Soldier who says Obama isn't president doesn't have to deploy, Army says

BY LILY GORDON
July 15, 2009

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 (IMA), 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 he filed a request in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector through his California-based attorney, Orly Taitz.



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. In it Taitz asks the court to consider granting her client’s request based upon 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.

Earlier today, Quon said Cook submitted a formal written request to Human Resources Command-St. Louis on May 8, 2009 volunteering to serve one year in Afghanistan with Special Operations Command, U.S. Army Central Command, beginning July 15, 2009. The soldier's orders were issued on June 9, Quon said.

"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 this afternoon, Cook had not asked for his orders to be revoked, Quon said. She could not say why the soldier's orders were pulled today by 3 p.m. CDT.

"Because of the Privacy Act I couldn't go into it," Quon said.

A call to Cook's attorney this evening was not immediately returned.

There are approximately 3,800 Individual Mobilization Augmentees in the U.S. Army Reserves. In addition to IMAs, the U.S. Army Reserves has three additional reserve levels, Quon said.

Approximately 63,000 soldiers serve with the Individual Ready Reserves, meaning they have no routine training or attendance requirements and no pay; 188,000 serve as reservists, attached to reserve units; and about 16,000 soldiers serve with the Active Guard Reserve, Quon said. The latter group consists of soldiers who have volunteered to be on full-time active duty, she continued.

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