And it was Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who promised the father of one of the Americans killed that she would see to it that the person who made the video was arrested and prosecuted.

That claim came from Joe Woods, the father of slain Navy SEAL Tyrone Woods, who spoke with Clinton when the body of his  son arrived in the U.S. from Benghazi.

Woods said Obama also spoke with him at the ceremony but was “totally insincere.”

“His face was looking at me, but his eyes were looking over my shoulder,” he said, “like he could not look me in the eye. … totally insincere … more of a whining type of ‘I’m sorry.’”

He said Clinton also came over to talk.

“She did not appear to be one bit sincere at all. She mentioned that thing about we’re going to have that person arrested and prosecuted who did the video.”

So what about that filmmaker, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula?

He’s been in jail since the controversy erupted, officially for reasons unrelated to his “offense” against Islam.

A lawyer for the filmmaker told WND his client was serving time for a probation violation and is scheduled to be released this fall from a prison in Latoona, Texas.

The issue was all over Twitter, where one person commented, “It’s crystal clear that the terrorists who killed four Americans in Benghazi weren’t spurred on by an anti-Islam video, despite what administration officials wanted the public to believe. But nearly eight months after the attacks, ‘Innocence of Muslims’ filmmaker Makoula Basseley Nakoula still languishes in prison.”

Critics of the Obama administration point out that a year in jail for a probation violation appears out of the ordinary.

Find out why the left behaves as it does, in “Liberalism is a Mental Disorder.”

The Associated Press has reported the man behind the video had violated a probation order and acquired a driver’s license under a false name.

He had been on probation in a bank fraud case.

The plea agreement accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Christina Snyder last fall put Nakoula behind bars, but none of the offenses was related to “Innocence of Muslims,” which portrays the founder of Islam as a religious fraud and pedophile.

The New York Times called the video “crude” and said it depicted Muhammad as “a bloodthirsty, philandering thug.”

The newspaper described Nakoula, 55, as “a Coptic Christian born in Egypt.”

The Obama administration clung for weeks to the story that it was Muslims upset over the video who spontaneously rioted in Benghazi, killing Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three others. U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice made the claim on five morning news shows the Sunday after the attack.

But the claim was contradicted by Mohammed Magariaf, president of Libya’s National Assembly, who said it had “nothing to do” with the attack. Evidence has mounted ever since that it was an organized attack on the U.S. by a group affiliated with al-Qaida.

A witness at today’s House panel hearing on Benghazi, Gregory Hicks, the former deputy chief of mission in Libya, said his jaw dropped when he heard Rice blame the video.

Hicks said the YouTube video was a “non-event” in Libya.

The New York Times said, “Militants interviewed at the scene said they were unaware of the video until a protest in Cairo called it to their attention.”

The video was described as an “amateurish project” that might have “disappeared quietly.”

WND has reported that a sub-plot to the issue is that the CIA, under Gen. David Petraeus, purportedly was using the Benghazi mission to coordinate U.S. aid to Syrian opposition groups.

WND reported that the U.S. facility in Benghazi was not a consulate and at no point functioned as one, according to informed Middle East security officials.

Instead, the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi served as a meeting place to coordinate aid for the rebel-led insurgencies in the Middle East, the security officials said.

Among the tasks performed inside the building was collaborating with Arab countries on the recruitment of fighters – including jihadists – to target Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria.

Furthering the story, WND reported claims that Paula Broadwell, the alleged mistress of Petraeus, revealed a secret CIA detention center in Benghazi in a public speech she gave just weeks after the attack.

Broadwell, a former counter-terrorism operative, co-authored a bestselling biography of Petraeus. She discussed the book in a keynote speech Oct. 26 at a University of Denver alumni symposium.

In a question-and-answer session, Broadwell was asked about the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks against the U.S. mission in Benghazi.

She stated: “Now I don’t know if a lot of you heard this, but the CIA annex had actually had taken a couple of Libya militia members prisoner. And they think that the attack on the consulate was an effort to try to get these prisoners back. So that’s still being vetted.”

The American Life League, or ALL, issued a statement questioning why major news outlets like the New York Times and Washington Post have declined their recent request to run ads highlighting the methods Planned Parenthood uses to target young kids.

ALL claims the content of the ads came straight out of Planned Parenthood publications ALL says are used to “hook kids on sex.”

“This week, both the New York Times and Washington Post rejected a full-page advertisement from American Life League as ‘too graphic’ and ‘shocking’ for their adult readers,” says an ALL report.

Judie Brown, president and co-founder of ALL, agrees that the images are shocking, but says that the images come directly from Planned Parenthood materials funded by American taxpayers and aimed at those taxpayers’ own children.

“Parents tax dollars are being used to turn their own children into Planned Parenthood’s future sex customers,” says Brown. “Their abortion business is based on exploiting young minds and filling those minds with all manner of sex instruction.

“It is a grisly trail, but it leads from sex instruction to contraception to abortion when contraception fails,” she says. “That is the Planned Parenthood recipe, and the media likes it.”

ALL tells WND it simply wants the world to know what Planned Parenthood has planned for American school children.

“To raise public awareness about Planned Parenthood’s controversial sex education –more accurately described as sexual indoctrination – ALL planned a series of advertisements revealing what and how children are really taught in [Planned Parenthood's] so-called ‘comprehensive sex education,’” ALL says. “These are programs that are already in many schools and will reach all public schools as currently mandated in Obamacare.”

ALL also wonders why so much federal money makes its way to Planned Parenthood, especially with so many cuts in so many other areas.

“Why is the Obama administration funneling $350 million [to Planned Parenthood] to push this filth into classrooms, while at the same time telling us we don’t have money for White House tours, TSA agents or border security?” asks Brown.

“Starting in kindergarten, funded with our tax dollars, [Planned Parenthood] uses graphic cartoons to saturate children with sexual imagery that encourages them to focus on sexuality, engage in sex and accept dangerous aberrant sexual acts as perfectly normal,” Brown explains.

