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VegasPatriot
03-28-2012, 04:52 PM
PRESS RELEASE: Rally for Sgt. Gary Stein on Thursday, 3pm, outside main gate of Camp Pendleton (http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/03/28/press-release-rally-for-sgt-gary-stein-on-thursday-3pm-outside-main-gate-of-camp-pendleton/)
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 28, 2012
Jeff Schwilk
Founder, SoCal Patriots (http://www.facebook.com/SoCalPatriots)

Rally for Sgt. Gary Stein, Thursday 3-5pm, Camp Pendleton Main Gate

OCEANSIDE, CA. A large rally in support of Sgt. Stein will take place outside the Camp Pendleton Main Gate at 3-5pm, March 29. Veterans, Patriot groups, and concerned citizens from all over Southern California will be attending to show their support for Sgt. Stein and his strong public defense of the U.S. Constitution through his Armed Forces Tea Party facebook group.

Sgt. Stein has been ordered to a discharge hearing for his political comments about President Obama on the internet. We won a small victory this morning as the Marine Corps has delayed the discharge hearing from March 31st to April 5th. This gives Sgt. Stein and his attorneys more time to prepare for the hearing, but it does not ensure justice in this case. Sgt. Stein’s commanding officer has made serious allegations and accusations against him in his March 21 official letter to him (see attached). Sgt. Stein should be able to present evidence in his defense at the appropriate judicial court to defend himself against what he has called “blatantly false charges”. We want a fair hearing and due process for Sgt. Stein to ensure that this is not a political persecution and squelching of Marines’ free speech rights within existing DOD regulations.

All Marines and service members swear an oath to defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. All Marines are also taught not to obey unlawful orders. Sgt. Stein’s public re-affirmation of these core Marine Corps and American principles on his Facebook pages should be commended, not punished. This sudden rush to end Sgt. Stein’s honorable 9 year career reeks of political correctness and a possible witch hunt on the part of his superior officers and Commanding General.

We veterans demand justice for Sgt. Stein and for all service members so that they may continue to ensure the good order and discipline, and high morale of our armed forces, especially in this time of war. We thank Rep. Darrell Issa and Rep. Duncan Hunter (a Marine Reservist) for their public support of Sgt. Stein and our cause for justice for our brave service members who sacrifice so much for our nation.

Jeff Schwilk is a retired Marine Master Sergeant and a veteran of the 1st Marine Division based at Camp Pendleton.
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Rep. Duncan Hunter (USMC-R): Sgt. Stein should not be punished for anti-Obama Facebook posts
http://thehill.com/blogs/defcon-hill/marine-corps/217901-hunter-marine-should-not-be-punished-for-facebook-posts

VegasPatriot
03-28-2012, 04:57 PM
Oath Keepers Assisting in Legal Defense of Marine Sgt. Gary Stein, Founder of Armed Forces Tea Party (http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/03/27/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.
http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/03/24/the-facebook-firestorm-of-sgt-stein-usmc/ (http://oathkeepers.org/oath/2012/03/27/2012/03/24/the-facebook-firestorm-of-sgt-stein-usmc/)

We consider this attempt to kick a nine-year career Marine Sergeant out of the Marine Corps, for the “crime” of using modern social media tools to have a conversation with other Marines about serious concerns that impact his oath, and for the “offense” of daring to participate in the Tea Party movement, to be a travesty.

I (Stewart Rhodes) and Oath Keepers General Counsel David Rivers (a Marine Vietnam combat veteran), have volunteered our services as attorneys to assist Sgt. Stein pro bono and we have helped to assemble an excellent civilian legal defense team to work with and assist Sgt. Stein’s military JAG lawyer team.

Sgt. Stein was given written notification of administrative separation proceedings last Wednesday, March 21, 2012, but because all of the JAG officers were at a previously scheduled conference, he was not able to attain JAG counsel till last Friday, March 23. With the separation hearing scheduled for this coming Saturday, March 31, 2012, that hardly provides time to prepare a defense, but unless we can secure a continuance, we will have to soldier on and be as ready as we can by this Saturday. I am planning on being there for the hearing.

Once Sgt. Stein made it clear he wanted civilian counsel to work with his JAG attorneys, we arranged a conference call with the JAG attorneys last Friday. I invited the well regarded constitutional attorneys William J. Olson and Herb Titus to join that call. Olson and Titus were part of the defense team for Specialist Michael New in his historic stand against serving under U.N. command, and they are top notch lawyers. On that conference call it became readily apparent that Sgt. Stein has an excellent military JAG defense team. They are sharp, competent, and very dedicated to defending Sgt. Stein, as part of keeping their oaths to defend the Constitution. They are also very willing to work with civilian counsel as part of a combined legal team. Sgt. Stein is in good hands.

Yesterday, March 26, Mr. Olson brought in Houston, Texas attorney Mark Brewer, who is a former JAG officer. As a former JAG, Mr. Brewer will be the lead civilian defense counsel with the rest of us assisting, with our civilian legal team working closely with the Marine Corps JAG defense team. Also on the civilian team will be attorney Gary Kreep, Executive Director of the United States Justice Foundation.

