2012-03-06 - al - mcinnish v - exhibit 4 - zebest report

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Attachment IV

REPORT BARACK OBAMA: LONG FORM BIRTH CERTIF ICATE

Figure 1: PDF file releasedfrom While House

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f'igure 1; A printout W4S given to AP which they scanned

I, Mara Zebest, am preparing this report at the request ofMaricopa County Sheriff 's Office in support of the Cold Care Posseinvestigation.The PDF birth cerrl ficate document released by the White House(shown In rtgUt'e 1) isa completely manufactured atld fabricatedcomputer gelWrated image. The same source file was used toprint a copy handed to the AP (shown in Figure 2), in which theAP scanned in the version handed to them. A third photographversion ( 'Jure 3) was touted by Savannah Guthrie who claimedto have held and felt the seal on the document. bu t the originalInternet posted images have been scrubbed.The Whi te House wants us to believe the PDF document startedout in printed form (on green basketweave sa fe ty paoen andretrieved from Hawaii-but this is nor poss ib le. All three versionsmanifest itself as a printed document only when the PRINT buttonispressed from within the orig inal manufactured documenthie. Ihts would account for the transformation of a documentcontaining different color backgrounds. and the ability to printwith or without safety paper pattern (by turning a layer on or of f).There is no doubt in my mind that this computer generated imagenever started out as a paper source document and was neverscanned in as described by the White House-it was digitallycrea t ed QIId manufocturftd.The bulk of this report will explain the evidence to support this,which will include the following points:.? Inconsistencies within text characters: All anti-aliased text (in

a color scan), Of all bitmapped text (in a bteck & white scan)-not am ixture of both whkh is impossible in a legitimatedocument. Image noise should also be consistent throughout.

;J Chromatic aberration absent: A color scanned documentwould display chromatic aberration. This isphysics and occursin al l COIOf scans but Isabsent in Obamas PDF document." Layers: A normal scan is a flat f ile and does not contain mult ip lelayers. The Obama PDF contains 9 layers and grOUPEd to adipping ITldsk layer.

", Links: Indicate that components were pasted into the file,rotated, and resized.

~ CUpping Mask Path hides image information: Proof ofmanipulat ion .

.~~ Safety paper and white halo: Manufactured in nna! steps.


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REPORT BARAeK OBAM A: LONG FORM BIRT H CERT IF ICAT E Page 2 of 10

Fig ure 4: Search fo r te xt is n ot r ec oq niz ed = -No OCR ap pl ie d

Font Properties of Obama's PDF fi l~

;-'9'j c, ": Font Properties dialog after OCRText Recognition

OCR-whiCh s ta nd s f or Optical Character Recognition-will s ca n adocument for text and convert an y images of text to live(editable)text.After OCR is a p pl ie d to a P O F i nA d o be Ac.robat Pro, t he t ex tresponds as if it is in a Word document. The OCRtext can beselected, changed, copied and pasted, The Obama t : D E d o c u m e a tas downloaded cannot be edited in the aforementioned manner,Note: A do be A cro ba t P ro has PDFediting functions, but AdobeA c ro b ar Re ade r does not.Additionally, if the P DF h ad been scanned using OCRsoftwart'; onewould be able to search the document with keywords and if thetext exists in the document. then those keywords would be found.Figure 4 sh0w5 the keyword Lifttyped in the FINDbox. and eventhough the word "Live"exim in the Cttrtificatft of UwBirth title, adialog bo x responds that "n o m atc he s w ere fo un d.'When viewing the font properties dialog DOX in Figure S,no fontsare listed. IfOCRwas used, the Image area would be converted torecoqnized fonts in the document and the fonts would be listed.The dialog box i~empty, indicating that Obarna's PDF f Iedoesno t r ecogn ize an y text. This dialog bo x can be viewed by goin9to the File rnenv > Properties, then click on the Font tab in theD oc um e n t P ro pe rtie s dialog box.Font-based text can be created after a file has been processedthrough the OCRText Recognition feature InAdobe Acrobat.Toru n the O CR feature, g o to the Document menu and select OCRText Recognition, and then dkk RecognWt Text UsIng O CRAcrobat will then perform a scan on the document and convert anytext found in the image to editable text. Note that applying OCRText Recognition willalter the appearance of the characters intheconversion from image to textFigure 6 shows that aUthe fonts reccqnlzed during the process arenow listed in the Font Properties dialog box.Figure 7 shows another search (after OCRIsapplied) on thekeyword "Live"typed inthe FINDbox..The word "Live" isfound andhighlighted wlthln the CertilkDU of Uw Birth title.

