After the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6,\u00a0in which dozens of those charged<\/a> had a military background, newly appointed Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin pledged to \u201crid our ranks of racists and extremists.\u201d But the nation\u2019s first Black defense secretary will first have to contend with a deeply entrenched military culture\u00a0that has long ignored the problem.<\/p>\n The soldiers, including 21-year-old Collins, who were indicted for illegal weapons manufacturing and distribution, illustrate how military leaders have long resisted more careful vetting during recruitment. Despite posting white supremacist views online during recruitment and after enlistment, Collins didn\u2019t\u00a0raise any red flags. He was only investigated after anti-fascist activists and journalists\u00a0publicized his Iron March posts in 2019.<\/p>\n Lecia Brooks, chief of staff for the nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, said she and others have for decades lobbied the Department of Defense to implement basic procedures that would detect white supremacists during recruitment, such as tattoo databases and the screening of social media accounts. \u201cThey just won\u2019t put robust screening measures in place,\u201d Brooks said. \u201cLooking at social media accounts, for instance, could reveal so much, as we learned recently.\u201d<\/p>\n Brooks was referring to the FBI vetting the social media accounts of thousands of National Guard members providing security at the Capitol during Joe Biden\u2019s presidential inauguration. At least 12 members were sent home due to security concerns because they\u2019d posted extremist views online, the Associated Press reported<\/a>, two of them about Biden\u2019s inauguration. Some had ties to right-wing militias.<\/p>\n \u201cMost people with these views, they\u2019re hiding in plain sight,\u201d said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism. The indictment of Collins and his co-defendants, she said, appears to be \u201canother classic example of the fact that the military wasn\u2019t paying very close attention.\u201d<\/p>\n After years of neglect, Beirich said she\u2019s encouraged that military leaders have admitted they have a problem. \u201cThe next step is determining just how big it is,\u201d she said. The\u00a0Defense Department doesn\u2019t track data on soldiers, like Collins, who are investigated and forced out of the military because of extremist activities. Collins was given a \u201cpremature discharge\u201d in September, according to his personnel file, due to the \u201ccharacter of his service being incongruent with the Marine Corps\u2019 expectations and standards.\u201d Investigations and punishment are often left to commanders at the unit level, who don\u2019t necessarily report the outcomes to military leaders higher up the chain of command.<\/p>\n To get a sense of the scale of the problem, in early February, Austin called for a military-wide stand-down in which commanders will be required to carve out a day to talk with their units about extremism. \u201cOne of the challenges here, and one of the reasons why he wants to do this, is we don\u2019t know the full breadth and depth of it,\u201d John Kirby, the Pentagon\u2019s spokesperson, told reporters after the announcement. \u201cIt\u2019s just not clear.\u201d<\/p>\n Anecdotally, the problem appears to be getting worse. For the last four years, the Military Times, an independent publication that caters to military readers, has polled active-duty service members about whether they\u2019ve personally witnessed white supremacy and racist ideology in the military. In 2020<\/a>, 57 percent of minority troops surveyed said they had, up from 42 percent in 2017<\/a>, when the survey was first conducted. The Times noted<\/a> that the troops surveyed \u201cclassified white nationalism as a national security threat on par with al-Qaida and the Islamic State, and more worrisome than the danger posed by North Korea, Afghanistan or Iraq.\u201d<\/p>\n Brooks said it\u2019s not surprising to see increasing evidence of extremism, because the military reflects society as a whole. \u201cThe radicalization has grown,\u201d she said. \u201cYou\u2019ve got political conspiracy theorists and QAnon mixed with the more traditional hate and far-right groups who are white nationalists. It\u2019s a dangerous mix.\u201d<\/p>\n Beirich said the current climate is the worst she\u2019s seen in two decades of tracking extremism. \u201cWhite supremacy and militia groups were growing under Obama, facilitated by social media and in relation to America having its first Black president. But once Trump got in there, the ranks grew much quicker, and there were more organizations,\u201d she said. \u201cNow we have white supremacist militias, QAnon, ‘Stop the Steal’ supporters, MAGA supporters all together storming the Capitol.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump supporters and far-right forces\u00a0flooded Washington, D.C., to protest Trump\u2019s election loss on Jan. 6, 2021, culminating in an attack on the Capitol.