[NYTr] Army Major Who Threatened Atheist Sued

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

TruthOut - Sep 26, 2007
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092507A.shtml

Charges in Religious Lawsuit Against Army Detailed

By Jason Leopold

An Army major who was sued last week for allegedly threatening to
retaliate against a soldier who convened a meeting of atheists, and
whom Pentagon officials said could not be located, has been found via a
MySpace page the Army major updates regularly.

Freddy J. Welborn was identified in a federal lawsuit filed last week by
Army Spc. Jeremy Hall, 22, and the Military Religious Freedom
Foundation, a watchdog organization. Because his name was mistakenly
listed in the complaint as Paul Welborne, the Army said it was unable
to locate him.

However, Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military
Religious Freedom Foundation, said researchers working for his group
discovered Welborn's MySpace page on Sunday morning. Weinstein said the
complaint his organization and Hall filed against Welborn, and Defense
Secretary Robert Gates, will be amended and refiled in US District
Court in Kansas City, Kansas on Tuesday to reflect Welborn's proper
identity.

On Saturday, Lt. Col. James Hutton, a spokesman for multinational
forces in Iraq, told an Associated Press reporter "several media
reports list a person named Maj. Paul Welborne as having been involved
in this situation."

"To date, we have not located any soldier by that name," Hutton told The
Associated Press, in response to the story first reported by Truthout
about the lawsuit filed against Welborn and the Pentagon.

The issue appeared to be an attempt to cast doubt on the validity of
Hall's claims of widespread constitutional violations. However, hours
after The Associated Press report was published, Weinstein's
researchers and Hall were both able to locate Welborn, albeit under a
different first name, at Combat Operations Base Speicher, Iraq, where
Hall is serving his second tour of duty.

Hutton's statement to The Associated Press came on the heels of another
Truthout report in which Weinstein said Hall was being threatened with
bodily harm by other soldiers as a result of the lawsuit he had filed
against Welborn and Defense Secretary Gates.

The lawsuit alleges Hall's First Amendment rights were violated
beginning last Thanksgiving when, because he does not believe in God,
he declined to participate in a Christian prayer ceremony commemorating
the holiday.

"Immediately after plaintiff made it known he would decline to join
hands and pray, he was confronted, in the presence of other military
personnel, by the senior ranking ... staff sergeant who asked plaintiff
why he did not want to pray, whereupon plaintiff explained because he
is an atheist," says the lawsuit, a copy of which was provided to
Truthout. "The staff sergeant asked plaintiff what an atheist is and
plaintiff responded it meant that he (plaintiff) did not believe in
God. This response caused the staff sergeant to tell plaintiff that he
would have to sit elsewhere for the Thanksgiving dinner. Nonetheless,
plaintiff sat at the table in silence and finished his meal."

Moreover, the complaint alleges that on August 7, when Hall received
permission by an Army chaplain to organize a meeting of other soldiers
who shared his atheist beliefs, his supervisor, Army Major Welborn,
broke up the gathering and threatened to retaliate against the soldier
by charging him with violating the Uniform Code of Military Justice.
The complaint also alleges Welborn vowed to block Hall's reenlistment
in the Army if the atheist group continued to meet - a violation of
Hall's First Amendment rights under the Constitution. Welborn is named
as a defendant in the lawsuit.

"During the course of the meeting, defendant Welborn confronted the
attendees, disrupted the meeting and interfered with plaintiff Hall's
and the other attendees' rights to discuss topics of their interests,"
the lawsuit alleges.

The complaint charges that Hall, who is based at Fort Riley, Kansas, has
been forced to "submit to a religious test as a qualification to his
post as a soldier in the United States Army," a violation of Article
VI, Clause 3 of the Constitution.

Welborn, 44, who appears on his MySpace page in his Army uniform, wrote
on his MySpace page that he is a devout Christian who received a
bachelor's degree in "personal evangelism" and a minor in "Biblical
world view" from Temple Tennessee University. He wrote that he is
pursuing a second bachelor's degree in Christian studies from Calvary
Bible College And Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Missouri. He
lists his occupation as "Bible Study--Operation Iraqi Freedom" and
wrote that his interest is evangelism and preaching the Gospel of Jesus
Christ.

