Not Only is it an Outright Lie, it Violates the 1878 Federal Law, Posse Comitatus Act
Updated July 18, 2024
On Thursday, Sam Shoemate, described on his X profile as an analyst, watchdog, and “advocate for service members seeking justice,” posted about an anti-terrorism brief held on Fort Liberty (formerly Fort Bragg), a U.S. army installation in North Carolina. He posted a photo of a slide (above) included in the training, listing several pro-life organizations as terrorist groups.
Shoemate stated the slide followed another slide about ISIS and prominently featured Operation Rescue’s logo under the title “TERRORIST GROUPS.” The slide contained bullet points, including one stating Operation Rescue “Opposes Row v. Wade.”
Apparently, the creator of the slide was unaware of what the vast majority of Americans know – the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Operation Rescue’s opposition to the 1973 case and completely overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022.
“The person who created the slide was obviously uninformed and could not even manage to correctly spell the word Roe,” said Operation Rescue President Troy Newman. Fort Liberty was extremely irresponsible to allow this nonsense into its training material. It’s absurd when you consider that we are like-minded in our work. We are all working to save innocent lives. Our fight, which, of course, is done through peaceful, legal means, just starts earlier – from the moment of conception.
“It is utterly ridiculous that Operation Rescue and other groups that work to defend innocent babies would be put in the same category as groups like the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda that carried out the September 11 attacks.”
Operation Rescue was the largest civil disobedience movement in American history with over 75,000 arrests for peaceful non-violent intervention on behalf of preborn children in the last 80s and early 90’s. Operation Rescue has never been associated with anything violent.
WRAL News of Raleigh, North Carolina, interviewed Operation Rescue’s Anne Reed concerning the slide (click on image below to watch). WRAL also interviewed a Fort Liberty representative by phone who stated these presentations typically take place every 2-3 weeks. It is, therefore, unclear how many times this slide was used before a whistleblower made it public. Though Fort Liberty released a statement explaining its mistake, it stopped short of an apology.
The training, according to Fort Liberty’s statement, was provided to soldiers who would be manning entry points. “Pro-life organizations have absolutely nothing to do with those responsibilities,” said Newman, “therefore, the only perceived purpose for disparaging pro-life organizations in such a training would be to satisfy a political agenda and indoctrinate our soldiers. It is truly a disgrace and clearly violates the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878, which limits the powers of the U.S. government to use the military to enforce domestic policies.
“It is a shame that the proper authorities were either not aware of the slide or allowed it to be included in multiple trainings,” asserted Newman, “We await an answer, after Fort Liberty’s investigation is complete, that assures us this will not happen again!”
This report may be republished with inclusion of the following acknowledgement: “This article was originally published by Operation Rescue, a leading pro-life, Christian activist organization dedicated to exposing abortion abuses, demanding enforcement, saving innocent lives, and building an abortion-free America. The author, Anne Reed, is Senior Policy Advisor for Operation Rescue.”
Editor’s Note: Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Ted Budd (R-NC), along with Representative Richard Hudson (R-NC) and their colleagues, sent a letter to Fort Liberty to Secretary of the Army Christine Wormuth demanding answers.
