Ft Wayne Times

On July 13, 2024, in response to a leaked "anti-terror" training given to soldiers at Fort Liberty on July 10, 2024, which described pro-life organizations as "terrorist groups," Chairman of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee Jim Banks and Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Mike Rogers led a letter questioning Army Secretary Christine Wormuth about the briefing.

The letter is co-signed by Representatives Richard Hudson (R-NC), Joe Wilson (R-SC), Mike Turner (R-OH), Rob Wittman (R-VA), Austin Scott (R-GA), Sam Graves (R-MO), Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Scott DesJarlais (R-TN), Trent Kelly (R-MS), Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Don Bacon (R-NE), Jack Bergman (R-MI), Mike Waltz (R-FL), Ronny Jackson (R-TX), Pat Fallon (R-TX), Carlos Gimenez (R-FL), Brad Finstad (R-MN), Dale Strong (R-AL), Morgan Luttrell (R-TX), Jen Kiggans (R-VA), Cory Mills (R-FL) Rich McCormick(R-GA) and Clay Higgins(R-LA).

Rep. Banks stated: "These slides date back to at least last summer. 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. I’m an Afghanistan war veteran, and it sickens me to see far-left radicals poisoning our military with this extremist hate. We must get woke activists out of our Armed Forces so that we have a military that’s focused on countering foreign terrorists overseas and not on targeting conservative Americans."

Mike Fichter, President of Indiana Right to Life, commented: "We are alarmed at reports of pro-life organizations being referred to as terrorist groups in a briefing at Ft. Liberty. This is an unjust attack on every pro-life American. We call on Congress to investigate how this happened, hold those responsible accountable, and ensure this never happens again."

Excerpts from the letter state:

"But because the Army has yet to provide the training materials to Congress in contravention of their obligation, we can only assume that the training interpreted the Army’s definition of extremist activities to include pro-life organizations… We urge the Army to immediately issue a correction to all servicemembers who received this briefing, implement rules to ensure officials do not make similar claims in the Army’s name in the future, and discipline those individuals responsible for spreading such false and divisive claims. Additionally, the Army must reassess Army Directive 2024-07, to ensure that certain conservative and religious beliefs that are outside the progressive left ideology popular in military leadership are not swept in as extremist activity."

Fort Liberty acknowledged the authenticity of the slides but noted they "were not vetted by appropriate approval authorities." A June 2023 video suggests these slides have been used for over a year.

In June 2024, an expansive directive addressing extremism was issued by the Army despite findings from the Department of Defense indicating that extremism is less common among active-duty servicemembers than within the general population.

Secretary Austin has yet to comply with a requirement in Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act mandating reporting on costs associated with “extremism training.”

Previously Rep. Banks criticized Navy for including what he described as far-left extremist book on its recommended reading list.