Those cartoon images were rejected by the newspapers’ advertising departments and now have left ALL scratching its head.

“If [the cartoons] are too graphic for adults reading the Washington Post,” Brown says, “then they certainly should not be in elementary school classrooms.”

The rejected ads contain graphic images ALL says was aimed at children as young as 10. One image features a little girl in a baseball uniform with the words, “Clittle League” across her chest. She’s smiling and pointing at a giant, private body part.

“A stranger would be arrested, but your tax dollars pay Planned Parenthood to show these images to your child,” the ad says.

Planned Parenthood, on the other hand, is touting the federal tax dollars it received through Obamacare and awards received from the Department of Health and Human Services, headed by Kathleen Sebelius.

Planned Parenthood blasts federal support for abstinence only programs as “ineffective” and, according to their own statements, is organizing community activists to help do away with the practice: “Unfortunately, the health-care reform bill also included a renewal of $50 million per year funding of Title V abstinence-only education for states until 2014. Planned Parenthood is continuing our work with our supporters, youth activists and policymakers to put an end to this ineffective program.”

At the same time Planned Parenthood praises the federal government for funding even more targeted sexual exposure to America’s young.

“Planned Parenthood is working with the federal and state governments to ensure access to sex-education programs that give young people the reliable, accurate information they need to make responsible decisions and stay healthy,” says the Planned Parenthood website.

To the tune of “over $375 million dollars through Obamacare alone,” says ALL.

“For the past 40 years we have faced a media hostile to telling the truth about Planned Parenthood and specifically about the manner in which they literally rape the minds of our children,” Brown told WND.

Brown claims that a cooperative media seemingly runs interference for abortion proponents like Planned Parenthood by refusing to show the world exactly the kind of material Planned Parenthood pours into young minds.

“Our rejected ads did not provide material that is any different than the smut a child is exposed to during a Planned Parenthood-sponsored sex-instruction class,” she tells WND. “That is the tragic fact.”

Messages to the New York Times for comment were not returned.

ALL maintains a website called StopPlannedParenthood.com, with which they hope to raise the awareness of the danger lurking in their child’s classroom:

While most Americans associate Planned Parenthood with abortion, this organization is also in the business of promoting a deviate and dangerous sexual agenda that in the long run will benefit the abortion giant’s bottom line, while creating a destructive and broken society for the rest of us.

Planned Parenthood has proven that it is a sex business that self-perpetuates itself by first developing obscene sex education materials that promote indiscriminate and risky sexual behavior to our youth through America’s public schools, families and community organizations.

The second step kicks in once the organization has created an environment of sexual risk-taking behavior among youth. It then markets and promotes contraceptive products and programs that have proven to be ineffective in preventing unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

Once the ineffective contraceptives fail, Planned Parenthood completes the cycle selling abortions to the teens it has sucked into its deadly cyclone. Tax-paying Americans who work diligently to contribute to strengthening our country are unwittingly funding the absolutely pornographic and child sexual abuse agenda that Planned Parenthood pushes on our society.

To watch an ALL report on the topic, click here.

But the group also can thank the Jackson Police Department for running interference as well.

Several city police officers swooped in and arrested a preacher named Chet Gallagher while he walked along a public sidewalk in front of the abortion clinic, preaching the Word of God to a dozen or more people, this week.

The charges? Don’t know; police didn’t tell him.

Department officials even declined to give him charging documents when he was ordered to appear in court in June.

“It’s hard to say what they’re charging me with,” Gallagher told WND in a phone interview. “I think they are charging me with obstructing a public sidewalk and resisting arrest, but after four hours in jail they still didn’t clarify what the charges were.”

WND calls to the police department weren’t returned.

Gallagher told WND that the Jackson officers have a history of issuing citations for outlandish charges to pro-lifers who maintain a presence in front of the clinic.

“One gentleman was cited for allowing the sign he was holding in his hands to touch the sidewalk, rather than resting it on the top of his feet,” Gallagher told WND.

Gallagher said that he imagines the officer is charging him with resisting arrest because he stopped walking with the officer and pulled his arm free from the officer’s grasp while demanding to know why he was being arrested.

“He refused to tell me or the witnesses with me what I was being arrested for,” said Gallagher. “Instead he escorted me across the street out of earshot of my companions, but never did identify what I had done to deserve arrest.”

When WND asked if he was in fact blocking the sidewalk, Gallagher said, “No,” and explained that he simply did what he frequently does by walking along the sidewalk while preaching.

No one approached the clinic, and no one was blocked while he walked and talked, he tells WND.

He told WND there’s probably pressure on the officers from the abortion business, and probably surrounding businesses, because of presence of the pro-life groups that draw attention to “the horrors that go on inside that clinic.”

He said the day before his arrest he publicly chastised the police department for doing more to keep the peace for the clinic “than the children inside the clinic being ripped apart, while enjoying no peace.”

Operation Save America, as well as a number of Jackson area churches, are committed to praying and holding services near the “killing place,” they said in a prepared statement.

They are hoping that the will of the people of Mississippi prevails in making Mississippi the first abortion-free state in America.

“The people of Mississippi elected a governor and a legislature determined to free their state of the blood of the innocent but the renegade courts and Jackson police are determined to counter their wishes,” said Rev. Flip Benham, of Operation Save America.

WND asked Benham about the recent arrest in Jackson, and why Gallagher was singled out.

“The police think that if they arrest the leader, they’ve cut off the head, and the rest of the body will follow. What they fail to realize is that Jesus is the head, and He can’t be cut off,”

He tells WND that the police are very aggressive in defense of the abortion business.

“The police are the ones who want us off the street. Not the state of Mississippi, not the governor, not the people. Just the police,” he said.

The state has adopted a requirement that abortionists reach agreements with area hospitals to admit patients whose abortion injuries end up being severe. Without those admitting privileges, the abortion businesses are not allowed to operate.

But a federal judge responded to the clinic’s request for help and temporarily blocked application of the law.

The abortionists were unable to obtain those admitting privileges.

