Pentagon Accelerates Efforts to Root Out Far-Right Extremism

Donald Trump leaves office in a day and a half, but he leaves America far worse off than when he took office with much of the nation's diminished condition a direct result of Trump's misdeeds and malfeasance in office. The areas of Trump's malfeasance are broad and range from a horrific handling of the Covid-19 pandemic which never included a national plan to the emboldening of domestic terrorists and white supremacist who Trump referred to as "very fine people" after the neo-Nazi and white supremacist invasion of Charlottesville in 2017.  The leaders at the Pentagon fear that those extremists who Trump emboldened include members of the U.S. military. Living in an area with a huge military personnel population, I can vouch that most take their oath to the U.S. Constitution seriously and many actively dislike Trump. Particularly troubling in today's climate is the military's poor job in weeding out extremists, a problem not unique to the U.S. military.  A piece in the New York Times looks at the Pentagon's increased attention to the issue of extremists in the ranks. Here are highlights:

The Pentagon is intensifying efforts to identify and combat white supremacy and other far-right extremism in its ranks as federal investigators seek to determine how many military personnel and veterans joined the violent assault on the Capitol.

In the days since a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol on Jan. 6, senior leaders of the 2.1 million active-duty and reserve troops have been grappling with fears that former or current service members will be found among the horde.

The F.B.I. investigation into the Capitol siege, still in its very early stages, has identified at least six suspects with military links out of the more than 100 people who have been taken into federal custody or the larger number still under investigation. They include a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas, an Army officer from North Carolina and an Army reservist from New Jersey. Another person with military service was shot and killed in the assault.

The military’s examination of its ranks marks a new urgency for the Pentagon, which has a history of downplaying the rise of white nationalism and right-wing activism, even as Germany and other countries are finding a deep strain embedded in their armed forces.

For more than a week now, General Milley has listened to analysts, read reports and viewed videos of the riots. “There was some indication that an unknown number of veterans associated with the insurrection,” he said.

General Milley said he saw rioters carrying military flags. At the rally and later at the Capitol breach, rioters were seen with Marine Corps flags, Army patches and Special Forces insignia.

Federal officials are vetting thousands of National Guard troops arriving to help secure the inauguration. Of the 21,500 Guard personnel who had arrived in Washington by Monday, any who will be near President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive additional background checks, a standard procedure to counter insider threats that was also taken before President Trump’s inauguration in 2017.

Defense Department officials say they are looking into stepping up the monitoring of social media postings from service members, in much the way companies do with their employees.

Among the suspects with military ties are Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, another protester at the Capitol, who federal agents say is a neo-Nazi and white supremacist; he also is an Army reservist who works — with secret clearance — at a naval weapons station.

General Milley said he saw reports that “people were showing their C.A.C. cards,” a reference to the identification cards used to enter military installations and the Pentagon.

Last Tuesday, General Milley and the rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent an extraordinary letter to all military personnel, reminding them that Mr. Biden would soon be their commander in chief and that they were duty bound to defend the Constitution.

The Defense Department inspector general announced an investigation last week into the effectiveness of Pentagon policies and procedures that prohibited service members from advocacy of or participation in supremacist or extremist groups.

The reckoning at the Pentagon comes as retired Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III is poised to become the nation’s first Black defense secretary, an ascension that, depending on how General Austin decides to proceed, could either sharpen or blur the American military’s decades-long battles with racial inequality and white supremacy. . . . if he is confirmed as defense secretary, he will have to decide if he will confront the far-right politics that have heightened during four years under Mr. Trump.

“This needs to be rooted out of our military,” Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois and an Iraq war veteran, said in an interview last week. General Austin, she said, “will be in a unique position to head up that effort.”

General Austin’s confirmation hearings begin on Tuesday, and lawmakers will most likely press him on how he plans to tackle extremism in the ranks.

Rising concerns about right-wing activism in the armed forces are not concentrated only in the United States. In Germany, security services counted more than 1,400 cases of suspected far-right extremism among soldiers, police officers and intelligence agents in the three years ending in March, according to a government report released in the fall.

The United States military, unlike police departments and other law enforcement groups, has the ability to use extremist beliefs to disqualify those seeking to join. But, critics note, it has repeatedly failed to broadly apply those mandates.

Military officials and independent specialists say General Austin will face a daunting challenge. Pentagon officials concede that despite the checks in place, white supremacist and other far-right groups actively recruit service members or have their own members try to join the military to learn skills and expertise, which also lends legitimacy to their cause.

But critics say the military’s leadership has often failed to hold violators accountable consistently.

“Current regulations have penalties that are largely left up to commanders, often at the unit level,” Heidi Beirich, a co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, told a House hearing last February. “There appears to be no process to track people expelled for ties to white supremacists’ groups.”

At the same time, there are many internal cultural issues within the military — from the recruitment process to training and beyond — that may take years to unravel.

The recently approved National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2021, which sets annual Pentagon policy and spending priorities, contained measures meant to help the department address the issue, including a new position in the Defense Department inspector general’s office: a deputy inspector general for diversity and inclusion and supremacist, extremism and criminal gang activity. Congress also charged the inspector general with establishing a “mechanism to track and report” extremist or gang activity in the military.