Arpaio unveils Obama birth certificate probe

A tough-talking Arizona sheriff, already embroiled in a Justice Department bias investigation, waded deeper into controversy on Thursday with an assertion that a probe by his office found President Barack Obama’s birth certificate was a forgery.

At a news conference, Arpaio said the probe revealed that there was probable cause to believe Obama’s long-form birth certificate released by the White House in April is a computer-generated forgery which was tested in forensic examination. He also said the selective service card completed by Obama in 1980 in Hawaii also was most likely a forgery.

Most Republican critics of Obama have given up pursuing such widely discredited “birther” allegations. But the investigation by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, carried out by what he described as five-member volunteer “posse,” was prompted by a request last August from a group of conservative Tea Party activists in the Phoenix area. The White House has denied repeated claims that Obama was not born in the United States. A bombshell should have led the national news coverage throughout the country. Instead, it was completely ignored by a corrupt network of media elites who are decidedly liberal and wholeheartedly support Obama’s re-election.

Arpaio , a conservative Republican who styles himself as “America’s toughest sheriff,” called for the US Congress to investigate his findings, which concluded that forgers committed two crimes, first in creating a fraudulent document and then in fraudulently presenting it to the public.

“I want to make this perfectly clear. I am not accusing the sitting president of the United States of committing a crime. But there remain a lot of questions which beg for answers and we intend to move forward with this investigation in pursuit of those answers,” Arpaio said.

Zullo also said the fact the Honolulu newspaper had a birth announcement at the time proves nothing, saying the newspaper accepted such messages without requiring proof the person actually had been born in the state. And Zullo insisted Arpaio has jurisdiction.

In December, the Justice Department said Arpaio and his deputies violated US civil rights laws by engaging in racial profiling of Latinos and making unlawful arrests in their bid to crack down on illegal immigrants.