Surveillance video of Columbine

It’s been months since the Newtown, Conn., school shooting, and Americans have been hit ever since with a barrage of commentary blaming guns, bullets, rounds, magazines and the Second Amendment.

But in terms of actually offering a realistic solution to preventing school violence, it’s taken until now.

Former Arkansas Congressman Asa Hutchinson and a team of experts from around the country spent 90 days reviewing vulnerabilities and best practices when it comes to protecting America’s schools.

Now their results are available in a free report available to all. It can be emailed to WND readers on request.

The report not only provides solutions for effective student protection, but also highlights vulnerabilities from past incidences involving the targeting of American youth.

In the report you’ll find that the first recorded mass murder by armed gunman wasn’t the 1999 Columbine High School tragedy, but dates into the 1700s when four armed men broke into a school in what is now rural Pennsylvania, killing 10 students.

You’ll read in the report how the tragedies have continued ever since.

The National Rifle Association contacted Hutchinson in December and asked if he’d head a project that would offer recommendations to policy makers regarding an increase in school safety around the nation in the wake of the most recent school murders.

Get the report right now!

He agreed on three conditions. The task force must have:

• Full independence,
• No pre-conceived outcomes, and
• Full support to employ the experts needed to make appropriate recommendations.

The National School Shield Task Force was then formed, and went right to work evaluating strengths and weaknesses in how American school children are protected.

The comprehensive report highlights a number of areas how those children can be better protected, some of which can be implemented immediately and with little or no cost.

Hutchinson detailed in a press conference little things like the placement of surveillance monitors already in schools into a better configuration, with changes in some cases as simple as moving them from ceiling height to eye level as one method of applying best practices.

The group looked at vulnerabilities and best practices in areas such as technology, interior and exterior doors, access controls, architecture and design of schools, armed officers, and layered security.

“One thing the task force looked at is perimeter fencing,” said Hutchinson in the press conference. “Sometimes it was found not adequate, or in improper repair.”

Columbine victom Rachel Scott

The group evaluated entry points into schools such as having a single point of access, surveillance monitoring, and the design of exterior and even interior doors.

“A proper exterior door is critical to delaying an armed intruder,” said Hutchinson.

He highlighted how simple fixes such as hinge covers and inexpensive card blockers could be added to doors to enhance security.

Another easy solution offered to enhance the security in schools is the sometimes loosely enforced policy on personnel badges or identification worn by adults in the building.

Yet another area Hutchinson mentions is the “often neglected” topic of school bus operations. Hutchinson’s team recommends that schools analyze the methods of congregating students in one small area while loading and unloading students.

Many schools across the country have turned to local law enforcement over the past couple of decades to provide School Resource Officers, and although applauded for the effort, the task force suggests “enhanced training” in best practices for all.

Another sometimes-overlooked area of concern that, according to the report, the education system should spend time reviewing is threat assessment, specifically the managing of threat information as it relates to mental health.

The report spends time encouraging schools to properly evaluate information that they already frequently have available to them, the mental health of their own students.

According to an article written in 2009 by Carole Devine, the first recorded student perpetrated school shooting in modern America occurred back in 1937 in Toledo, Ohio, when a 12-year old student brought a gun to school and shot his principal in a grudge over a face slap from the previous school year.

Hutchinson highlights the fact that according to the Department of Justice, 71 percent of attackers in school violence incidences “felt threatened or bullied.”

He encourages schools to learn how to deal with information regarding incidents of bullying or anti-social behavior.

Read the report, emailed free to WND readers, to see the final recommendations of the School Shield Task Force.

A final area the task force looked at prior to prescribing some practical cures is in the area of armed officers or in some cases armed staff within schools.

While detractors lament the fact that staff or officers may bear arms in the protection of school children, there is no doubt that the layered approach to defending those kids has been proven effective.

According to the report,

“The past two decades have witnessed a drop in incidences of school violence, including homicide rates and violent crime. This positive trend mirrors the expansion of SRO [School Resource Officer] programs around the country: As more SRO officers have been assigned to schools, school death rates have decreased. These numbers support the notion that the presence of armed officers positively impacts the school environment.”

What the task force urges in its first recommendation is that school resource officers or willing staff be given 40-60 hours of comprehensive training in what they call a Model Training Program, designed to cover topics like weapons retention and coordination with local law enforcement, for starters.

Not that all teachers should be armed.

“Teachers should teach,” Hutchinson says.

The report suggests that willing and capable staff within the school could save lives in the event of an “active shooter.”

Hutchinson speaks about a shooting at Pearl High School in which there was no armed personnel within the school. Two students were murdered, but an assistant principal retrieved a .45 caliber handgun from his truck, confronted the suspect, and disarmed the assailant without firing a shot, most likely preventing many more murders that day.

“Response is critical,” Hutchinson says.

“The key,” highlighted in the report, “is reducing response time,” he said.

There are a total of eight recommendations in the free report which many liberal media voices are already decrying as a “call to arms,” even thought the report actually contains numerous comprehensive and practical solutions to protecting American kids.

Joining Hutchinson at the press conference announcing the National School Shield Task Force report was Mark Mattioli, who lost his son, James, in the Sandy Hook tragedy.

“Politics needs to be set aside,” he offered. “This report offers recommendations for real solutions that will make our kids safer.”

He then urges people to read the full report, and then “do something.”

Get the report now!

Last Sunday, the nearly 100 members of the Community Church of Faith and Hope met in the building for apparently the last time.

Monday morning, a locksmith hired by the Christian & Missionary Alliance denomination locked the church members out of their building after the New Jersey Court of Appeals ruled that the denomination has every right to exercise a “reversionary” clause and take the valuable property away from members.

Although the court ruling clearly gave the congregation until March 18 to turn over the keys to the building, the CMA didn’t wait and shuttered the building, personal possessions and all, first thing Monday morning.

While the church members are shocked by the property confiscation, they are more bewildered that the Christian Missionary Alliance would act in such a way toward fellow believers.

