Navy Commander Disciplined, But Extremist Activities Continue
Despite being reprimanded for his political activities by Navy officials recently, Lt. Comdr. John Sharpe’s extremist organizing continues. Sharpe spoke earlier this month at the 2007 Saint Benedict Conference, a gathering of “radical traditionalist Catholics” in Nashua, N.H. The Aug. 17-19 event was hosted by the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a virulently anti-Semitic group that has been in a heated dispute with its neighbors recently. A sense of the group’s views comes from listening to one of its officials, Brother Anthony Mary, who has said that “the perpetual enemy of Christ is the Jewish nation” and suggested that Jews should be dealt with using “blood and terror if it’s required.”
Those views dovetail nicely with Sharpe’s own. Sharpe is on record blaming the 9/11 attacks not on Al Qaeda but on “Judeo-Masonry.” He believes that “the current and historical mortal enemy of Christian civilization is Judeo-Masonry.” Sharpe is cool with hate groups, too. Attending the 2006 conference of American Renaissance, a racist magazine specializing in theories of race, intelligence and eugenics, Sharpe sold his two-volume set Neo-CONNED!, which has several articles by racists and anti-Semites. Next to his booth was a man selling “White Power” T-shirts.
Sharpe probably figures the Navy just won’t call him on this. After all, though Sharpe was suspended from his post as public affairs spokesman for the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson early this year — the move followed the Intelligence Report’s exposure of his anti-Semitic activities — the Navy declined to court-martial him, according to his parents. The only charges Sharpe reportedly faced were related to the military legal code that bans “contemptuous words against the President” and other high officials. They were based on comments in his Neo-CONNED! books that were highly critical of President Bush and the war in Iraq. Sharpe is currently awaiting reassignment, according to Jim Brantley, a spokesman for U.S. Fleet Forces Command.
