Officer that Army said does not exist has been found; suit against Army modified with his real name

Charges in Religious Lawsuit Against Army Detailed

By Jason Leopold

t r u t h o u t | Report

Tuesday 25 September 2007

An Army major who was sued last week for allegedly threatening to

retaliate against a soldier, and whom Pentagon officials said could

not be located, has been tracked down through his MySpace page.

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."

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/092507A.shtml