SFC Leroy Petry, recipient of the Medal of Honor, recently addressed the Pentagon’s National Prayer Breakfast on the topics of prayer, faith, and resiliency.
“Our freedom of religion and freedom of practice of that religion in the military is one of our greatest assets to our fighting force,” Sgt. 1st Class Leroy A. Petry told the audience…“We’re truly blessed to Read more…
Gary Stein has a “Tea Party” Facebook site. He’s also a US Marine. In 2010 it attracted the attention of the military, who wanted to make sure he knew the rules. He reviewed and acknowledged them, and the Facebook page continued, with the military’s awareness.
Marine Sgt. Gary Stein first started a Facebook page called Armed Forces Tea Party Patriots to encourage service members to exercise their free speech rights. Then he declared that he wouldn’t follow orders from the commander in chief, President Barack Obama.
While Stein softened his statement to say he wouldn’t follow “unlawful orders,” military observers say he may have gone too far.
“Military observers” is an awkward way of trying Read more…
Last week, Pentagon leadership gave testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee on their Annual Threat Assessment. A surprising, if somewhat understated, highlight was the pronouncement of a “growing concern” of terrorist threats from within the US intelligence and military communities:
Senior US military and intelligence officials are warning of their growing concern that rogue “radical” elements are operating – or preparing to operate – “within the ranks” of the intelligence community and armed forces.
Ultimately, this should be of little surprise, Read more…
The Thomas More Law Center has filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Center for Military Readiness:
The purpose of the lawsuit is to obtain records believed to show intentional deception by the Pentagon to gain congressional support for repeal of the 1993 law regarding open homosexual conduct in the military, usually called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
The TMLC alleges the Pentagon has
engaged in a pattern of deception in its efforts to persuade Congress to allow open homosexuality in our military.
The lawsuit centers around the premise the Pentagon leaked information to the Washington Post in 2010 to sway public opinion and Congress Read more…
US Representative Randy Forbes (R-Va) has written a letter (PDF) signed by 35 members of the House asking the Air Force restore a unit’s motto that was changed after an atheist’s complaint. 
The incident to which Rep Forbes is referring was actually first reported on ChristianFighterPilot.com, with the Religion Clause and the ADF Alliance Alert subsequently citing this site.
As noted three weeks ago, the USAF Rapid Capabilities Office responded to “needling” from former Army Captain Jason Torpy, an atheist, and changed its motto from “Doing God’s work with other people’s money” to “Doing miracles with other people’s money.”
The letter, addressed to Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff General Norton Schwartz, says:
It has come to our attention that the US Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) has modified the logo on its official patch to remove its reference to “God,” following a complaint from Read more…
Michael Weinstein recently wrote a scathing letter demanding retired LtGen William “Jerry” Boykin be prohibited from speaking to the US Military Academy (West Point) National Prayer Breakfast on February 8th. The reason: Boykin is, in Weinstein’s words, “rabidly Islamophobic.” (That’s the same word he used to describe Franklin Graham in 2010, when he was invited to a similar event.)
Simultaneously, Michael Weinstein has defended and is helping advertise Rock Beyond Belief — which last week received a significant amount of negative attention for inviting what he would seemingly describe as a “rabidly religiophobic” music group to perform. In fact, the “rabidly Christophobic” Michael Weinstein is scheduled to be one of the event’s speakers. Weinstein should probably look up the meaning of “phobia.”
Of course, it makes no sense for a person to use the “defense of religious Read more…
In an interesting bit of timing, several groups have decried the decision by West Point to invite retired LtGen William Boykin, author of Never Surrender, to their National Prayer Breakfast on February 8th. The self-described “progressive” VoteVets.org wrote to West Point Superintendent LtGen David Huntoon saying
You may not be aware of Lieutenant General Boykin’s history of extremist and hateful comments towards Islam…
These remarks are incompatible with the Army values, and a person who is incompatible with Army values should not address the cadets of the United States Military Academy.
