In light of the recent revelation that an African-American Cadet Candidate at the USAFA Prep School “faked” racial harassment on himself and his peers, it’s worth remembering another Air Force Academy cadet who was once accused of faking prejudiced attacks on himself.

That would be then-Cadet Michael “Mikey” Weinstein.

In 1973, Cadet Fourth Class Mikey Weinstein was a member of CS-36, the Pink Panthers. It was there, in his first semester, that he says he experienced the anti-Semitism that he now says formed the foundation for his activism in later life. That harassment reportedly came in the form of notes taped to or slid under his dorm room door.

The short version: The harassing notes were investigated, Mikey Weinstein was accused of being the author of the notes, and Weinstein then punched an active duty officer investigating the incident.  The entire incident mysteriously went away after Weinstein had an 0200 rendezvous in the woods with a cloaked figure from the Anti-Defamation League.

Seriously.

In 2005, just as Mikey Weinstein was beginning to make himself “famous” with his constant attacks on Christians at USAFA, Weinstein says a detractor wrote a letter to “journalist” Pam Zubeck (a Weinstein ally) to shed some background on Weinstein’s claims of mistreatment as a cadet. The informant claimed Weinstein’s harassment as a cadet had been a hoax by Weinstein himself — which, he said, the investigation had substantiated.

While Weinstein didn’t publicly name the informant, Weinstein did say he was the fall squadron commander and a retired USAF Colonel — which would presumably make him retired Col Steven Boyce, the Proud Pink Panther’s fall commander in 1973. In response to the threatened “exposé”, Weinstein says his lawyers threatened not just Boyce but also his family, “persuading” him to write a retraction.

Importantly, however, Weinstein seems to think the “intimidation” wasn’t even necessary, because his cadet career is filled with such accolades as being on the tennis team and the Supt’s List — feats, he says, that would have been unimaginable had he actually committed what Weinstein called the “criminal activity” of faking anti-Semitic harassment.  Further, Weinstein said USAFA would have been “obliged to prosecute” him; since it didn’t, presumably Weinstein was innocent.

But Weinstein proudly admits that he struck a commissioned officer who accused him of “fabricating” those notes.  How could his stellar cadet career have occurred after such obvious criminal activity, and why was USAFA not obliged to prosecute him?

How does the absence of a prosecution in the prior accusation prove Col Boyce a liar, but the absence of a prosecution in the second not prove Mikey Weinstein a liar?

If nothing else, it would seem Col Boyce was correct on at least one point: Even Mikey Weinstein admits one Air Force investigator raised the possibility Weinstein faked the harassment. How did that investigation end? That we don’t know — and likely never will.

Perhaps Col Boyce went too far to say he knew how the investigation ended, but it seems his suppositions were based on fairly reasonable conclusions — and he may even have been right.

What we do know is that even today Mikey Weinstein seems to be an egotistical narcissist, redundancy intended. (A clinical psychologist, upon hearing Weinstein’s name, once remarked “You mean the guy with the Napoleon complex?”) Weinstein revels in publicizing the threats and “attacks” he receives — to the point that one person said he shows off his threats like others do pictures of their grandkids. Weinstein also has an aversion to the truth that is fairly easy to document — including, in one case, going so far as to file a lawsuit to claim an event in the present caused an event in the past.

This all speaks to Mikey Weinstein’s credibility — the same credibility upon which he depends to launch his unverified, unsubstantiated attacks on Christians in the military, predicated on anonymous complaints with no evidence.  Mikey Weinstein wants — no, he needs — the world to look at him and to see him as the persecuted but heroic victim, now fighting on in a David vs Goliath battle for the sake of greater humanity (and, by the way, he’d love it if you’d send him some money to help).  That need is so great that he and his “charity” have been known to exaggerate — if not outright fabricate — stories to advance their ideological and financial cause.

Combine that level of attention-seeking and drama-dependence with Weinstein’s incompatibility with the truth, and you’re bound to get some “colorful” — or otherwise potentially “embellished” — stories. Remember the one about cadets being “forced to attend” Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ, or how Weinstein managed to serve “10 years as an AF JAG“, despite not even being in the Air Force 10 years out of law school?  How about Chris Rodda, Mikey Weinstein’s research assistant, repeatedly being caught in outright lies?

It’s interesting to note that despite Mikey Weinstein’s self-absorbed need to vaunt the alleged “attacks” against him, he kept the story of Col Boyce and the fake note accusation to himself for a couple of years. In fact, Weinstein said he managed to “kill” a news story on the scandal, thanks to the coerced retraction. Why did Weinstein fear that particular story?

For one thing, when the story first arose Weinstein was only beginning to establish himself as an agitator, and too much too soon might have killed his budding and profitable career.

For another, it seems there are significant elements of truth in it.

The truth undid the Cadet Candidate at the Prep School. The truth may yet one day undo Mikey Weinstein.

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