Anti-Terrorism Training Conducted at U.S. Army Base Targeted Pro-Life Groups

An anti-terrorism training conducted at a U.S. army base identified several prominent pro-life groups as terrorist organizations.

The presentation given at Fort Liberty in North Carolina, formerly Fort Bragg, labeled Naming Operation Rescue and National Right to Life domestic-terrorism organizations, citing their tactics, which include demonstrations and protest and sidewalk and crisis-center counseling, as typical of right-wing terror groups. The groups’ opposition to Roe v. Wade is another key indicator of terrorist activity, according to the training.

The training also included a screenshot of a license plate that read “IM4IT,” a popular pro-life indicator which stands for “I’m for it” and refers to the protection of human life.

After the leaked images of the training went viral, Fort Liberty published a statement claiming that the presentation was not approved through the proper channels and does not represent the views of the Army.

“It came to our attention that an anti-terrorism slide was posted on social media,” the statement read. “After conducting a commander’s inquiry, we determined that the slides presented on social media were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities, and do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense. The slides were developed by a local garrison employee to train Soldiers manning access control points at Fort Liberty.”

The garrison said the slides will no longer be used, and that all future training products will be reviewed to ensure they align with current DoD anti-terrorism guidance.

On July 12th, 88 Republican lawmakers sent a letter to the secretary of the Army asking the branch to clarify whether it considers pro-life Americans and organizations “terrorist groups.” The letter also urged an investigation into the distribution of the inflammatory training and to confirm the approval authorities for such trainings.

The lawmakers asked whether the training violated any Army statute and whether the offending employee who created the slide would be receive any disciplinary action. Signees included Senators Marco Rubio, Lindsey Graham, and Ted Cruz, as well as Representatives Elise Stefanik, Jim Banks, and Dan Crenshaw.

In recent years, the Army has suffered recruitment shortfalls as it has embraced progressive doctrines around race, sexuality, and gender. The Army fell about 25 percent short of its 2022 goal to recruit 60,000 new soldiers. However, a series of surveys conducted over 2022 found that only about 5 percent of respondents said “wokeness” was a deterrent to enlisting. The bigger issue, the surveys showed, is that young people “simply do not see the Army as a safe place or good career path,” the Associated Press reported.

In 2021, General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, denied accusations that the military has gone “woke.” He defended the U.S. military academy’s teaching of critical race theory, saying that it is important to have some “situational understanding” of the country’s history. Milley said at the time that “on the issue of critical race theory” he believes it is “important actually for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and widely read.”

Beyond the military, other enforcement agencies of the executive branch have come under fire for allegedly targeting Catholics and pro-lifers.

In January 2023, the FBI’s Richmond field office warned about the rising domestic threat posed by “radical traditionalist Catholic ideology” and claimed it “certainly presents new mitigation opportunities,” according to a document shared by an FBI whistleblower at the time.

The revelation led House Judiciary chairman Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) to demand FBI director Christopher Wray testify before Congress about the report’s origin and impact. Wray initially argued that the memorandum came from a single FBI field office in Virginia, though Jordan disputed the claim, citing internal bureau communications which suggest multiple offices in Milwaukee, Portland, and Los Angeles, were involved.

A subsequent report on the scandal issued by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government showed that the Richmond field office lacked a cohesive definition of radical-traditionalist catholic ideology when it issued the memo and, instead, relied on a single individual’s self description.

The original Richmond memo drew upon the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), an activist group, that has been criticized for including conservative organizations such as the Alliance Defending Freedom and the American College of Pediatricians on its “hate groups” list alongside the Ku Klux Klan and the Nation of Islam.

Shortly after the publication of the report, the FBI redacted the memo.