'/}-,,, -;: Search for text is r ecoqnized after OCRisapplied


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R E P O R T SA R A C K O B A M A: L O N G F O R M B IR T H C E R T IF IC A T E

Figure 3: Painted brush strokes in digital scan lack noisea l i ased(b i tmap)aant i -a l iaseda

Aliasing (or bitmap) and anti-aliasing

Let 's br ieRy examine three terms related to graphic programs:Noi5e, Anti, aliasing, and Bitmcp

Noise V No NoiseScanned images wHi have it consistent nO;H. Any inconsistenciesin noise would be a strong telltale sign of tampering. When lookingat an image at a normal zoom level (100%) colors may appear asone color of any partkutar area of an image. Zooming in dcser tothe area, consistent noIH iseasily apparent in the slight variationsof color from neighboring pixels that make up each color (shownin Figure 8), This is the natural noise level for this image. Note thatit is consistent throughout the image; variat ions can be seen forneighboring pixels of each color area in the original image.In contrast , Ffgure 8 also shows an example of n o n oi se as a resultof digi tal manipulation, Two pixels were sampled to match colorswithin the image. Using a paint brush tool in Adobe Photoshop,a streak of each sampled color isd rawn across the Image area.Clearly the lack of noise in the digital brush strokes is inconsistenrwith natural noise of {he image. Components added digital lY to animage do IlOt contain noise. All neighboring pixels for the samplepaint strokes in Figure 8 are solid in color with no variation-noteven the slightest of variations. Inorder to avoid detection whenediting an image, an experienced professional will need to mimicthe noise to match the document. One common method used is toaccess the Add Noise filter found on the Photoshop Fi tter menu.This was not done in the Obarna PDF f ile, I f this was a legi timatecolor scan, noise would be consistently displayed throughout theentire document.Bitmap {orAliasing} v Anti-aliaSingFigure 9 offers a visui ll explanation of aliasing (or bitmap text)contrasted with anti-aliasing. Notice that aliasing i~the visualstair-stepplnq of e-dges that occurs in an image which yields ajagged edge. Anti-aliasing is the smoothing of la


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REPORT BARACK OBAM A: LONG FORM B IRTH CERT IF ICATE

Figure f ,: Scanned text and ChromatJc AlH"Qtlon . 'or pnnt.F;gU[E ' 2:. Oberna PDF viewed in Acrobat at 1600% zoom level

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~rm.g !'fT04' 0f'1.. ~tM'np C G~ t'!'"kt (olOf V~'UC1I JI CERTlfYn{tS ss nWE copy ORI.-.as'rRACT Mtm: RE:COROON fiLE: i~iHE HAWAll STATE rlEP.AR"~EN)' OF HEAlTHII,

Examples of text inconsistencies

Scanner Chromatic AberrationWhat is chromatic aberration? This occurs when differentwavelengths of light are refracted differently as itgoes througha lens or prism dudng the scanning process. Ught is refracteddifferently as the scanner encounters one side o t a contrastingcolor (particularly with text) compared to the opposite side ofthecontrasting COIOf.In simpler terms, Figure 11 is an example of Chrommk AbemJ t Joninwhich the scanner produced warm red-Ish color values atthe bottom and left edges of the text, and similarly the scannerproduced cool blue-Ish color values around the top and rightedges of text t ransitions, Chromat ic Aberration can be seen at ahigh zoom level Incolor scans such as the dP;lWiQQ of Oberna'sBC- but this chromatic aberrat ion is NO T present in Obama's PDFreteased by the White House.Because the APversion displays chromatic aberration, this isanindicator that the AP d id receive a printed h ard (O pY o f the BC fromthe White House and scanned whatever was presented to them. APdid not do anything WfO"9. They simply sunned what was handedto them.It's important to note that the AP version d O ES N OT have abasketweave safety paper backqround pattem, but rather a babyblue colored background. This sudden difference in backgroundcolor/pattern is another inconsistency that could NO T happen ifthe document was ~imply scanned with no further manipulationand released by the White Hocse=-but this inconsistency wouldonly happen ifthe White House document IS a manufactured file.Applying the Terms ReviewedA key problem with the document as presented, is that it is riddledwith 'nconsistencies. Scannmq O il document without manipulationproduces an image with qualities that are consist.ntglolHllIy(throughout the entire image). Amateurish image manipulationwill rveallocol (s~cific areas) of inconsistencies or odd artifacts.Another example of anti-aliased text containing noise for the letter'R" mixed with surrounding bitmap text in Figure 12.The whitehalo effect surrounding the text with no chromatic aberration isalso a stronq indicator that the document was manipulated (moreon the white helo later! .Figure 13 displays text color inconststencies Indates, along with an:lsspellmg in the offciai stamp t~y.t-'TXF. instead of"'THE"Whileit may be argued that the mi5speiling is merely d function ofthestamp ink applied unevenly, the odds signilkantly decrease thatthis would occur on both vertical bars that affe


