The Wire - July 11, 2024

//The Wire//1830Z July 11, 2024//
//ROUTINE//
//BLUF: CHINESE ACTIVITY INCREASES SUBSTANTIALLY IN THE TAIWAN STRAIT. CONTROVERSIAL ARMY TRAINING PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS GROWING CONCERNS.//
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-International Events-
France: A fire broke out in the spire of Rouen Cathedral in Normandy yesterday evening. The cause of the fire within this 12th century cathedral remains unknown.
Far East: Chinese activity in the Taiwan Strait substantially increased overnight. 66x PLA aircraft and 7x PLAN vessels were reported to be operating in the area by Taiwanese forces. AC: This is a significant increase in one day’s observed PLA activity, with some sources claiming it’s a new record for the number of PLA aircraft observed in single day.
South Pacific: Conflict and civil unrest reignites in New Caledonia as demonstrations against French forces increase. Riots have increased over the past few days in response to a police shooting on the outskirts of the capitol of Noumea.
-HomeFront-
North Carolina: Controversy has erupted following a training event at Fort Bragg (currently named Fort Liberty, due to the revisionist name-change DoD policy). Leaked images of Powerpoint slides used during the training event indicate that units are labeling peaceful pro-life groups as terrorists, not just “extremists” as they were previously categorized. The leaked training product makes many false claims, and is directly hostile towards Constitutionally protected activities such as peaceful protests, picketing, etc.
Following this controversy, an official statement by the XVIII Airborne Corps (posted on the Fort Liberty Facebook page) has disavowed the training product and the ideology contained on the slides. However, as these slides came from the unit responsible for installation access and security, it is not clear as to if gate guards were using this guidance to conduct unlawful, ideologically-motivated searches, flag certain license plates in their databases, or otherwise commit other Constitutional violations. It is also not clear as to if military law enforcement were using this guidance in the gathering of intelligence on US Persons as defined by EO 12333 or DoD Regulation 5240.01, which specifically states that Defense personnel “may not investigate U.S. persons or collect or maintain information about them solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment or the lawful exercise of other rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”
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Analyst Comments: Many may not see the value in the significance of a Powerpoint presentation that was prepared by a random soldier, and already disavowed by higher leadership. However, this scandal is par for the course with regards to the recent ideological indoctrination that has run rampant through the military over the past few years. As the election creeps closer, and the inevitable militarization of our nation’s Capitol comes to fruition during this time, it would be wise to consider the atmospherics of how soldiers in some units view Constitutionally protected rights.
Though this specific situation is a somewhat minor case study and must be treated as such, in a larger sense this is not an isolated incident. In all likelihood these highly controversial Powerpoint slides are probably a holdover recycled from the “Extremism Standdown” that swept through the DoD a couple of years ago. As a reminder, this was an 8-10 month training campaign to push the one-sided idea that most conservative ideas are extremist in nature. Whether this latest anti-conservative, anti-American scandal is representative of an escalation of official DoD policy remains to be seen, but this indoctrination would hardly be surprising at this point….the jump from labeling peaceful American citizens as “extremists” to labeling them as “terrorists” seems to have occurred rather quickly, as many expected when the DoD transitioned from its stance of being a largely apolitical organization.
What’s far more certain is that this is indicative of how indoctrinated a significant portion of military leadership is at lower levels, not just at the higher levels of senior defense leadership. This is most sharply evidenced in that, as of now, only one soldier in the entire audience saw the issue with this ideology, and thought to take a photo of it. This detail alone is especially sobering, and a reminder of how far the social norms and mores within the armed services have shifted over the past couple of years. Fort Liberty disavowing the content (but notably not apologizing, as of yet) is unlikely to undo the damage done, and base leadership thinking that they can pin this incident on a random unnamed soldier, without addressing the serious concerns of the Constitutional violations their law enforcement officers may be engaged in right now, is very telling. Constitutional rights do not evaporate simply because a military unit with says so (especially a unit that has law enforcement authority on US soil), and Fort Liberty not addressing this point is a much larger issue than a hastily made Powerpoint slide.
At minimum, the cat is out of the bag with regards to what some soldiers are thinking. Thankfully, at least one soldier saw fit to stand against this very dangerous mentality…this time. Had that soldier not leaked this slide on social media, the American citizen with a pro-life license place (authorized by the DMV) would not know that their “random screening” was the result of political targeting by uniformed active-duty soldiers.
This training product was obviously created in-house; this was not a slide deck emailed out from the Pentagon. The order for the training to occur probably came from higher levels of command, but in this case the soldiers who created the product were motivated enough to create this training material on their own. The Pentagon would likely not want to openly label opponents of Roe v. Wade as “terrorists” in writing, considering the SCOTUS action to overturn it. In effect, this leaked slide calls the Supreme Court Justices that voted to overturn Roe v. Wade terrorists, which in classic fashion shows how little thought went into this product, with the active indoctrination over the past few years passively influencing the independent thought needed to build this product.
The organic, in-house nature of the product provides a good basis for understanding how even small units are thinking, and what their perspective is at lower levels. The in-house nature of these ideas also means that at least this installation will not be able to hide behind the excuse of “just following orders”. Especially when it comes to Americans being rather upset that they are branded as terrorists not only by big DoD, but by comparatively low-ranking soldiers in a unit responsible for law enforcement. Focusing on somewhat minor DoD scandals may not be that exciting for most taxpayers, however this situation offers the public a rare look into what some soldiers are not just being taught, but are ideologically motivated to believe and create themselves within the bounds of the propaganda and politicization of the U.S. Armed Forces.
Analyst: S2A1
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