HI Department of Health Publicly rebuffs inquiries for Obama’s vital records
DOSSIER OF EXCUSES APPEARS ON WEB IN LAST 6 HOURS?
by John Charlton
© 2009/2010
(Dec. 18, 2009) — The Hawaii Department of Health has just published a dossier of excuses to rebuff public inquiry into the vital records of Barack Hussein Obama, which the Office of Health Status Monitoring alleges to maintain.
The new web page appears at http://hawaii.gov/health/vital-records/obama.html
When did this dossier appear?
The dossier page is linked to, from the main page on Vital Records, which begins thus
About Vital Records
Vital records (birth, death, marriage, and divorce certificates) for events that occurred in Hawaii are received and preserved by the Office of Health Status Monitoring, a unit of the Department of Health. In Hawaii, access to vital records is restricted by statute (HRS §338-18).
Frequently Asked Questions About Vital Records of President Barack Hussein Obama II
The entry for the dossier as a FAQ, appears abruptly in a text which has no reference to it, thus indicating that the modification was done abruptly without much planning or forethought about layout considerations. This argues that is was done recently and by direct intervention of Dr. Fukino, the director of the Department of Health.
When this last page was altered and this new page appeared is not certain. Citizen-researchers did not notice them yesterday, and they were discovered only in the last 3 hours. Google as of the writing of this article at 5:00 PM ET, did not contain any links to the dossier page, nor any text from it in their engine. This seems to corroborate that the page appeared in the last 6 hours or so, since the obama.html page contains links to google analytics, Google’s search engine should be aware of its existence.
Reaction to the dossier’s appearance
What the dossier contains is evident enough to anyone, as it can be read on line.
The two significant documents, which are handy to have on file, are the links to the PDF files of the 2 statements made by Dr. Fukino about Obama’s alleged vital records.
What the dossier reveals is evident from an inspection of its contents. But what is said and not said shows how the Department of Health is responding to the “crisis” of public inquiry regarding Obama’s alleged vital records.
I just interviewed by email, one citizen-investigator who has been watching the Department of Health for the last 2 months. She had this to say about the dossier’s appearance:
My overall observation is it is an attempt by the DoH to deter citizens from making requests for Obama’s birth records and for government records the agency uses in its discharge of its functions.
The DoH Rules and Regulations: The DoH is denying access to anything other than the Public Health Regulations Chap 8, 8A and 8B. I have made multiple UIPA requests for the government record that defines the application of ”Date Accepted By Registrar” and ”Date Filed By Registrar” on the COLB. Communications Director Okubo has responded by directing me to the PHR Chapter 8 which does not include how the aforementioned is defined and applied. In follow-up correspondence, Ms. Okubo stated that the DoH is not required to create or compile such information.
UIPA law HRS 92F-3 states: “Government record” means information maintained by an agency in written, auditory, visual, electronic, or other physical form.” The definition and application of the “accepted” and “filed” terminology exists somewhere; it is not applied to the COLB arbitrarily.
The DoH is continuing to refuse to disclose the definitive and legal basis of the Director Fukino’s July 27, 2009 statement. After this statement was released, blogger Justin Riggs wrote the DoH to inquire about the information and records that were used to make the statement. Ms. Okubo responded: ”The statement was approved by Attorney General Mark Bennett.” All other attempts to obtain this information have been rebuffed citing “attorney-client privilege.”
According to the Office of Information Practices Opinion Letter 91-23, an agency must disclose the attorney-client communication in it is entirety if any portion of the communication is disclosed to the public. It cannot selectively choose what to disclose and what not to. The DoH revealed the AG had approved the statement which constitutes a partial disclosure.
The DoH appears to be charging $7.50 per record search for records it had until now provided free of charge.
The Post & Email’s analysis of the dossier
First, the dossier makes a point to name Barack Hussein Obama II, “President.”
Second, the dossier omits mentioning the Hawaii Statute which allows the Department of Health to release vital records to the public, when sufficient public interest warrants it.
