Wednesday, Jul. 15, 2009

Army's revokes deployment orders for soldier who said Obama isn't his president

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, the reserve soldier who says he shouldn’t have to go to Afghanistan because he believes Barack Obama was never eligible to be president, has had his deployment orders revoked, Army officials said.

Lt. Col. Maria Quon, U.S. Army Public Affairs Officer, U.S. Army Human Resources Command-St. Louis, said Tuesday evening Cook was no longer expected to report Wednesday to MacDill Air Force Base in Florida for mobilization to active duty.

Cook is an Individual Mobilization Augmentee, meaning he is a reserve soldier assigned to an active component unit for duty. He is assigned to the U.S. Army Element of U.S. Southern Command. Last week Cook filed a request in federal court through his California-based attorney, Orly Taitz, seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector.

Taitz, who has also challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed the 20-page document on July 8 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. Taitz asked the court to consider granting her client’s request based on Cook’s belief that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Cook further states he “would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command. ... simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”

Documents show Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, two years after it became a state.

On May 8, Cook submitted a formal written request to Human Resources Command-St. Louis volunteering to serve one year in Afghanistan with Special Operations Command, U.S. Army Central Command, beginning July 15, Quon said.

The soldier’s orders were issued on June 9.

“A reserve soldier who volunteers for an active duty tour may ask for a revocation of orders up until the day he is scheduled to report for active duty,” Quon said.

She added that there is an administrative process to request revocation of orders. As of Tuesday afternoon, Cook had not asked for his orders to be revoked, Quon said. By 5 p.m. EDT, the orders had been pulled.

Quon said she could not discuss why the Army revoked the soldier’s orders.

“Because of the Privacy Act, I couldn’t go into it,” Quon said.

A hearing to discuss Cook’s requests is scheduled to take place Thursday in Columbus federal court at 9:30 a.m.