White supremacists sign up for military to train for race war — with little pushback from Pentagon

“The soldiers learn from unconventional warfare in Iraq and they realize that they can use that type of warfare in America, and it’s impossible to stop. I tell people to learn as much as you can to improve munitions capabilities, patrolling; I want them to learn sniping and explosives, the Green Berets.”

Dennis Mahon, white supremacist sentenced to 40 years for a bomb attack that injured a black city official in Phoenix.

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According to the FBI, there are hundreds of white supremacists in the US army or in the veteran community. Some analysts even estimate the number is in the thousands. In America, 203 white supremacist “extremist cases” investigated by the Bureau from 2001 to 2008 involved veterans. The problem hasn’t gone away. Neo-Nazi veteran Wade Michael Page attacked six worshippers at the Sikh Temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, in 2012.

I spent a number of years investigating how neo-Nazis and white supremacists had infiltrated the US military, with very little push back from the Pentagon, which was desperate to keep the supply of troops flowing for the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan.

As part of my research, I spoke to veterans who had become white supremacists before service and joined to gain access to weapons and training, as well as veterans who had been radicalized after returning from the war.

Charles Wilson, spokesman for the National Socialist Movement, one of the top neo-Nazi groups in America, was frank about his attempts to populate the US armed forces with extremists: “We do encourage [our members] to sign up for the military. We can use the training to secure the resistance to our government. Every one of them takes a pact of secrecy … Our military doesn’t agree with our political beliefs, they are not supposed to be in the military, but they’re there, in ever greater numbers.” He claimed to have 190 members serving.

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When the Department of Homeland Security warned in 2009 that disenchanted veterans wooed by white supremacist movements could lead to the “potential emergence of terrorist groups or lone wolf extremists capable of carrying out violent attacks”, the report was lambasted by right-wing politicians and commentators. Michelle Malkin called it “one of the most embarrassingly shoddy pieces of propaganda I’d ever read” and “anti-military bigotry”.

One comment did make an interesting point, "White supremacy roots get in the way of the Army's mission because it doesn't have time to manage people's egos. This article is reaching a bit."  Under normal circumstances, I might agree with that assessment.  Although this is not a new issue or concern, it is an issue that has, until recently, only been talked about behind partially closed doors. 

The Department of Defense has a long-standing policy of intolerance for organizations, practices or activities that are discriminatory in nature.  DOD Directive 1325.6, Guidelines for Handling Dissent and Protest Activities Among Members of the Armed Forces,” was issued in 1969 as one of many measures taken to renew, clarify, and emphasize that policy. Despite the specific language of this directive, reports in 1986 of Army and Marine Corps members participating in Ku Klux Klan (KKK) activities forced Secretary of Defense Casper Weinberger to reaffirm the Defense Department’s position via the priority message cited above. Yet new cases of service member involvement with extremist organizations continue to make the headlines. In February 1990, five Air Force security policemen were discharged for active participation in the Ku Klux Klan. One of the five was a chief recruiter who took part in cross-burnings and planned a KKK chapter in Denton, Texas. The following year, an Army sergeant pleaded guilty along with three others to weapon charges in an apparent conspiracy to stockpile military hardware for use by white supremacist groups. According to one civilian media account, the arsenal included “land mines, machine guns, TNT, and anti-aircraft weaponry” and was “large enough to blow up the Gator Bowl.” In October 1993, four airmen in Alaska were discharged from the Air Force for burning a cross and using racial slurs. Finally, as recently as 1995, two Army soldiers committed two racially motivated murders at Fort Bragg, NC, resulting in the death of two African Americans and prompting a DOD review of the 1986 policy and a subsequent revision in 1996.

White supremacists sign up for military to train for race war — with little pushback from Pentagon