Members of the House Armed Services Committee
grilled the U.S. Army’s deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and training this week over the recent revelation that nearly 10,000 soldiers at North Carolina’s Fort Liberty — called Fort Bragg prior to the Biden-Harris administration — were trained to believe that pro-life organizations qualify as “terrorist groups.”
Lt. Gen. Patrick Matlock suggested during the Thursday hearing that corrective action has been taken, though he was altogether light on details, refusing to indicate whether someone had actually been fired, suspended, and/or demoted for likening champions of the unborn to mass-killing jihadists.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chairman of the subcommittee on military personnel, and members from both parties did not appear to be buying what Matlock was selling — especially his piece about accountability.
“I think the reason that you can’t answer the question is because you know and we know that no one has ever been held accountable for this training that started in 2017 and occurred until a few months ago,” said Banks. “I think that’s a big embarrassment for the U.S. Army.”
“It’s dangerous; it’s a bad pattern,” added Banks, who stressed at the outset that the Biden-Harris Pentagon and the U.S. Army are undermining the First Amendment and “targeting conservative speech and values.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) suggested that letting this happen for nearly seven years and then remaining mum on what the consequences are when finally called out serve only to “increase the recidivism of this type of behavior.”
“He’s literally saying that we have no idea whether or not it’s going on in other locations in the Army,” said Florida Rep. Cory Mills (R). “We have no idea whether or not this is continuing as it has for seven-plus years.”
‘Peaceful pro-life Americans are labeled “terrorists.”‘
Blaze News
previously reported that a slide from the Fort Liberty anti-terrorism awareness training session was posted on social media on July 10 by DOD whistleblower Samuel Shoemate.
Shoemate received the image from a U.S. Army soldier who sat through the training meeting.
That same soldier told Blaze News, “The briefing was simply a class on how to be a gate guard and what to look for when on duty.”
“Gate guard duty is something all of us have to do from time to time. It was presented by a DOD civilian, not an anti-terrorism officer,” added the soldier.
The offending slide, which appeared immediately after a section on the mass-raping, mass-killing jihadist group ISIS, was labeled “Terrorist Groups” and featured the logos of National Right to Life and Operation Rescue.
It also featured an image of a customized “Choose Life” license plate — the kind sold in at least 33 states and the District of Columbia to help raise money for crisis pregnancy centers.
The slide noted that extra to opposing “Row [sic] v Wade,” these supposed terrorist groups engage in picketing, demonstrations and protest, and mass sidewalk counseling.
“Only under the Biden administration can peaceful law-abiding citizens and their peaceful activities be considered ‘terrorism,'” NRL president Carol Tobias responded at the time. “The Biden administration promotes the deaths of preborn babies and advocates for unlimited abortion, but peaceful pro-life Americans are labeled ‘terrorists.'”
Blaze News’ Steve Baker, the investigative journalist who originally spoke to the soldier who first exposed the pro-life group’s misleading characterization in the Army briefing, said, “That slide is devastating.”
“Can you imagine a soldier’s wife with one of these pro-life bumper stickers, of which there are millions across the country, pulling up to a guard gate at Fort Liberty or Fort Wherever, and all of a sudden, the guard who sat through that training where that slide was showed … immediately figures the soldier’s wife and the two kids in the back seat for terrorists on the level of ISIS?” said Baker.
Despite the appearance that the Army has an issue with Americans harboring pro-life views, Matlock
alleged Thursday that the Army is unbiased, that there was “no political motivation behind the training,” and that the issue was localized.
‘Bull****. This is systemic.’
Baker cast doubt on Matlock’s claims.
The Army initially implied in July that the slide was an aberration, stating that “the slides presented on social media were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities” and that they “do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army, or the Department of Defense.”
However, Baker noted that military whistleblower Samuel Shoemate of Terminal CWO was soon inundated with calls and messages from all over the country “saying, basically, ‘bull****. This is systemic. We’ve seen it in our own bases and in our own briefings.'”
Baker underscored that the systemic antipathy for Americans with pro-life views at the Pentagon has made its way down to the lowest rungs but that this ideological capture has been years in the making.
“The decapitation and replacement of the military’s leadership began in earnest during the Obama administration,” said Baker. The bulk of the top brass were “dismissed and replaced for nothing more than philosophical and political reasons.”
Now, the senior leadership is largely made up of political activists, said Baker.
Baker’s
recent exclusive report about how the Pentagon dropped the ball on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot highlighted the fallout in the military of the prioritization of politics over strategy and effectiveness.
Baker and Joseph M. Hanneman detailed various indications that career officials at the Pentagon interfered with the deployment of the National Guard on Jan. 6 over fear of bad “optics.”
“This can only be solved by the next commander in chief,” said Baker. “He’s the only one that can solve it. He’s the only one that will have the authority to go in and replace those political activist generals, admirals, and the rest of the leadership within the Pentagon, both enlisted and civilian.”
It’s clear which commander in chief Baker has in mind.
“It’s not going to be fixed under a Harris-Walz administration, because this activism falls in line with their ideals, their values, their desire to use the military as a social engineering playground,” said the investigative journalist.
Subcommittee Chairman Banks noted in his prepared remarks, “The Army is using an overly broad policy to police the speech of conservative service members, quiet dissent, and require service members who believe in conservative ideals to hide their identities for fear of retaliation from their commands.”
Danielle Runyan, senior counsel at First Liberty Institute, the legal outfit representing the whistleblower, said in a statement Thursday, “Once again, the Army was caught exercising clear viewpoint discrimination in their training slides — offering that some views and religious exercise are worthy of punishment.”
“We are thankful the House Armed Services Committee and the 88 members who sent a letter to the Army are committed to holding their feet to the fire. The flagrant lack of political neutrality in our military must be rectified immediately,” added Runyan.
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