Two years ago, the Southern Poverty Law Center ran a devastating report describing the infiltration of neo-Nazis into the ranks of the American military. The Pentagon's official response was steadfast denial of the problem.
The SPLC's David Holthouse just published a follow-up report, and found, predictably, that the problem is getting worse as the conflict in Iraq drags on:
A new FBI report confirms that white supremacists are infiltrating the military for several reasons. According to the unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel Since 9/11," which was released to law enforcement agencies nationwide: "Sensitive and reliable source reporting indicates supremacist leaders are encouraging followers who lack documented histories of neo-Nazi activity and overt racist insignia such as tattoos to infiltrate the military as 'ghost skins,' in order to recruit and receive training for the benefit of the extremist movement."
The FBI report details more than a dozen investigative findings and criminal cases involving Iraq and Afghanistan veterans as well as active-duty personnel engaging in extremist activity in recent years. For example, in September 2006, the leader of the Celtic Knights, a central Texas splinter faction of the Hammerskins, a national racist skinhead organization, planned to obtain firearms and explosives from an active duty Army soldier in Fort Hood, Texas. That soldier, who served in Iraq in 2006 and 2007, was a member of the National Alliance, a neo-Nazi group.
Fantastic. As if we didn't have enough of these insane fuckers to deal with, now we've handed them the training they need to be even more fucking dangerous.
And if you think we're going to win Iraqi hearts and minds with a bunch of skinheads in the mix, think again:
One of the Blood & Honour members claiming to be an active-duty soldier taking part in combat operations in Iraq identified himself to Kennard as Jacob Berg. He did not disclose his rank or branch of service. "There are actually a lot more 'skinheads,' 'nazis,' white supremacists now [in the military] than there has been in a long time," Berg wrote in an E-mail exchange with Kennard. "Us racists are actually getting into the military a lot now because if we don't every one who already is [in the military] will take pity on killing sand niggers. Yes I have killed women, yes I have killed children and yes I have killed older people. But the biggest reason I'm so proud of my kills is because by killing a brown many white people will live to see a new dawn."Asking yourself how batshit insane haters like this ended up in the military, aren't you?
The source of the problem, as the report explained, was the extreme pressure military recruiters were under to fill their recruitment quotas. "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces," said Barfield, "and commanders don’t remove them . . . even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members." The military downplayed a neo-Nazi presence in the ranks, Barfield added, "because then parents who are already worried about their kids signing up and dying in Iraq are going to be even more reluctant about their kids enlisting if they feel they’ll be exposed to gangs and white supremacists."
Well. Isn't that just an excellent fucking reason not to do something about a problem that's going to (literally) blow up in our faces? There aren't enough cursewords in the dictionary to express what I'm thinking right now.
David Neiwert calls our military "the Timothy McVeigh Finishing School." He's absolutely right, and it's absolutely appalling.
Yet another Bush-era mess we'll be cleaning up for a long time to come.
The source of the problem, as the report explained, was the extreme pressure military recruiters were under to fill their recruitment quotas.
ReplyDeleteThe source of the problem was being involved in an unnecessary war. The pressure on recruiters was just one of many results. This is what inevitably happens, particularly if the war isn't successful.
As if our military doesn't have enough felons and gang members in it's ranks. Apparently it isn't a new thing either. This is link to a story from 2006 detailing recruitment of felons:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/10/01/ING42LCIGK1.DTL
Let us not forget that half of our occupying force is made up of mercenaries! How the fuck can you not figure out that most Americans don't want this war by those results?