The conservative organization Judicial Watch filed a lawsuit against the Pentagon this month in an attempt to obtain information that could shed more light on an Army antiterrorism training that labeled several legitimate nonprofits as terrorist groups.
Photos of slides shown during an antiterrorism training at Fort Liberty were posted online this summer, prompting outrage about the groups labeled as terrorists. Nonprofits that were incorrectly labeled included People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, known as PETA, as well as the anti-abortion groups Operation Rescue and National Right to Life. The advocacy groups Earth First, Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front were also listed.
National Right to Life issued a news release calling the situation “deeply offensive to all pro-life Americans,” and PETA told Military Times the Army made the correct decision to get rid of the “counterfactual presentation.”
Judicial Watch, which often files Freedom of Information Act lawsuits to investigate claimed misconduct, accused the Army of targeting anti-abortion Christians. The group wants the Defense Department to hand over any documents that could show why National Right to Life and other anti-abortion groups were on the list.
Judicial Watch is also suing for any emails written by Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, Under Secretary Gabe Camarillo, Chief of Staff Gen. Randy George and Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James Mingus that might mention designating anti-abortion groups as terrorist organizations.
The group claimed the training was made with ill-intent and wasn’t merely a blunder, as the Army has perviously said.
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Army leaders testified to lawmakers in September about the training. An internal investigation found that the soldier who created the slides was an employee of the local garrison and added the nonprofits based on open-source research, said Army Assistant Secretary Agnes Gereben Schaefer. The Army didn’t find any evidence that the soldier sought to subvert Defense Department policy or to further a personal political viewpoint.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle criticized Lt. Gen. Patrick Matlock, the Army deputy chief of staff, after he refused to reveal what disciplinary measures the soldier faced. Matlock said only that the soldier was retrained, and the chain of command took action. He cited privacy and safety concerns as the reason he wouldn’t give more details.
In a news release last week, Judicial Watch blamed President Joe Biden’s administration for “trying to set our military against conservative American citizens.” However, the Army investigation found that the training slides were created in 2017, while former President Donald Trump was in office.
About 9,100 soldiers saw the slides over the past seven years, the Army investigation found.
“The training materials were very poorly developed, and we fully acknowledge that failure,” Matlock testified. “That length of time is almost unexplainable.”
This story was produced in partnership with Military Veterans in Journalism. Please send tips to MVJ-Tips@militarytimes.com.
Nikki Wentling covers disinformation and extremism for Military Times. She's reported on veterans and military communities for eight years and has also covered technology, politics, health care and crime. Her work has earned multiple honors from the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, the Arkansas Associated Press Managing Editors and others.
