Once again, Chu replied by saying the military already had such a policy in place and needed nothing more. “I have my own reasons for wanting this training but in fear of the government tracing me and me loosing my clearance I can’t share them here,” wrote the poster, who called himself “Sobibor’s SS,” a reference to guards at a Nazi concentration camp.Īfter that report, Cohen reiterated his request to the Pentagon that the rules be tightened. The report quoted a racist skinhead who posted a comment to a neo-Nazi online forum, excitedly saying that he had joined the Army and specifically requested an assignment where he would learn how to make an explosive device. That report revealed that 46 members of the white supremacist social networking website had identified themselves as active-duty military personnel. Two years later, in 2008, the SPLC reported new evidence that supported its initial findings. Chu dismissed the concerns as being unnecessarily alarmist. But in his reply and in subsequent letters, Under Secretary of Defense David S. Forty members of Congress wrote a similar letter, as did Sen. In a letter to then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, SPLC President Richard Cohen urged the military to adopt a zero-tolerance policy with regard to extremists in the ranks. When the SPLC informed military officials of West’s activities, which included posing in front of a swastika flag with two assault rifles and ranting about the “Zionist Occupied Government,” they said no action would be taken unless he recruited fellow extremists or committed a crime. The SPLC alerted military officials to the fact that Buschbacher was producing neo-Nazi recruitment flyers via his website, but he was allowed to complete his tour of duty in Iraq and even given an honorable discharge.Īnother example in the 2006 report was the case of Robert Lee West, then an active-duty airman. The group’s late leader, who espoused murdering Jews in abandoned coal mines, was the author of The Turner Diaries, the race war novel used by Timothy McVeigh as a blueprint for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The report cited the case of Matt Buschbacher, a Navy SEAL who attended the 2002 leadership conference of the neo-Nazi National Alliance while on active duty. The SPLC has been urging the Pentagon to revise the regulations since 2006, when it published “ A Few Bad Men,” a report revealing that large numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacists were joining the armed forces to acquire combat and weapons training – skills that could be used to commit terrorist acts against targets in the U.S. In a blog post, Isikoff examined the military backgrounds of two members of the Hutaree Militia, the radical Michigan group whose members were indicted late last month in a plot to murder a law enforcement officer and then attack the funeral procession with homemade bombs and missiles. The policy change, which slipped under the radar for months, was reported Friday by Michael Isikoff of Newsweek. As the SPLC has repeatedly pointed out, the policy allowed numerous active-duty members to engage in a range of supremacist activities. The previous policy, in effect since the mid-1990s, could be interpreted to mean that military personnel were allowed to be “mere members” of hate groups or that they could engage in unaffiliated extremist activities - such as posting racist and anti-Semitic messages to social networking websites and e-mail lists or maintaining online profiles filled with racist materials. The revision should give commanders ample new tools to root out racial extremists in their midst. Under the new regulations, military personnel “must not actively advocate supremacist doctrine, ideology or causes” or “otherwise advance efforts to deprive individuals of their civil rights.” The new rules specify that “active participation” includes activities such as recruiting, fundraising, demonstrating or rallying, training, organizing and distributing supremacist material, including online posts. That changed this past November, when the Pentagon quietly tightened its policy on extremist activity, which formerly only banned “active participation” in extremist groups but did not define what that meant. military about extremist activity among active-duty personnel in 2006, the Pentagon brass has steadfastly denied that a problem existed and insisted that its “zero-tolerance” policy was sufficient to keep organized racists out of its ranks.
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