What was the most covered-up story of 2010?
WND readers and editors identify 10 most underreported news events
By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WorldNetDaily
A senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu during the 2008 presidential election burst onto the national media scene in June when WND reported his allegation that there is no Hawaiian birth certificate for Barack Obama.
But the disclosures from the elections insider regarding one of the most controversial issues of the day – the constitutional legitimacy of a president – was ignored by most of the media, thus putting Adams' story at the top of WND's annual list of the 10 most "spiked" or underreported stories of the last year.
At the end of each year, many news organizations typically present their retrospective replays of what they consider to have been the top news stories of the previous 12 months.
WND's editors, however, long have considered it more newsworthy to publicize the most underreported or unreported news events of the year – to shine a spotlight on those issues that the establishment media successfully "spiked."
WND Editor and CEO Joseph Farah has sponsored "Operation Spike" every year since 1988, and since founding WND in May 1997, has continued the annual tradition.
Adams' statements conflicted directly with repeated affirmations by public officials in Hawaii that they had seen or had inspected Obama's birth records that would document his representations that he was born in the state.
The issue of his birth is pertinent insofar as it plays a role in his status as a "natural born citizen" under the Constitution's requirement for presidents, a demand not imposed on any other federal office-holder.
Many critics are challenging, politically, legally and strategically, Obama's eligibility to occupy the high office, command U.S. troops, determine foreign policy and run domestic functions, including his initiatives early in his tenure to take over banks, insurance companies and automobile companies as well as nationalize health care.
Produced with the help of WND readers, here are the WND editors' picks for the 10 most underreported or unreported stories of 2010:
1. Elections official Tim Adams claims there is no Hawaiian birth certificate for Barack Obama.
WND reported on Adams, a college instructor who worked as senior elections clerk for the city and county of Honolulu in 2008, when he made the stunning claim Barack Obama definitely was not born in Hawaii as the White House maintains.
He reported that a long-form, hospital-generated birth certificate for Obama does not even exist in the Aloha State.
"There is no birth certificate," said Adams, a graduate assistant who teaches English at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green. "It's like an open secret. There isn't one. Everyone in the government there knows this."
Adams, who said he was a Hillary Clinton supporter who ended up voting for John McCain when Clinton lost the Democratic nomination to Obama, told WND, "I managed the absentee-ballot office. It was my job to verify the voters' identity."
"I had direct access to the Social Security database, the national crime computer, state driver's license information, international passport information, basically just about anything you can imagine to get someone's identity," Adams said. "I could look up what bank your home mortgage was in. I was informed by my boss that we did not have a birth record [for Obama]."
He said his office checked with both Honolulu hospitals – Queen's Medical Center in Honolulu as well as the Kapi'olani Medical Center for Women and Children across town – that had been identified at different times by the press as Obama's birth hospital.
"They told us, 'We don't have a birth certificate for him,'" he said. "They told my supervisor, either by phone or by e-mail, neither one has a document that a doctor signed off on saying they were present at this man's birth."
To date, no Hawaiian hospital has provided documented confirmation that Obama was born at its facility.
Image of an original long-form birth certificate of Susan Nordyke, born in Honolulu the day after Obama's reported birth date. President Obama has never produced a similar document.WND confirmed with Hawaiian officials that Adams was indeed working in their election offices during the last presidential election. However, they told WND they have no access to birth records.
"They may say, 'We don't have access to that.' The regular workers don't, the ones processing ballots; but the people in administration do," said Adams, "I was the one overseeing the work of the people doing the balloting."
Short-form Certification of Live Birth image, which is not the same as a long-form, hospital-generated Certificate of Live Birth, released by the Obama campaign in June 2008.He said what Obama posted online doesn't prove anything.
"Anyone can get that [Certification of Live Birth]," said Adams. "They are normally given if you give birth at home or while traveling overseas. We have a lot of Asian population [in Hawaii]. It's quite common for people to come back and get that."
2. Army officer court-martialed, jailed, after questioning Obama's eligibility.
A related story WND documented was that of Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, now imprisoned in Ft. Leavenworth for disobeying Afghanistan deployment orders based on the refusal by the Army and the Obama White House to show proof of Obama's eligibility.
Dr. Terrence LakinConvicted of missing a deployment assignment and several other lesser charges, his case now is pending before Maj. Gen. Karl Horst, commanding general of forces in the Washington, D.C., region and the convening authority over Lakin's court martial.
Horst can approve Lakin's sentence, reduce it or order him released.
