Word: inspector
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...course of defending himself to the Inspector General's office, one of the generals asserted his belief that the Christian Embassy had become a "quasi-federal entity." This seems to support assertions by Weinstein that there is real confusion in high ranks of the military regarding armed service's secular status...
Mikey Weinstein is a very specific kind of gadfly. When he believes that church and state are intermingling in the military, he goes in with a sting. On Friday, he hit a bull's-eye when the Inspector General's office of the Department of Defense released a report concluding that a former Pentagon chaplain and several generals inappropriately loaned the prestige of their positions - and that of the Pentagon and the U.S. government - to make a fundraising film for a non-governmental evangelical group, the so-called Christian Embassy. The report identified Christian Embassy as affiliated with the group...
Chaplain Benson told the Inspector General's office that the office had violated his due process rights, that it lacked authority to investigate a complaint by a non-federal employee, that Benson's speech was protected under the Constitution's First Amendment, and that his identification in the film as "Pentagon Chaplain" did not imply DOD endorsement of the film...
Weinstein said of the Inspector General's report, "This is a victory, but a Pyrrhic victory. The Pentagon's response has been at best tepid." He predicts that the Inspector General's recommendation for "appropriate corrective action" will be interpreted leniently. However, he says, "this supports what we've been saying, that a Christian Taliban is running the military...
Such rhetoric is fairly typical of Weinstein, who claims that he has faced a retaliatory campaign of harrassment and threats, some of violence. The new Inspector General's report will hardly reduce the flow of Weinstein's hate mail. But it constitutes an instance of official support for some of his concerns...