Press Releases

Today, in response to a leaked “anti-terror” training given to soldiers at Fort Liberty on July 10, 2024 and likely in the summer of 2024 that 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 signed by several Republican on the Committee that questions Army Secretary Christine Wormuth about the briefing.

Read the letter HERE.

The letter is cosigned 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).

Said Rep. Banks: “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.”

Said Mike Fichter, President of Indiana Right to Life: “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, to hold those responsible accountable, and to ensure this never happens again.”

Letter Excerpts:

• 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, to implement rules to ensure officials do not make similar claims in the Army’s name in the future, and to 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 has acknowledged the authenticity of the slides and said that the slides “were not vetted by the appropriate approval authorities.” A June 2023 video suggests the slides have been used for over a year.

The Army issued an expansive directive addressing extremism in June 2024, even though the Department of Defense has found that “extremism” is less common among active duty servicemembers than the general population.

Secretary Austin has ignored a requirement in the Fiscal Year 2024 National Defense Authorization Act to report to Congress on the cost of “extremism training.”

Rep. Banks’ previously criticized the Navy for including a far-left, extremist book on its recommended reading list.