<\/p>\n \nPhoto: Michael Nigro\/Pacific Press\/LightRocket via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n For decades, the radicalization of active-duty soldiers and veterans has been a persistent and lethal problem for the military. In 2017, Brandon Russell, a Florida National Guard member and co-founder of the violent neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, was arrested for possessing bomb-making materials after one of his roommates fatally shot two others in their Tampa apartment. On Russell\u2019s nightstand, police found a framed photograph of Timothy McVeigh, the Army veteran whose 1995 bombing of an Oklahoma federal building killed 168 people in America\u2019s worst domestic terror attack.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know that some groups actively attempt to recruit our personnel into their cause, or actually encourage their members to join the military for [the] purpose of acquiring skills and experience,\u201d a Defense Department spokesperson told reporters after the Capitol siege, according to<\/a> the Military Times. \u201cIt also brings legitimacy, in their minds, to their cause, the fact that they can say they have former military personnel that align with their extremist and violent extremist views.\u201d<\/p>\n But when it comes to rooting out those extremists, the various branches of the military are not only in disagreement, but also confused about their own regulations. Military investigators gave conflicting testimony during a February 2020 congressional hearing after Rep. Deb Haaland, D-N.M., inquired about Cory Reeves, a master sergeant in the Air Force who was outed in 2019 by anti-fascist activists as a member of Identity Evropa, a white nationalist group now called the American Identity Movement. After being investigated by the Air Force, Haaland said, Reeves received a demotion and letter of reprimand but was allowed to remain in the military until outside pressure finally forced him out.<\/p>\n \u201cMere membership\u201d in a white supremacist group is not prohibited under Air Force policy, explained Robert Grabosky, law enforcement deputy director of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations. The OSI only investigates \u201cactive participants\u201d in white supremacist groups, he said. The OSI did investigate Reeves because he was fundraising and organizing for Identity Evropa, but disciplinary action was left up to Reeves\u2019s command.<\/p>\n Rep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., chair of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, who was presiding over the hearing, was surprised to hear Grabosky suggest that the Air Force didn\u2019t have a zero-tolerance policy when it came to white supremacy. \u201cYou\u2019re saying active participation equals something like a tattoo, but active participation does not equal being a member of one of these extremist organizations,\u201d she said. \u201cI find that astonishing.\u201d<\/p>\n Another investigator for the Navy argued that any expression of racial hatred was grounds for dismissal. The disagreement among the investigators illustrated one of the military\u2019s biggest challenges, said Beirich, who also testified. \u201cThey made it very clear at the hearing that the various investigative departments don\u2019t seem to know what their own rules are.\u201d<\/p>\n Christian Picciolini, founder of the Free Radicals Project and author of \u201cBreaking Hate: Confronting the New Culture of Extremism,\u201d speaks during a\u00a0congressional hearing in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 18, 2019.<\/p>\n \nPhoto: Manuel Balce Ceneta\/AP<\/p><\/div>\n Christian Picciolini, a former neo-Nazi skinhead who now runs a nonprofit that works to de-radicalize extremists, said the military should enforce a culture of zero tolerance from the top down. \u201cBut some in our society are still debating whether white supremacy is a problem,\u201d he said. \u201cIf the establishment doesn\u2019t recognize it, then the agency just isn\u2019t there to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s presidency pushed white supremacist views from the fringes into the mainstream, Picciolini said. \u201cWhen I was a skinhead in the \u201980s and \u201990s, we didn\u2019t have somebody powerful in office or an influencer in the media or a whole news network dedicated to what we were trying to recruit people with.\u201d<\/p>\n Social media allows white supremacist groups to connect across borders, Picciolini added. The Christchurch shooter, who killed more than 50 people in New Zealand, cited Dylann Roof and Norwegian white supremacist Anders Breivik in his rambling manifesto, while the gunman who killed 23 people at a Walmart in El Paso invoked Christchurch as inspiration for his massacre in Texas. \u201cThese are cross-functional organizations that work with each other. They share propaganda. They share members,\u201d Picciolini said.