Lakin's case was torpedoed from the outset when the judge handling the proceedings ruled that because revelations regarding Obama's eligibility could "embarrass" the president, Lakin would not be allowed to discuss the issue, would not be permitted to bring forth evidence regarding eligibility, would not be allowed to bring in witnesses on the issue, and would not be allowed to pose any of his questions.
The judge, Col. Denise Lind, also ruled that Lakin would not be allowed any discovery to obtain existing evidence that might document his case.
Lakin was sentenced to six months confinement, forfeiture of pay and allowances, and dismissal from the service for disobeying orders. His supporters have established a fund to support Lakin's legal defense and provide for the needs of his wife and children while he is incarcerated at Leavenworth.
3. The reality of the U.S. economy is being assessed as a major issue by those who know, but has been getting little to no media attention. Very real questions about impossible deficits and skyrocketing taxes haven't earned much network time.
In fact, the stock market's modest rebound over the course of 2010 was being hailed by administration officials as an indicator of a turnaround and when numbers of new applications for unemployment benefits didn't rocket, it was called an advance.
But in reality, WND reported on the estimated $3 trillion in unfunded government pension liabilities even as there was discussion of a possible Value Added Tax on everything in the country.
"Everything" seemed to be a popular target for taxes, as WND reported Democrats proposed another plan to raise $4.4 trillion through a fee on each and every "transaction" across the country.
The hard facts that nobody wants to see are that the U.S. dollar today is backed only by "promises" from the same politicians who created today's economic disaster, according to longtime monetary expert Craig R. Smith who documented that the nation already faces some $120,000,000,000,000 ($120 trillion) in debt, deficit and unfunded liabilities.
The situation has gotten so bad former Libertarian vice presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root wrote that based on the direction of the U.S. economy, he was beginning to miss George.
Not George W. Bush, the president, but another George.
"President Obama and his cabal of socialists and fascists are so bad, so oppressive, so corrupt, I'm actually starting to miss King George III, the ruler of the original American colonies," he said.
"King George III may have taxed the colonies too much with his Stamp Act, thereby inspiring the history-changing American Revolution – but as oppressive as King George was, he did provide something in return for the taxes: military protection and a navy. … The question for taxpayers today is: Are things really any better? Have we traded King George for a series of homegrown despots?"
4. America's move toward socialism continued, even though it never in 2010 got attention like Obama's remark to "Joe the Plumber" about just wanting to "spread the wealth."
A republic is based on personal responsibility, limited government and the vote of the people, in contrast to socialism, where the state hands out what it believes citizens need and takes from them what it wants.
Has the change in the United States gone that far already?
Obama's early work included programs that effectively nationalized car companies, banks, insurance companies and investment companies and this year he awarded a socialist, John Sweeney of the AFL-CIO, the nation's highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The actions of one of socialism's most active advocates in the United States, George Soros, also became more blatant, and a Soros-funded organization suggested that with the GOP taking over the U.S. House now, Obama simply should rule by executive order.
"The ability of President Obama to accomplish important change through these powers should not be underestimated," wrote John Podesta of the Center for American Progress.
5. The fall of the "mainstream" news media – as ratings drop, advertising plunges and the public distrust grows.
It's not necessarily new that the old media – television networks, newspaper conglomerates and the like – are in decline, as their viewer totals and reader numbers have been dropping for years, evidenced by the collapse of even major institutions such as the Rocky Mountain News in Denver.
But in the last year, some startling developments came up revealing just how troubled the "old" part of the media industry is, including the stunning revelation that would have been unheard of historically in the news industry, a network anchor boasting of his socialism.
MSNBC anchor Lawrence O'Donnell confirmed to viewers, "I live to the extreme left of you liberals," and, "Liberals amuse me. I am a socialist."
WND also reported when CNN, one of the key players in reporting in decades gone by, took the time to profile Lila Rose of the cutting-edge pro-life Live Action organization, an individual on whom WND has reported since her beginning work.
CNN described her work of visiting Planned Parenthood abortion businesses under cover and catching them in inappropriate – or even illegal – situations, "guerrilla journalism."
Even CNN admitted it was because of a "growing distrust of the mainstream media…"
The politically correct banner also was raised. In a column on a page for a group of professional journalists was announced a plan to abolish the words "illegal alien" or "illegal immigrant" in reporting about the invasion into the U.S. of, well, "illegal aliens."
On the website for the Society of Professional Journalists came the explanation that the term is offensive, and only a judge can determine someone is "illegal."
