Wash. Times' Gaffney made false and baseless claims about Obama's birth certificate, purported "ties" to Khalid al-Mansour

In his October 14 Washington Times column, Frank Gaffney Jr. falsely claimed that a "question yet to be resolved is whether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States ... Obama has, to date, failed to provide an authentic birth certificate which could clear up the matter." In fact, as Media Matters for America has repeatedly noted, in addition to posting a copy of Sen. Barack Obama's birth certificate on the campaign website, the Obama campaign reportedly provided the original document to FactCheck.org, whose staff reported in an August 21 article that they "have now seen, touched, examined and photographed the original birth certificate" and wrote that it "meets all of the requirements from the State Department for proving U.S. citizenship." Even the right-wing website WorldNetDaily reported in an August 23 article that a "WND investigation into Obama's birth certificate utilizing forgery experts also found the document to be authentic." Indeed, the Hawaii Department of Health has confirmed that the birth certificate posted online by the Obama campaign is "a valid Hawaii state birth certificate" and has called the speculation about Obama's citizenship "pretty ridiculous."

Media Matters has previously noted that Washington Times editor emeritus Wesley Pruden and numerous other conservative media figures have made discredited claims about Obama's birth certificate.

Gaffney also claimed in his column: "[T]here are the various well-known Islamists with whom Barack Obama has long had ties and/or who are actively promoting his campaign. These include: a former Black Panther convert to radical Islam who calls himself Khalid al-Mansour." He cited no evidence that Obama has "long had ties" with al-Mansour or that al-Mansour has in any way been involved in Obama's presidential campaign. Moreover, as Media Matters has documented, the Obama campaign has stated that "Obama did not know and does not know Khalid al-Mansour."

From Gaffney's October 14 Washington Times column:

Last week, Barack Obama's campaign was burned yet again for its dalliance with Islamists -- those who embrace Islam's repressive theo-political-legal code known as Shariah and who are working for its triumph in the West in general and the United States in particular. The episode is but the latest indication that the Democratic candidate hopes to win the White House by relying, in part, on the Jihadist vote.

NBC reported Thursday that the Obama campaign's latest radical "Muslim outreach coordinator," Mouha Husaini, met last month in one of Washington's Northern Virginia suburbs - the heart of what has been dubbed the "Wahhabi Corridor" - with her predecessor, Mazen Asbahi (who had to resign this summer due to his own associations with Shariah). Even more problematic was the presence at the Springfield event of two prominent Muslim Brotherhood operatives: Mahdi Bray of the Muslim American Society (MAS) and Nihad Awad of the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR).

As I pointed out in a debate on Tuesday (for a transcript, go to http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.1447/pub_detail.asp) with a man associated with both organizations and arguably the Bush administration's senior Muslim official, Suhail Khan, the Brotherhood is an instrument the Islamists have been using to foster a Fifth Column in America. Its stated purpose in this country is to "destroy Western civilization from within."

According to NBC, even other attendees expressed concern that the Obama campaign was reaching out to such "politically radioactive" individuals as Messrs. Bray and Awad.

Unfortunately, this is hardly the only association of this type. Others include the following:

[...]

-- Another question yet to be resolved is whether Mr. Obama is a natural born citizen of the United States, a prerequisite pursuant to the U.S. Constitution. There is evidence Mr. Obama was born in Kenya rather than, as he claims, Hawaii. There is also a registration document for a school in Indonesia where the would-be president studied for four years, on which he was identified not only as a Muslim but as an Indonesian. If correct, the latter could give rise to another potential problem with respect to his eligibility to be president.

Curiously, Mr. Obama has, to date, failed to provide an authentic birth certificate which could clear up the matter.

[...]

-- Finally, there are the various well-known Islamists with whom Barack Obama has long had ties and/or who are actively promoting his campaign. These include: a former Black Panther convert to radical Islam who calls himself Khalid al-Mansour; an aggressive promoter of Wahhabi influence operations, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal; a virulently anti-Israel and pro-suicide bomber Palestinian professor named Rashid Khalidi; and Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan, who in a speech last February called Sen. Obama "the messiah" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OowxMcVTjTE).