AFP Interviews Sheriff Arpaio’s Lead Investigator

By Pete Papaherakles

“There is now absolutely no doubt that Obama’s long form birth certificate released by the White House is a complete and utter forgery,” said Mike Zullo, the lead investigator in maverick Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Cold Case Posse, during a lengthy interview (below article) with AMERICA FREE PRESS on August 3rd. It’s important to understand the story behind it as well as who Zullo and his investigators are. This AFP writer had the opportunity to speak at length with Zullo to find out how he and the rest of Arpaio’s posse came to their conclusion.

Five people make up the Cold Case Posse, which was tasked with investigating Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate. Three of them, including Zullo, are police detectives. The other two are attorneys. In over ten months they have put in several thousand hours of investigation at no cost to the taxpayers, according to Zullo, who says he puts in 60-100 hours every week.

“I worked as a detective in Bergen County, N.J. for five years,” said Zullo. “This is across the river from New York City, an area that includes over a million people, with 70 police departments. In addition to street crime, the area has a high degree of mob crime and white-collar crime. After that, I worked for seven years as an investigative detective with legal firms and with my own firm. Since 2005 I have been working with Sheriff Arpaio in Maricopa County as an investigator. That’s over 20 years of investigative work.”

The investigation into Obama’s birth certificate began with an affidavit signed by 250 citizens of Maricopa County, who were concerned about its authenticity. Looking to clear the president, Arpaio put Mike Zullo in charge of dispelling these rumors. In the process, however, the team found some anomalies with the document.

“Realizing the seriousness of the matter, Sheriff Arpaio demanded we do thorough research, leaving no stone unturned, without preconceived ideas,” said Zullo. “We really were not looking to what we found. After six months we had to announce that probable cause existed indicating that forgery and fraud may have been committed. What was presented to the American people as the president’s long form birth certificate was really a manufactured electronic file created in cyberspace. When run through even basic computer software it breaks down into nine layers, which can be manipulated and moved around. A real scanned paper document cannot perform this way.”

Arpaio called for a congressional investigation into this scandal, which he exclaimed was “bigger than Watergate,” yet no action has been taken thus far. The national media remain silent or dismissive on the matter. Instead they have attacked Arpaio’s reputation with allegations of racism toward illegal aliens and inmate abuse.

What little media attention was given to the birth certificate issue was primarily for the purpose of ridiculing Arpaio and casting doubt on his findings. One method was to point out that the so-called electronic layers produced in the document were merely the result of something known as “optimization,” whereupon computer software finds the best way to compress a document’s digital information, thereby making it easier to view on the Internet.

As a result, Zullo had to have experts run an additional 1,200 tests proving once and for all that layers produced by scanning and optimizing a document are totally inconsistent with the layering of a fabricated document. “As far as we are concerned, our analysis of the digital portion of this investigation is finished. We do not believe that this document could ever survive judicial scrutiny.”

On July 17th, Arpaio held a second press conference, where he announced that new discoveries indicated the birth certificate was a fraud. He related how the posse had gone to Hawaii to locate 95-year-old Verna K. Lee, the signatory on the birth certificate. Mrs. Lee explained to the investigators what the mysterious pencil marking codes on the birth certificate mean.

“No one knew what these codes meant until we traveled to Hawaii to find her,” said Zullo. “She was the supervisor of the birth certificate documenting section at Kapiolani Hospital in Hawaii in 1961. All birth certificates went through her. These codes refer to handwritten numerical pencil markings that are found in several boxes of the document. The number “9” was written both in entry #9 on the birth certificate, which asked for the father’s race, and in entry #12b, which asked for his occupation. This code meant that an entry was ‘not stated.’ In other words, that box was never filled out by the applicant. The birth certificate passed through three sets of eyes, including Mrs. Lee’s. That meant that three people had verified that this entry was never filled in.”

Zullo added that Mrs. Lee told the investigators that those types of mistakes never happened on her watch. “Yet on the birth certificate released by the White House, these entries are suspiciously filled out,” said Zullo. “The father’s race is written in as ‘African,’ and his occupation states ‘University.’ This is indisputable evidence that the document is a forgery.”

Mrs. Lee told investigators that the term “African” was never used to denote race in 1961. “Negro” or “black” were the only terms used at that time. The term “African” would not be used by the government until 1989, according to Zullo.

“The second major development was that we documented how easy it was to obtain a birth certificate in Hawaii in 1961,” said Zullo. “Actually it is still almost as easy. All one needed to do was to claim that they witnessed an unattended birth outside of a hospital within one month and to provide a legal identification and proof of residency.”

