if he married her before his divorce from Ann was finalized–a divorce that he seemed not to even know about in April 1964.

The two pages of the extension request, linked earlier, show different handwriting, as if some information was eventually added to the form by consular employees.  A comparison of handwriting alone, across all of these documents, could make a series of posts.

So what can we conclude from this?

If “the wife in the Philipppines” in April 1964, was Ann, then she must have had a passport prior to July 19, 1965.  (h/t Martha555, and Papoose for reminding us of these files).

As noted in part one of this analysis, the government claimed to have lost or possibly even destroyed the application that Ann submitted for the passport she received in 1965, and no other earlier records for her were released.  How could she go to the Philippines, however, without a passport?  The records must have existed, if Ann is the wife who was in the Philippines in 1964.

What might those records have revealed?  Much, most likely, which is probably why they were disappeared. If Ann was not the wife in the Philippines, then BHO Sr. had another U.S.C. wife, who may have been the “Mrs.” mentioned as the mother of his “son” born on August 4, 1961, in Honolulu; and so, as we’ve said before, that announcement proves nothing, even if it’s not a forgery.

Now, some pro-Obama true believers claim that the consular employees in Boston must have been confused and accidentally wrote “the Philippines” instead of “Hawaii”, where Ann allegedly lived and attended school, along with her soon-to-be second husband, Lolo Soetoro, both of whom were students at the University of Hawaii’s East-West Center.

According to a friend of Ann’s, the East-West Center recruited students from the Philippines and beyond and even sent representatives by ship to the Philippines to shepherd students back to Hawaii, giving them “shipboard orientation” (pp. 25-26). The ships also picked up students who had been doing internships or field work in Asia, so it’s as likely as not that Ann might have been in the Philippines either helping to recruit and orient new students, or else as part of her anthropological studies.

Returning again to the specifics of that first page of the passport renewal application, seen at the top of this post, note that Stanley Ann Dunham’s birth certificate (p. 91 of her husband Lolo’s immigration records) states that she was born in the city of Sedgwick, Kansas, in the county or township of Wichita. Sedgwick is also a county. The city of Sedgwick straddles both Harvey and Sedgwick counties. Wichita township may include Sedgwick city, but St. Francis hospital (now Via Christi), where Ann was born, does not appear to be in Sedgwick city, but rather in Wichita itself. Her mother’s residence is listed on the birth certificate as Augusta, Butler county, Kansas. So was she born in Wichita, as the passport application states? It might seem like nitpicking, but there are standards for entering place names on U.S. passports. Arcane, perhaps, but worth considering.

For birthplaces within the United States and its territories, it contains the name of the state or territory followed by “U.S.A.”.

While this was only a renewal request, U.S.A. was not specified, and the city was specified, when it is not supposed to be. It’s undetermined, however, when these standards were first imposed, nor do we know what eventually ended up on her passport. There are some indications that the standardization took effect later, in 1980.

But why was Ann renewing a passport that would not expire for another two years? As noted before, the page shown at the top of this post requested a renewal, not an amendment. Let’s look at the fine print from that page:

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Note the phrases surrounded by boxes; the potentially pertinent excerpts come down to this:

… no other person included or to be included in the passport … has … been

(1) naturalized as a citizen of a foreign state; …

(2) made a formal renunciation of nationality either in the United States or before a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States in a foreign state;

(3) ever sought or claimed the benefits of the nationality of any foreign state …

If any of those stipulations apply to Ann

OR to any other person included in the passport or documentation, the portion which applies should be struck out and a supplementary explanatory statement under oath (or affirmation) by the person to whom the portion is applicable should be attached and made part of this application.

We’ll discuss the implications of the above paragraph in the next part of this series. Another new commenter, JC, noticed the importance of those instructions, with regard to this passport renewal request. We can’t move on to the next page, however, without first considering the stipulations delineated above.

Let’s call the stipulations the three tests that Barry, in particular, must pass, and then examine whether or not Barry could have ever (1) naturalized as an Indonesian citizen; (2) formally renounced his presumed nationality (U.S.) either back in Hawaii or before a diplomatic or consular officer in Indonesia; or (3) ever sought or claimed the benefits of the nationality of Indonesia.  Let’s take the tests in reverse order, beginning with Test 3:

Did Barry ever seek or claim the benefits of the nationality of any foreign state?

The answer would seem to be, “Yes.”

In January 1968, Barry was allegedly enrolled in the first grade at Santo Fransiskus Asisi, a Catholic school in Jakarta. Barry was 6. He was listed on the school paperwork as an Indonesian citizen, the son of “L. Soetoro”. Barry’s name was given as Barry Soetoro. The paper indicated that his father worked at the Department of Geography, in the [Indonesian] Army’s Topographic Directorate. There was no mention of the names Obama or Dunham, or even of a mother.

Although it was a Catholic school, Barry was a Muslim student, according to the school registration, and he took Muslim religion classes. The founder of the school, Father Bart Janssen, says that all classes were taught in Indonesian.

