Combat outpost name sparks controversy - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Combat outpost name sparks controversy

In the wake of controversy over a photo of Marine snipers posing in front of the Nazi-associated SS insignia, the military is facing questions about a base in Afghanistan said to be called, “Combat Outpost Aryan,” a term linked with Nazis and white supremacists.

In a Monday letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation attorney Randal Mathis demanded the outpost to be renamed and the circumstances surrounding its naming be investigated.

“Today’s stunning information concerning the base near Kandahar being named ‘Aryan’ is simply too much to be coincidental,” Mathis said in the letter. “Viewing either as trivially inadvertent would be preposterous.”

The name “COP Aryan” appears with a June 2011, news release on the website of 170th Infantry Brigade Combat Team that announced the graduation of Afghan troops with whom it was partnered from officer candidate school.

The brigade has since transferred its authority to another brigade and returned home to Germany, according to separate news release.

The controversy can be chalked up to a misunderstanding, a military spokesman said. The reference was a misspelling of the name of Combat Outpost Arian, situated in Ghazni Province and named for an ancient Persian tribe that once lived in western Afghanistan, International Security Assistance Force — Afghanistan spokesman said in an email to Army Times.

“Their name means ‘noblemen,’” the email reads. “In historical times, the Arians lived in an area along the river Arios, which is now belongs to the Afghan province of Herat.”

According to Mathis’ letter, members of the Afghan National Army and American service members had recently notified the organization about the outpost’s name. Mathis compared the name to the recently publicized display of SS insignia, which had elicited apologies from Panetta and Gen. James Amos, the Marine Corps commandant.