October 26, 2013

Army To Fort Hood Soldiers: Shun Christers and Teabaggers!

...But did they warn them away from lunatic radical Moslems?

The Washington Times carries a bizarre story about an aptly named "counter intelligence" briefing at Fort Hood last week, in which soldiers were warned to steer clear of evangelical Christians and tea-party members, lest they be punished.

The Army officially denies any such threat was made, but two soldiers present at the meeting confirm it, and similar incidents have happened earlier:

The briefing was Oct. 17, and about a half-hour of it was devoted to discussion about how perceived radical groups -- like tea party organizations and the Christian-based American Family Association -- were "tearing the country apart," one unnamed soldier said, to Fox News.

Among the remarks the agent allegedly made: Military members who donate to these groups would be subject to discipline under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the soldier reported....

Another soldier in attendance at the meeting confirmed the threat of punishment was made, Fox News reported. But the Army officials at Fort Hood said in a Breitbart.com report that the soldiers’ claims weren’t true.

No word on what befalls a soldier who himself is either an evangelical Christian or a tea-partier; defenestration cannot be ruled out. And nobody claims that command warned soldiers to stay away the next time a commissioned, radical Islamist psychiatrist comes beetling through the Army base.

A Breitbart article (not the one mentioned above) puts the Fort Hood warning in context; a pattern or practice seems to be emerging:

[The Fort Hood counter-intelligence briefing] is just the latest outrage in a long train of disgraces. Just days ago, soldiers at Camp Shelby in Mississippi were instructed that the Christian conservative American Family Association is a domestic hate group. A month earlier, a security presentation portrayed the Founding Fathers as extremists. Before that, Breitbart News reported on a Christian chaplain who was officially censored by military commanders for talking about the importance of religious faith. And several months before that, Lt. Col. Jack Rich at Ft. Campbell, Kentucky, instructed soldiers that traditional Christian beliefs are incompatible with "Army values."

All this started in April, when Breitbart News broke the story of top Pentagon brass meeting with an anti-Christian activist calling for court-martialing observant Christians who share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others in the military. This activist calls them "fundamentalist monsters" who are “enemies of the Constitution” and should be punished for "sedition and treason."

But it's not just a few isolated "wacko-birds," as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ, 92%) might put it; if we can trust a DoD training document from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute (obtained by Judicial Watch through the Freedom of Information Act), treating traditional American values as seditious has become Army doctrine. The DEOMI document claims that it:

...provide[s] information that describes sources of extremism information, definitions, recruitment of DoD personnel, common themes in extremist ideologies, common characteristics of extremist organizations, DoD policies, and command functions regarding extremist activities.

On the same page [Breitbart.com summarizes], [the document] cites the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as an approved source for information -- and its affiliate Teaching Tolerance. It was SPLC that labeled the American Family Association a "domestic hate group," along with the Family Research Council... the Traditional Values Coalition, and various Tea Party organizations and conservative border-security/immigration groups. In short, SPLC labels as hate groups organizations that promote a traditional Christian view of marriage and other social issues, believe in border enforcement, or promote constitutional limited government....

This DEOMI document goes on several pages later to say that service members cannot participate in such organizations, raise funds for them, encourage others to support them, or attend public rallies organized by them. It then adds, "Furthering the objectives of extremist organizations is viewed as detrimental to the good order, discipline, or mission accomplishment of the unit and is, therefore, subject to appropriate disciplinary action." It tasks service members with "assist[ing] unit commanders in being vigilant about the existence of such activities."

Army proud!

Other than a routine denial by the powers that be, has anybody actually refuted the basic facts of this extraordinary charge?

1. That the Southern Poverty Law Center (a radical left activist group that shrouds itself in "civil rights" issues) is now a primary source for determining what groups are extremist, seditious, or treasonous (EST).
2. That the SPLC or other sources in the DoD have identified several Christian organizations and tea-party assemblies as EST on the basis of traditional religious and constitutional beliefs, without any evidence these groups have committed crimes or threatened the nation.
3. That DoD briefers at many military bases have ordered members of the military to steer clear of fellow service members who espouse traditional Christian beliefs or the constitutional ideology of the Founders, and warned military personnel that they could be subject to punishment if they disobey these orders.
4. That these briefings are not isolated incidents but actual DoD policy, generated from and coordinated by either the DoD itself, or perhaps coming from a higher elevation.

I ask because I have seen these charges for several months, but I have yet to see any response, other than "stuff and nonsense!"

Has any of you seen an effective, or at least serious, attempt to "refudiate" them? Because if the accusation is true, it's a stunning dereliction of duty -- and possibly an attempt to alienate the American military and government from the citizenry itself. (That would have even graver implications going forward; remember Tiananmen Square in 1989.)

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, October 26, 2013, at the time of 1:53 PM

Comments

Post a comment

© 2005-2013 by Dafydd ab Hugh - All Rights Reserved