Bad Deeds for 1/19/2010

 

U.S. Military Weapons Inscribed With ‘Jesus’ Bible Codes – Coded references to New Testament Bible passages about Jesus Christ are inscribed on high-powered rifle sights provided to the United States military by a Michigan company. The sights are used by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and in the training of Iraqi and Afghan soldiers. The maker of the sights, Trijicon, has a $660 million multi-year contract to provide up to 800,000 sights to the Marine Corps, and additional contracts to provide sights to the U.S. Army.

U.S. military rules specifically prohibit the proselytizing of any religion in Iraq or Afghanistan and were drawn up in order to prevent criticism that the U.S. was embarked on a religious “Crusade” in its war against al Qaeda and Iraqi insurgents.

The company also sponsors God’s Great Outdoors, a radio ministry for Christian hunters on which the company’s sales director, Tom Munson, has been interviewed. Trijicon’s wordmark is listed as a “featured sponsor” on the radio show’s Web site.

“It’s wrong, it violates the Constitution, it violates a number of federal laws,” Michael Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation told ABC. “It allows the Mujahedeen, the Taliban, al Qaeda and the insurrectionists and jihadists to claim they’re being shot by Jesus rifles.”

Trijicon’s Munson dismissed the concerns of Weinstein’s group by saying it comes from a group that is “not Christian.”

“We believe that America is great when its people are good,” the company states on its “about us” page. “This goodness has been based on biblical standards throughout our history and we will strive to follow those morals.”

Many commenters on the Accurate Shooter blog took the company’s side on the issue.

“I always consider whether my optics are manufactured by Christians or heathens,” writes commenter Brandon. “Christians have a much better track record when it comes understanding and promoting the quality scientific research necessary to give us an edge on the battlefield than companies run by atheists.”

 

FBI Broke Law for Years in Phone Record Searches – The FBI illegally collected more than 2,000 U.S. telephone call records between 2002 and 2006 by invoking terrorism emergencies that did not exist or simply persuading phone companies to provide records, according to internal bureau memos and interviews. FBI officials issued approvals after the fact to justify their actions.

A Justice Department inspector general’s report due out this month is expected to conclude that the FBI frequently violated the law with its emergency requests, bureau officials confirmed. FBI general counsel Valerie Caproni said in an interview Monday that the FBI technically violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act when agents invoked nonexistent emergencies to collect records.

 

Fox News Falsely Claims That Coakley Rally Has Plenty of Empty Seats – According to Fox’s veteran propagandist reporter Carl Cameron, the rally Sunday with President Obama for Senate candidate Martha Coakley was ill-attended, with plenty of empty seats. That bit of “news” would no doubt surprise the several thousand who could not get in to the full to capacity event. Or the 500 who had to sit in the overflow room. The line, running around several blocks all the way down Huntington Ave.

Regards,

Jim