“We haven’t been treated very Christ-like by the Christian Missionary Alliance,” said Pastor Joseph Smaha.

Alliance officials did not respond to WND requests for comment.

WND reported a year ago about the dispute between the small community church in suburban New Jersey and the Metropolitan District of the CMA, led by Bruce Terpstra.

The CMA had determined the church was dying, so ownership of the property and all of the congregation’s assets must be turned over to the denomination.

“Not so,” Smaha insisted.

“There has never been any indication that our church is ‘dying,’” he said. “On the contrary, our body has been growing by leaps and bounds.”

Smaha said the average attendance has been approaching 100 for quite awhile.

“Our congregation is vibrant, in love with Jesus, and growing steadily, with new people coming in every week,” he says. “What’s more exciting than that is the people receiving Jesus as Lord through our outreach.”

Smaha said he tried to explain how healthy the congregation was to Terpstra and Fred Henry, a regional director for the CMA, but the pastor was told, “You could be making the numbers up.”

Smaha urged the pair to come visit the church and “observe the great work that God is doing here,” but his offers were declined.

WND visited the small church for a worship service and observed large numbers in attendance — far more than the CMA constitution calls for in downgrading a church to “developing.”

Insisting that the congregation is not “viable,” conference officials dispatched a rebuttal to one WND report that said:

“Because we rely so heavily on the Internet as a source of information that is often unverifiable, we must exercise great caution in what we choose to accept as truth. More than any other generation, we must read Internet articles with great discernment and a healthy dose of skepticism. The sworn enemy of Christ’s church has vowed to stop at nothing to bring about its demise. And the use of media has become a frequent weapon of choice.” – From a CMA letter to pastors.

The Christian Missionary Alliance turned to the courts when congregation members raised objections to turning over the building.

One pastor WND interviewed, Joseph Broz, said the CMA literally told him it didn’t owe him any prayer while it was attempting to take away his church in Pennsylvania in a similar fashion.

Broz told WND he nearly died in an accident, and CMA District Superintendent Wayne Spriggs refused to even pass along a prayer request for him.

In the midst of his battle with the CMA, Broz was in a serious car accident that left him in critical condition. His son, an EMT, emailed Spriggs asking for prayer for Broz, saying, “It doesn’t look good.”

Broz told WND: “Spriggs later admitted to him that he never passed on the prayer request, because unbeknownst [to him], Spriggs had revoked the pastor’s credentials due to the property battle, saying, ‘We didn’t owe you any prayer.’”

Broz said that removing a pastor’s credentials and decimating a congregation seem to be standard for the CMA during one of these “takeovers.”

WND has reported several instances of property confiscation by the CMA, each involving the practice of exercising a “reversionary clause” in church documents.

The same method repeats itself in CMA churches across the country, and James Sundquist has produced a DVD chronicling the destruction of these churches called “Making Merchandise of Men’s Souls.”

In a number of cases, the members of the local church are shocked to find the locks on the doors to their sanctuaries changed by the CMA without warning.

In July, WND reported that the Grace Community Alliance Church in Baldwin Park, Calif., was also nearly locked out of its building.

Much like the Paramus Church, the pastor of Grace Church told WND that everything was going fine until CMA District Superintendent Bill Malick decided to take the church away under the “reversionary clause.”

In that case, the church had a spotless record of paying dues to the CMA “Great Commission Fund,” and members said they had no issues with the district.

But the CMA decided to strip the pastor of his credentials and classify the church as “development” in order to take control of the property.

“We are not in chaos, we are not in financial difficulty,” Pastor Fred Cheock of Grace Community Alliance Church told WND.

“Still, the District Superintendant Bill Malick labels us as ‘development,’ and within weeks tries to cancel all of our worship services and lock our people out of our building,” Choeck said

Choeck and his congregation are still fighting the CMA over the property.

The pastor of the Paramus church provided WND with a similar account.

Smaha said that his church had no problems and he hadn’t even spoken to the CMA District personnel in years.

That all changed when he called them for advice on how to biblically deal with a secretary who allegedly had embezzled thousands of dollars from the church treasury.

Smaha said “our small church was out-of-sight-out-of-mind until someone from the district realized what a nice, valuable piece of property the Paramus congregation had built up.”

“Suddenly the district tells us we’re not a viable congregation, and they are invoking the reversionary clause,” he said.

Smaha said that the CMA took his description of how his congregation and the church had survived through lean years, including selling the parsonage to raise funds to repair the sanctuary, and twisted it into a story for a judge about how the church was no longer viable.

“Nothing could be further from the truth, but a judge wouldn’t let us present testimony, he simply ruled that the CMA can deal with its churches however they see fit.”

Smaha said that the small church has been more than viable in recent years, growing from a low of about 20 in attendance to nearly 100. The church also provides a separate service for a Hispanic congregation, has money in the bank and is debt free.

Smaha said the CMA denomination never contributed a penny to the work of the local church, yet now has taken over a debt-free building that has been in the same community of believers for generations.

Smaha said that on top of seizing the church building, the CMA also sent a letter this week demanding the $28,000 the church had in its checking account when the battle began.

“They also plan to sue us for court costs apparently because they feel entitled to all that money because we shouldn’t have stood up for what’s right,” he said.

“I also find it laughable that they claim we are not viable, yet admit that we are completely debt free and have $28,000 in the bank. We are thriving, and they are lying.”

Reversionary clause

Smaha said his church was aware that a reversionary clause existed in church documents, and a church elder questioned the CMA about it before joining the denomination in the 1990s.

“He was a nice, old World War II vet, who wanted to make sure our congregation wasn’t being taken advantage of,” Smaha said.

The CMA assured the elder that the reversionary clause would “never, ever be invoked unless there was an extreme case of a congregational split, false teaching, or the church just closed its doors one day.”

None of which have been alleged in the case.

“Clearly, the court’s involvement in a matter of church governance would run afoul of the First Amendment,” said the recent court decision.

