'Altered document is manufactured, or in everyday parlance – a forgery'
By Jerome R. CorsiNEW YORK – A nationally recognized computer expert who has served as contributing author and technical editor for more than 100 books on Adobe and Microsoft software says the Obama long-form birth-certificate image released by the White House is a fraudulent document created with Adobe software.
"The PDF file released by the White House contains evidence of manipulation suggesting that one or more forgers utilized existing Hawaiian birth certificates to assemble fraudulently for Barack Obama a document the president presented to the world as authentic," Mara Zebest told WND.
Zebest has prepared a full analysis of the image that was presented April 27 by Barack Obama to the world as a copy of his original birth documentation in the state of Hawaii.
The image released online is a copy of Obama's copy of the original, as are the paper copies that were handed out to reporters.
Zebest's analysis begins by documenting inconsistencies in the pixels and bitmap text that display throughout the Obama file, for instance, in the birth certificate number 10641, as seen in Exhibit 1:
 Exhibit 1. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Viewed in Adobe Acrobat at 1200 percent zoom |
Exhibit 2 offers more examples of the telltale inconsistencies Zebest found. First, defining her terms, Zebest explains that "antialiasing" is the transition of pixel colors that occurs when differing color tones bump into each other in an image. It offers a smooth line (to the eye) when viewed at the normal zoom. Viewed in a closeup mode it appears as an angled pattern. She explains, "Without antialiasing, the edges appear jagged or bitmapped." Bitmapping is a specific computer format used for images that gives them a more choppy appearance when zoomed.
According to Zebest:
- Bitmap text versus antialiasing text: Notice the bitmap X checkbox in question compared to the antialiased X checkbox in question "e" – major inconsistency.
- Additionally, the checkboxes are slightly different widths and positioned differently. (Pixels of checkboxes on the bottom right overlap line pixels below, almost as if the boxes were copied and pasted and manually positioned).
- Some letter characters are identical, pixel for pixel, almost as if they were copied and pasted and then moved into position. For example, the lowercase "i" in the word Inside is identical to the first "i" in judicial. There are many similar identical instances as there are dissimilar typesetting examples of different fonts – both suggesting compilation of a document digitally.
- Irregular typesetting spacing which is not consistent with proportional spacing used by computers or monospacing used by typewriters in 1961 – but is consistent with copy and pasting and moving letters around. Example: The word "Yes," which has too much space between "Y" and "e" and not enough space between "e" and "s."
"A normal document scanned and saved as a PDF file would not display these inconsistencies unless the document had been digitally altered," she said. "A digitally altered document is by definition a manufactured document, or in everyday parlance – a forgery."
 Exhibit 2. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Evidence of Font typesetting inconsistencies |
Exhibit 3 demonstrates mixed solid bitmapped character elements combined with antialiased elements in the signature of Ann Dunham and in the text of the form immediately above her first name, Stanley, enclosed in parentheses.
 Exhibit 3. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Inconsistencies within signatures |
"Typed characters in the birth certificate form appear to have been altered digitally by the forgers whenever signatures overlapped or bumped against printed text characters in the form,” she said.
Figure 4 shows the dates stamped into boxes 20 and 22 on the form displaying different color tones within the date stamp, such that some of the digits are dark black – especially the last digit "1" in both instances – while other digits are a light gray.
 Exhibit 4. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Inconsistencies in pixel colors and spelling errors |
"My guess is that the creator of this document was inexperienced when it comes to a multitude of concepts in using Adobe software," Zebest said. "Whoever forged the Obama birth certificate might have known enough to be dangerous, but not enough to know how to cover up their tracks."
Exhibit 4 also notes the misspelling of "THE" in the rubber stamp placed on the document by the Hawaii State Register Alvin Onaka, Ph.D., and an apparent smiley face drawn in the loop of the letter "A" on his signature – two anomalies on which WND previously reported.
As noted in Exhibit 5, Zebest also listed a number of questions about the Obama birth certificate that she believes demand explanation.
