Exclusive: 20 or more people Members of the House Armed Services Committee have asked the Army for an explanation after the Army acknowledged that a slide that referenced pro-life groups in a domestic counterterrorism training module was true.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), chairman of the Military Personnel Subcommittee, expressed outrage over the use of training materials at Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) in North Carolina and sent a letter to Army Secretary Christine Warmuth asking for a more thorough explanation.
The letter read: slide They noted that members of pro-life organizations could pose a threat to the security of military installations and that the official livery of such organizations, such as pro-life license plates, could be a sign of terrorism.
“For an organization that claims to treat all people with ‘dignity and respect,’ this is truly shocking,” Banks wrote of the slides, which were used as part of a larger training exercise for military police tasked with manning the base’s entrances and exits.
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The Army Black Knights end zone logo before the 122nd game between the Army Black Knights and the Navy Cadets at MetLife Stadium on Dec. 11, 2021 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Rich Glaesl/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Banks told Fox News Digital on Friday that the slide dates back to the summer of 2023, suggesting it wasn’t a sudden false entry.
“For over a year, someone at Fort Liberty has been teaching our soldiers that pro-life Americans are terrorists, and the Biden Pentagon didn’t stop until House Republicans and the public sounded the alarm,” Banks said.
“I’m a veteran of the Afghanistan war and I am sickened to see far-left extremists poisoning our military with their radical hatred. We must rid our military of woke activists and ensure that it is focused on countering terrorists overseas, not targeting conservative Americans.”
Reached by Fox on Friday afternoon, a public affairs officer at the Fayetteville, North Carolina, Garrison said the person using the slides was “no longer employed.”
He said the situation was subject to a formal investigation by the commander-in-chief, adding that the slides “had not been reviewed by the appropriate authorities.”
“The slides do not reflect the views of the XVIII Airborne Corps, Fort Liberty, the U.S. Army or the Department of Defense,” the officer added.
The lawmakers said in their letter that the use of the slides “validates our concerns” about recent protests and extremism-related directives from senior Army officials.
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The pro-life flag was designed as a symbol to unite people who oppose abortion. (Pro-Life Flag Project)
“In essence, the Army is using overly broad policies to monitor the speech of conservative service members, silence dissent, and require service members who espouse conservative ideals to conceal their identities for fear of retaliation from higher-ups,” the letter said.
“But because the Army has yet to submit training materials to Congress in violation of its obligations, we can only assume that the training interpreted the Army’s definition of extremist activity to view pro-life groups as ‘advocating or using unlawful force or violence to achieve political, religious, or discriminatory or ideological goals.'”
The letter also argued that the use of such slides contradicts past testimony from defense officials that all views are welcome in the military, including those on the political right.
Banks and the signers called on the Warmus chapter to immediately pass on the corrections to service members who were briefed on the slides.
After Fort Liberty responded that the vetting process was improperly conducted, Banks wrote to Warmuth asking him to explain what the proper process actually was.
The lawmakers also asked whether the Army believes pro-life activism or “abortion-related counseling” constitutes terrorist activity.
“It is vital that our military remains politically neutral within the bounds of the law and respects diverse views,” they wrote.
Also Friday, officials with National Right to Life, mentioned on one of the slides, said in a statement that it is only under current federal leadership that law-abiding activities are considered terrorism.
“Some may wonder how a license plate designed to raise funds for a pregnancy support center could be interpreted as a symbol of terrorism,” President Carol Tobias said.
“When in doubt, blame your guys,” a blog post on the National Right to Life website said after U.S. military officials acknowledged the slide’s authenticity and said it had been added to the program in error.
The garrison had previously acknowledged the authenticity of the slides, but Banks said that even if the module had not been approved, it exposed how the Pentagon had created a “political environment in which far-left cranks feel they can get away with indoctrinating soldiers that conservative Americans are the enemy.”
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Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg) (Melissa Sue Gerrits/Getty Images)
The Army updated some of its policies in June, with Gen. Warmuth announcing that “active participation in extremist activity may be prohibited even in circumstances that would be constitutionally protected in a civilian setting.”
According to the American Legion, service members are now prohibited from liking, sharing or engaging with content that supports extremism.
Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) signed the letter along with other lawmakers including Reps. Carlos Gimenez (R-Fla.), Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana), Rob Whitman (R-Va.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Corey Mills (R-Fla.) and Richard Hudson (R-Calif.).
Hudson represents the base.
