- 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.
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- 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 defence for intelligence.
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- 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.
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- 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."
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- 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.
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- 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".
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- 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."
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- In the same month, Gen Boykin told an Oklahoma congregation
that Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein were not the enemy.
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- "Our enemy is a spiritual enemy because we are a
nation of believers... His name is Satan."
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- 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.
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- 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.
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- Few outside the Pentagon noticed when Gen Boykin, a 13-year
member of Delta Force, the top-secret commando unit modelled 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.
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- At a routine press conference yesterday, Donald Rumsfeld,
the normally confident defence secretary, appeared wrong-footed by the
controversy. He hailed the general's "outstanding record" and
said his comments were made "in his private capacity".
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- However, Mr Rumsfeld was careful to cite Mr Bush's injunctions
against viewing Islam as the enemy.
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- 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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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/10/17/
wboyk17.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/10/17/ixnewstop.html
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