Army birther pleads guilty to 1 of 2 charges

AP ^ | December 14, 2010 | AP

[Smokeyblue]

An Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questions Barack Obama's eligibility to be president has pleaded guilty to 1 of 2 charges against him.

At a court-martial proceeding Tuesday in Maryland, Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin of Greeley, Colo., pleaded guilty to not meeting with a superior when ordered to do so and not showing up at Fort Campbell in Kentucky where he was supposed to report.

[STARWISE]

The lib CAAFlogger’s report from today

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

United States v. Lakin liveblog III

###

Colonel Sullivan is en route to Fort Meade for this morning’s resumption of the Lakin court-martial. Trial is scheduled to start again at 0900. The prosecution has rested; next up is the defense.

Mr. Puckett did not tip his hand yesterday regarding his strategy. There may be a motion for a finding of not guilty, although the odds of success on such a motion seemed to decline with yesterday’s testimony. The defense could rest without presenting evidence or may put the accused on the stand. Rebuttal and surrebuttal, if any, will be determined by the scope of the defense case. Barring the out of the ordinary, presentation of evidence on findings should wrap up this morning.

Next, Judge Lind will discuss instructions with counsel out of the presence of the members. If the contested charge has survived motions, they’ll discuss findings instructions and — because there will be a sentencing phase regardless of how the contested charge is resolved — may cover some sentencing matters as well. If there is still a contested charge, the members will be brought back to the courtroom, counsel will give findings argument, and the members will then retire to deliberate. Sentencing will follow their verdict; the members will likely hear an unsworn statement from LTC Lakin and there may be witness testimony as well.

We’ll have updates from the colonel as events warrant.

If you missed RealityCheck’s interview last night with Colonel Sullivan, retired CDR Phil Cave (whose rank I inadvertently omitted in previous posts — mea culpa), and Fogbow blogger Mata Mari, you can still find it online here: blogtalkradio.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/rcr/2010/12/15/rc-radio-special—lakin-court-martial-day-1

0945: Update from the colonel: the defense rested without presenting any evidence.

The defense team has asked that the members be instructed on the lesser-included offense of failure to go under Article 86, and has waived any issue as to whether it is a proper LIO of missing movement. Judge Lind has not decided whether to give the instruction. The court-martial will resume at 1030 hours.

One other note: Pastor Manning, one of the birthers attending the trial, left the courtroom escorted by security and has not returned. No word on what prompted his departure.

http://www.caaflog.com/2010/12/15/united-states-v-lakin-liveblog-iii/

[Doe Eyes]

CBS claimed he was not eligible according to a reason that isn’t even in the Constitution under the eligibility requirements for the office of president, that because he had been AWOL he was not eligible to serve in the federal government.

I remember the AWOL accusation, but I don't recall CBS claiming President Bush was not eligible to be President.

Can you post a link?

[jamese777]

Somethings are not what they really seem.....

What may seem as fact to all those :
( ** The evidence that has thus far been persuasive in legal briefs submitted in Obama eligibility lawsuits are that the Governor, Attorney General, Director of Health and Director of Vital Statistics of the state of Hawaii have all confirmed that Obama was born there. The Governor, Attorney General and Director of Health are all members of the “loyal opposition” political party to Obama. The Director of Health went so far as to declare Obama “a natural born citizen.” ** ) ....

is not so...

by a former CIA agent: Clearing the Smoke on Obama’s eligibility .....

Is this not enough of a red warning flag to you to even take a moment and take notice ????

The former CIA agent makes a point and proves it, that ?
Under certain accommodations of the laws that were in place back in 1961, that in fact, that may seem to be a legitimate birth in Hawaii could have been a birth from another state, or even another country......

If you had knowledge of hindsight and you knew what was going to happen on the Titantic, and you were the ship’s captain ? would you not listen to your crew that there is a iceburg ahead and take appropriate actions to save your ship , crew and passengers from a shipwreck ? ..... red warning flags are all over this for those who will at least take the time and take notice.

---

Barack Hussein Obama announced his candidacy for the presidency in February of 2007. It is now December, 2010. At some point in time, someone is going to have to present actual evidence rather than conjecture, rumor, suspicion and innuendo of fraud, forgery, perjury or some other crime.
Thus far, there has been no such actual evidence presented.
Judges tend to believe governmental officials, especially when they are members of the opposition political party to the defendant and therefore have little incentive to be lying to back a Democrat.