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REPO RT BARACK O BAM A: LO NG FO RM BIRTH CERTIF ICATE Page 5 of 10

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1 ' : ' \ 1 , , ) " \ : > 15: N or mal o ne-lay er scan document behavior

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Multiple layers and links in Obarna's PDF

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AP layers and lin ks after optimization isappl ied

Attempts to sU9gest optimization explains the presence of layers inthe O ha m a P DF i s simply not t ru e . Wh il e it Is true that optlmilationcan cause layers, it isnot true that optimization explains the layersdisplayed in O bar na's P O E T he layers i n O b ama's PDF dea r ly displaya d ed sion -m akin 9 pr ocess that would be present w ith im ag emanipulation.A simple definition fo r optImIzotion i s a p r oc es s that appliessuitable compression settings to reduce file size.As stated-optimization con cause layers-but in the caseof optimization; the process of h ow th e d oc um e n r is la ye re dis completely computer-generated based on programmingalgorithms. Thus, there are certain predictable patterns.Sefore examining the Figures , itmight help to explain th at th er e aretwo types of graphic programs: Rasr.,-bosed an d VtorbGud.Raster-based is a fan


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REPO RT BARACK OBAMA : LONG FORM B IRTH CERTIF ICATE

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i''IFigure 18: Obama PDFopened In Illustrator with dipping mask

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~-,:;.;---~,::;:~;Figure 19; ClippingMask group released and sub-layers displayed

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!'igUT;;; 20: Zoom view of top layer reveals white pixels

FiglJr~ 21: Layer turned off reveal; uninterrupted pattern below

let 's return to the previously mentioned Clipping M < u I c Path . Theterm mask refers to defining parts of an image to be hidden fromview (rather than have to delete unwanted parts). Any : a : : :t Q { ; haDfcan be used as a QiQDf!J!l..1lQ1h-inhis case the re


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REPO RT SARACK O BAM A: LO NG FO RM B IRTH CERTIF ICATE Page 7 of 10

Figur!l 22: Target layers and objects for date and cerbfy stamp~

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REPO RT SARAeK O BAM A: LO NG FO RM B IRTH CERT IF ICATE Page 8 of 10

Figur" 27; Atwo-Iayer stamp text file created to demonstrate

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Figure 18: Atext selection created and selection expanded

