Army personnel in charge of security at the gates of Fort Liberty, North Carolina, received an anti-terroism briefing Wednesday, training that typically gives a mundane rundown of how to identify potential threats.
But this PowerPoint presentation had a glaring difference: It conflated mainstream lobbying groups, partisan organizations and non-violent political activism with terror groups such as the Islamic State and the Ku Klux Klan.
A photo of the slide presentation went viral online and raised the ire of Republicans on Capitol Hill and far-right commentators online for highlighting two groups in particular as terrorist organizations — National Right to Life and Operation Rescue, both anti-abortion lobbying groups that have no record of acting violently.
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The Army repudiated the presentation, saying it will review such briefings in the future. The botched briefing comes as the Pentagon grapples with legitimate extremism in the military ranks and provides a snapshot of how educating the force on threats at the ground level can be mishandled.
“The slides were developed by a local garrison employee to train soldiers manning access control points at Fort Liberty,” an Army spokesperson told Military.com in a statement. “These slides will no longer be used, and all future training products will be reviewed to ensure they…