The court referred to the church operating as a hierarchy in its rationale for not getting involved. But Dan Wetzel, the CMA interim vice president of church ministries in Colorado Springs, said, “We are not a hierarchal body.”

“Defendants [the Paramus Church] ask the court to intervene in a dispute between them and the CMA. This is a matter of ‘church government’ which the Supreme Court has declared must be free of ‘secular control or manipulation’ under the First Amendment,” says the court ruling.

In Colorado Springs, a Chinese CMA congregation had its property seized by the conference and sold for a karate studio.

CMA members were heartbroken to learn that the denomination had thrown all of their expensive Chinese-language Bibles into a dumpster.

WND met up with Bruce Terpstra and the CMA attorney Hopkins at the courthouse in New Jersey.

Asked to comment on the fight between the small church and the denomination, Hopkins replied, “We prefer to handle this situation to the glory of God’s Kingdom rather than in the media.”

Smaha said that a fund has been set up to help the church, as it will now need to rent a meeting place. To help, send donations to: C/O Community Church of Faith and Hope, P.O. Box 683, Paramus, N.J., 07653

A now-settled lawsuit was filed after the Traditional Values student group attending a June 2012 “Stand Up for Religious Freedom Rally” at the Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, was told by police that their hand-held signs would have to be placed face-down on the ground.

WND reported at the time that Bryan Kemper, an invited speaker, witnessed the police impeding the free-speech rights of students.

“As the rally was starting, the campus police informed us that all the signs and banners people were holding must be put on the ground after a complaint from a homosexual advocacy group leader,” Kemper told WND. “The police walked around the crowd telling people to put their signs down, that they could not hold them in their hands.”

Bonnie Borel, president of the Traditional Values group, told WND, “The campus police apparently have total discretion to deny the First Amendment rights of people on campus.”

The rallies were being held in an effort to draw attention to the mandates of Obamacare requiring coverage of birth control and abortion-causing drugs.

As WND reported, the “Stand Up For Religious Freedom” rallies are a project of the Pro-Life Action League, united with 70 other organizations.

The groups are demanding Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius withdraw mandates requiring nearly all private health insurance plans to cover the prescription contraceptive drugs and devices, surgical sterilizations and abortion-inducing drugs, such as Plan B.

Police apparently reacted to complaints and determined the signs were disruptive, even though the college policy doesn’t address the signs.

According to the Thomas More Society report: “The lawsuit alleged that police stated the practice of disallowing signs and brochures was supposedly intended to comply with a school policy barring ‘disruptive behavior,’ even though censoring the content of signs or brochures was nowhere addressed in the actual wording of the policy cited.

“It is fundamental First Amendment law that the content of free speech, no matter how ‘offensive’ it may be to certain onlookers, deserves the very highest degree of legal protection, despite the fact that some of those hearing or seeing the speakers’ message may be ‘disruptive’ and seek to impose their ‘hecklers’ veto’ against the speakers.”

In the settlement agreement, Sinclair Community College agreed to pay attorney’s fees of nearly $10,000 and revise its campus access policy.

“We are pleased that Sinclair Community College decided to join with its students to promote free speech instead of silencing or trying to control the content of their speech,” said Peter Breen, executive director and legal counsel of the Thomas More Society.

“At its core, the university campus provides a place for students to debate and grapple with ideas, including ideas that may not be popular in certain quarters,” he said.

“Freedom of expression is an absolutely fundamental value in a democratic, self-governing society and indispensable to the educational process.

“Here,” he said, “The police – as is all too common – were the sole folks within hearing or sight of the pro-life messages displayed on the ‘offensive’ signs who sought to enforce their own ‘hecklers’ veto.’

“In every such case, the Thomas More Society will hasten to support the right of pro-life speakers to have their ‘say,’ loud and clear, in America’s public forums,” Breen said.

The settlement also forces Sinclair Community College to allow for broader First Amendment Rights of the students and visitors on campus.

After learning of the campus incident, Father Frank Pavone of Priests for Life said, “We praise the Lord for the rallies for religious freedom that occurred today, but something smells fishy in Dayton.

“Forcing people to put their signs down is certainly not a default activity of law enforcement in a country of free speech,” he continued. “This incident deserves thorough investigation, and we who believe in freedom of speech should press with all our strength to defend it.”

With the announcement of the settlement, Bryan Kemper returned to the campus for two pro-life speaking engagements.

Several law firms collaborate on the case. Lead attorneys Chris Finney and Brad Gibson of the law firm of Finney, Stagnaro, Saba & Patterson Co., L.P.A., based in Cincinnati and Columbus, Ohio, and Curt C. Hartman, of Amelia, Ohio, joined with Peter Breen of the Thomas More Society.

WND previously reported that in a video taken at the event, the cameraman asks the police if the demand to put down the signs applies to the banner for the event itself. He is told by a uniformed officer that the main banner, identifying the event, is fine.

Within seconds of the exchange, another uniformed police officer, later in the video identified as Nick Toscani, can be seen reaching out and grabbing the video camera. He can be heard saying, “Turn it off.”

Editor’s Note: The video below does contain an obscenity.

College’s history of disliking signs

Research into Sinclair Community College reveals the incident wasn’t the first time campus police have demanded protest signs be put down.

The campus newspaper addressed the unwritten sign policy in a March 2012 article, referring to a meeting in February held by the Traditional Values club that featured a guest speaking about former homosexuals.

Two members of the Brite Signals Alliance held up protest signs in the back of the room, one of which said “You can’t pray away the gay.” The other sign said “Love Gay, Cure Bacon.”

The protesters were asked by police to put down the signs, and they did.

As WND reported, the Principal William Latson of Spanish River Community High School in Boca Raton, Fla., “acted arbitrarily” and “without notice” in ordering Dean out of the school building in the middle of his presentation in mid-February.

Dean, his band Junkyard Prophet and the Sons of Liberty Radio were invited to the school by the school’s Spanish club. Dean was to speak to the group, while Sons of Liberty Radio planned to broadcast the event.

