Al Jazeera Strikes Back at Pentagon, Releases Unedited Footage of U.S. Soldiers' 'Bible Study' in Afghanistan

AlterNet

The network released unedited tapes of the 'hunt for Jesus' one day after the Pentagon accused it of being 'irresponsible' for its initial report.

Hours after Al Jazeera first broadcast a video
showing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan being instructed by the military's top
chaplain in the country to "hunt people for Jesus" as they spread Christianity
to the overwhelmingly Muslim population, the Pentagon shot back. It charged
that Al Jazeera had "grossly misrepresent[ed] the truth." Col. Greg Julian, told
Al Jazeera: "Most of this is taken out of context ... this is irresponsible
and inappropriate journalism."

Now, Al Jazeera and the man who filmed the controversial material are
striking back. The network has just released unedited and unaltered
footage of U.S. soldiers in 'bible study' in Afghanistan. Jazeera describes
it as "Extended footage shot by Brian Hughes, a U.S. documentary maker and
former member of the U.S. military who spent several days in Bagram near Kabul."

In Al Jazeera's original report, Hughes addressed the fact that soldiers had
imported bibles translated into Pashto and Dari. "[U.S. soldiers] weren't
talking about learning how to speak Dari or Pashto, by reading the Bible and
using that as the tool for language lessons," Hughes told Al Jazeera. "The only
reason they would have these documents there was to distribute them to the
Afghan people. And I knew it was wrong, and I knew that filming it ...
documenting it would be important."

Regarding allegations that the sermon of the military's top chaplain in Afghanistan, Lieutenant-Colonel Gary Hensley, where he instructs soldiers to "hunt people
for Jesus" was taken out of context, Hughes said
in a statment, "Any contention by the military that his words are
purposefully taken out of context to alter the tone or meaning of his sermon is
absolutely false."

Hughes is completely standing by the accuracy of Al
Jazeera's report. Here is Hughes's statement:

On Sunday, May 3, the Al Jazeera English network and I made an agreement to
produce a
broadcast segment from a rough cut of my documentary film. This opportunity
came after a May 2009 Harper's magazine cover story called "Jesus Killed
Mohammed." While he researched and prepared that article, I allowed the author Jeff Sharlet to view the
work-in-progress documentary. Sharlet's article brought the film
to Al Jazeera English's attention.




My documentary, titled The Word and the Warriors, is inspired by a personal experience
I had while serving as a combat flight crew member during the first Gulf War.
During a very difficult and emotional time at war, an Army chaplain provided me
comfort and counsel. I will never forget the important advice or the man who -
without questioning my own faith - helped me at a time of need.




For two-and-a-half years, I have been researching and producing this film. I
have traveled the world, interviewing both military servicemembers and
civilians about the important role of these religious leaders/military
officers.




During April/May 2008, I went to Afghanistan. With the assistance and full
cooperation of the U.S. Army, I was allowed to film at Bagram Air Field. During
that time, I was always wearing press credentials, and I was always accompanied
by a media liaison while filming. The media liaison staff knew everything I
filmed and - as I was told by them - they filed reports every evening about
what I had filmed. It was my primary media liaison, an Army NCO, who - on my
first day - invited me to meet LTC Gary Hensley. Hensley, the ranking chaplain
in Afghanistan talked to me off camera expressing a concern he had about
allowing me to film his chaplains. At the conclusion of the discussion, he
agreed that I would be allowed to embed with his chaplains and invited me to
film several hours of religious services.




Those hours at the Enduring Faith Chapel included his own sermon at a
service called Chapel Next. With the exception of a few minutes I could not
film because I was reloading my camera or moving to position for another shot,
I videotaped Hensley's entire sermon.




Any contention by the military that his words are purposefully taken out of
context to alter the tone or meaning of his sermon is absolutely false.




In recent
press statements, the military also contends that - in the footage
depicting the Afghan-language (Dari and Pashto) bibles - a cut was made before
"it would have shown that the chaplain instructed that the Bibles not be
distributed." This is a false statement. The chaplain - as seen in the footage
before the cut - instructs the group to be careful and reiterates the
definition of General Order #1. After this cut he begins to organize the group
for the evening's bible study lessons.




Finally, and in my opinion most important, is the fact that EVERY FRAME of
the rough cut from Bagram was provided to the U.S. Army Public Affairs Office
in advance of this release. On Thursday, April 30 at approximately 1 pm
EST, the Army took possession of a DVD with this footage by accepting a FedEx
from me. Since Al Jazeera English first aired the piece Sunday, May 3 at 10pm
EST, the Army had every frame of this