This undated photo released courtesy of Gary Stein shows the Camp Pendleton U.S. Marine, Stein, who has been criticizing President Obama on his Facebook page. Stein started a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party to encourage fellow service members to exercise their free speech rights. He declared a few weeks ago that he would not follow the unlawful orders of the commander in chief. Stein also criticized Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for his comments on Syria. (AP Photo/Courtesy Gary Stein)
The admin for Armed Forces Tea Party, Jeff Schwilk, posted a facebook note that I will summarize below:
I just heard the inside scoop about the hearing – stuff the MSM is covering up and not reporting. Key witnesses were not allowed to testify on Stein’s behalf including a retired Brig. General, a Colonel and other senior Marines. But the prosecution was allowed to put on a Marine who didn’t like Sgt. Stein (huh??). Had no bearing on the charges against Stein. But good fodder for the pro-regime media.
Folks, we have nothing less than a Constitutional emergency on our hands and few people realize it right now. The details of the hearing sound like something out of a Tom Clancy book or one of the Borne Identity movies. The stuff that the prosecution attorney Capt. Torresala pulled in there horrified me. It was a complete sham. Too bad no one filmed the proceedings. This sounds like stuff third world countries do to their dissidents. We invaded Iraq in 2003 for stuff like this – Saddam torturing dissidents to shut them up. The good news is this should be ripe for a Federal Court injunction and overturning. I’m told they should be going back to federal court on Monday to continue with the lawsuit and request for injunction to stop the discharge proceedings. This is not over, but the damage done yesterday to our Marine Corps, our Constitution, and our American system of justice may take months or years to undo. Key facts that the board ignored:
The key comment posting by “Gary Stein” in which they based the bulk of their decision on was only on that FB site for about 5 minutes on March 1 before Gary deleted it. The Corps presented no witnesses that anyone else even saw it besides the one Marine who did the screen capture and complained to Stein’s command. There was absolutely no harm to good order and discipline because no one saw it! Plus the comments were clarified that Stein would not follow UNLAWFUL orders which is what he meant obviously.
The prosecution also accused Gary of posting pictures of Obama and a donkey on the AFTP site, but Gary didn’t post those and there was zero evidence presented that he did. That accusation was pure shock value for the media (IMO) and they have run with it as if it was vetted evidence that Stein is a war criminal and must be punished.
Lots more stuff, but you get the picture. Stein’s fate and punishment for involvement with the tea party was decided long ago. This was a political lynching, period, and I’m sure the Pentagon and Administration were involved if not the driving force behind it.
Jeff Schwilk
AFTP Admin
Oath Keepers Assisting in Legal Defense of Marine Sgt. Gary Stein, Founder of Armed Forces Tea Party
Oath Keepers is assisting in the legal defense of Marine Corps Sgt. Gary Stein, who is facing military administrative proceedings to separate him from the Marine Corps, with his commanding officer requesting that he be separated with an other than honorable conditions discharge. This is all because Sgt. Stein dared to found the Armed Forces Tea Party Facebook page, and because, on a separate Facebook page run by someone else, in a discussion thread conversation with other Marines, Sgt. Stein strongly expressed his opposition to some of Obama’s unconstitutional policies and expressed his intent to refuse unlawful orders.
You can learn more background information about this case here.
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