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<font size=4 color="#FF0000"><b><i>You can't make this stuff up!<br><br>
</i></font><font size=4>Bible codes in Afghan army guns <br><br>
</b></font><font size=3>Thursday, January 21, 2010 <br>
18:42 Mecca time, 15:42 GMT <br>
<a href="http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/01/20101211239216652.html" eudora="autourl">
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/americas/2010/01/20101211239216652.html<br>
<br>
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</a>American guns inscribed with Bible codes are being used by US forces
and Afghans to fight the Taliban.<br><br>
Al Jazeera has discovered that some Afghan soldiers are using guns
engraved with coded biblical references.<br><br>
The weapons come from Trijicon, a manufacturer based in Wixon, Michigan,
that supplies the US military. The company's now deceased founder, Glyn
Bandon, started the practice which continues today.<br><br>
David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in the Afghan capital Kabul,
said: "It is a rallying cry for the Taliban. It gives them a
propaganda tool.<br><br>
"They've always tried to paint the US efforts in Afghanistan as a
Christian campaign."<br><br>
A Nato spokesman in Afghanistan has acknowledged that the practice is
inappropriate but said that the guns will remain in use for now.<br><br>
<b>Nato reaction<br><br>
</b>Interviewed by Al Jazeera on Thursday, Colonel Gregory Breazile, of
the Nato Training Command in Afghanistan, said: "We were told about
it last night and when we looked into it, we noticed it was
true.<br><br>
"We started to take action and notify both the ministry of defence
and our chain of command and they have all taken action so that we don't
purchase any more of these sights.<br><br>
"We gave the Afghan military these weapons. We are very
disappointed, but it's a tiny little inscription and very hard to notice
and I don't think it will be an issue in the field."<br><br>
Acknowledging the mistake, Breazile said: "We would have not bought
these sights had we known they had these inscriptions on
them."<br><br>
<b>No complaints<br><br>
</b>Trijicon says that it has manufactured weapons sights with biblical
inscriptions for three decades and never before received a
complaint.<br><br>
Officials from Trijicon also said that the US military had been a
customer since 1995.<br><br>
The inscriptions, which do not include actual text from the Bible, refer
numerically to passages from the book.<br><br>
<dl>
<dd>
<img src="http://english.aljazeera.net/mritems/Images//2010/1/21/201012114142795621_3.jpg" width=270 height=180 alt="[]">
<dd><b>The inscriptions do not include actual text from the Bible but
refer numerically to passages</b> <br><br>
</dl>The Advanced Combat Optical Gunsight rifle sights, used by New
Zealand troops, carried references to Bible verses that appeared in
raised lettering at the end of the sight stock number. <br><br>
Markings included "JN8:12", a reference to John 8:12:
"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, 'I am the light of the
world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life," according to the King James version of the
Bible.<br><br>
The Trijicon Reflex sight is stamped with 2COR4:6, a reference to part of
the second letter of Paul to the Corinthians: "For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts,
to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ," the King James version reads.<br><br>
Tom Munson, Trijicon's sales director, said: "We don't publicise
this.<br><br>
"It's not something we make a big deal out of. But when asked, we
say, 'Yes, it's there'."<br><br>
<b>US contracts<br><br>
</b>The US Marine Corps was said by ABC News, which broke the news of the
inscriptions, to have a $660 million contract over multiple years with
Trijicon to make 800,000 units of the product.<br><br>
Trijicon has other contracts to supply the US army with the
sights.<br><br>
The sights are used on weapons used during the training of Afghan and
Iraqi soldiers under contracts with the US army and Marine
Corps.<br><br>
The Marines Corps have said that they will meet Trijicon managers to
discuss future deals.<br><br>
"If determined to be true, this is clearly inappropriate and we are
looking into possible remedies," Commander Darryn James, a Pentagon
spokesman, told the AFP news agency.<br><br>
Meanwhile, the US-based Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC) has called
on Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, to immediately withdraw the
equipment from combat. <br><br>
"Having biblical references on military equipment violates the basic
ideals and values our country was founded upon," Haris Tarin, MPAC
Washington director, said in a statement.<br><br>
"Worse still, it provides propaganda ammo to extremists who claim
there is a 'Crusader war against Islam' by the United
States."<br><br>
US military forces have repeatedly stated that their missions in
Afghanistan and Iraq are secular and they have a ban on
proselytizing.<br><br>
<b>Other countries<br><br>
</b>Separately, New Zealand has instructed Trijicon to remove the
citations from future orders of the weapon sights.<br><br>
"The inscriptions ... put us in a difficult situation,"
Kristian Dunne, a New Zealand defence force spokesman, said.<br><br>
"We were unaware of it and we're unhappy that the manufacturer
didn't give us any indication that these were on there."<br><br>
Dunne said that New Zealand has 260 such sights, first bought in 2004,
which will continue to be used once the codes are removed as they are the
best quality available.<br><br>
Wayne Mapp, New Zealand's defence minister, said: "We all know of
the religious tensions around this issue and it's unwise to do anything
that could be seen to raise tensions in an unnecessary
way."<br><br>
The British defence ministry said it had placed an order for 400 of the
gun sights but said it had not been aware of the significance of the
inscriptions.<br><br>
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