Mr. Kreep will help set up a tax deductible legal defense fund for Sgt. Stein’s legal defense. Once that legal defense fund is established, we will email the details on how you can contribute directly to his legal defense, if you want to.

As noted above, whatever work I or Oath Keepers General Counsel David Rivers may do on this case will be pro bono (no charge) but Sgt. Stein will have to pay for Mr. Brewer’s services (at a reduced rate) and likewise may have to pay for other civilian counsel and of-counsel attorneys on this case, as well as court costs and travel expenses, so he will certainly need donations to help him cover those fees and costs. So, once Sgt. Stein and Mr. Kreep have the tax deductible legal defense fund established, I would encourage you all to donate to it if you can. Just to be clear, that fund will not be run by Oath Keepers, so if you want to donate to Sgt. Stein’s legal defense in particular, please wait until he establishes his own defense fund. Our legal defense fund for Oath Keepers will remain separate.

I will send another update soon, and we will be posting additional articles and documents on the Oath Keepers website, along with our own original research and writing, over the coming days and weeks. I do encourage you to spread the word about this case, and to put public pressure on the Marine Corps to do the right thing by retaining this fine young Marine. Especially useful would be letters of support from leaders of veterans’ organizations, as well as from individuals. We will post an example letter for your use, in case you want to send one in, and we will email that example to our list, once it is finished.

You can count on Oath Keepers to do all we can to help Sgt. Stein in his stand for the Constitution. Doing so is part of keeping our own oaths. This case is about the rights of free speech, assembly, and association, the right to comment on candidates for office and current issues, about the citizen’s duty of civic involvement, and about the duty of service members to defend the Constitution by refusing unlawful orders that violate the Constitution (which is the reason Oath Keepers exists). This is not about partisan politics or any one candidate. The ACLU, to their credit, stood up for Sgt. Stein in the past and is likely to do so now as well. We certainly hope they do, because this is not a partisan issue. This is about being Americans and defending our Constitution, and especially the First Amendment, for all Americans, in the military and outside the military, regardless of their political orientation. It’s not about the left or right, but about our Bill of Rights.

Let’s take a firm stand in defense of this young Marine.

For the Republic,
Stewart Rhodes
Founder and President of Oath Keepers
Army Airborne veteran
Yale Law Graduate, 04



Please donate and support Oath Keepers mission, every little bit helps!

camp_steveo
03-28-2012, 05:00 PM
Im glad to see some Oathkeepers on Ron Paul's team.

Anti Federalist
03-28-2012, 05:21 PM
I have a personal account concerning the OK, that I'm not going to go into the details about.

All I have to say is that at the end of it all, my respect and admiration for the OK and, Stewart Rhodes personally, has taken an even greater leap upward.

I will be contributing to this organization, people, I cannot say enough good things about them and how quickly they stepped up to help a veteran and OK member that was on the verge of having some bad trouble, that in the end turned out ok.

VegasPatriot
03-28-2012, 05:30 PM
I have a personal account concerning the OK, that I'm not going to go into the details about.

All I have to say is that at the end of it all, my respect and admiration for the OK and, Stewart Rhodes personally, has taken an even greater leap upward.

I will be contributing to this organization, people, I cannot say enough good things about them and how quickly they stepped up to help a veteran and OK member that was on the verge of having some bad trouble, that in the end turned out ok.

Thanks for your support AF. If you ever want to get in contact with Stewart or have information relayed to him… just send me a PM and I will make sure your concerns are addressed.

donnay
03-28-2012, 06:57 PM
Stewart is the best! I support the Oath Keepers 150%! That's how I support the troops!!

VegasPatriot
03-28-2012, 10:00 PM
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libertarian4321
03-29-2012, 03:24 AM
Okay, I'll bite.

Other than the fact that you don't like Obama, why are you folks thinking what Stein did was okay?

I know, you don't like Obama. However, Sgt. Stein clearly violated several provisions of DODI 1344.10, and probably the UCMJ as well. He was warned, given a chance to cease his activities, and did not stop.

Those of us who have served in the military know that active duty military do NOT have the same freedoms that civilians have. If this guy wanted to continue his political rants against the President (and others) he should have left the active duty military and joined the Reserves (where restrictions on political activity are far less stringent) or taken a civilian job.

I don't support Obama, but as a military officer, I find his actions deserving of punishment. The military can not allow soldiers to foment disrespect and rebellion against the duly elected civilian leadership of the military- and it doesn't matter whether that President is Dem or Rep.

BTW, the guy is going down. He will be tried by a court of senior military officers- guys who are far more hard ass than I am, and they don't play games with stuff like this- they take stuff like the UCMJ and military order and discipline very seriously.

donnay
03-29-2012, 07:47 AM
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." ~Theodore Roosevelt