Next the selection needs to be lnversed

The white halo effect presents two common quesnoos: why isthere a white halo, and what caused it? Before answering theformer question, let 's address the latter.The white halo could simply be a f unction of a selection createdaround all the text-before f il ling the background layer with agreen safety pattern.The green safety pattern could have easily been applied to thebackground layer without any selection-thus a solid patternwould have covered the entire background layer-without awhitehalo. But tor some reason, a white halo effect was generated-either through an active selection when creating the background.or through an enhancement process, or a combination of both.As might be expected. the creation of a background using a te xtselection is easily demcnstrated with step-by-step Figures.Figure 21 shows the demonstration file set-up. The stamp texttrom the Obama PDt tile was copied (from Illustrator) ana pastedInto a new Photoshop file on it layer that IS above a solid whitebackground layer. Note the two layers Inthe Layers panel: StampText layer and the Backqround layer (currently filled with white).When working ina graphic program, If you want to apply anychanges to an image. you have a choice to use a selection for thetarget area, or to make changes without it selection. Ifthe~ isnoselection, then any changes can be applied to the entire linagewithout any restrictions. If a selection is created, the changes arelimited to the selection area on/yo Analogous to selecting text Ina Word program to apply a change. such as bold formatt ing; thetext IS first selected, and the bold formatt ing is then applied to theselection only.Inthis example, a selection will be created around the text as thenext step shown in Figure 28. Any object separated on a layercan easily be used to create it selection of that object. Simply holddown the etrl key and click on the layer thumbnail-in thls caseclick on the Stomp Text layer. A selection that resembles marc.hingants appears around the text T~ next step is to expand theselection to include a little extra space surrounding the text. Thiscan be accomplished from m e S.lect menu, using Modify, andthen choosing the Expand option (also seen in Figure 28).The Expand Seleaion dialog box displays in FlgurQ 29 whIChallowsit user to specify "OW many pixels to expand the selection. Since,the }de" is to surround the text by a small area, the amount enteredInthis example wifl be 2pixels.The expanded selection in FigUl'e 30 currently surrounds thetext. However, the current setecnon area needs to remain whitesince the ult imate goal is to apply a pattern filt to the surroundingbackground area-not the surrounding rexr area. There f o re , theselection needs to be reversed-also known as inveH-to ensurethe pattern will flit everything on the background layer ex,epnhetext area.Go to the Select menu shown in Figure 30.The Inverse option ischosen, The selection is now ready to fill with 3 color. or a pattern.or even another scanned irrcage (su


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Page 9 of 10EPORT BARACK OBAM A: LONG FORM B IRTH CERT IF ICATE':"_- :_'_"" -< ~.:.__ '; ,. .. , ,: a._ _ !Ii: " * t:i~-~;". ~.,.~ ~ := . V '. < ~ ; : : ~ ~ ~ ~ - ' ~ , . : . . . - ~ " ' . - - ~ ~ ~ ~ ' - - - - ' _ " ~ - " ' . ~ , ~ - - ~ - " " ---

Figura 31: Selection used to define a pattern

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REPORT BARACK OBAM A: LONG FORM BIRTH CERT IF ICATE Page 10 of 10

figure 31: Some extra remnants visible in the APversion

The previous exercise demonstrated how the white halo could becreated, but there can be a multi tude of ways to accomplish thesame task in a program such as Photoshoe, Whether or not theexerdse presented is the definitive method isnot the main point.The exercise was presented as a possible solution to the question:How d id th e w h ft e h alo ge t In to th e d oc um e nt! But actuaHy, the onlyquestion that matters is:why is th e white ItoIo the at /1Anyoffidal document obtained by I~imate procedures and scannedwould not h a ve th e w h ite h a lo .Aspreviously stated, every anomaly can beeasily explained as amanufactured document Not only does this document displayattributes that it was completely manufactured digitally, but thereisstrong evidence that a master fiie exists as a source file.What ismeant by a master file? Amaster file isa file inwhich all the objectsstill exist on separate layers (in other words, more layers andinformation th an seen in theObd lThl PDF sub -l a ye r s) .For example, inthe Obama PDF,the bottom layer contains thebackgfOund pattern with some text elements merged ontothat layer. In the master fileversion, the text stillremains on aseparate layer-NOT merged with the background layer. Itishighly probable that this master filealso contains the short formcertificate layers (which would explain the problems seen in the APversion of the file).F igure 37 and Figure 38 demonstrate that the APversiOn of thelong form certificate contains a different set of problems asfollows:~ A sudden shift to itdifferent backgroundz : Safety paper pattern in the shadow at the left edge-but not In

the document background~/ Short form embedded into the printout-Figure 38 isan

enhanced version which allows the details to be seen moreeasily

Onc e again, all of these additional problems displayed intheAPversion would not occur jf the source document presentedto the AP had been a legitimate scanned document withoutmanipulat ion. However, al l three problems would eas i ly be a resultof a m a nu fa ctu re d s ou rc e file-in which layers from a master fliewere turned off or mistakenly left on.

2012-03-06 - al - mcinnish v - exhibit 4 - zebest report

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