After being thrown out of the school, Dean requested that the non-profit legal advocacy group Liberty Counsel step in to remind the school administration of the constitutional rights of the students and the speakers.

A letter to school officials describing their actions as “viewpoint discrimination” may have prompted school officials to re-think their position and allow the program to come back to the school.

“Federal law, including the Constitution, protects the right of student clubs to present their ideas without fear of censorship because of disagreement with the content of the message,” said Liberty Counsel.

According to the letter to school officials, grounds for legal action for their “unconstitutional” behavior would have been warranted.

The letter recounted Dean’s dismissal from school grounds after a shocking allegation from the administration: The First Amendment doesn’t apply on school grounds.

“Halfway through the event yesterday, it was shut down by school officials acting at the command of the principal, who cited ‘controversial statements’ and ‘anti-homosexuality’ of the group ‘The Sons of Liberty’ as the rationale,” the Liberty Counsel letter said.

“One [school] official stated that the Constitution doesn’t apply to school property, and that neither the club nor the speakers had any First Amendment rights.

“Another [school official] then stated that actually, ‘the school just wasn’t able to properly vet’ Bradlee and SOLR, and that they always ‘vet’ speakers for students clubs, and that the faculty adviser of the club (Mr. Daub) who approved Bradlee and SOLR would be ‘held accountable.’

The letter said a number of school officials, including the principal, consulted with one another before banning Dean and SOLR from campus.

But Liberty Council announced that “after being thrown off campus due to viewpoint discrimination,” the school assembly went off without a hitch this week.

Dean’s ministry, You Can Run But You Cannot Hide, says it delivers messages of uncompromising integrity and moral values to audiences wherever he can reach them.

Liberty Counsel pointed out that the school district wanted to describe the ejection of the Christian group from campus as a clerical error.

“The district’s videotaped reaction to Dean clearly showed that administration officials were familiar with his position on various issues, and his statements and reputation were the motivations behind his denial and ejection from the school,” said Liberty Counsel attorney Richard Mast.

“The district later proffered the club’s alleged failure to follow protocol as the reason for its denial. ‘Paperwork errors’ were the only obstacles that the district could come up with to justify itself. Once these were addressed, the district had no choice but to approve.”

Dean said it’s “easy to stand up and fight for what you love, and I love this generation enough to fight for them.”

“It stands true, God will give you what you are willing to fight for. No excuses. God has not changed – the American people have,” he said.

Mat Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel, said school officials involved in the incident “censored Bradley Dean because of allegations about his position on homosexuality.”

“School officials crossed the line and violated the First Amendment,” he said. “Liberty Counsel was proud to stand beside these students and help them defend their constitutional rights.”

Neither the high school nor the school district offered information about the event.

Dean told WND he is pleased he could re-present his program to the students at Spanish River High School.

His organization said several dozen students showed up for the after-school discussion.

“This generation is subjected to everything and protected from nothing,” Dean told WND. “You cannot complain about our posterity when they are guilty as taught. They simply reflect their teachers. I am tired of seeing the older generations divert responsibility. So I am doing my best to make up for their lack thereof.”

WND previously reported controversy over Dean’s appearance at a public school in Iowa.

It was last March when Dean and his band were accused of “gay bashing” in an appearance at a Dunkerton, Iowa, school and warned by the fire chief that the town’s roads would be shut down to keep the band from returning.

But after a letter from Liberty Council, Dean returned to Dunkerton and spoke at the city’s library during the Dunkerton Days festival.

“We were given a victory by God’s providential hand and the example was given to this generation, and anyone else, how they can receive the same victory for truth,” Dean told WND.

“As I travel this awesome God-given nation, I come up with the same conclusion every event I am part of,” Dean said. “The majority of Americans share the conservative Judeo-Christian values I fight for. We can win this culture war when we fight together. It is leadership we are lacking in our cause, someone willing to risk reputation to set the precedent that our silent majority is waiting to join.”

Controversy is not new for Dean. WND also reported on Dean’s dispute with Rachel Maddow and MSNBC. Maddow was served with a lawsuit alleging defamation for her references to Dean’s group. The case is on appeal.

Related offers:

Bradlee Dean: The Prayer that Rocked the Capitol [DVD]

My War: 5-Part Documentary [DVD]

My War: The Testimony of Bradlee Dean [Paperback]

The Price, by Junkyard Prophet (Audio CD)

Distinguished Warfare Medal

Enraged veterans say President Obama “is treading into sacred ground” by allowing the Pentagon to establish a new medal intended to recognize the achievements of drone pilots and “computer geeks,” most of whom never leave the comfort of an air-conditioned building in Tampa or Las Vegas.

Vietnam-era pilot and veteran Terry Reed told WND, “Giving ‘gamers’ a medal, instead of people who actually suffered in real combat, will definitely be demoralizing.

“This is a slap in the face of all combat veterans who serve in harm’s way,” he added.  “I know for a fact that military pilots are not happy about this new medal.”

The Distinguished Warfare Medal has been approved by the Department of Defense and will be ready for awarding within weeks, although no names of any potential recipients have been made public .

According to DoD, the award is intended to recognize the “changing nature of war in which attacks conducted remotely have played an increasingly important role in gathering intelligence and killing enemy fighters and terrorists.”

Perhaps what raises combat veterans’ ire even more than the existence of the new medal is the fact that it will outrank several other combat-related decorations, such as the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart and even the Prisoner of War medal.

Also, it involves Obama’s controversial use of drones, through which hundreds of people have been killed, including women and children. Obama even has used it to kill Americans abroad.

“A guy with a joystick in an air-conditioned room in ‘Tampa-stan’ or ‘Vegas-stan’ (the term some in the military use to describe the drone war rooms), who lives at home and gets to see his family every night when he gets off work, should not be receiving a medal of higher importance than the real pilots who are actually in harm’s way,” said Reed.

According to the military news site, Military.com, “The Pentagon has no plans to lower the precedence of its new medal for drone pilots and cyber warriors, notwithstanding criticism from veterans groups and troops that the medal ranks higher than some awarded for valor in combat.”