---

“A spurious claim questioning the President’s constitutional legitimacy may be protected by the First Amendment, but a Court’s placement of its imprimatur upon a claim that is so lacking in factual support that it is frivolous would undoubtedly disserve the public interest.”—
U.S. District Court Judge for the Middle District of Georgia Clay R. Land, 9/16/09, Rhodes v MacDonald

[Danae]

Thanks STAR!

I am glad Lakin’s attorney has his best interests at heart.

I am sad that it is apparent there will be no further mention of the reason Lakin made his choices.

sigh

[edge919]

How do you feel about your track record of advice concerning Lakin's case so far? Could you have been more perfectly wrong?

I haven't been wrong about anything. This is going pretty much as I expected.

After all, they have never been considered or signed by a REAL President, and are thus as invalid as Lakin's orders supposedly are...then you TOO will have 'standing' when the IRS, etc take you to court.

Standing doesn't apply to criminal cases. Nothing in what you quoted from me says anything about standing.

Odd, isn't it, that the Internet heroes supporting Lakin never take up that challenge.

It's not odd at all. Lakin is taking an admittedly extreme measure to challenge the president's authority. Most of us are trying to use persuasion and reason rather than civil disobedience as a means of exposing the truth. Just because we throw our moral and rhetorical support to Lakin doesn't mean we believe it was the best recourse to take.

[usmcobra]

Any legal challenges to his ability to perform the duties of the office must be adjudicated....

Can I assume that you have been following this issue for a while?

If you have you then know that almost all attempts to get this matter resolved legally (even before the elections) have been stymied by all sorts of legal maneuvering whose sole purpose was to prevent Obama's eligibility from being examined in a court of law.

With a question of this magnitude, our government has failed to protect the Constitution by allowing such tactics to be used to allow Obama to become president.

[danamco]

And Lakin has done nothing to speed the change of that. Nothing.

EXACTLY!

Because of "people"(?) like YOU and like-minded!!

The hero Lt.Col. Lakin started out with the CONSTITUTION and nothing else. But YOU and the "system" totally overlooked the CONSTITUTION and muddying the issue to make Lt.Col. Lakin looks like something he really is NOT. Many of us has been totally screwd by the so called "system" protecting an illegal C-i-C at any cost, including you. And I think, contrary to you, he showed courage and conviction to challenge the establishment!!!

[BuckeyeTexan]

Says to guy who has never spent a SECOND in uniform, to the guy who's a career officer, and combat veteran.

I'm embarrassed for precious because he doesn't have the sense to be. Ugh.

[danamco]

“Right on, precious. You got that one correct.”

---

And here’s another one!!!

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2636130/posts?page=28#28

[verity]

"Honestly, are you a freakin' moron, or are you being intentionally obtuse?"

[jamese777]

Can I assume that you have been following this issue for a while?

If you have you then know that almost all attempts to get this matter resolved legally (even before the elections) have been stymied by all sorts of legal maneuvering whose sole purpose was to prevent Obama’s eligibility from being examined in a court of law.

With a question of this magnitude, our government has failed to protect the Constitution by allowing such tactics to be used to allow Obama to become president.

---

The simple truth is that a Grand Jury investigation would have NO legal maneuvering and no question of legal standing.
The “Obama is ineligibile movement” adopted a losing legal strategy from the start and the movement has stuck with that losing strategy in lawsuit after lawsuit for years now.
ANY strong conservative/originalist prosecuting attorney in the nation could investigate Obama and subpoena Obama’s long form birth certificate. The fact that no has speaks volumes. The fact that no well known, nationally recognized conservative constitutional attorney has gone anywhere near an Obama eligibility lawsuit also speaks volumes.

---

By the way, when John McCain and the Republican National Committee were sued on the grounds that McCain’s birth outside the continental US made him ineligible, McCain’s attorneys and the Republican Party’s attorneys used the exact same legal tactic as Obama’s attorneys used, they filed for dismissal on grounds of lack of standing and they prevailed on those grounds. The New Hampshire Federal District Court lawsuit was “Hollander v McCain and the Republican National Committee.”
When the Republican Governor of Indiana was sued for allowing Obama’s name to be on the Indiana ballot and receive Indiana’s Electoral College votes when Obama’s father was not an American citizen, the Republican Governor of Indiana had the Republican Attorney General of Indiana use the legal tactic of trying to have the lawsuit dismissed on grounds that the plaintiffs had stated a claim that the Court had no remedy for—out of the Court’s jurisdiction. The original trial court judge and then a three judge Appeals Court agreed with Governor Mitch Daniels and his Attorney General and they dismissed the lawsuit. The case was “Ankeney et. al. v The Governor of Indiana.”

