This is a picture of LTC Terry Lakin, the highest ranking and first active duty officer to refuse to obey all orders on the basis on unanswered questions regarding President Obama's eligibility. A medical officer, Lakin has an impeccable military record (detailed here), which includes providing medical care for admirals and generals at the Pentagon where he serves as Chief of Primary Care and Flight Surgeon for the DiLorenzo TRICARE Helath Clinic, and a previous tour in Afghanistan among other overseas posts.
His decision to refuse to obey all orders (including orders to deploy for a second time to Afghanistan) pending the release of the president's original long-form birth certificate -- not the computer-generated copy -- is certain to have hit like a bombshell at the White House and Pentagon. It has already triggered an alarming phone call to Lakin from an officer thought to be conveying the opinion of "those higher up the chain of command," according to WND.com. The officer expressed concern for Lakin's well-being and frame of mind -- the strong implication being only someone not right in the head would risk the possibility of a court martial and loss of pension over Constitutional principle. Indeed, it was unofficially suggested to Lakin in this same phone call that a "brain scan" might be in order to detect a possible "brain tumor," according to Margaret Hemenway, who is familiar with the conversation and who first broke the Lakin story earlier this week at Family Security Matters. (More on the "brain scan"" phone call at WND.com.)
This creepy development should set off alarms everywhere. Even the unofficial suggestion that this brave challenge, mounted by a respected career officer and physician, might be resolved not, for example, in a court martial, but with medical treatment can only conjure visions of the worst excesses of the USSR and its nefarious treatment of "psychiatric patients" -- read: political dissidents.
The fact is, the questions LTC Lakin wants answers to are completely valid, as I have written here, here, here, & here, for instance. A brain scan (don't submit to one, Sir!) would only reveal an elevated presence of common sense.
These same questions are also ridiculously easy to answer. It takes but the merest presidential nod to the state of Hawaii, which could then make the original, long-form birth certificate of Barack Hussein Obama available to the citizens of the United States he serves as president and commander-in-chief. End of story, right?
Why wouldn't President Obama do this? Why wouldn't he want to lay the issue to rest once and for all, ending his not inconsequential legal costs in a string of still-active court cases, calming all "birthers" (I hate that word) still tortured by "why?" innoculating all soldiers against cases of pre-post-and-during-traumatic stress syndrome as they deploy into war zones.
The two main possible answers I come up with are 1) he sees political gain in the division the mystery perpetuates, or 2) he has something to hide. Neither answer is a good one, and only begets more questions.
More from Hemenway's report:
[Laken] has explained to his superiors that he cannot understand how his Oath of Office to protect and defend the Constitution does not allow military officers to pursue proof of eligibility from the Commander-in-Chief. In fact, efforts on his part to seek affirmation of the President's constitutional eligibility have been met with legal evasions. Yet in an open and free society, and especially given Obama's governmental "transparency" initiative, many American citizens are demanding to know the truth. So when the White House launched its transparency initiative online last year, and the website was instantly swamped with emails demanding release of Obama's original birth certificate, it was significant that the website’s assurance to answer any question was quickly removed.
LTC Lakin’s refusal to obey orders (including his deployment orders) puts him at risk of court-martial. A website, SafeguardourConstitution.com, outlines his efforts to seek the truth and prepare for his legal defense. It would be wrong for an officer to be punished for asking a straightforward question merely because no one in the military hierarchy or on Capitol Hill is willing to provide a substantive answer (members of Congress have the obligation of representing constituents and also are sworn to uphold the Constitution). At least one Tennessee Congressional office (Congressman Zach Wamp) forwarded LTC Lakin’s inquiry to the Department of Defense; the Army responded by letter to Rep. Wamp indicating that LTC Lakin's Article 138 complaint (a legal avenue for redress allowed service members for grievances against commanding officers) was deficient and that "the President as Commander-in-Chief is not a commanding officer for the purposes of Article 138 and therefore, no complaint against him may be addressed through this procedure." Yet another representative from the Volunteer State (Tennessee) Marsha Blackburn, co-sponsored legislation introduced by Congressman Bill Posey to require candidates to fix the problem of the lack of a formal process for vetting candidates for “natural born” eligibility.
The Western Journalism Center released an authoritative explanation of the Obama birth controversy that helps to explain the confusion on Capitol Hill which revolves mostly around Obama's online Certification of Live Birth (COLB):
“The Certification of Live Birth is not a copy of the original birth certificate. It is a computer-generated document that the state of Hawaii issues on request to indicate that a birth certificate of some type is ‘on record in accordance with state policies and procedures.’ And there is the problem. Given the statutes in force in 1961, the Certification of Live Birth proves nothing unless we know what is on the original birth certificate. There are several legal areas (involving ethnic quotas and subsidy) for which the state of Hawaii up until June 2009 did not accept its computer-generated Certification of Live Birth as sufficient proof of birth - or parentage - in Hawaii. Why should the citizens of the United States be content with lower standards for ascertaining the qualifications of their President?”
The Obama campaign is to a large degree responsible for the birthplace controversy by at first claiming that Obama was born at Queens Hospital and, at another time, claiming that he was born at Kapioliani Hospital. These conflicting assertions, combined with reports of his paternal grandmother's insistence to an interviewer that he was born in Kenya; and the break-in to the Obama passport file at the State Department (at least one news report alleged the file was cauterized) by an employee of The Analysis Corp., a firm headed by one of Obama's top advisers (John Brennan) have all contributed to escalating demands for Obama to document his "natural born" citizenship status.
Additionally, the Ambassador to the US from Kenya (Peter Ogego) asserted in a radio interview in November 2008 that the President was born in Kenya. A Kenyan Anabaptist minister also provided an affidavit, attesting to a conversation with a civil employee of the Kenyan Government, a Principal Registrar, who confirmed Obama’s birth in Kenya on August 4, 1961, but said his file was classified.
Obama should release his original birth certificate and put an end to relentless speculation over whether he meets the Constitutional fitness test for the nation's highest office. Original documentation for 1961 from the hospital or Department of Health can resolve this point without in any way compromising Obama's privacy or subjecting him to the danger of identity theft. ...
Absolutely correct, absolutely effortless. In fact -- and I hesitate to say this -- it's a real no-brainer.