Zullo continued, “No other state in the U.S. has laws as loose as Hawaii’s regarding the registration of births. Many Japanese used this loophole to obtain U.S. citizenship in Hawaii at that time, and many others have used this loophole to this day, causing major birth certificate fraud problems with the Department of Immigration and Naturalization.”

Both Zullo and Arpaio have been very clear in stressing that they are not accusing Obama himself of anything at this point. They are merely stating that the document presented by the White House is a forgery.

Zullo said the investigators are now looking into the origin of the forged document. “We know what computer the document resided on 20 minutes before it was uploaded to the White House’s website. We know the make, model and serial number of this computer. We just have to pinpoint the person using the machine at that time.”

For a man who has fought crime all his life, Zullo had this to say about his discovery: “I find it troubling that Americans have become so desensitized to criminal activity in this country. We have proved conclusively that this birth certificate is a forgery, yet millions of Americans are ready to reelect Obama without even looking at the evidence.”

Interview

AFP: What prompted Sheriff Arpaio to establish the “Cold Case Posse” and investigate the authenticity of Obama’s birth certificate? Were you guys out to prove that the document was fraudulent?

M.Z. What prompted the investigation was that 250 people from Maricopa County had signed a petition asking Sheriff Arpaio to look into the matter. This occurred as allegations of a fraudulent birth certificate were starting to escalate since it’s release by the White House. Proving the document a fraud was the last thing on our minds. As a matter of fact we thought the allegations were silly and were hoping to clear up the issue and move on. We really were not looking for anything like this.

AFP: When did the investigation begin and how long did it last?

M.Z. It began sometime in September or October of last year. We held our first press conference on March 1 when we were positive that there was probable cause to declare that the document was fraudulent. We had conducted extensive research by this point and could say with confidence.

AFP: You have said in your first press conference that the Cold Case Posse was a volunteer group that put in 2,200 hours over six months. Has that number grown?

M.Z.: For the past 9 months I have personally put in 60 to 100 hours every week. The others have put 500 to 700 hours each over the same period. This has cost the taxpayers nothing. All our time has either been paid by donations or has been volunteered.

AFP: What prompted the second investigation that led to your second press conference in July?

M.Z. The investigation never stopped really. In fact it is still going on. The significance of this press conference is that we had uncovered key evidence that proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the document presented to the American people by the White House was a total forgery. This was the culmination of the scientific evidence of the investigation. This part is now complete.

AFP: How many people made up the Cold Case Posse? Was Jerome Corsi one of them?

M.Z.: Five. Three were police officers with extensive experience as detectives. The other two were attorneys. We also had seven or eight people who checked documents. Jerome Corsi was not part of our team, although he provided much knowledge and expertise.

AFP: Can you elaborate on your professional background?

M.Z.: I worked as a detective in Bergen County, N.J. for five years. Keep in mind that this was the metropolitan area across the river from New York City out to Newark and Union City, N.J., an area that includes over a million people with 70 police departments, an area that does not have as much street crime as it does mob crime and a high level of white collar crime. I was also involved with major narcotics investigations.  

After that I worked in the same area for another seven years as an investigative detective with legal firms. This is where I really honed my skills on how to build cases with an ironclad legal foundation that can’t be taken apart in court. I also started my own investigative firm for much of that time.

In 1993 I moved to Arizona. Since 2005 I have been working with Sheriff Arpaio in an investigative capacity, where I have clocked in over 14,000 hours. That’s over 20 years of hard core investigative work.

AFP: In your first press conference you announced that you had probable cause for fraud and forgery. I believe that the main conclusion at that point was that the birth certificate was created online, that there never was a paper document. A document when put through Adobe Acrobat can be broken down to 9 layers, unlike a scanned paper document What do you say to those people who claim that a paper document can also have layers due to optimization enhancement?

M.Z.: This challenge was brought up after our first press conference on March 1.  Although we had already stated that we were aware that a scanned and optimized document also breaks down into layers, that point was lost on many people.  As a result, we took the document to two experts who, independently of each other, ran approximately 600 separate tests each on the PDF file purporting to be the birth certificate and control documents to see how they performed under all forms of digital compression and with many different software programs. One expert performed the tests on a PC with a Windows operating system and the other on a Mac. They both proved conclusively that layers produced by scanning and optimizing a real document were totally inconsistent with the layering of a fabricated document. The Obama document has eight one-bit layers and one eight-bit background layer. A real scanned and optimized document has only one one-bit layer and multiple eight-bit background layers. As far as we are concerned our analysis of the digital portion of this investigation is finished. We do not believe that this document could ever survive judicial scrutiny.

AFP: In your second press conference you said that you proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that the document presented to the American people by the White House was a total forgery. This was the result of locating 95-year-old Verna K. Lee, who was a signatory to the original certificate. She told you that the code “#9” meant that the entry was not stated. In the certificate submitted some of those were filled out. Was that what clinched it for you?

