‘Colonel Birther’ spokesperson: Lakin accepts consequences of search for truth

For the first time since declaring his intention to disobey orders to deploy to Afghanistan because he is not convinced Pres. Obama is a natural-born citizen of the United States, Greeley native Lt Col Terry Lakin returned to his “duty station” today, the position he holds at a Pentagon medical clinic. Spokesperson Margaret Hemenway said Lakin reported to the clinic and that he has been refusing to obey not just orders to deploy but all military orders.

“I think we will just have to wait and see; it’s only speculative as to what they are going to do with him. Obviously if you have questions whether the president and commander in chief legally has the job, then all orders become unlawful– if there is no assurance whatsoever that [Obama] is actually a natural-born citizen according to the Constitution, and of course no one has seen an original birth certificate,” she said.

Talking to Denver talk-radio host Peter Boyles, a fellow skeptic on the matter of the president’s citizenship, Hemenway said Lakin is steadfast in his position.

“He walked [into the Pentagon] this morning. He is resolute. He is ready for whatever consequences may befall him and he is in search of the truth. His spirits are good. He feels very strongly about what he’s doing. His conscience is strong. He believes we need to know whether our president is lawfully in the job or not,” said Hemenway.

Lakin received a letter last Monday from his brigade commander warning him that he faced court marshal and time in prison for disobeying orders.

Boyles lamented the lack of coverage in Colorado on the story and particularly that Fox News seems uninterested.

“That’s because of the official line of Fox,” which disavows the so-called birther movement, he said. That’s the official line there held up by “Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly, who both look like fools,” said Boyles. He said Beck had told him earlier this year that he didn’t believe in the birther conspiracy but also that he didn’t know a lot about it. “That’s like telling me you don’t like a book that you haven’t read,” said Boyles.

“Lakin has spent a lot of time trying to get people in the military to help him with this inquiry and all he got was a lot of sympathy,” said Hemenway. “No one says ‘I will try to find out if the president is lawfully your commander in chief.’ No one wants to do that.”

Boyles was enthusiastic in his feeling that finally the “showdown” over the birth certificate was coming.

“We’ll see tomorrow if [Lakin] gets sent home of if they put him in an office with a phone on the desk or if they just put him in an office and make him stare at a wall, which is one of the other gimmicks that can be done… but the story has picked up steam. I don’t know, this is headed for a showdown.There’s a theme in history that there’s always a reckoning.”

Hemenway felt the same.

“I’ve sort of always believed in the theory that there’s a straw that’ll break the camel’s back. You can’t keep a lid on this forever.”

“If nothing else, there are enormous questions that are unanswered,” said Boyles.

Listen to the exchange at the KHOW radio site.

Lakin has served in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Honduras, and Korea. Hemenway said that the Certification of Live Birth posted on the Internet by the administration is not a birth certificate. Hawaii state officials have certified that they have reviewed Obama’s records that confirm he was born in Hawaii.

Factcheck.org likewise verified that the Certification of Live Birth was real and the Honolulu Star reported official Janice Okubo’s statement that “the [health] department only issues ‘certifications’ of live births and that is the ‘official birth certificate’ issued by the state of Hawaii.”

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