FORT MEADE, Md. – Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin apologized today for forcing the Army to court-martial him over his attempt to compel President Barack Obama to prove his constitutional eligibility to serve as commander-in-chief.
Convicted on all four charges against him, Lakin told his court-martial panel he will no longer disobey orders and would resume his military career if the Army would let him.
"I am extremely sorry for everything that has come of this," Lakin said in unsworn testimony during the sentencing phase of his trial. "As a military member, I was wrong."
The doctor, who several witnesses testified has an exemplary service record, will be sentenced tomorrow.
Lakin faces as many as 42 months in prison, forfeiture of pay and retirement benefits and dismissal from the service after being convicted of four felonies. Lakin pleaded guilty to two counts of disobeying orders to report to his commanding officer and one count of failing to report to his new unit. The court-martial panel found him guilty of the most serious charge, missing the movement of an airplane that was to take him to his new post.
The panel is also free to give Lakin a lesser sentence, or no punishment at all.
"I didn't want it to end this way," said the 17-year veteran flight surgeon. "I want to continue to serve the military" by applying his extensive medical expertise to wounded soldiers on the battlefield.
Lakin sought for months to find out whether Obama is a natural-born citizen, the constitutional requirement for an American to serve as president. Both military and civilian authorities were unwilling to answer the question.
In April, Lakin refused to obey orders to report to the 101st Airborne Division shortly before the unit was scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan. Lakin was concerned that the unit's orders to join Obama's surge might be illegal because of Obama's uncertain eligibility to be president. He said today he preferred to resolve the eligibility question before being sent into a combat theater, to avoid disrupting a unit on the front lines.
Deprived by trial judge Col. Denise Lind of any opportunity to defend himself by introducing evidence or expert testimony, Lakin was reduced to pleading guilty on three charges of disobeying orders and mounting only a narrow, technical defense on the "missing movement" charge. Lakin's attorney, Neal Puckett, tried in vain to persuade the court-martial panel to convict Lakin of a lesser charge.
"His attorney was reduced to a circus clown because [Lind] wouldn't allow a meaningful defense," said California attorney Orly Taitz, who has brought repeated cases challenging Obama's eligibility before U. S. courts. "It's a joke, just a farce."
"The issue is very simple," said New Jersey attorney William Baer. "What is the definition of 'natural-born citizen' and does Obama meet it? Nobody will let the question be asked."
"The military wouldn't let him have discovery, so he said 'go ahead and put me in prison,'" said retired Navy Commander Charles F. Kerchner of Emmaus, Penn., the plaintiff in a case that recently went before the U.S. Supreme Court. "He's a political prisoner."
Kerchner and retired Army Capt. Pamela Barnett of Sacramento, who was a plaintiff in a case handled by Taitz, both said they attended the court martial to support Lakin. Kerchner and Barnett pointed out that they, like Lakin, have been denied justice by U.S. courts that refused to hear the merits of their cases against Obama.
"They took away every constitutional right Lakin has," said Barnett. "The U.S. Supreme Court and the House of Representatives should address this stripping of an officer's civil rights. A terrorist has more rights than Terry Lakin."
During his statement, Lakin explained that he chose to disobey orders because of concerns that all military orders could be illegal when their authority is derived ultimately from a commander-in-chief whose legal eligibility to occupy the Oval Office remains unproven.
Now, however, Lakin says he agrees with the Army that orders given to him by his superior officers were valid in spite of Obama's legal status.
Lakin backers traveled from all over the country to attend the court martial. At least three times they were cautioned by Lind to remain silent after erupting into applause for Lakin.
More
DelMarVa's Premier Source for News, Opinion, Analysis, and Human Interest Contact Publisher Joe Albero at alberobutzo@wmconnect.com or 410-430-5349
11 comments:
The muslims have ruined the military!!!!!
I agree with the premise that the person residing in the White House should provide proof of his eligibility. Unfortunately, we haven't provided the proper authority with the proper verification requirement mechanism - so we may never know the truth. Hopefully, this will serve as a lesson-learned to prevent it from happening again. Meanwhile, we all need to prepare for 2012 as it will be the next opportunity to raise our collective voices!
No tears should be shed for this guy. He broke military law. He now has to pay for his narrow-minded, knee-jerk stupidity.
His future is bright, though. If FOX news does not hire him as an analyst after all of this, I would be surprised.
12:33 - We have also not been given acces to the absolute truth "proving" that 9/11 was not an inside job. I am supposed to just go on the word of the government? Not likely.
Obama produced the same documentation that any other person born in Hawaii would provide from the state gov. to receive a driver license, social security card, passport, or any other documentation. Its one thing to not like his politics but don't you think this whole BC thing is a bit ridiculous?
12:42 how exactly do you prove a negative?
12;46
Then why does he have a Ct. Social Security #. He has never lived in CT.
Obama is not a citizen !
why has he spent millions to cover-up??????
Re: "Then why does he have a Ct. Social Security #. He has never lived in CT. "
The answer is that hundreds of thousands of Social Security files have errors in them. The SS Administration has not been the most efficient of government departments.
Obama's CT SSN was caused by a clerical error in the Baltimore SS headquarters. Social Security numbers were issued based on the zip code of the return address. Obama's address in Hawaii was zip code 96814. The zip code for Danbury, CT. is 06814. Notice how close 9 and 0 are on the keyboard?
Re: "why has he spent millions to cover-up?????? '
Answer. He hasn't. He has already shown the official birth certificate of Hawaii, the certification of live birth, and the facts on it were confirmed twice by the heads of the department of health and department of vital records of Hawaii and by the governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, a Republican. A total of four would have to be lying for Obama to have been born outside of Hawaii--the original clerk who filled in the form for the birth certificate, the two officials who confirmed, and the governor.
I am told that the attorney general of Hawaii is a conservative Republican. If he thought that there was anything wrong with Obama’s birth certificate, he could have subpoenaed the original and taken action. But he didn’t.
Obama’s Kenyan grandmother NEVER said that he was born in Kenya. She said repeatedly in the taped interview that he was born in Hawaii, where his father was studying, and she said in another interview that the first that her family in Kenya had heard of Obama’s birth was in a letter from Hawaii.
Post a Comment