Third, the dossier publishes the index records for Obama, which are allegedly extracted from the vital record which the Department alleges to maintain on file.
Fourth, the dossier mentions laws which have no direct bearing on Obama’s birth story, unless they apply to him:
http://gen.doh.hawaii.gov/sites/har/admrules/default.aspx
These records consist of:
Public Health Regulations Chapter 8 (Vital Records Regulations and Records)
Public Health Regulations Chapter 8A (Delayed Birth Registration)
Public Health Regulations Chapter 8B (Vital Statistics Regulations and Records)
Hawaii Administrative Rules, Title 11 Department of Health Chapter 120 (Foreign Born Persons Adopted in Hawaii)
Hawaii Administrative Rules, Title 11 Department of Health Chapter 123 (Names of Natural Parents in Birth Certificate of Adopted Person)
Is the Department of Health saying that Obama was foreign-born or adopted? It is not clear.
The link provided does not contain only the above mentioned rules, it contains all of the Department of Health’s administrative rules. Why, then, mention the rules regarding foreign births and adoptions?
Is this merely to respond to the doubts of citizens on these questions?
The Department of Health evidently is sensitive to the ongoing inquiries. Note how they phrase the mention of the 2 public statements in the dossier:
3. All past statements by the Health Director are available at:
http://hawaii.gov/health/about/pr/2008/08-93.pdf
http://hawaii.gov/health/about/pr/2009/09-063.pdfThe statements speak for themselves and there are no other public records maintained by the department related to these statements that are available to the public.
They are publicly denying that records which they have regarding the preparation, approval, or filing of the 2 public statements, are themselves available to the public.
This is in direct contravention of Hawaii Statute §92F-12 which requires all associated or supporting documents to be made public: such as memos, emails, memoranda, etc., which were produced prior to or after the release of such statements. That statute reads:
§92F-12 Disclosure required. (a) Any other provision in this chapter to the contrary notwithstanding, each agency shall make available for public inspection and duplication during regular business hours: …
(15) Information collected and maintained for the purpose of making information available to the general public; and
What the Department of Hawaii does not say in the dossier, also seems to be significant. Notice how they present the Index Data information:
The index data regarding President Obama is:
Birth Index
Obama II, Barack Hussein
Male
Index data should include the date of birth, but the dossier omits the date of birth. This is both revealing and troubling. Evidently the Department will not confirm publicly that Obama was born on the date he claims: Aug. 4, 1961. Index data should also include the type of event. The event is not named. It should be named “birth” if it was a real birth. Is it an adoption, which caused an entry into the Birth Index?
The dossier repeats, at the top of its page, the reasons why the Department does not want to be responsive to citizens’ inquiries, nor responsible to the nation regarding shedding light on the veracity or mendacity of Obama’s birth-story claims:
The State’s public records law, the Uniform Information Practices Act (Modified) (“UIPA”), found at chapter 92F, Hawaii Revised Statutes (“HRS”) requires that all government records be open to public inspection unless access is restricted or closed by law. Government records means information maintained by an agency in written, auditory, visual, electronic, or other physical form, see HRS §92F-3. The UIPA does not require an agency to provide access to government records that state law protects from disclosure, see, HRS §92F-13 (4), nor does it require agencies to respond to all questions asked of the agency.
Unless a request for DOH records is specific enough to be understood, the request cannot be responded to by the DOH.
The DOH may not have a record which is responsive to a request. The UIPA does not require an agency to compile or create information to respond to a request.
State law prohibits the DOH from disclosing any vital statistics records or information contained in such records unless the requestor has a direct and tangible interest in the record, or as otherwise allowed by statute or administrative rule. See HRS §338-18. Direct and tangible interest is determined by HRS §338-18(b).
The Post & Email has extensively covered the story of the Hawaii Department of Health’s refusal to release Obama’s vital records. For more information about this, click on the tags to this report, at the bottom of the article.
the Attorney General waived all attorney client privilege when he made the statement that “Barack Obama is a “naturas born citizen”. That was an official conclusion he reached, and he inows that he is responsible for filing his reasoning for making that judgment.