//The Wire//1830Z July 11, 2024//

//ROUTINE//

//BLUF:  CHINESE ACTIVITY INCREASES SUBSTANTIALLY IN THE TAIWAN STRAIT. CONTROVERSIAL ARMY TRAINING PRODUCT HIGHLIGHTS GROWING CONCERNS.//

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-International Events-

France: A fire broke out in the spire of Rouen Cathedral in Normandy yesterday evening. The cause of the fire within this 12th century cathedral remains unknown.

Far East: Chinese activity in the Taiwan Strait substantially increased overnight. 66x PLA aircraft and 7x PLAN vessels were reported to be operating in the area by Taiwanese forces. AC: This is a significant increase in one day’s observed PLA activity, with some sources claiming it’s a new record for the number of PLA aircraft observed in single day.

South Pacific: Conflict and civil unrest reignites in New Caledonia as demonstrations against French forces increase. Riots have increased over the past few days in response to a police shooting on the outskirts of the capitol of Noumea.

-HomeFront-

North Carolina: Controversy has erupted following a training event at Fort Bragg (currently named Fort Liberty, due to the revisionist name-change DoD policy). Leaked images of Powerpoint slides used during the training event indicate that units are labeling peaceful pro-life groups as terrorists, not just “extremists” as they were previously categorized. The leaked training product makes many false claims, and is directly hostile towards Constitutionally protected activities such as peaceful protests, picketing, etc.

Following this controversy, an official statement by the XVIII Airborne Corps (posted on the Fort Liberty Facebook page) has disavowed the training product and the ideology contained on the slides. However, as these slides came from the unit responsible for installation access and security, it is not clear as to if gate guards were using this guidance to conduct unlawful, ideologically-motivated searches, flag certain license plates in their databases, or otherwise commit other Constitutional violations. It is also not clear as to if military law enforcement were using this guidance in the gathering of intelligence on US Persons as defined by EO 12333 or DoD Regulation 5240.01, which specifically states that Defense personnel “may not investigate U.S. persons or collect or maintain information about them solely for the purpose of monitoring activities protected by the First Amendment or the lawful exercise of other rights secured by the Constitution or laws of the United States.”

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Analyst Comments: Many may not see the value in the significance of a Powerpoint presentation that was prepared by a random soldier, and already disavowed by higher leadership. However, this scandal is par for the course with regards to the recent ideological indoctrination that has run rampant through the military over the past few years. As the election creeps closer, and the inevitable militarization of our nation’s Capitol comes to fruition during this time, it would be wise to consider the atmospherics of how soldiers in some units view Constitutionally protected rights.

Though this specific situation is a somewhat minor case study and must be treated as such, in a larger sense this is not an isolated incident. In all likelihood these highly controversial Powerpoint slides are probably a holdover recycled from the “Extremism Standdown” that swept through the DoD a couple of years ago. As a reminder, this was an 8-10 month training campaign to push the one-sided idea that most conservative ideas are extremist in nature. Whether this latest anti-conservative, anti-American scandal is representative of an escalation of official DoD policy remains to be seen, but this indoctrination would hardly be surprising at this point….the jump from labeling peaceful American citizens as “extremists” to labeling them as “terrorists” seems to have occurred