WorldNetDaily continues to set the stage for the release of Jerome Corsi's sure-to-be comedy classic, Where's the Birth Certificate?, with a series of articles desperately trying to cast doubt on Obama's citizenship. Today's offering from Aaron Klein, posted with the headline “Bombshell: U.S. government questioned Obama citizenship,” alleges that the “U.S. government is on record questioning President Obama's citizenship status as early as when he was 5 years old, stating it lacked documentation to determine his citizenship.”

Both the headline and the lead paragraph, however, are wildly misleading -- as Klein later notes (buried at the end of the article) the U.S. government also answered these questions “on record” by definitively stating that Obama “is a United States citizen by virtue of his birth in Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 4, 1961.” Bombshell!

After opening his article by teasing the fact that the U.S Government was “questioning” Obama's citizenship status when he was 5, Klein wastes several hundred words documenting the attempts by Obama's mother to extend Obama's stepfather's visa. Eventually, Klein gets to the “bombshell.”

Here it is, in full [bolded subheadline in original]:

'Nothing on file' to document Obama's citizenship

Before that, immigration authorities exchanged queries about Obama, with one noting questions about Obama's citizenship.

One critical exchange is dated August 21, 1967, from Sam Benson, an officer at the Southwest Immigration and Naturalization Service office in San Pedro, Calif.

Benson's query stated, “There is nothing in the file to document the status of the spouse's son. Please inquire into his citizenship and residence status and determine whether or not he is the applicant's child within the meaning of Section 101(b)(1)(B) of the Act, who may suffer exceptional hardship within the meaning of Section 212(a).”

The reference is to the Immigration and Naturalization Act, which defined a “child” as an unmarried person under 21 years of age who, among other qualifiers, could be a “stepchild,” whether or not born out of wedlock, provided the child had not reached the “age of eighteen years at the time the marriage creating the status of stepchild occurred.”

A response to Benson's inquiry came from one “W.L. Mix” of the central immigration office, who determined Obama was a U.S. citizen.

Mix replied: “Pursuant to inquiry from central office regarding the status of the applicants' spouse's child by a former marriage.”

“The person in question is a United States citizen by virtue of his birth in Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 4, 1961. He is living with the applicants' spouse in Honolulu, Hawaii. He is considered the applicant's step-child, within the meaning of Sec. 101(b)(1)(B), of the act, by virtue of the marriage of the applicant to the child's mother on March 5, 1965.”

The files do not state how the office determined Obama was born in Honolulu.

The bolded subheadline introducing this section of the story is a misquote. While the bolded text quotes the official saying there is “Nothing on file” to document Obama's citizenship, what he actually said is that “there is nothing in the file to document” Obama's status. “Nothing on file” suggests that this documentation is non-existent, while “nothing in the file” is more limited to “this information is not in front of me.” And, as Klein himself notes, that information confirming Obama's citizenship was available, and was confirmed by "'W.L Mix' of the central immigration office."

I suppose a more accurate subheadline would have been: “U.S Government in 1967: Obama 'a United States citizen by virtue of his birth in Honolulu,'” but that doesn't sound quite as exciting.

So, to clarify: an immigration official was on record “questioning” Obama's citizenship status. His question was answered by someone in the central immigration office, “who determined Obama was a U.S. citizen” that was born “in Honolulu, Hawaii, Aug. 4, 1961.” In a pathetic attempt to cast doubt on what would appear to be further evidence of Obama's Hawaiian birth, Klein ends his report by stating “the files do not state how the office determined Obama was born in Honolulu.” Yeah! Maybe this “W.L. Mix” character is in on it. His name is suspiciously close to “Marx,” after all...