The House Armed Services Committee has sent a letter to Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, seeking answers about why pro-lifers were smeared as terrorists in a recent briefing at an Army base. The Committee gave a deadline of two weeks for response.
Last week, photos of a slide presentation given to a group of soldiers at Fort Liberty in North Carolina were leaked; in the presentation, groups like National Right to Life and Operation Rescue were listed as potential terrorist groups. Bullet points on the slide said being “anti-abortion” and “Pro Life,” as well as opposing “Row v Wade [sic]” were potential indications of terrorist ideations. Examples of pro-life advocacy were also listed on the slide, such as demonstrations, protests, life chains, “the truth display” (displaying photos of abortion victims), and more. Counseling at pregnancy centers and on sidewalks was listed, and the side even included pro-life license plates.
An anti-terrorism brief was held on Fort Liberty (Bragg) today where they listed several Pro-Life organizations as “terrorist organizations.”
The slide you see here followed right after a slide about ISIS, a terror group in the Middle East.
The organizations labeled by the… pic.twitter.com/vlO6XjyGzE
— Shoe (@samosaur) July 11, 2024
House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, personnel subcommittee Chairman Jim Banks, and other members of the House Armed Services Committee want to know how this was allowed to happen.
“Even more disturbing is who this training was conducted for: 47 uniformed soldiers tasked with guarding the access points for Fort Liberty, one of the Army’s largest military installations,” they wrote in the letter. “Training the installation gate guards to ensure that servicemembers and their families who have pro-life license plates should be considered suspicious and possible terroristic threats to the installation, is not only absurd but dangerous.”
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They further said Wormuth needs to answer the following 10 questions by July 25th:
1. What was the extent of the Directorate of Emergency Services leadership’s involvement in creating the presentation? Was this presentation approved by Directorate leadership? If not, who approved it?
2. Fort Liberty’s statement claims that the slides were not “vetted by the appropriate approval authorities.” Who were the appropriate approval authorities in this situation?
3. What are the processes in place for reviewing and approving the content of such briefings? And why were they not followed in this situation?
4. How long has Fort Liberty utilized these particular slides? How long has the Army utilized the standard deck of slides?
5. Where else have these altered slides been used? Have any other organizations within the Army utilized an altered deck of slides for their training?
6. Can you confirm that the Army has reviewed and approved all anti-terrorism guidance and training? Can you verify that none of this guidance and training violates, or encourages service members to violate, constitutionally protected speech?
7. Does the Army or Fort Liberty officials have any plans to issue a correction or disavowal to those service members who attended this briefing to instruct them that these pro-life organizations are not terrorist groups?
8. What is the Army’s process of categorizing civilian advocacy of constitutionally protected activities?
9. Does the Army consider participating in pro-life advocacy, or abortion-related counseling (sidewalks and crisis centers) in proximity to military installations to be terrorist activity?
10. Fort Liberty’s statement claims that future slides will be reviewed to “ensure they align with the current DoD anti-terrorism guidance.” What groups does the current antiterrorism guidance consider to be terrorist groups or other threats to base security?
On X, Banks tweeted, “The Biden DoD has created an environment where far-left wack jobs feel they can get away with teaching our troops that conservative Americans are terrorists and legitimate military targets. We are in dangerous territory.”
Banks further pointed out in a press release that these slides have been in circulation for a long period of time.
“These slides date back to at least last summer,” he said. “For over a year someone at Fort Liberty has been teaching our troops that pro-life Americans are terrorists, and the Biden Pentagon didn’t stop it until House Republicans and the public raised the alarm.”