At some point, Barry transferred to SDN Besuki, a Muslim public school run by the Prince Raden Saleh Foundation. From this link:

The school was founded in 1934 as Carpentier Alting Stichting Nassau School (CAS) by the Dutch colonial administration and was reserved for the children of the Dutch and Indonesian nobility. The Indonesian government took over administration of the school in 1962, and it was then run by the Raden Saleh Foundation.

Among its students have been children of Bamban Trihatmodjo, the son of former president Suharto, as well as the grandchildren of former vice presidents Hamzah Haz and Try Sutrisno.

We’ve documented previously that Lolo raised his children as members of the Indonesian royal family.

At the public school, Barry Soetoro was considered Muslim, had to be an Indonesian citizen to attend, and took mengaji classes, something only the most devout and fundamentalist students did.  The classes involved memorizing the Quran in Arabic.

Although it is likely that a Kartu Keluarga for the Lolo Soetoro family existed long before, it is beyond doubt that it existed at the point that Barry was registered at the public school.

… As the children of Indonesian men married to foreign women are, in most cases, Indonesian citizens, all the children and the foreign wife need to be listed on the husband’s Kartu Keluarga (family card). The Indonesian husband is considered to be the Kepala Keluarga. If your husband is still on his parent’s Kartu Keluarga, you need to arrange for a separate Kartu Keluarga for your family unit after your marriage. The document is obtained through your local RT/RW/Lurah and is the basic document on which all other documents are based – KTP, passport, etc. Be sure to have your children added to your husband’s Kartu Keluarga after birth. …

Barry was listed as the son of Lolo Soetoro on his school registration records because under Indonesian law, an adopted child becomes as if he were the natural child of the father.  In addition, his religion becomes the religion of his father.

Many obfuscate by saying that Barry had to be under the age of five to be adopted by Lolo Soetoro, under Indonesian law. However, this is false. If the adoption took place in Hawaii, under U.S. law, then at the point in time that Barry entered Indonesia, he became Lolo’s son under Indonesian law.  Yes, he (possibly) had U.S. citizenship as well as Indonesian citizenship, but Indonesia did not allow nor recognize dual citizenship. At another blog, commenter zhou tay (October 31, 2008) offers a concurring opinion and more insight, from an Indonesian perspective. (Keep in mind that the year that Ann and Lolo married is in dispute. She may have married him as early as March 5, 1964, when Barry was 2. If we accept the later date of March 15, 1965, then Barry was still only 3.)

If, as seems possible, Barry was adopted by Lolo in Hawaii, then the entire issue of his original birth certificate becomes clear. Upon adoption, a new birth certificate is created, listing the adoptive parents as if they are the biological parents and the previous birth record is sealed.

An Indonesian citizen could not, by government regulation, attend international schools, unless certain conditions were met:

Because the children of these marriages follow the father’s citizenship, they are Indonesian citizens, and therefore in the past have not been allowed to attend international schools in Indonesia (this was a government regulation, not the school’s). The only exception to this rule was when the mother had a work permit or the parents were divorced. In these instances, the children could attend an international school, through the mother’s sponsorship. If the mother’s status is ikut suami and she is sponsored by her husband, the children must attend Indonesian schools or be home schooled. There are no restrictions for children of foreign nationality to attend Indonesian schools, when both parents are foreigners.

Barry was both home schooled for a time as well as eventually enrolled in public school. The Catholic school was not an international school. Father Janssen indicated that the children at his school came from the surrounding rural area and were Indonesian; therefore, given the strict police state at the time and Indonesian laws concerning compulsory education of citizens, it’s probable that even the Catholic school was overseen by the Indonesian government. (So far no independent evidence has been found to support the claim that Janssen founded the school.)

Ann’s daughter by Lolo, Maya, attended international school before she herself was sent to Hawaii to attend Punahou. Was this after Ann’s divorce from Lolo? If so, then Ann had to create a Kartu Keluarga for herself and her child(ren). We learned earlier that Lolo bought a second home for Ann and the children, after their separation. Were they divorced in Indonesia before Ann filed for divorce in Hawaii? Find the Kartu Keluarga and much will be answered.

At the point that Barry entered public school the stories diverge. Some stories indicate that Barry transferred to the public Muslim school in 1970 for third (or fourth) grade; some say he was at the Catholic school for two years, or three years.  If three, that would leave scant time for any significant tenure at the Muslim school. A story from the Jakarta Post, from 2007, says that Barry was at Besuki in 1968.

Obama was in the third grade at SDN Menteng 01 — then named SDN Besuki — in 1968 when Ibu Karim was principal. … Prior to SD Besuki, he attended Catholic School Fransiskus Assisis.

Now this is puzzling because he wouldn’t have been old enough in 1968 to be in third grade, not if he really were born in August 1961. As puzzling, a photograph of Barry and a friend place him back in Hawaii, at Noelani Elementary School, in third grade, around Christmas 1969.

