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Title: Military jury: Prison, dismissal for Army birther
Source:
YahooNews
URL Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101216/ap_on_re_us/us_army_birther_24
Published: Dec 17, 2010
Author: JESSICA GRESKO
Post Date: 2010-12-17 07:36:18 by noone222
Keywords: None
Views: 239
Comments: 20
FORT MEADE, Md. – An Army doctor who disobeyed orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he questioned President Barack Obama's eligibility to be commander in chief was sentenced by a jury Thursday to six months in a military prison and will be dismissed from the Army. The military jury spent nearly five hours deliberating punishment for Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin on Thursday after three days of court martial proceedings at Fort Meade, outside Baltimore, Md. Lakin was convicted of disobeying orders — he had pleaded guilty to that count — and missing a flight that would have gotten him to his eventual deployment. An army commander, Maj. Gen. Karl Horst, still has to approve the sentence returned by the jury and has the option to reduce it. Lakin could then appeal. In online videos posted on YouTube, Lakin aligned himself with the so-called "birther" movement that questions whether Obama is a natural-born citizen, as the Constitution requires for presidents, and said he was inviting his own court martial. But Lakin said Wednesday that despite his questions about Obama's eligibility for office, he was wrong not to follow Army orders. He acknowledged that the Army was the wrong place to raise his concerns about Obama, asked to keep his job and said he was now willing to deploy. "I don't want it to end this way," Lakin told the jury Wednesday under questioning from his lawyer. "I want to continue to serve." Military prosecutors disagreed. On Thursday morning, a military prosecutor asked the jury to sentence Lakin to at least two years in a military prison and to dismiss him from the service. It was a sentence he "invited and he earned," military prosecutor Capt. Philip J. O'Beirne told the jury. The prosecutor said Lakin had other options such as resigning or asking not to be deployed if he had issues with his orders. Instead, he used his deployment earlier this year as a political ploy, O'Beirne said, going to great lengths to create a "spectacle" by informing people of what he was doing. "He knew exactly what he was doing and he did it anyway," O'Beirne told the jury, asking members to send a message with their sentence and telling them they could "write the headline" that appears in papers about Lakin. But Lakin's defense attorney, Neal Puckett, asked the jury to be lenient, calling Lakin's case unique. He described the 17-year veteran as giving, compassionate and patriotic but also naive in trusting the poor advice of a previous civilian lawyer. He called Lakin the "victim of an obsession," referring to questions about Obama's eligibility, and said he made "one bad decision on one day of his career." Puckett asked the jury to consider Lakin's wife and three children at Christmas and said he should be allowed to stay in the Army because of his value as a doctor. "Make him work off his debt to the Army," Puckett said, suggesting Lakin could be sent on multiple deployments.
Poster Comment: The "Patriot" does time while the usurper does Party-Time.
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#1. To: noone222 (#0)
More guts and glory to this man than to all the men that volunteer on global campaigns that destroy the wealth and reputation of this nation. I have nothing but contempt for anything and everything that issues out of Washington.
Washington D.C. is actually the Headquarters of the FEDERAL (reserve bank) Government, the greatest enemy ever of the American people and the world.
"Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were (ever) our countrymen!”".
Sad when a man rises to the level of a LTC. and does NOT understand that in the military, the UCMJ is a joke. It is not uniform and there is never any justice. He would do well to reflect upon what would have happened to any enlisted person that took the same path.
There would have been a much greater good, had he taken his punishment, rather than knuckling under and denying all he had gained. I know, being under the gun is a different ball of wax, however, they may just make an example of him but throwing him in prison and ruining his life. Remember there is no...JUSTICE...in the military.
The "judge" gutted the defense's case by not allowing in any relevant evidence, and nobody should be shocked. Had she allowed the Kenyan to be exposed as a Kenyan, America's Hollow Army would have dissipated quicker than the Wicked Witch of the West.
Jethro... In Air Farce, friend of mine was grounded for six months due heart problem. He was given a make believe job. He and one other grounded officer were called upon every week to sit in judgement of enlisted men that had gone astray. It went along for a month and then one day he and the other guy voted...INNOCENT... That was the last time they were dragged into the "justice" system in the military. He told me the liars (lawyers) and the judge had all agreed ahead of time on the outcome, briefed the jurors that the enlisted were guilty and what penalty they were to recommend. He blew his cork. And here he was a Captain, been in for years and did NOT know there was no such thing as military JUSTICE.
It is not uniform and there is never any justice. "Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison ... the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor." Henry David Thoreau
"Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were (ever) our countrymen!”".
Henry said he was once arrested and jailed because...he was standing listening to some government official give a speech and during it, one time...HE SMILED... For smiling at the wrong time, he was jailed.
Thoreau is remembered with affection while the government official rests uncomfortably in a hell of his own creation !
"Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were (ever) our countrymen!”".
These days Henry would be an international terrorist, instead of a lowly trouble maker.
"It does not take a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brush fires of freedom in the minds of men." -- Samuel Adams (1722-1803)‡ "The ground of liberty is to be gained by inches, and we must be contented to secure what we can get from time to time and eternally press forward for what is yet to get. It takes time to persuade men to do even what is for their own good." -- Thomas Jefferson
He blew his cork. And here he was a Captain, been in for years and did NOT know there was no such thing as military JUSTICE. I hear you, Cyni, and it wasn't much different in civilian life. I spent my court time deciding w/the ADA what kind of 'deal' to offer the offender. If they didn't take it, and instead chose a jury trial, it became a risky roll of the dice for them. The rules of evidence are decided by the Liar in the black robe, as this case makes clear.
I have always maintained that judges should not be Liars. LIARS manipulate the law for profit, it is a business.
If he were a true "resister" he would have told the jury to quit the service because Obama is a usurper to the presidency. yep
His backbone was really made of rubber, bend with the wind. One has to wonder now that he has caved, what was his original goal and what or who instigated it. They may make an example of him and send him to prison. At least Eddie Slovak stuck to his guns when they offered to let him off the hook.
that is very profound. i've never seen that quote before.
It is a difficult call. If he had not caved, he would have had the ball in his court. Once he caved they have the ball and the whistle, he has no leverage. Any man can do six months and he would have come out, a thorn in the governments rear for years. All for nought.
You betcha. Six months in a county jail would've been worse ...
"Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were (ever) our countrymen!”".
Yep - Mel Gibson,too, made a mistake by apologizing, and gained nothing from it. Government and Hollywood have no compassion for those who stray from the team or tribe.
"The 'uniter' has brought the entire world together - to despise and deride us." lod
newser.com - Discharged Birther Army Doc Gets 6 Months in Prison: You invited this court-martial. You invited this sentence. And for the rest of your life, you get to live with a federal felony conviction -- Neal Puckett, Lakin's attorney Sounds more like a Prosecutor than a Defense Attorney, if that statement was made by him as reported there. That attorney came into the case very recently and steered it towards no defense. The Congressional Armed Services Committee should have been investigatiing the elligibility issue long before this verdict. Perhaps it will be appealed but the Military signalling "No Right to Self-Defense" and "No Right to Question Lawful Orders or Lawful CiC Command" is chilling. As an officer, Lakin's oath isn't to obey orders from "the President" anyway, which Obama isn't officially under the circumstances and so no one who isn't an officer should have to either. The real criminality is that this highly decorated serviceman who has excellently devoted around 2 decades of his life to this country -- a Constitutionalist, not a "birfer" as the Illiterati call him -- is having his life wrecked by an illegal resident in the White House. He and his foriegn regime also want to punish Arizona too for objecting to his illegal alien alliance and agenda. Activist Post: Quotes: "There is no Left or Right -- there is only freedom or tyranny. Everything else is an illusion, an obfuscation to keep you confused and silent as the world burns around you." - Philip Brennan
------- "They're on our left, they're on our right, they're in front of us, they're behind us...they can't get away this time." -- Col. Puller, USMC
#2. To: randge (#1)
I have nothing but contempt for anything and everything that issues out of Washington.
#3. To: noone222 (#0)
#4. To: randge (#1)
More guts and glory to this man than to all the men that volunteer on global campaigns that destroy the wealth and reputation of this nation.
#5. To: Cynicom, 4 (#3)
#6. To: Jethro Tull (#5)
#7. To: Cynicom (#3)
(Edited)
the UCMJ is a joke.
#8. To: noone222 (#7)
Henry David Thoreau
#9. To: Cynicom (#8)
some government official give a speech and during it, one time...HE SMILED... For smiling at the wrong time, he was jailed.
#10. To: noone222 (#9)
#11. To: noone222 (#0)
#12. To: Cynicom (#6)
He told me the liars (lawyers) and the judge had all agreed ahead of time on the outcome, briefed the jurors that the enlisted were guilty and what penalty they were to recommend.
#13. To: Jethro Tull (#12)
#14. To: ghostdogtxn (#11)
In other words, he pussied out.
#15. To: christine (#14)
(Edited)
#16. To: Cynicom, noone222 (#8)
"Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is also a prison ... the only house in a slave State in which a free man can abide with honor."
#17. To: christine (#16)
#18. To: Cynicom (#17)
Any man can do six months
#19. To: Cynicom (#17)
If he had not caved, he would have had the ball in his court.......
#20. To: Cynicom (#6)
(Edited)
the liars (lawyers) and the judge had all agreed ahead of time on the outcome, briefed the jurors that the enlisted were guilty and what penalty they were to recommend.
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