The
general leading the hunt for Osama bin Laden and Saddam
Hussein has publicly declared that the Christian God is
"bigger" than Allah, who is a false "idol", and believes
the war on terrorism is a fight with Satan, it emerged
yesterday.
Investigative
reporters from the Los Angeles Times and NBC television
have dug up two years' worth of seemingly incendiary
comments from Lt Gen William "Jerry" Boykin, the newly
promoted deputy undersecretary of state of defense for
intelligence.
Gen
Boykin has repeatedly told Christian groups and prayer
meetings that President George W Bush was chosen by God
to lead the global fight against Satan.
He told
one gathering: "Why is this man in the White House? The
majority of Americans did not vote for him. He's in the
White House because God put him there for a time such as
this."
In
January, he told Baptists in Florida about a victory
over a Muslim warlord in Somalia, who had boasted that
Allah would protect him from American capture. "I knew
my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a
real god and his was an idol," Gen Boykin said.
He also
emerged from the conflict with a photograph of the
Somalian capital Mogadishu bearing a strange dark mark.
He has said this showed "the principalities of darkness.
. . a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to
me as the enemy".
On the
Middle East, Gen Boykin told an Oregon church in June
that America could not ignore its Judaeo-Christian
roots. "Our religion came from Judaism and therefore
[Islamic] radicals will hate us forever."
In the
same month, Gen Boykin told an Oklahoma congregation
that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were not the
enemy.
"Our
enemy is a spiritual enemy because we are a nation of
believers. . . His name is Satan."
The
disclosures will doubtless be seized on by Muslim
critics as proof that the US-led war on terrorism is a
crusade against Islam. It is a charge that Mr. Bush has
worked hard to refute.
Though
careful to respect minority religions within its ranks,
the US military is strikingly devout from top to bottom.
Mr. Bush and several key figures in his administration
are staunch Christian conservatives.
Few
outside the Pentagon noticed when Gen Boykin, a 13-year
member of Delta Force, the top-secret commando unit
modeled on the SAS, was promoted this summer, with
responsibility for speeding the flow of top-secret
intelligence to commandos hunting bin Laden and other
high-value targets.
At a
routine press conference yesterday, Donald Rumsfeld, the
normally confident defense secretary, appeared
wrong-footed by the controversy. He hailed the general's
"outstanding record" and said his comments were made "in
his private capacity".
However,
Mr. Rumsfeld was careful to cite Mr. Bush's injunctions
against viewing Islam as the enemy.
Gen
Boykin told NBC that he would be curtailing his speeches
to religious groups. "I don't want to come across as a
Right-wing radical," he said.
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