The school year begins in Indonesia in mid-July and runs to mid-June, with the first semester ending in December and the second beginning in January. Students get several weeks off school for Muslim holidays (Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr, e.g.). In 1969, Eid al-Fitr ran from Dec. 11 through Dec. 17, so perhaps Barry was visiting Hawaii during Ramadan, although Scott refers to him as a classmate.

Barry’s records at SDN Besuki were allegedly destroyed in a flood, which is another amazing coincidence, because Barry’s kindergarten records in Hawaii were also somehow lost. An alternate story says that the Muslim school records were eaten by bugs.

Why is it important to know exactly when Barry attended the public school?  Because if he was required to be an Indonesian citizen to attend SDN Besuki, then he indeed accepted (claimed) benefits of the nationality of a foreign state (Indonesia). And if he did so prior to Ann’s renewal of her passport in August, 1968, then she was required to explain that to U.S. officials in Jakarta, according to Test 3, above, provided that he was already included on her passport or she intended to include him on her passport. Was he included on her passport already? If not, then how did he get to Indonesia? On his own passport? On his father’s (Lolo Soetoro’s)?  We’ll come back to that question later. Now let’s look at Test 2:

Did Barry ever formally renounce his presumed U.S. nationality, either in Hawaii or before a diplomatic or consular officer in Indonesia?

Perhaps Mr. La Porta would know. There are many who say that it’s impossible for this to have happened. However, they appear to be wrong. The pro-Obama true believers like to point out that parents cannot renounce a minor child’s U.S. citizenship and that only the child, upon reaching the age of 18, can do so. While it is true that the parents cannot renounce a child’s citizenship through their own actions, it is also true that the child himself can renounce his citizenship, so long as the diplomatic officer before whom he makes the formal renunciation believes that the child understands what he is doing and chooses to proceed.

Although parents cannot renounce U.S. citizens on behalf of their minor children under 18 years of age, minor children can renounce their U.S. citizenship by convincing a U.S. diplomatic or consular officer that they understand the consequences of renunciation and that they are not relinquishing their U.S. citizenship under undue duress or influence. Minor children can have their U.S. citizenship reinstated by informing DOS within 6 months of their 18th birthday.

See also here and here.

Ann planned to remain in Indonesia, which for the most part she did, for the rest of her life. If Barry was an Indonesian citizen, then he had to attend public school or be home schooled. Ann may have found that continuing to home school him put a crimp in her career. If Barry was adopted in Hawaii, making him a dual citizen, Indonesian authorities may have objected when Lolo tried to enroll Barry in public school. At that point, the authorities may have required Barry to renounce his U.S. citizenship (if any) before he could be enrolled in SDN Besuki. Or Barry may have renounced his U.S. citizenship earlier, back in Hawaii, in order to obtain an Indonesian passport, upon which he traveled when he and his mother joined his new father in Indonesia. Perhaps they gave Barry the choice to go with them to Indonesia or remain in Hawaii with his grandparents.

Whether or not Barry fails Test 2, depends upon the facts, which are sorely lacking, but it is possible that he did renounce his U.S. citizenship. This brings us to Test 1:

Did Barry naturalize as a citizen of a foreign state?

If he was adopted legally by Lolo Soetoro, either in the U.S. or in Indonesia, then it appears that the answer to this question is “yes”. Everything we’ve seen so far appears to point to the fact that Barry was adopted by Lolo. His birth certificate in Hawaii is and/or was sealed. His sister Maya at least suggested that her father adopted Barry. Barry’s school records from Indonesia indicate that he was an Indonesian citizen, something which was required in order to attend public school. Barry’s name was Barry Soetoro, and he was listed on official records as the son of Lolo Soetoro.

Once again, absolute proof is hard to come by because records have been hidden, sealed, lost, destroyed, “cauterized”, eaten by bugs, gathered up and/or bought, if not destroyed by floods. There’s a reason that Barry’s passport files, in particular, had to be “cauterized” by an employee of John Brennan.

As we see, Barry did fail Test 3 and arguably failed all of the tests. He appears to have naturalized in Indonesia, under their laws, by virtue of being adopted by Lolo Soetoro. He may have had to renounce his U.S. citizenship (if any) in order to enroll in public school or obtain an Indonesian passport. He most definitely did at least seek as well as claim benefits of Indonesian nationality, by virtue of attending a public school. If Ann had added him to her U.S. passport already, or wanted to add him to her passport in August 1968, then she was required to include with the passport renewal application an explanation of Barry’s status:

… a supplementary explanatory statement under oath (or affirmation) by the person to whom the portion is applicable should be attached and made part of this application.

But no such supplementary explanatory statement was released under the FOIA request, nor was there any indication that such a statement was withheld under exclusion B(6), to protect the “privacy” of the person in question–that being Barry. Either the explanatory statement was withheld from the public or it was never offered with the renewal application, suggesting that at the time Ann renewed her passport in August 1968, Barry was not already included on her passport, and she did not intend to include him at that time.

Which brings us to the second page of her renewal application, as seen below:

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Here’s where the story skids further sideways.  Soebarkah?

Who is Soebarkah?

We’ll try to deduce the possible answers to that question in part three.  Stay tuned.

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