I respect that viewpoint and understand your objection.
In making the characterization, I considered the sources, which included not only the Washington Post story but also the characterization made by the man who ran the effort himself in three separate interviews.
It's possible that different people had different experiences at different times. I also would imagine, based on some of the things Bilal Philips said in the interviews cited, that the people running the program targeted individuals based on how receptive they were to the pitch:
(Khalil) Who were the members of the team that helped you in your work?
(Philips) It was a special team whose members spoke fluent English. I recall that we expanded our work at the time to the point of operating for 24 hours. We obtained an apartment in the barrack and divided the team into groups working on rotation.
(Khalil) What were the means and methods used to persuade US soldiers to convert to Islam?
(Philips) At first we prepared the soldiers mentally. A member of the team with experience in broadcasting and American psychology undertook that job. He called in 200-250 soldiers. Once he prepared them psychologically, I began giving the lectures and opened the floor for discussion on different issues. In my answers to their questions, I often linked the topics to the call for conversion to Islam.
The full articles are here:
http://kyl.senate.gov/legis_center/subdocs/101403_wallerl.pdf They're in an appendix at the end of the testimony.
So overall, I do see your point, but I do think the article makes a fair characterization of the process in whole, while perhaps not addressing the individual experiences of people who attended them. Obviously, some people had much more contact than others.
But I'll think about it some more and look at the wording to see if I can clarify it to address what you're saying.
Thanks,
jmb
In light of what you're saying, I edited the story to provide a little more color on the point of who got an aggressive pitch. It now specifies:
"We registered the names and addresses of over 3,000 male and female US soldiers," Philips said in a 2003 interview with a Saudi-owned Arabic language magazine published out of London. According to Philips, a team of workers trained in psychology identified soldiers who were receptive to Islam and singled them out for more personalized preaching in smaller groups. In some cases, soldiers also visited with Saudi families.
Thanks very much for your critique.
jmb