Tag: extremists in the military

Military commanders disavow notion of extremists in their ranks

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Assertions seem to run counter to what is publicly known about the proliferation of white supremacism within the military

Two top military officers on Tuesday told senators there are “zero” white supremacists under their command, despite evidence of a long-simmering problem within the ranks that came to the forefront following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol involving some currently serving military personnel and veterans.

“I am very confident that the number of extremists in my forces is zero,” said Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, which includes some 150,000 military and civilian personnel overseeing the nation’s nuclear arsenal. “Every person in my organization has to have a security clearance, for starters, right? And when you fill that form out, and I’ve been filling it out for 40 years, there is an extensive battery of questions designed to get after that very point.”

Investigators look into the background of every applicant, and check their references as well as social media accounts, he said. At Strategic Command, there are a personnel reliability program and peer monitoring, added Richard, who has been in the post since November 2019. Continue reading.

Lawmakers move to oust extremists from military

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Lawmakers are taking matters into their own hands to prevent white supremacists and other extremists from joining and remaining in the military.

Following the deadly Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — and the subsequent revelation that nearly 1 in 5 people charged in connection with the riot have some form of military background — Congress plans to insert language into this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to address extremism at the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

“The attack on our Capitol was an insurrection fueled in large part by groups that espouse the same extreme white supremacists’ views groups that actively recruit veterans and from the ranks of our military,” Rep. Anthony Brown (D-Md.) said in a statement to The Hill. Continue reading.