M.Z.: This was not the only development although it was a major one. No one knew what this code meant until we traveled to Hawaii to find her. She was the supervisor of the birth certificate documenting section of Kapiolani Hospital in Hawaii in 1961. All birth certificates went through her. This does not refer to entry #9 on the form. It refers to handwritten pencil markings that are found in several boxes on the document. The number “9” was written both in entry #9 of the birth certificate, which asked for the father’s race, and in entry #12b, which asked for his occupation. What this code meant was that an entry was “not stated,” in other words that that box was never filled out by the applicant. The birth certificate passed through three sets of eyes, including Mrs. Lee’s. That meant that three people had verified that this entry was never filled in. “Mistakes like that never happened on my watch,” Mrs. Lee assured us. Yet on the birth certificate released by the White House, these entries are filled out. The father’s race is written in as “African” and his occupation states “University.” Another problem of course as verified by Mrs. Lee is that the term “African” was never used to denote race in 1961; “Negro” or “Black” were the only terms used at that time. In fact, the term African would not be used by the federal government until 1989.

The second major development was that we documented how easy it was to obtain a birth certificate in Hawaii in 1961. Actually it is still very easy to do, although slightly modified since then. All one needed to do was claim that they witnessed an unattended birth take place outside of a hospital within one month and provide a legal identification and residency. No other state in the U.S. has laws as loose as Hawaii’s regarding the registration of births.  Many Japanese would also use this loophole to obtain American citizenship in Hawaii at that time, and many others use this loophole to this day causing major birth certificate fraud problems for the Department of Homeland Security.

AFP: How has the media responded to these press conferences? Have you gotten any coverage?

M.Z.: We have gotten absolutely no national mainstream coverage of our findings. Whatever little local media coverage we got has usually been negative or distorted.

AFP: You have been careful to say that you do not accuse the President of collusion with this forgery. Can you elaborate?

M.Z.: Our investigation has nothing to do with the President of the United States. We are not accusing him of being complicit in any way or of even having knowledge of this. All we are saying is that the document officially submitted by the White House to the American people is a forgery. It may be possible that after a Congressional hearing, all legislation passed under the Obama administration is considered null and void.

AFP: You have called for a Congressional investigation. Has there been any progress in that area?

M.Z.: No. Many say that the upcoming elections will decide this and if he loses the elections it will be a moot point. However, there is much more to it than that. There are severe ramifications here that extend beyond the President. If his presidency was illegitimate, then laws passed by him will also be illegitimate and will have to be declared null and void. We are looking at four years of legislation here.

AFP: You said that the investigation is still in progress and that the scientific part of the investigation is now over. What areas of the investigation are you conducting now?

M.Z.: We are looking into the origin of the forged document. This document originated in a certain computer which sent it to the White House to be posted on their official website. This was done by a particular individual. We know what computer the document resided on 20 minutes before it was uploaded. We know the make and the model of this computer. We need to connect this information with that individual. The document also had to be approved by the White House before being released to the American people. There are only three reasons someone would produce a forged birth certificate. They either did not have one to start with, they wanted to remove existing information, or they wanted to add information. We feel in this case that it is a combination of all three. If the White House had a valid document to start with, why have they spent a million dollars in order to conceal it?

AFP: What is your ultimate goal?  When do expect the investigation to be complete?

M.Z.: The investigation will continue as long as it takes to get to the bottom of this. A crime of immense proportions has occurred here against the American people and they need to find out what happened. This is a glaring misrepresentation of what the Founding Fathers intended as qualifications for the Presidency. Under no circumstances can the President of the United States not be American born. Americans cannot pledge allegiance to a President not born in America.

AFP: Do you have any final thoughts?

M.Z.: I find it very troubling that Americans have become so desensitized to criminal action in this country. We are a nation of laws, yet these laws are being violated on a massive scale in all areas of society and we don’t seem to care as much as we should. The examples are endless, from Washington to Wall Street to everyday life. In Arizona we have a massive illegal immigration problem where the rights of average Americans are violated and border patrol guards are risking their lives everyday. Yet our government is just letting it happen while protecting and even rewarding those who enter our country illegally. As we approach the election season, millions of Americans are contemplating reelecting a president whose birth certificate has been proven to be a total forgery. This is a scandal much bigger than Watergate, yet most Americans don’t seem to be care enough to find out. This is not the America our Founding Fathers had in mind.

Peter Papaherakles, a U.S. citizen since 1986, was born in Greece. He is AFP’s outreach director. If you would like to see AFP speakers at your rally, contact Pete at 202-544-5977.