[BuckeyeTexan]

Of course not, it was a lesson in questioning orders, there are always orders that MUST be questioned as well as those that CANNOT be, what makes The American armed forces different from all other nations is that we are trained to think and act on our own even if that means disobeying orders especially illegal ones.

Agreed. However, I would suggest that such training to questions orders applies to any orders given with the military itself. Obama is the civilian commander of the military. The military is not in a position and should not be in a position to question orders from their civilian commander unless those orders are clearly illegal under the Constitution or laws of the United States.

For me, therein lies the heart of the argument where Lakin is concerned. Lakin had no evidentiary proof and no court ruling stipulating that Obama is ineligible. Therefore, his orders were not clearly illegal. Our system of justice does not require the accused to prove himself innocent of the charges/accusations. So by making a baseless accusation about the CIC, Lakin himself became the accused in a court martial. The court martial's purpose is not to prove Lakin's accusation correct.

If Lakin had solid, evidentiary proof of Obama's ineligibility, I could accept his decision to question his orders. And he likely would not have been court martialed for following the proper channels as he did. I believe the issue would have been resolved through the chain of command. The Secretary of the Army or the Secretary of Defense would have reviewed the evidence and submitted it to the U.S. Congress for investigation. The Secretary could have either sent Lakin to Afghanistan pending the outcome of the Congressional investigation or revoked Lakin's orders.

As it happened, Lakin had no proof of his accusation and therefore was required to obey his orders. To me, it's that simple.

[usmcobra]

You right it didn't start with CBS, they blew it up to national proportions it started with the Boston Globe article in May 23, 2000.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/mikes-letter/george-w-bush-awol#article1

My linker is on my other browser

[danamco]

Says to guy who has never spent a SECOND in uniform, to the guy who's a career officer, and combat veteran.

Your wisdom is soooooo overwhelming!!!

Really impressive knowing of my services???

[Mr Rogers]

“...if Obama is not eligible their obedience to his unlawful orders is unconstitutional.”

I strongly agree with that statement. Where I disagree is in who determines Obama is not eligible. That isn’t part of an officer’s duties.

Military service involves trust. We don’t get to see all the evidence that sends us to war, nor do we review our targeting (in the USAF) - that is done by the lawyers prior to our getting the target packet.

So it is with the President. If the 50 states, Electoral College, Congress and the courts accept him as a legitimate President, then the military officer must either obey his otherwise lawful orders or resign.

[danamco]

I told you.....???

FINOs!!!

[Mr Rogers]

“By the way, do you remember how desperately CBS news tried to prove that George W. Bush was ineligible to serve as president and how the media supported that claim.”

Nope. I never heard anyone claim GWB was ineligible until AFTER the US Supreme Court shut down the Florida court. Then we had several members of the US Navy squadron I was attached to at the time object that GWB wasn’t legally President. They were told to obey or go to jail, and they prudently decided to do the former.

“If memory serves me, George W. Bush had to produce all his military records, from his initial enlistment contract, up to his final discharge including all of his dental, medical and pay records along with this original birth certificate.”

Your memory is wrong, and no one in the military tried to force him to reveal any personal records.

[usmcobra]

Catch 22 really, Obama won’t supply the proof he is ineligible therefore you expect everyone in the military to ignore the giant pink elephant in the room.

There have been countless discussions on natural born citizenship and obama’s COLB and birth certificate but the case has not been tested in any court, realistically it is an officer’s duty that he is sworn to obey to protect the constitution that includes putting his life on the line to resolve this issue rather then wait until someone else does it for him.

If Lakin had legal proof from a court of law that Obama was not eligible he would not have to disobey an order, Obama would no longer be president.

[danamco]

One other note: Pastor Manning, one of the birthers attending the trial, left the courtroom escorted by security and has not returned. No word on what prompted his departure.

It's soooooo interesting to see the Alinsky tactics, that anyone who are standing up for the CONSTITUTION is a "birther"???

More typically that "After-Birthers" are never used by them!!!

[Non-Sequitur]

You dont think Cuban Prisons hold prisoners who have challenged Fidels authority as Lakin has publicly challenged Obamas Authority?

I don't equate a U.S. Army court martial with the Cuban justice system. But that's just me. Obviously you put the two on par with each other.

Its Human to yearn for freedom, and also Human to jail people who challenge your power. It happens in every country, and now we see it in America.

And it's Human to try people who break the laws, and jail them if convicted. Sorry if that's outrageous behavior in your book.