6. Allegations of fraud, including illegal voting by felons and a formalized refusal by some states to follow election law regarding ballots for the military, raise the dark possibility of the manipulation of elections.
WND has reported that election irregularities are becoming more and more common, raising serious concerns about one of the bedrock principles of the republic – the integrity of the ballot box.
Some of the reports have focused on the election from 2008 in Minnesota that gave ex-comedian Al Franken a U.S. Senate seat over incumbent Norm Coleman, who had more votes at the end of the count.
Citizen investigators there have found more illegal votes – and a number of court cases have resulted – than the Franken margin of victory in a recount.
Further, during the 2010 election some states simply disregarded – or demanded an exemption to – requirements that they get ballots to members of the military, who vote more conservatively than the general population, on time for them to be returned and counted.
WND reported that in Connecticut, there even were allegations that voting by illegal aliens may have swayed the results.
7. Mysterious missile spotted off the coast of California.
Contrail was recorded in this image by KCBS-KCAL in CaliforniaOne of the most mysterious stories largely left unreported was the appearance of what appeared to be a missile contrail filmed Nov. 8 by a KCBS television crew near Los Angeles.
The government said there was no danger, but has refused further explanation.
Several experts who analyzed the images, however, suggested that the missile might even have been shot from a submerged Chinese submarine, coinciding with an increasing level of confrontation between the U.S. and China.
Complicating the theory, however, was confirmation from a federal agency that it had warned the public that there would be "intermittent missile firing operations" in that area at the time.
So the questions remain: Was it a missile, and who launched it?
8. The rising tide of evidence that the rising tide from global warming is a man-made hoax.
The "Climategate" scandal, where e-mails purloined from a major global warming advocacy team at the University in East Anglia, U.K., continued to develop but got scant attention.
Author Brian Sussman warned the U.S. government was developing protocols to deal with citizens based on the East Anglia assumptions.
"Buried in the 2009 America Clean Energy and Security Act are federally mandated energy-efficient building regulations, which supersede all local and state codes and which will be enforced by a national, green goon squad, funded in part by revenues from energy taxes, as well as by an annual $25 million from the Department of Energy 'to provide necessary enforcement of a national energy efficiency building code,'" he confirms.
"The legislation also authorizes the Secretary of Energy to 'enhance compliance by conducting training and education of builders and other professionals in the jurisdiction concerning the national energy efficiency building code.'"
He continued, "The plan is modeled on building code enforcement in California. Each time a home is built, remodeled, or – in the case of the federal plan – preparing to be sold, a G-man wearing a federal badge and armed with a clipboard will show up at your house to make sure ... all of your appliances have been updated with the most recent Energy Star-approved internal communication devices, and that the Home Area Network has been properly installed and connected to your new SmartMeter, whether you like it or not."
Meanwhile, global warming investor Al Gore, the former vice president, bitterly lamented the "failure" of the government to adopt comprehensive laws taxing energy use and emissions.
He blamed the "right-wing" media for reporting on the "Climategate" e-mail scandal, where leaked e-mails from top global warming proponents appeared to manipulate the information about the issue.
One said, "The fact is that we can't account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty that we can't. … The data are surely wrong."
Sen. James M. Inhofe, R-Okla., has suggested the Justice Department investigate scientists for potentially falsifying data as part of "Climategate." And the Orange County Register has posted a chart for consumers to try to keep up with all the scandals developing in the "global warming" community.
Among the scandals listed are:
- ClimateGate: The scandal over the Climatic Research Unit e-mails from East Anglia.
- FOIGate: In which British officials are investigating whether East Anglia scientists refused to follow that nation's freedom-of-information law about their work.
- ChinaGate: In which dozens of weather monitoring stations in rural China apparently have simply disappeared. This would lead to higher temperature averages since city levels frequently are warmer.
- HimalayaGate: In which an Indian climate official admitted in January that he falsely claimed Himalayan glaciers would melt away by 2035 to prod governments into action.
- And PachauriGates I and II, SternGates I and II, AmazonGate (in which a claim that global warming would wipe out rain forests was exposed as a fraud), PeerReviewGate, RussianGate I and II and nearly a dozen others.
9. The push in the U.S. courts by homosexual advocates to demand the legalization of same-sex "marriage" as well as through Congress to formally adopt the policy of allowing open homosexual behavior in the U.S. military.
This is not a new issue, but remains beyond the reach of most traditional reporting staffs, as the demands that courts impose same-sex "marriage" on state populations and Congress allow openly homosexual lifestyles in the military became intense.