<\/p>\n All of these groups are looking to recruit members with military training, not only in the United States but around the globe. In January, Canada\u2019s outgoing military leader described<\/a> xenophobia and violent extremism as a \u201cserious threat,\u201d citing a growing number of hate crimes investigations into soldiers linked to far-right groups like the Proud Boys. In February, Canada listed the Proud Boys, along with Atomwaffen Division and The Base, another violent neo-Nazi group, as terrorist organizations. And last year, Germany\u2019s defense minister was forced to disband an elite anti-terrorism unit after it was discovered that it had been infiltrated by neo-Nazis.<\/p>\n \u201cCanada is having serious problems, and Germany, of course, had to shut down an entire elite commando unit,\u201d said Beirich. \u201cIt\u2019s a very deep problem.\u201d<\/p>\n Active-duty soldiers and veterans are especially susceptible to being radicalized, according to Picciolini. \u201cMany of them suffer from PTSD, they\u2019re jaded by their jobs, and maybe they\u2019ve suffered some other loss like divorce, bankruptcy, or a death in the family,\u201d he said. \u201cI call these \u2018potholes,\u2019 which can lead people to these toxic movements where they are searching for a sense of identity, community, and purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n A National Guard\u00a0member takes a break at the Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 17, 2021.<\/p>\n \nPhoto: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p><\/div>\n In early February, Speier sent a letter to Biden asking that he issue an executive order directing the military to screen the social media posts of new recruits and those seeking security clearances. Such screenings aren\u2019t currently conducted, she wrote, not even \u201cas part of the background investigation process for security clearances, despite the collection and reporting of other intrusive, private data, such as financial and behavioral health information.\u201d<\/p>\n Military investigators need to take action, said Beirich, instead of largely relying on the media and watchdog groups to unmask white supremacists, as in the case of Collins, who was only investigated after thousands of Iron March messages, posts, usernames, emails, and IP addresses were leaked anonymously online. Vice News counted<\/a> at least three users on the neo-Nazi forum as being active members of the military, and in November 2019, Newsweek identified<\/a> Collins as one of them.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat the military needs to do is create a unit of people who are experts on tracking these sites,\u201d said Beirich. \u201cPeople are being directed to join the military who come from extremist groups. So they\u2019re going to have to be a little more proactive in stopping this.\u201d<\/p>\n Capt. Casey Littesy, a spokesperson for the Marines, confirmed in a written statement that \u201cCollins was investigated following allegations of white supremacist activities.\u201d Littesy wrote that the Marines began a pilot program last May using the FBI\u2019s Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit database to screen the tattoos of potential recruits for affiliation with white supremacy groups. The military\u2019s use of the FBI database was recommended in a\u00a0Defense Department\u00a0report<\/a> issued last year that examined ways to bolster vetting during recruitment. The report also considered social media screening but concluded that it needed further study because it would be difficult for \u201chuman analysts to \u2026 effectively search the Internet on the hundreds of thousands of people each year that undergo DOD background vetting.\u201d<\/p>\n Similarly, Littesy wrote that the Marines don\u2019t rely on social media vetting during recruiting because it\u2019s too complicated. \u201cThe proliferation of social media platforms, the fact that most of them do not prohibit aliases, and the ease with which a user can conceal or misrepresent their true persona online makes attempts to screen someone based on social media activity unreliable.\u201d<\/p>\n Katrina Mulligan, managing director for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, said that creating a social media vetting program could bring up a host of legal and practical concerns. Under current military policy, soldiers who are caught using racist and extremist language on social media can be penalized and kicked out of the military. But Mulligan, who has advised on intelligence policies for both the National Security Council and the Justice Department, said she worries that a vetting program could be used to target the wrong people.<\/p>\n \u201cYou have to be very careful about how you do this,\u201d Mulligan said. \u201cBecause history is replete with examples of times when we have tried to go after white supremacists and ended up creating legal frameworks and structures that were then used to harm the groups that we\u2019re actually trying to protect.\u201d<\/p>\n Beirich, on the other hand, said that vetting the social media of potential recruits is the least the military can do. \u201cWe\u2019re requiring U.S. visa applicants to turn over 10 years of their social media, but we\u2019re not screening people who we\u2019re going to put in programs where they learn to build bombs and kill effectively,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s ridiculous.