The Madison-based Freedom From Religion Foundation is among a group of notable signatories to a September letter demanding a new "investigation into charges of religious coercion and proselytizing at the United States Air Force Academy."

Foundation co-presidents Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker join notables signing the letter, including Rev. Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, and Bobby Muller, Nobel Peace Prize winner.

The demand stems from Mikey Weinstein, president and founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and a range of other activists objecting to what is typical conduct at the Colorado Springs-based Air Force Academy that includes Holocaust jokes and coercion of cadets to practice Christianity and display signs of fidelity to the Christian faith, "practices that discriminate against non-Christians in the military."

Incredibly, one Colonel Donald P. Higgins, Jr. (USAF ret), (as recounted and documented by Weinstein) the "key, on-scene Inspector General investigator for the Department of Defence/United States Air Force" into the conduct at the Air Force Academy, transmitted "several outrageously denigrating and anti-Semitic emails" to Weinstein himself in an apparent attempt to harass and intimidate Weinstein. These emails can be found at the bottom of the page of this link: Letter Attachments - Electronic Version.

Who is this Higgins? And who is responsible for letting this guy operate in the capacity of an investigator for the DoD's Inspector General?

Weinstein has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Higgins and is considering legal action.

Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker should be proud to be the John Hancocks, the first signatories, of the demand letter calling for a serious investigation of this continuing outrage.