Description: Viral image / Hoax
Circulating since: Feb. 2012
Status: Fake (see details below)
Analysis: This is a hoax aimed at convincing the gullible that Barack Obama attended college as a foreign student, and therefore must not have been born in the U.S.
The first clue that it's a fake is the name: "Barry Soetoro." Though Soetoro was his stepfather's last name and Obama attended grade school in Indonesia under that name, there's no shortage of evidence attesting to the fact that he attended college as Barack Obama (for example, the byline of an essay by Obama published in Columbia University's weekly magazine, The Sundial, in 1983).
Secondly, it's as easy as doing a Google image search on the phrase "Columbia University Student ID" to locate the original image from which the bogus Obama ID card was made. Issued in 1998, it bears the same identification number as the one supposedly issued to Obama.
Thirdly, as noted on Snopes.com, the university didn't begin issuing digitally generated ID cards such as the one pictured above until 1996.
See also:
• Barack Obama's Left-Handed Flag Salute
• Barack Obama "Praying" at a Mosque
• What Happened to Obama's Law License?
More political Photoshoppery:
• Welcome to Kenya, Birthplace of Barack Obama
• Obama's "Foreign Student" College ID
• Gov. Sarah Palin Poses in Bikini w/Rifle
• G.W. Bush Fishing in Hurricane Katrina
• John Kerry Shakes Hands with Satanist
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Sources and further reading:
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Snopes.com, 9 February 2012Obama at Columbia University
FactCheck.org, 16 March 2010
Last updated 07/27/12
