Response to Fort Liberty Training Claiming Operation Rescue is a Terrorist Group

Not Only is it an Outright Lie, it Violates the 1878 Federal Law, Posse Comitatus Act

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!”

Violates the 1878 Federal Law, Posse Comitatus Act

That had not occurred to me.

Interestingly, I just learned that Congress reaffirmed the Act - in 2018, oddly - but with curious language

§466. Sense of Congress reaffirming the continued importance and applicability of the Posse Comitatus Act
(a) Findings
Congress finds the following:
(1) Section 1385 of title 18 (commonly known as the "Posse Comitatus Act") prohibits the use of the Armed Forces as a posse comitatus to execute the laws except in cases and under circumstances expressly authorized by the Constitution or Act of Congress.
(2) Enacted in 1878, the Posse Comitatus Act was expressly intended to prevent United States Marshals, on their own initiative, from calling on the Army for assistance in enforcing Federal law.
(3) The Posse Comitatus Act has served the Nation well in limiting the use of the Armed Forces to enforce the law.
(4) Nevertheless, by its express terms, the Posse Comitatus Act is not a complete barrier to the use of the Armed Forces for a range of domestic purposes, including law enforcement functions, when the use of the Armed Forces is authorized by Act of Congress or the President determines that the use of the Armed Forces is required to fulfill the President's obligations under the Constitution to respond promptly in time of war, insurrection, or other serious emergency.
(5) Existing laws, including chapter 13 of title 10 (commonly known as the "Insurrection Act"), and the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5121 et seq.), grant the President broad powers that may be invoked in the event of domestic emergencies, including an attack against the Nation using weapons of mass destruction, and these laws specifically authorize the President to use the Armed Forces to help restore public order.
(b) Sense of Congress Congress reaffirms the continued importance of section 1385 of title 18, and it is the sense of Congress that nothing in this chapter should be construed to alter the applicability of such section to any use of the Armed Forces as a posse comitatus to execute the laws.
( Pub. L. 107–296, title VIII, §886, Nov. 25, 2002, 116 Stat. 2248 ; Pub. L. 115–232, div. A, title XII, §1204(a)(1), Aug. 13, 2018, 132 Stat. 2017 .)

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Don’t be naive. The US government has, is, and will continue to press the idea that white Christian pro-life conservatives are terrorists.

The Southern Poverty Law Center says so. And they set much US policy. In fact - they hold greater contempt for Operation Rescue advocates than they do for 9/11 terrorists.

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