White supremacy threat in US military

FULLER VERSION OF MY TIMES STORY TODAY: The US military is facing an insider threat from extremists dedicated to white supremacy ideology, the Pentagon has admitted in a report to Congress. Extremist and terror groups are also actively attempting to recruit military personnel to exploit their combat and tactical skills, the report said. “Military members are highly prized by these groups as they bring legitimacy to their causes and enhance their ability to carry out attacks,” the Pentagon said. “In addition to potential violence, white supremacy and white nationalism pose a threat to the good order and discipline within the military,” the report added. The admission that white-supremacy extremists are still being recruited despite background screening and criminal records checks follows the revelation that many of those leading the attack on the Capitol on January 6 were current or former members of the military. More than 20 veterans or active-duty serving military personnel including members of the right-wing extremist group, Oath Keepers, have been charged with federal crimes for participating in the January 6 rioting. The Pentagon report said “one of the deadliest neo-Nazi groups in the US” was the so-called Atomwaffen (atomic weapon) division which rebranded itself as the national socialist order. The co-founder served in Florida’s army national guard. He was sentenced in 2018 to five years in prison for possessing a destructive device. Two weeks after the Capitol attack, Lloyd Austin, US defence secretary, said that although he believed only a tiny percentage of service personnel were extremists, “small numbers in this case can have an outsized impact”. The Pentagon said that checks on social media should now become a crucial part of background screening of recruits to identify any sympathies for extremist views. The most active white supremacy and white nationalist groups used the internet as their primary method of communication and recruitment, focusing on platforms such as Discord, Telegram and 8chan, the report said. However, the report warned that analysts could not be expected to search the internet for the hundreds of thousands of people that undergo department of defence background vetting each year. Applicants for the military would also have to give their permission for such checks because of privacy and civil liberty rights. The Pentagon recruits about 400,000 applicants for military service every year of whom 250,000 are contracted into the forces. At present the Pentagon does not know how serious the extremism issue is. There is no data available. Even when a serviceman or woman is identified as a white supremacist , there is no specific offence related to extremist activity. If discharged from the services, they are accused under the general heading of misconduct. This is expected to change.