FORT MEADE, Md., Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A U.S. Army doctor faces imprisonment following his conviction Wednesday for refusing to go to Afghanistan because he questions President Barack Obama's birth.
Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin was found guilty of refusing deployment Wednesday in a court martial at Fort Meade, Md., one day after he pleaded guilty to one of the two charges against him.
Lakin faces as uch as 3 1/2 years in prison and could be discharged from the Army, losing his pay of about $90,000 a year and military pension, The Baltimore Sun reported.
Lakin, a Greeley, Colo., resident, said publicly in April he does not believe Obama is the legitimate commander-in-chief because of supposed doubts about his birth in Hawaii. A number of "birthers" attended the court martial and claimed it as a victory in spite of Lakin' conviction, Stars and Stripes said.
Orly Taitz, a California lawyer who has filed a number of lawsuits on the issue, said limits on Lakin's speech are "are worse than anything I ever saw under the communists in Russia."
Lakin said Wednesday he would not refuse deployment now, the Sun reported.
While he said he still has questions Obama's constitutional legitimacy as president, he added, "I understand they cannot be answered by the Army."