 Exhibit 5. Obama birth certificate, 4/27/11. Overall information defies common sense |
Her list of questions regarding Exhibit 5 included the following:
- Why is there an odd, excessive typesetting space between the number 4 and comma in the birth date?
- "African" is not a race. Would "American" be a race? It may not be politically correct, but in 1961, the option for race would have been Negro, not "African," which is another odd artifact out of place with the context of the historical time and place – an anachronism.
- Speaking of anachronisms, in 1961, when typewriters were used, the typist would move to the next line, and items would be started in a standard left margin (unless the typist purposely tabbed over to a different location on the document); thus, most of the left margin text would consistently line up at the same point. Figure 13 is explained below, and can be used to compare the margin line text in the Nordyke certificate with Obama’s in Figure 12. Nothing is properly aligned in Obama’s document.
- The certificate number is out of sequence. Wouldn’t a smaller certificate number be consistent with the earlier birth date and the earlier Date Accepted, the filing date? WND previously reported on the anomaly involving the Nordyke numbers.
- Where is the state seal? Who has an official birth certificate document that is missing a seal?
- Why is there a background pattern? The Obama administration claims the pattern was added for security purposes – but isn't that admitting to altering the document? Is the administration trying to create a frame of hiding the edits in plain sight by saying, "Yes, we edited the document to add security paper." And why would this even be necessary?
- Why would the date at the bottom of the document display different type fonts? The font used for the year is clearly a different font than the one used for the day. Under what circumstances would you change fonts while typing a date? Even if a stamp were used to stamp a date, wouldn't the stamp be made with the same consistent font?
Zebest concluded that the Nordyke twins' birth certificates played a major role in the forgery of the Obama birth certificate.
"When viewing Obama's document for the first time, one of the items that struck me as odd was the curvature at the left edge of the documents," she noted. "To make matters worse, I could see evidence that the poor quality text seems to be digitally manipulated to mimic the curvature."
Ultimately, Zebest concluded that the inspiration for putting the curvature effect into the Obama forgery came from the Nordyke twins' birth certificates.
"For me, the Nordyke image explains the inspiration for the curvature effect – and trust me, it's just that – an effect – even down to the shadow," she explained. "I believe the Nordyke image played a significant role in compiling Obama's document, so much so that I have come to conclude the forgers used the Nordyke birth certificates as their ultimate template for the final product."
Zebest concluded her study with an analysis of the multiple layers evident in the White House-released PDF file.
She rejected the White House explanation that the layers were produced by scanning the document with OCR, or Optical Character Recognition, software turned on.
Examining the Onaka ink stamp, Zebest was able to determine that the object placed into the Obama document was scaled 34 percent and rotated 90 degrees. The result, she said, could be obtained only through digital manipulation and could not be an artifact of having scanned the document with OCR software activated.
"The text responds as if it were in a Microsoft Word document," she asserted. "The text can be selected, changed, copied and pasted."
 Image released by White House in April |
Zebest concluded that whoever forged the Obama birth certificate probably did most of the digital manipulation required to construct the document using the program Adobe Photoshop.
Then, the manipulated document was transported to Adobe Illustrator for final touch-up before being released to the public.
She believes whoever created the forgery had insufficient expertise and did not realize that "flattening" the document in Photoshop Illustrator – a process that melds the layers – would still allow professionals to determine the layers required to manipulate the data in the process of forging the document.
"Overall, it's an amateur job," Zebest said. "The forgers obviously over-estimated their level of expertise in undertaking to forge a document that is destined to play a pivotal role in U.S. history."
How could any forger working for the White House be so sloppy?
"As president of the United States, you can't exactly put out a Request for Proposal asking the forger to submit credentials and pricing to the White House chief of staff," she answered. "A small group around you may be loyal, and someone within that group may have computer graphic arts experience, but forging a document that will sustain expert forensic analysis is a skill-set not required of most commercial designers and artists who use Adobe software on an everyday basis."
