Good riddance! Pentagon banishes left's 'hate' attack dog
The Pentagon has officially disassociated itself from one of the left’s most vicious attack organizations, which is known for unleashing damaging and unsubstantiated claims about conservative organizations as a standard business practice for years.
The Southern Poverty Law Center, or SPLC, routinely attacks conservatives, such as its labeling the staunchly American values-based Alliance Defending Freedom and Liberty Counsel, and the family promoting Family Research Council as “hate” groups because of their religious beliefs. The organization has been linked to domestic terrorism and attempted mass murder.
For years, the Department of Defense used SPLC materials for its training on extremism. Specifically, the DOD’s Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, or DEOMI, conducted training on “hate groups” with SPLC materials, according to Liberty Counsel.
The Daily Caller reported it accessed internal DOD emails upon filing a Freedom of Information Act request. According to a Sept ember email, Brian J. Field, assistant U.S. attorney from the civil division, said: “Additionally, the DEOMI office informed me that, based on a previous FOIA request, DEOMI records concerning, regarding, or related to the preparation and presentation of training materials on hate groups or hate crimes were forwarded … That 133-page document did reference the SPLC; however, based upon guidance from the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity, all references to the SPLC have been removed from any current training.”
DEOMI offers classes to military members and civilians on equal opportunity, pluralism and racial, gender and religious equality.
While the DOD has reportedly stopped using SPLC as a training resource, the Daily Caller notes that it still uses materials from the Anti-Defamation League, or ADL, another leftist group. ADL offers a list of “hate symbols” to students so they “learn more about gang colors or clothing; hate group tattoos and body markings associated with such gangs.”
Liberty Counsel noted that the DOD said in 2014 that it had stopped using SPLC information on so-called “hate groups,” but the DEOMI continued to cite SPLC data in “non-federal reference material.”
“However, it appears that the DOD’s DEOMI has now completely severed ties with the SPLC,” Liberty Counsel noted Thursday.
WND has long reported on SPLC and its “hate” labels. In 2015, WND reported SPLC issued what critics contended was a “starter kit” for jihadists and a “hit list” that painted a target on the backs of 12 women, including Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, talk host Laura Ingraham, columnist and author Ann Coulter, American Freedom Defense Initiative President Pamela Geller and former CIA career operations officer Clare Lopez, among others.
The following are just a few recent WND reports on SPLC:
Left’s ‘attack dog’ goes bonkers on Fox News
Leftists slap ‘hate’ label on woman for talking about socialism
47 big-name conservatives warn media on SPLC’s ‘hit list’
Franklin Graham goes on offense over leftists’ ‘hate’ labels
Rush Limbaugh erupts on ‘leftist freaks’ at famous group
‘Death threats’ result from leftist ‘hate’ labels
The FBI has also stopped using SPLC as a source on its “hate crimes” website.
“It is encouraging to know that our nation’s Department of Defense is no longer relying upon the Southern Poverty Law Center as a ‘hate group’ resource for training on extremism,” said Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel founder and chairman. “The SPLC incites violence and has no credibility to be used as a resource for anyone, especially America’s military. In fact, the SPLC is directly connected to Floyd Corkins, who was convicted under the Anti-Terrorism Act for his attempt to commit mass murder against the Family Research Council. The SPLC needs to be stopped because it has an obvious political agenda, and it is putting people’s lives in danger.”
As WND has reported, SPLC has been linked to domestic terror, in the attack by Floyd Corkins on FRC headquarters in Washington, and the recent attempt by James Hodgkinson to assassinate Rep. Steve Scalise and other Republicans.
SPLC had slammed Scalise for his political views, and Hodgkinson had “liked” the SPLC on Facebook.
It was in June when Hodgkinson shot Scalise, R-La.; Zach Barth, a staff member for Rep. Roger Williams; former congressional staff member Matt Mika; and two U.S. Capitol Police officers at a practice for a charity baseball game. SPLC had demonized Scalise for promoting white supremacy and inferred “that Rep. Scalise is a so-called ‘hater.'”
The FRC attacker, Corkins, cited SPLC as his inspiration for his going to the Washington offices of the Family Research Council, armed with a gun, intending to kill as many people as he could. He was stopped by a security guard, who was injured.
SPLC has been so extreme it also got into trouble with the Disciplinary Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel of the Department of Justice under President Obama.
There, SPLC lawyers were sharply rebuked and reprimanded for employing its “hate group” on a conservative advocacy group. The counsel stated that using SPLC’s map “overstepped the bounds of zealous advocacy and was unprofessional.” It continued that such behavior is “uncivil” and “constitutes frivolous behavior and does not aid the administration of justice.”
In September, talk-radio superstar Rush Limbaugh criticized SPLC as “perhaps one of the biggest hate groups on the left.”
“They tar and feather and slander right-wing groups and call them hate groups,” he said. “They’ve got a map on their website, and whenever a right-wing group that says or does anything that the Southern Poverty Law Center, which is a bunch of leftist freaks, all you have to do is disagree with them and you are called a hater.”
SPLC’s agenda also has been criticized as “incredible” by Rev. Franklin Graham, CEO and president of both Samaritan’s Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
“A hate group? Can you believe this – the Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Ala., has labeled a number of Christian groups such as D. James Kennedy Ministries, and the Family Research Council run by my good friend Tony Perkins as ‘hate’ groups. Why?” he wrote in a Facebook post.