Juliet Beyler, acting director for officer and enlisted personnel management at the Defense Department, told the site, “The decision has been made, and there has been no opposition at the highest levels of the Pentagon to the new medal.”

But the same news site just a few days later acknowledged Congress may soon square off against the Defense Department over the medal.

A number of U.S. representatives, all veterans themselves, have issued a joint release decrying the creation and hierarchy of the new medal.

“U.S. Representatives Duncan Hunter, a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, Tom Rooney, a veteran of the U.S. Army, and Tim Murphy, a U.S. Navy reservist, introduced legislation today prohibiting the Department of Defense from rating the Distinguished Warfare Medal equal to or higher than the Purple Heart,” according to the statement.

“Combat valor awards have a deep and significant meaning to those who serve in America’s military,” said Hunter. “These awards represent not just actions, but also the courage and sacrifice that derive from experiences while in harm’s way.

Purple Heart

“And those engaged in direct combat put their lives on the line, accepting extraordinary personal risk,” he continued.

“There is nothing wrong with having a military award that recognizes commendable actions off the battlefield, but it’s absolutely necessary to ensure that combat valor awards are not diminished in any way.”

The VFW commander-in-chief, John Hamilton, didn’t waste time allowing newly appointed Secretary of Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to settle in to his new role when he delivered a letter blasting the prominence of the new medal on Hagel’s first day on the job.

“It’s important to recognize drone pilots and others, but medals that can only be earned in combat must outrank new medals earned in the rear,” Hamilton said.

According to the VFW, “It’s extremely rare for veterans’ service organizations to publicly chastise the Defense Department, but the new medal risks being looked down upon by veterans.”

One veteran WND spoke with by phone said he does more than “look down” on this new medal.

It will not receive any respect, said Marine Richard Cromley.

“I know many soldiers that earned medals of valor, and every one of them deserved their award,” he said.

“What ‘valor’ do these drone pilots produce by sitting in an office?” he asked. “This ain’t right.”

Reed wondered how an award can be given to those who don’t put their life on the line.

“A postman serves his country well, but he doesn’t exactly put his life in jeopardy,” he said. “This is changing the rulebook in the middle of the game, and it is demoralizing.”

According to the VFW, there hasn’t been a new combat-related award created since World War II.

Rep. Rooney, a Republican from Florida, said that like many fellow veterans, he has “grave concerns with the decision to rank the new Distinguished Warfare Medal above traditional combat valor medals like the Purple Heart.”

Bronze Star

“There is no greater sacrifice than risking your own life to save another on the battlefield, and the order of precedence should appropriately reflect the reverence we hold for those willing to make that sacrifice,” he said.

Several groups are urging action, with one group seeking 100,000 signatures on the White House petition website.

Regardless of the status of the petition asking the Obama administration to intercede, Congress may act anyway.

Murphy said, “I know personally from my Navy service with combat-wounded veterans at Walter Reed that their Purple Heart should and must rank above the Distinguished Warfare Medal.

“If the Pentagon will not reconsider the decision to rank this medal above the Purple Heart, the House will take action,” he promised.

This recent gathering of independent Christian filmmakers gave testament to God’s work through His people, making a big impact, no matter the size of the budget.

Absent the pageantry, glitz and massive budget of their Hollywood peers, these Christian filmmakers are moved to produce motion pictures that give voice to the heart.

It was no surprise to many then that the 2013 Grand Prize winner for the “Best of Festival” film went to the documentary “The Drop Box,” directed by 22-year old Brian Ivie.

This moving film tells the story about a Korean Pastor named Lee Jong-rak who built a hatch on his house to collect unwanted and oftentimes disabled babies.

Ivie heard about Pastor Jong-rak’s efforts through a Los Angeles Times article and was determined to document the pastor’s story in the hopes of bringing him support and giving a “voice to the voiceless.”

The producer of “Fireproof” and “Courageous,” Stephen Kendrick, who was also a judge for the festival, compared Ivie to the Old Testament hero and man of action Nehemiah, who heard about the crumbling walls in his beloved Jerusalem and did something about it.

“Many times, we are moved with compassion and do nothing,” Kendrick noted.

He then relayed how young Ivie heard about one man’s effort to love and rescue the unloved and unwanted and decided, “I am going to run to the battle.”

Ivie embarked with his team on a journey to chronicle the dedication of this Korean pastor, who since installing this “drop box” on his home to give people a place to leave their babies instead of on the street, has taken in over 30 children.

Little did Ivie know his journey over this past year also led him to a saving faith in Jesus, while documenting a living example of pure religion as defined by James, the brother of Jesus, who 2,000 years ago wrote in James 1:27, “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Ivie accepted the award, along with a check for $101,000 by demonstrating humility.

“I deified movies for 21 years of my life, and I made them my god, and it failed me,” he said. “I’m done with that story. I’m done with that idol. And I promise in the fear of God that I will steward this investment, because I would rather tell the plainest truth with $100,000 than the most sophisticated technological lie with 10 million dollars or 100 hundred million dollars.”

“The Drop Box” was also recognized earlier in the awards ceremony for the “Best Sanctity of Life” award.

His acceptance speech for the two distinguished honors prompted some to point out that such a God-honoring homage would never be uttered by a Hollywood elite while accepting a coveted Oscar.

Vision Forum Ministries, which says it aims to build a “holy alternative to Hollywood”, wrote in a press release, “If you were waiting on Sunday to hear one of Hollywood’s elite utter words like these while receiving the coveted Oscar, you waited in vain.

“But if you were one of the approximately 25,000 people who watched the Jubilee Awards in person or on live-streaming and saw 22-year-old Brian Ivie receive $101,000 for his profound homage to the power of the Gospel in reaching out to lost and unwanted children, then you watched history in the making,” the release continued. “You saw with your eyes the blessing of God on a rag-tag movement of independent Christian filmmakers who are working outside the Hollywood machine and changing the world.”

