in Religious E-Mail Dissemination Case

http://digg.com/d1nkTk

By Jason Leopold

This story was updated Thursday afternoon based on a report stating that the Air Force concluded its investigation.

An Air Force investigation has found that a colonel who sent an e-mail to thousands of airmen in Europe directing them to visit a far-right, Catholic website, where President Barack Obama was compared to Adolf Hitler and the Antichrist, did not violate the military’s position on religious neutrality, according to a report published Thursday in Stars and Stripes.

In February, The Public Record broke the story about a Jan. 16 e-mail Air Force Col. Kimberly K. Toney, commander of the 501st Combat Support Wing at RAF Alconbury, sent to eight different Air Force installations in the United Kingdom and Norway which included the subject line: “Inspiration of the day - A Giant of a Man - Meet Nick Vujicic,” who was born without limbs.

“Every day, all around us, we meet people who make a difference in our lives,” said Col. Toney’s e-mail that directed personnel to the website 4marks.com. “Please take a few minutes to enjoy the attached video and meet a truly inspirational individual who will provide you with an opportunity to think about life and how we handle challenges in our personal and professional day-to-day lives. Keep doing the GREAT things you do and don't ever let the challenges get you down. Live, learn and enjoy! Thank you!”

The electronic communication pointed Air Force personnel toward a five-minute video clip about 25 year-old Vujicic whose story of hope and courage is rife with religious overtones. A synopsis of the video says, “God has given [Vujicic] the strength to surmount what others might call impossible. Along with that, the Lord has placed within him an unquenchable passion to share this same hope and genuine love that he's personally experienced with more than two million people all over the globe."

Using official government e-mail to endorse religion is a violation of longstanding military rules and regulations and the U.S. Constitution's 1st Amendment and Clause 3, Article 6 of the body of the Constitution completely prohibiting any "religious test.”

The New York Times followed up on the The Public Record’s Feb. 5 exclusive and reported last month that the Air Force opened a formal inquiry into the matter.

“The purpose of this process is to look at all of the information and make a determination as to whether there’s been any sort of violation of policy and, if so, what action is warranted,” Darlene Cowsert, a spokeswoman for the Air Force’s European command, told The New York Times.

On Monday, Stars and Stripes reported, the Air Force concluded its probe and found that Col. Toney acted inadvertently and unintentionally and did not willfully violate Air Force policy or (Equal Employment Opportunity) guidelines," according Lt. Col. Dave Honchul, 3rd Air Force’s director of public affairs.

The investigation, officially was referred to as an "equal opportunity treatment incident clarification."

"Lt. Gen. Philip Breedlove, Third Air Force commander, agreed with the findings of the EOTI, has taken appropriate action and considers the case closed, Honchul said. When asked what appropriate action was taken, Honchul did not offer specifics, citing privacy concerns," Stars and Stripes reported.

But one of the e-mail’s recipients, Master Sergeant Jeffrey L. Thompson, who said Col. Toney’s e-mail smacked of illegal proselytizing and was "hostile to our commander-in-chief" was blocked from filing a formal complaint by his superior.

MSgt. Thompson, who said he is a Roman Catholic, was told by an official with the Military Equal Opportunity office (MEO) in January that Col. Toney’s e-mail was not intended to come across as proselytizing and because he did not personally endure any suffering as a result of her widely distributed e-mail and therefore was prevented from filing a formal complaint.

But Mikey Weinstein, the founder and president of the watchdog group the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, predicted last month in an interview that the Air Force “investigation” would be a “sham.”

“What we’re faced with here is a fundamentalist Christian para-church –military-corporate-proselytizing-complex,” Weinstein said in an interview. “It is far easier to find 'happy clients' of Bernie Madoff than it is to find American servicemen and women who've been able to successfully solve the profound institutional command bias in order to even lodge complaints of unconstitutional religious intolerance within the Department of Defense. The Air Force should be ignominiously ashamed of itself and heads should roll.”

Weinstein said the “unconstitutional religious oppression is so out of control in the Department of Defense that MRFF is proposing publicly for the very first time that all Defense Department personnel be immediately required to swear out an additional oath besides the one they all swear to protect and defend the Constitution: "The Oath of Equal Character."

On Feb. 9, four days after The Public Record broke the story, Col. Toney apologized for disseminating the e-mail. She said she was unaware that the website she directed the 3,000 or so military personnel to visit contained offensive content.

"I recently sent an e-mail to our 501st Team that contained a link to what I believed was an inspirational message about hope and encouragement," Toney wrote, according to a copy of the e-mail obtained by The Public Record. "Regrettably, I was unaware at the time that the Web site hosting this link contains information and links to information, the content of which is inappropriate. I sincerely apologize for this oversight, especially to those individuals who may have been offended, and want to ensure all are aware that my intent was solely to provide a tool that might offer beneficial insight toward overcoming adversity."