Special Forces Warned Against Using Pepe the Frog

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Exclusive: Special Forces Warned Against Using Pepe the Frog, III%ers, Other ‘Extremist’ Symbols

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An Army commander recently briefed U.S. Special Forces candidates and trainees they could be detained or chaptered out of the Army if they are found affiliated with certain imagery popular on the political right that is now considered to be associated with extremism, Breitbart News can exclusively reveal.

The briefing, by Army Col. Mike Henry, MD, deputy commander of Special Warfare Medical Group (Airborne)/Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center at the U.S. John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School (JFKSWCS) at Fort Bragg, came two days after President Joe Biden was inaugurated, a source familiar with the briefing said.

Henry is responsible for training over 2,500 Army and Navy Special Operations medics.

Around the time of the briefing, slides from the New York Police Department Intelligence Bureau were also posted around the Joint Special Operations Medical Training Center (JSOMTC) and distributed to soldiers. The slides, dated January 14, listed and described about two dozen symbols, ideologies, and memes considered to be “associated with or appropriated by domestic violent extremism.”

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The slides said:

Recent high-profile mass-casualty attacks in the West have demonstrated the enduring threat posed by a wide range of racially/ethnically motivated violent extremists and conspiracy-driven malicious actors, including those inspired by far-right, neo-Nazis, and white supremacist worldviews. Due to his concerning trend, NYPD Intelligence Bureau advises law enforcement to maintain awareness of key symbols, icons, and graphics associated with or appropriated by domestic violent extremist movements that — in some cases — were observed during the January 6 deadly and destructive riot at the US Capitol.

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Soldiers were told the list came from the Department of Homeland Security and was an updated list of what federal and local law enforcement need to be “on the lookout for,” according to the source.

Henry “told us that if anyone gets caught wearing, buying, selling, affiliated with in any way, any of those things on those list, that the first thing he’s going to do is chapter us out of the Army. The second thing is, he’s going to handle the investigation by sending it over to the DHS,” the source said. “He didn’t quite outright say that we would be arrested, he used the word ‘detained.'”

Some of the imagery on the slides clearly refer to hate symbols, such as a swastika or other Nazi-related symbols. However, also included is “Pepe the Frog” — an internet meme frequently posted by members of the political right to troll the political left. The slides, obtained by Breitbart News, said this about the meme:

While not originally meant as a hate symbol, Pepe the Frog, or the ‘sad frog meme’ was appropriated by users who post racist, anti Semitic, anti-LGBT, and other bigoted content. Individuals will also alter Pepe the Frog to show him in various costumes or as recognizable hate figures, such as Hitler.

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