Army Lt. Gen. William “Jerry” Boykin, who came under fire last year for comments he made about his faith to church groups, has been cleared of the most serious accusations against him, The Washington Times reported.
An investigation, the newspaper reported Aug. 19, found that Boykin, an evangelical Christian, did not misuse his Army uniform, violate travel regulations nor use improper speech.
The investigation did, however, find that Boykin — a top Pentagon intelligence officer — should have received clearance before delivering the speeches, should have told the groups that the comments were his own and should have filed a form showing that one group reimbursed him for travel, The Times reported.
Army acting Secretary Les Brownlee now will decide whether to punish Boykin.
Boykin’s comments that he made to church groups were the focus of much media attention last fall, including several reports on NBC Nightly News.
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Some of the comments that drew the most attention came when Boykin described a set of photographs he had taken of Mogadishu just after the “Blackhawk Down” incident that left 18 American soldiers dead.
Boykin noticed in the photographs what he called a strange dark mark over the city.
“Ladies and gentleman, this is your enemy,” Boykin said to those gathered at an Oklahoma church in 2002, according to The Los Angeles Times.
“It is the principalities of darkness,” he said. “It is a demonic presence in that city that God revealed to me as the enemy.”
When speaking at First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., in January 2003, Boykin recounted the story of the Mogadishu warlord who laughed at America’s Delta Force commandos.
The warlord said he would never be captured because Allah would protect him.
“Well, you know what?” Boykin said, according to The Times, “I knew that my God was bigger than his. I knew that my God was a real God and his was an idol.”
In June, Boykin showed a church group a series of slides while speaking.
“Is he [Osama bin Laden] the enemy? Next slide. Or is this man [Saddam Hussein] the enemy?” Boykin said, according to MSNBC.com.
“The enemy is none of these people I have showed you here,” he said. “The enemy is a spiritual enemy. He’s called the principality of darkness. The enemy is a guy called Satan.” (BP)
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