Satan Hatin' General Gets Bounced By Justin Rood - January 10, 2007, 1:49 PM
Evangelical conservative William Boykin is set to be bounced from his Pentagon gig as a senior intelligence official, Newsweek reports.
Boykin became known for his violent Christian rhetoric, like when he asserted America’s enemy is “a spiritual enemy ... called Satan” who could only be defeated “if we come against them in the name of Jesus.”
His detractors have noted that his position should have required him to oversee the conduct of military interrogators, including those who have been found to abuse their subjects.
In 2004, Boykin was ordered to investigate claims of prisoner abuse by "Task Force 6-26," a military intelligence unit trying to track and capture one of Iraq's most notorious terrorists, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to a 2006 New York Times report.
Boykin said he found no pattern of misconduct. It was later revealed that the group (motto: "If you don't make them bleed, they can't prosecute for it") had taken over a Saddam-era torture chamber and used it to "beat prisoners with rifle butts, yell. . . and spit in their faces," according to the New York Times.