Where have we heard similar cries before? Ah, yes: The claim Franklin Graham was an “Islamophobe” and therefore an inappropriate speaker at a similar event at the Pentagon. The critics won that one, and Graham’s invitation was rescinded based on his prior speech, not on what he might have said if he had been allowed to attend. Tony Perkins was “disinvited” for his public comments that were wholly unrelated to his event, as well. Likewise, Michael Weinstein demanded Read more…
In a move that will likely cause Michael Weinstein, Richard Baker, Leah Burton and other conspiracy theorists to have heart palpitations, author Mark Andrews has released an eBook entitled Sword of the Covenant.
The premise: The US “lacks the political will” to help prevent the annihilation of Israel by Iran, so two top Pentagon officials try to convince USAF fighter pilots in Turkey and US Navy fighter pilots on a gulf-based aircraft carrier — all evangelical Christians — to launch Read more…
Yonathan Melaku, accused of firing shots at the Pentagon in October and November of 2010, has made his initial court appearance to face federal charges for the attacks. The federal case had been on hold while his unrelated larceny case was resolved; it was that case that led to his dismissal from the Marines days after he was arrested.
Melaku was arrested and charged in June after he was spotted in Arlington National Cemetery after dark in an incident that sparked a massive security scare in and around Read more…
A recent article at the New York Times highlighted an effort by the US military to engage in an information campaign with those who might be, or might be recruiting, “militant adversaries in cyberspace.”
The “war” they’re fighting?
In recent months, Mr. [Ardashir] Safavi and his teammates spotted posts that included doctored photographs of Osama bin Laden purporting to prove that Al Qaeda’s leader had not died in an American commando raid. They turned up blogs stating that the Pentagon was accelerating war plans for invading many Muslim nations, and others amplifying Taliban accusations that American troops rape with impunity across Afghanistan.
These targeted sites mentioned in the article appear to be primarily foreign language and are apparently foreign run: Read more…
FoxNews repeats the Politico report noting the US Army pulled a cross off the front of a US military chapel at Camp Marmal, Afghanistan, which was dedicated just a few months ago.
Before and after courtesy photo originally published at Politico.com.
At first, this situation seems similar to the US Army’s removal of crosses from the chapel in Kosovo a few years ago.
However, the current issue is actually somewhat more complex.
First, US military policies are not necessarily Read more…
Though “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” has been repealed, its controversies continue.
Military chaplains can preside over same-sex marriages on military installations in places where same-sex marriage is not prohibited by state and local laws, according to a new Pentagon policy unveiled Sept. 30.
Having the ability to “preside over” ceremonies was never really in question. Rather, the grand controversy was the use of federal facilities to conduct ceremonies not recognized by federal law. Though not specifically referring to same-sex ceremonies, this, too was addressed: Read more…
Rezwan Ferdaus was arrested Wednesday in Massachusetts after he acquired the weapons and means to conduct a terrorist attack against the Pentagon. The materials were purchased from/delivered by undercover US government agents.
A Massachusetts man was arrested Wednesday and accused of plotting to destroy the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol by attacking the buildings with large, remote-controlled aircraft armed with lethal amounts of explosives.
Interestingly, mainstream articles on Ferdaus fail to mention his religion — even though Ferdaus himself claimed to be motivated by it. In fact, one article even went so far as to publicize the DA’s warning that Read more…
The Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-CA), and committee member Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) have called on the Department of Defense to delay the planned repeal of the policy known as “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.”
The Committee and others have complained the DoD has failed to provide any of the documentation required for the certification to the President that occurred two months ago. The documentation was supposed to cover policies and regulations implementing repeal.
Since it is evident that the department does not have final, approved policies in place, we believe it is essential that you take immediate action to Read more…
Update: This post has been corrected here; the actual number of attacks/attempted attacks is nine, not eight.
Following the arrest of PFC Naser Abdo on charges he planned to kill Soldiers at Fort Hood in what has been described as a “terror attack,” a local paper says “trust is a casualty” for the military and Islamic communities, describing a tension between non-Islamic Soldiers and their Muslim comrades.
Some may not realize Abdo’s arrest marks eight recent attacks or attempted attacks on the US military by assailants who have apparently been motivated by their Islamic faith. Half of those attacks or attempted attacks have been by members of the US military: Read more…
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The opinions expressed here are solely those of the authors, and do not necessarily represent the views of any government, military, or religious organization.
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