\u201d<\/p>\n Cameron McCoy, a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps and military history professor at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, said the military\u2019s reckoning with extremism is long overdue. But white supremacy can be as subtle as it is extreme, he said. It\u2019s reflected in who gets promoted within the military and who has the power to make decisions and policies that make a difference for diversity. \u201cI think the argument for many people of color who serve in the military is, \u2018Why are we not represented at the top?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Neco Armstrong, who served 16 years in the Army Reserve, much of it working in human resources, said reports of discrimination by Black soldiers were so common in one brigade she served in that she began to track each incident in a running document, then reported the problem to the Reserve\u2019s Equal Opportunity Office. \u201cI told them that my unit had white supremacists in it,\u201d she said. \u201cBut they ignored me. And there was never any investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n Black soldiers often received more write-ups and harsher punishments, she noticed. \u201cIt was just general harassment,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd when it came time for promotion, they didn\u2019t advance. A lot of the soldiers ended up taking early retirement or transferred out as soon as they could.\u201d<\/p>\n Army Reserve spokesperson Lt. Col. Simon Flake declined to comment on Armstrong\u2019s specific allegations. \u201cThere is no place in the Army Reserve for disrespect or intolerance of anyone based on their race, color, creed, gender, national origin, sexual preference, or orientation,\u201d he wrote in an email to The Intercept. \u201cThe Army Reserve is a diverse organization that takes all allegations of soldier or Army civilian discrimination seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n But systemic discrimination touches everybody, said McCoy, who has spent nearly two decades in the Marines. He said he\u2019s encouraged by the historical significance of Austin\u2019s appointment but skeptical that a fundamental change in the military\u2019s culture will happen anytime soon. \u201cObama served for eight years as president, and look where the nation still is,\u201d McCoy said. \u201cWhat I want to see from them is action,\u201d he said of military leaders.<\/p>\n Seeing the Capitol overrun on January 6 by an angry mob gave him the same feeling as when he saw George Floyd killed in the streets of Minneapolis, McCoy said. \u201cIt was sickening and saddening from an emotional standpoint,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd just this fatigue from constantly the same argument, the same conversation. And we haven\u2019t seen any tangible efforts. Joe Biden seems to be trending in the right direction, but it\u2019s taken him 40 years to come around. Will we have to wait another 40 years?\u201d<\/p>\n The post The Military\u2019s Failure to Reckon With White Supremacy in Its Ranks<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n This post was originally published on The Intercept<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When it comes to rooting out extremists, military investigators have provided conflicting accounts of their own regulations.<\/p>\n The post The Military\u2019s Failure to Reckon With White Supremacy in Its Ranks<\/a> appeared first on The Intercept<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":265,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67476"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/265"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67476"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67476\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69258,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67476\/revisions\/69258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The Scale of the Problem<\/h3>\n
![\"Pro-Trump](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-1230465007-edit.jpg\")
\nInternal Confusion<\/h3>\n
When it comes to rooting out extremists, the various branches of the military are not only in disagreement, but also confused about their own regulations.<\/blockquote>\n
![\"Christian](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn06.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2021\/03\/AP19261730742652-edit-1024x682.jpg\")
\nA Global Movement<\/h3>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/prod01-cdn07.cdn.firstlook.org\/wp-uploads\/sites\/1\/2021\/03\/GettyImages-1230647161.jpg\")
\nSocial Media Double Standards<\/h3>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re requiring U.S. visa applicants to turn over 10 years of their social media, but we\u2019re not screening people who we\u2019re going to put in programs where they learn to build bombs.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n
An Overdue Reckoning<\/h3>\n
\u201cI told them that my unit had white supremacists in it. But they ignored me. And there was never any investigation.\u201d<\/blockquote>\n