The reporting from WND, which earlier documented how homosexual activists have lost 31 out of 31 votes in states when the definition of marriage is on the ballot, revealed the strategy of avoiding voters when demanding such changes.
Much of the focus right now remains on California, where the judges on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are considering whether to rubberstamp a decision by a homosexual judge that said voters had no right to amend their own state constitution, through the Proposition 8 definition that marriage is only between one man and one woman.
The judge, Vaughn Walker, on open homosexual, in September overruled more than seven million voters to banish Proposition 8, which had been approved by voters in 2008.
His 136-page ruling said, "Proposition 8 fails to advance any rational basis in singling out gay men and lesbians for denial of a marriage license. Indeed, the evidence shows Proposition 8 does nothing more than enshrine in the California Constitution the notion that opposite-sex couples are superior to same-sex couples."
Walker also wrote:
- "Religious beliefs that gay and lesbian relationships are sinful or inferior to heterosexual relationships harm gays and lesbians."
- "Rather, the exclusion exists as an artifact of a time when the genders were seen as having distinct roles in society and in marriage. That time has passed."
- "The gender of a child's parent is not a factor in a child's adjustment."
- "The evidence shows beyond any doubt that parents' genders are irrelevant to children’s developmental outcomes."
- "Gender no longer forms an essential part of marriage; marriage under law is a union of equals."
- "Many of the purported interests identified by proponents are nothing more than a fear or unarticulated dislike of same-sex couples."
His decision essentially ignored a warning from California Supreme Court Justice Marvin Baxter, who dissented when his court created same-sex "marriage" in the state, a result later overruled by voters.
He wrote, "The bans on incestuous and polygamous marriages are ancient and deeprooted, and, as the majority suggests, they are supported by strong considerations of social policy. Our society abhors such relationships, and the notion that our laws could not forever prohibit them seems preposterous. Yet here, the majority overturns, in abrupt fashion, an initiative statute confirming the equally deeprooted assumption that marriage is a union of partners of the opposite sex. The majority does so by relying on its own assessment of contemporary community values, and by inserting in our Constitution an expanded definition of the right to marry that contravenes express statutory law.
"Who can say that, in 10, 15 or 20 years, an activist court might not rely on the majority's analysis to conclude, on the basis of a perceived evolution in community values, that the laws prohibiting polygamous and incestuous marriages were no longer constitutionally justified?" Baxter wrote.
WND had the story when voters in Iowa handed homosexual activists a stunning setback, by firing three of the state Supreme Court justices who had created same-sex "marriage" in the state. The other four justices weren't on the ballot this year.
A related issue, open homosexuality in the military, reached critical mass when desperate Democrats, knowing their agenda would fail in the new year under a GOP leadership in the House, forced through Congress a plan to authorize such sexual behaviors in the military.
While the formal change still awaits several conditions, including verification from the military that there will be no significant "impacts," it was WND that reported how veterans protested and one officer immediately announced he would rather be relieved of his command than order his troops to go through pro-homosexual indoctrination.
WND also had the report when experts warned the move to open homosexuality in the military was being rushed and when it was revealed that the military's own survey – used to support the change – probably was manipulated or worse.
Late in 2010, the federal government in the name of air travel security rolled out new demands for passengers at airport screening stations to undergo either an X-ray that produces an essentially nude image or a full-body pat-down that includes touching private parts.
The backlash was strong among civil rights advocates and the videos and images of offensive pat-downs and invasive images were viral on the Internet.
However, it was left largely to WND for reporting that found an analysis concluding the searches probably violate the Constitution.
In addition, WND reported how the Transportation Security Administration's newest technology can be fooled into missing bombs that are taped onto a person as well as the likelihood that cancer would result from repeated X-ray radiation.
Further, experts documented for WND how loathsome diseases easily could – and probably would – be spread from one passenger to another through the gloves agents use to touch passengers, but don't change.
Finally, came the alarming warning that a TSA official's recommendation that invasive pat-downs of young children be treated as a game brought the warning that such actions would only groom them for possible attacks from pedophiles.
Honorable mention: The pink slips.
Earning honorable mention were the "pink slip" campaigns that were organized by WND Founder and CEO Joseph Farah, on issues including America's opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens, the nation's abhorrence at machines that produce nude body images or invasive pat-downs at airport security checkpoints, concerns Americans have over Obama's nomination of Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court, and others.
They all were based on the success of a campaign that dispatched nearly 10 million warnings to members of Congress to return to the values of their constituents or face being removed from office in November.
The GOP landslide in the November election followed those warnings.
