So whatever became of Lt. Col. Lakin?Army doctor half done with prison term for questioning Obama eligibility
Posted: March 31, 2011
9:45 pm Eastern
By Bob Unruh
© 2011 WorldNetDaily
Dr. Terrence Lakin
A military doctor who was court-martialed and sent to prison after questioning Barack Obama's eligibility to be president and refusing to follow orders that descended from the commander-in-chief is more than halfway through his sentence.
And now he has asked the nation in his writings to ponder the question of whether it is bound by the Constitution.
Dr. Terry Lakin, an Army doctor who refused to deploy again to Afghanistan when his chain of command refused to verify that Obama legitimately is president, is serving a six-month term at Ft. Leavenworth in Kansas.
He remains under the Uniform Code of Military Justice but has been allowed to post online a series of observations he's made while serving his time. Those private communications to the Terry Lakin Action Fund suggest that his focus remains on the foundations of the nation and the rights and responsibilities of its citizens.
He's commented on the physical workouts he's enjoyed, his work, his cell and other issues, according to the action fund, which is the organization that has been raising money to pay the monthly bills for Lakin's family while he serves his term.
Help get TV commercials on the air to bust Obama's eligibility wide open!
Lakin's support team said it has been able to supply donated funds for most of the family's needs during Lakin's absence.
Also, his reading material has been highlighted, including Mark Levin's "Liberty and Tyranny: A Conservative Manifesto."
"It gives great examples of the statists' ability to redefine law into suiting their ideology when it benefits their goals. Yet they do not see it as infringing upon their liberty or property because they are the intellectuals that know what is best. Levin's quote of French philosopher Frédéric Bastiat (1850) is great!" Lakin wrote.
"'When [the law] has exceeded its proper functions, it has not done so merely in some inconsequential and debatable matters. The law has gone further than this; it has acted in direct opposition to its own purpose. The law has been used to destroy its own objective: it has been applied to annihilating the justice that it was supposed to maintain; to limiting and destroying rights which its real purpose was to respect. The law was placed the collective force at the disposal of the unscrupulous who wish, without risk, to exploit the person, liberty, and property of others. It has converted plunder into a right, in order to protect plunder, and it punish[es] lawful defense.' Pretty good quote.
"On page 53 he says, 'The conservative may ask the following questions: if words and other meanings can be manipulated or ignored to advance the statist's political and policy preferences, what then binds allegiances to the statists' words? Why should today's law bind future generations if yesterday's law does not bind this generation? Why should judicial precedent bind the nation if the Constitution itself does not? Why should any judicial determination based on judges notion of what is 'right' or 'just' bind the individual of the individual believes the notion is wrong and unjust? Does not lawlessness beget lawlessness?' Plain, great quotes."
He also listed as suggested reading materials the U.S. Constitution, the Federalist Papers, the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights.
His military court request for clemency in his case remains pending, as do any appeals that would be pursued. He's not ordinarily able to speak to the media. That prohibition will remain in question for some time even after his expected release about six months after his December sentencing, supporters explain, depending on the status of his clemency request and any appeals.
Retired Cmdr. Charles Kerchner, who took his own challenge to Obama's tenure in the Oval Office all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, has said Lakin's conviction and jailing signaled the end of the "rule of law" in the United States.
Lakin was prevented by the military judge from seeking evidence that could support him, was told he could not talk about his dilemma and could not bring in the witnesses he wanted and could not introduce evidence that he wanted.
The military panel then convicted him.
Kerchner's legal case, handled by attorney Mario Apuzzo, alleged that Congress failed its constitutional duty to examine the legitimacy of a successful candidate during the Electoral College vetting process on Capitol Hill. The Supreme Court ultimately decided not to hear arguments, leaving standing a lower court's dismissal.
Kerchner's comments came in an interview with Sharon Rondeau of The Post & Email.
According to a report in the Greeley Gazette, whose reporter Jack Minor has been following the case because the city is Lakin's home, confirmed Maj. Matthew Kemkes, Lakin's military attorney, is working on submitting a clemency request to superior officers.
Lakin earned the support of several prominent, high-ranking, retired officers during his battle, including Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely and Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney.