Video of Ivie’s “Best Sanctity of Life” acceptance speech can be seen below:

Video of Ivie’s “Best of Festival” acceptance speech can be seen below:

Another judge for the Independent Christian Film Festival, Curtis Bowers, also said of Ivie, “That’s a young man we want to invest in, because he’s going to change the world with his films.”

In recounting his recent journey to become a Christian, Ivie recounted for the audience his epiphany while watching these young kids that no one wanted.

“I saw all these kids come through this drop box with deformities and disabilities, and eventually – like a heaven flash – I realized that I was one of those kids too; that I have a crooked soul, and God is a father who loves me still,” Ivie said.

He then challenged the audience with a call to total surrender to God, much like these orphans: “This world is so much about self-reliance and self-esteem, self-worth, and these kids . . . can’t be self-reliant, because they have these disabilities.

“The total illusion is that we can be self-reliant,” Ivie said, “because we rely on God for every breath that we take. And the day that we stop realizing that we are disabled is the day that we stop fighting for Christ as the only one who enables.”

Sen. Rick Santorum also attended the awards ceremony and commended the SAICFF for their role in the culture wars.

“You are the ones who shape the culture, and Washington, D.C., is simply a reflection of that,” said Santorum. “So I just wanted to come here to encourage you and to thank you. . . . This country needs you.”

Ivie assured the audience that he plans to continue the fight and press on with the help of God.

For more information on the film, “The Drop Box,” or to watch the film trailer, click here.

Roger Simmermaker of the Consumer Patriotism Corporation has recently published a guide he says will help his fellow Americans choose to do what is best for America and the American economy.

“My Company ‘Tis of Thee,” is a buying guide that highlights 50 American companies that strive to keep manufacturing and producing – and therefore profits and jobs – here in America.

“Our nation established a Declaration of Independence, not a Declaration of Interdependence,” Simmermaker says in his book. “How can we remain an independent nation if we have our needs met by companies operating in the United States that are under foreign ownership and foreign control?”

Additionally, Simmermaker points out only about 10 percent of American jobs involve the manufacturing of consumer products

“We can’t consume our way to national prosperity,” he says. “We must manufacture and produce.”

Get “My Company ‘Tis of Thee” from the WND Superstore now!

Simmermaker explains his “buy American” strategy is not “anti-anyone,” but rather solely “pro-American.”

“Everyone needs a job,” Simmermaker says, “but the fact is it’s more beneficial to the nation as a whole to support the American worker employed by an American company.”

The book urges readers to examine their purchasing habits and provides a list of companies in a number of sectors that make his list of wholly American.

In “My Company ‘Tis of Thee” Simmermaker explains the difference between just buying “American made” and truly buying “American.”

Contrasting a United States Postal worker who receives a paycheck from the American taxpayers for his work with the use of German-owned DHL for shipping needs, Simmermaker makes the point that foreign-owned companies don’t pay nearly the amount of taxes into the American coffers as they do into their own nations’ treasuries.

“Workers in other countries pay no taxes to America,” Simmermaker contends.

Simmermaker also contends that cheaper isn’t always the answer either, taking a jab at the notion American consumers form about imported products being cheaper.

“I’m confident that you’ll discover that many of the products profiled in this book are competitively priced with imports or products from foreign-owned companies,” Simmermaker says. “If I can find American-made apparel, anyone can, and I don’t pay a lot of extra money (if any) for the majority of my clothes.”

Further, Simmermaker points out, “It really doesn’t matter that 97 percent of all clothing sold in the United States is imported if you know where to find the 3 percent that is not.”

American consumers invest in America as a whole when they purchase American products, Simmermaker contends.

“Economists will tell you that two-thirds of all economic activity is comprised of consumer spending,” he explains, “and the more we spend to the benefit of American workers and American companies, the more economic activity there will be in America.”

He seems to agree with words spoken by George W. Bush in 2002 regarding the American economy: “When you spend your own money, someone has to manufacture that which you spend it on.”

Of course, Bush’s words came from a 2002 speech on Congress’ desire to raise taxes on Americans in the middle of a recession, and Bush was pushing to leave the money in the hands of the people it belonged to in the first place – the American consumers.

The continuing desire for politicians to seek “additional revenue” – in other words, more taxes – could arguably be less demanding if American companies were healthier.

Simmermaker talks about the term, “the ripple effect” in describing how many times a dollar spent on American shores “ripples” through the economy.

He highlights the effect of buying a single American-made hammer in a hypothetical example: “Let’s say the hardware store owner decides sales are good and decides to build an addition. He hires a local construction crew to do the work. Since the crew now has a job, they go out to eat at a local pizzeria. The pizzeria uses American ingredients, and you can see how the purchase of an American-ade hammer ripples through the economy.

“If you buy a foreign-made hammer,” he points out, “there is no ripple multiplier effect since your dollar goes overseas.”

“My Company ‘Tis of Thee” highlights companies broken up into a number of categories from apparel to toys to food and beverages and more. One company he highlights is a Midwestern home-improvement chain called Menard’s.

“In July of 2011, the home improvement chain’s weekly flier appeared in many Sunday newspapers highlighting its Made in the USA sale,” Simmermaker says. “This flyer was 20 full pages of American-made products, which even displayed the city and state where the products were made.”

Simmermaker encourages his readers not only to do business with retailers like Menard’s, but to let them know they are appreciated.

“We only vote with our ballots every two or four years at the polls, but we vote with our dollar every day,” he says. “In an economy where Americans are increasingly focused on ways to create more American jobs, it’s often easier than we think to keep jobs, profits, and the tax base within our borders using the money we’re already spending.”

Even Bill Clinton endorsed Simmermaker’s book, saying in part, “It’s important to stand behind the American companies that make good products, maximize U.S. employment and earn the loyalty of their workers and the communities of which they’re a part.”

Start shopping in ways that pay you and your country back today by getting “My Company ‘Tis of Thee,” and join in a real solution to America’s economy!