BY LINDA BENTLEY | AUGUST 10, 2011
Birthers invite Colin Powell to $15,000 challenge
‘Will you be regarded for your honesty and integrity, or will it be for so fearing the facts that you would not accept $15,000 …’
WASHINGTON – On Monday, Dean Haskins, executive director of the Birther Summit, issued a press release about its open challenge to Gen. Colin Powell.
Addressing Powell, Haskins wrote, “It was reported in May of this year that you told South Carolina State University’s 400 graduates that you particularly enjoyed a recent event: ‘… when President Obama took out his birth certificate and blew away Donald Trump and all the birthers!’”
In light of Powell’s proclamation, and his “controversial endorsement in 2008 of then-Senator Obama,” the Birther Summit offered to pay Powell $15,000 to sit down for three hours and be presented with evidence proving what Obama used to “blow away Donald Trump and all the birthers” was not actually a valid birth certificate, but a forgery.
Haskins’ offer also includes experts presenting evidence to Powell of “other dubious information Obama has used to misrepresent himself and his eligibility to hold the office of president, including his use of a Social Security number that appears to have never been assigned to him, and a forged Selective Service registration form.”
After presenting Powell with the evidence, all the Birther Summit asks is that Powell either affirm the evidence presented is sufficient for Congress to launch an immediate non-partisan investigation into the matter, or that he refute the evidence, which must be based on evidence, not something anecdotal or rhetorical in nature.
Valuing Powell’s past and present service to our country and because the Birther Summit participants believe duty, honor and country still matter, Haskins affirmed the Birther Summit is prepared to compensate Powell, or his charity Wings of Hope, with $15,000.
Haskins stated, “Because of the gravity of this issue, we think that $5,000 per hour for little more than listening to the truth should be fair compensation for your time.
“You see, General Powell, we are not so easily blown away, and we hope that you will consider your place in history, and for what you will be remembered. Will you be likened to Gen. George Washington or Gen. Benedict Arnold? Will you be regarded for your honesty and integrity, or will it be for so fearing the facts that you would not accept $15,000 for three hours of your time to be presented with them?”
As planning for the March 2012 Birther Summit is underway, Haskins tells Powell these facts will eventually be known by our nation, “as the Birther Summit is committed to the relentless dissemination of them.”
Because Powell weighed in on Obama’s birth certificate publicly, Haskins points out he will now “forever be linked to embracing what we can demonstrate to be a lie,” or take them up on their offer to set the record straight by simply listening to the truth and getting paid pretty well for doing so.
In closing, Haskins states, “To any question you may have regarding our ability to sustain fully what we have proposed to you, we have but three words: Yes We Can!”
As the press release was widely distributed on Monday morning, RF in Washington, D.C. posted a comment on the “Obama Release Your Records” (ORYR) blog, stating, “I have to say I had my doubts about this one this morning. I thought $15,000 was a waste of money.
Anyway, I called one of the overseas newspapers that I have been calling and this is the most interested they have been in anything I have called them about to date and they asked me to email them the press release to the UK. Hats off to you guys.”
Meanwhile, U.S. mainstream media remains silent on the proposal.
While another person commented on ORYR, “Powell is paid more than $100k per speech,” Haskins noted in his letter to Powell, since experts will be doing most of the talking, he needn’t prepare a speech.
Another poster on ORYR wrote, “It truly saddens me that such an important issue, which to me defines our country’s foundation, is so ignored that we as patriots can only hope for foreign press and to get so excited because there might be an article in Albania about our Muslim president.”
California Birther/Dualer/Doubter posted his prediction: “Powell won't bite. Even if he did, he wouldn't listen to the evidence with an objective mind; if anything, he probably will end up obfuscating the issue even more.”
Another person stated the Birther Summit needed to be held between October and December, citing, “We can’t wait seven more months to do this. Trust me, we can’t.”
Will Powell ignore an invitation to listen to evidence presented by experts or deprive a charity of $15,000?
Haskins said if Powell doesn’t respond, it will only be to his discredit and they have compiled a list of other prominent people to whom they will offer the same challenge.
Visit www.birthersummit.org for more information, to make donations or to register for the Birther Summit.
