After an Army doctor who became a prominent member of the so-called “birther” movement for refusing to deploy to Afghanistan over his doubts that President Barack Obama was born in the U.S. pleaded guilty to one count at a court martial, what will happen to his supporters?
As the court martial of Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin continues for a second day in a military court in Maryland, they’re standing by their man. Lakin is fighting off a more serious charge: that he is guilty of “missing a movement” because he missed a flight back on April 12 which would have started his journey to join his unit.
“He’s reduced to arguing a technicality,” Birther Queen Orly Taitz told World Net Daily. “The whole trial is a sham, a farce. They’re not allowed to discuss the only real issue here, Obama’s eligibility.”
Lakin’s defense attorney Neal Puckett previously said he was not optimistic about Lakin’s prospects of being acquitted and that Lakin was “probably going to be convicted of something.” But he told WND he’s “very happy with the trial so far.”
The Army doctor’s brother, Dr. Greg Lakin, told WND he believed his brother “will have a chance to say his piece during the sentencing portion of the trial” since Obama “has taken full credit for the Afghanistan deployment.”
During the trial, 55-year-old Lakin supporter Kate Vandemoer, a blogger and hydrologist from North Dakota, literally rose with the officer when he offered his guilty plea, according to Maureen Dowd of the New York Times.
Another supporter, 76-year-old retired Air Force officer and doctor Eldon Bell of S.D., told the newspaper he “drove three days through a damn blizzard just to get here.” Bell compared the president to Adolf Hitler and said that if Obama is not legitmate “our soldiers serving under him can be tried and hanged like the Nazis at Nuremberg.”
Supporters also backed Lakin on a Facebook page set up to thank him for his stand.
“You are a true and honorable man, Lt, Col Lakin, I admire you for standing your ground, its a shame and disgrace, that you were even brought up on charges and obomb still has not proven his legitimacy, What had this country gone to ?? islam?? YES,” wrote one supporter.
“A very sad day. Our country, our Constitution, our freedoms, our way of life are being trampled on and flipped upside down by FRIGGING COMMUNISTS!” wrote another supporter on a separate Facebook page.
If Lakin is found guilty, he could be forced to forfeit his pay, which totals $7,959 a month.