Kerchner had noted Lakin, before publicly challenging Obama's eligibility to serve as president under the Constitution's "natural born citizen" requirement – an issue that remains undocumented – had gone through every available channel seeking resolution.
"Terry had been questioning Obama's eligibility for over two years, and not only did he go to his elected representatives; he used a formal path available to soldiers, filling out a form or writing a letter, to request a congressional inquiry," Kerchner told The Post & Email at the time.
"If a soldier is having some issue with the military chain of command or for any reason feels that he has been unjustly treated, there is the Article 138 where you can directly ask your senior chain of command about it. He also filed another form or letter to request a congressional inquiry; he requested more than once that an investigation be done about Obama's eligibility because as an officer, he had sworn an oath to the U.S. Constitution. He had great doubts that Obama was eligible, and he wanted them to investigate, and they didn't even answer him," Kerchner explained.
"The Congress did nothing. Terry, as a soldier, had a further right to one, and he didn't even get an answer. For example, if you allege that your commanding officer is mistreating you, Congress investigates those allegations. Terry asked for a congressional inquiry because no one in his chain of command was answering his questions, and they didn't answer him. He felt he was being unjustly treated and ignored by his chain of command in their not addressing or answering his questions about the eligibility of Obama to be the commander-in-chief and president," he said in the lengthy interview with Rondeau.
WND has reported on dozens of legal challenges to Obama's status as a "natural born citizen." The Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, states, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."
Some of the challenges question whether he was actually born in Hawaii, as he insists. If he was born out of the country, Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.
Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.
Several of the cases have involved emergency appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court in which justices have declined even to hear arguments. Among the other cases turned down without a hearing at the high court have been petitions by John Hemenway, Philip Berg, Cort Wrotnowski, Leo Donofrio and Orly Taitz.
Complicating the situation is Obama's decision to spend sums estimated in the hundreds of thousands of dollars to avoid releasing a state birth certificate that would put to rest the questions.
Obama wrote in his own book that he was born a dual citizen of the U.S. and Great Britain due to the fact his father was a subject of the British crown when Obama was born.
Supporters are working through the Terry Lakin Action Fund.com, and cards and letters, but no packages, can be sent to Lakin at the following address, and should not mention rank: Terrence Lakin #89996, 830 Sabalu Road, Fort Leavenworth, Kan. 66027.
No hospital has admitted Obama was born in Hawaii, and while state officials say they have confirmed his birth documentation, they refuse to reveal what it states. Because of the state's loose laws that required only a declaration by family members and proof of residency, Obama's family could have registered the birth as Hawaiian even if he was born somewhere else.
But the issue appears not to be going away. Consider:
Possible GOP presidential contender Donald Trump publicly has stated his doubts about Obama's eligibility. "I want him to show the birth certificate," he said, and in another interview, warned that if Obama is not legitimate, it would make his presidency "illegal."
Television commercials are scheduled to air that promote Jerome Corsi's new book on the eligibility issue.
The question of Obama's eligibility was raised in the U.S. House chambers by a protester who shouted "except Obama" when the representatives who were reading the Constitution reached the portion dealing with the qualifications for a president.
More than a year ago, polls revealed that barely half of the people in the United States even knew there was an issue over Obama's eligibility, but recent polls have indicated up to 58 percent of Americans now have doubts over the issue. One of the newest polls shows not even one person in 10 believes Obama has documented his eligibility, while another 32 percent don't believe the questions are legitimate.
Fining attorneys, even jailing defendants, as happened to Lakin, hasn't caused the issue to disappear.
A billboard campaign that simply asks "Where's the Birth Certificate" has appeared in many dozens of locations, and one billboard company that a year ago concluded it was more or less a settled issue now has asked to be allowed to participate in the campaign.
Various officials have "verified" Obama's eligibility but have declined to document their statements.
Extensive examinations of the available record suggest Obama likely is ineligible.
Numerous lawsuits are still making their way toward Supreme Court review:
In Congress, a proposal was made that would have required all candidates for the office of president to document their eligibility under the Constitution's requirement that they be a natural-born citizen.
Similar plans are moving even more quickly at the state legislature level.
And there even are predictions that Congress will take up the dispute.
Read the full report on Obama's eligibility yourself.
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=281741