"Currently serving w/3rd Inf Div [3rd Infantry Division] Civil Military
Operations (Governance) in Baghdad Iraq," Welborn wrote on his MySpace
page. He describes himself as a ""Warrior for the Lord Jesus Christ."
He wrote that he and his wife Carla "place all our Faith & Trust in our
Savior the Lord Jesus - who provides eternal life to anyone that
believes that he is the Son of God, that he was born of a virgin, lived
as God in the flesh (as man) was crucified, died, and was buried then
rose from the grave the third day, then acended [sic] to the right hand
of the Father - True repentance (turning away from Sin to God) Being
born again, Forgivness [sic] & Justification occure [sic] to the True
Believer in Christ when Baptized w/God's Holy Spirit."

Additionally, Welborn endorses Stephen Mansfield's "The Faith of the
American Soldier," a book that defends and praises controversial
statements made by retired Lt. Gen. William G. Boykin, the former
deputy undersecretary of defense for intelligence, who characterized
the war on terrorism as a clash between Judeo-Christian values and
Satan.

Welborn could not be reached for comment. He did not reply to an email
sent to him through his MySpace page. A Pentagon spokesman said it is
not uncommon for soldiers to maintain their own blogs or web sites and
he did not believe Welborn's MySpace page violated military policy.

Weinstein, a former White House attorney under Ronald Reagan, former
general counsel to H. Ross Perot, and who spent a decade as an Air
Force Judge Advocate General (JAG), has been waging a war against the
Department of Defense (DOD) for what he says is a blatant disregard of
the Constitution and a pattern of forcing soldiers to embrace
evangelical Christianity. Weinstein published a book on his fight:
"With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in
America's Military." He is also an Air Force veteran and a graduate of
the Air Force Academy. Three generations of his family have attended US
military academies.

Since he launched his watchdog organization nearly two years ago,
Weinstein said he has been contacted by more than 5,000 active duty and
retired soldiers, many of whom served or currently serve in Iraq, who
told Weinstein they were pressured by their commanding officers to
convert to Christianity.

Last month, the Pentagon's inspector general (IG) excoriated
high-ranking military officials for engaging in evangelism while on
duty and in uniform. The IG responded to a complaint filed last year by
the Military Religious Freedom Foundation alleging DOD officials
violated military regulations by appearing in a video promoting an
evangelical Christian organization.

The IG agreed and issued a 47-page report that was highly critical of
senior Army and Air Force personnel for participating in the video
while in uniform and on active duty.

The report recommended Air Force Maj. Gen. Jack Catton, Army Brig. Gen.
Bob Caslen, Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, Maj. Gen. Peter Sutton, and a
colonel and lieutenant colonel whose names were redacted in the
inspector general's report, "improperly endorsed and participated with
a non-Federal entity while in uniform" and the men should be
disciplined for misconduct. Caslen was formerly the deputy director for
political-military affairs for the war on terrorism, directorate for
strategic plans and policy, joint staff. He now oversees the 4,200
cadets at the US Military Academy at West Point. Caslen told DOD
investigators he agreed to appear in the video upon learning other
senior Pentagon officials had been interviewed for the promotional
video.

The inspector general's report recommended the "Secretary of the Air
Force and the Chief of Staff of the Army take appropriate corrective
action with respect to the military officers concerned."

The Army generals who appeared in the video appeared to be speaking on
behalf of the military, but they did not obtain prior permission to
appear in the video. They defended their actions, according to the IG's
report, saying the "Christian Embassy had become a 'quasi-Federal
entity,' since the DOD had endorsed the organization to General
Officers for over 25 years."

[Jason Leopold is senior editor and reporter for Truthout.
He received a Project Censored award in 2007 for his story on
Halliburton's work in Iran.]