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<b>Racial Extremists Are Infiltrating the Military for the Chance to
'Kill a Brown'<br><br>
By David Holthouse, Intelligence Report<br><br>
Posted on December 15, 2008, Printed on December 18, 2008<br>
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/112770/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.alternet.org/story/112770/</a><br><br>
</b> The racist skinhead logged on with exciting news: He'd just
enlisted in the United States Army.<br>
<br>
"Sieg Heil, I will do us proud," he wrote. It was a June 3 post
to AryanWear Forum 14, a neo-Nazi online forum to which "Sobibor's
SS," who identified himself as a skinhead living in Plantersville,
Ala., had belonged since early 2004. (Sobibor was a Nazi death camp in
Poland during World War II).<br>
<br>
About a month after he announced his enlistment, Sobibor's SS bragged in
another post to Forum 14 that he'd specifically requested and been
assigned to MOS, or Military Occupational Specialty, 98D.<br>
<br>
MOS98D soldiers are in high demand right now. That's because they're
specially trained in disarming Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), the
infamous roadside bombs that are killing and maiming so many U.S. troops
in Iraq and Afghanistan. Presumably, part of learning how to disarm an
IED is learning how one is made.<br>
<br>
"I have my own reasons for wanting this training but in fear of the
government tracing me and me loosing [sic] my clearance I can't share
them here," Sobibor's SS informed his fellow neo-Nazis.<br>
<br>
One of his earlier posts indicated his reasons serve a darker purpose
than defending America: "Once all the Jews are gone the world will
start fixing itself." Timothy McVeigh<br>
Many analysts believe that Timothy McVeigh, mastermind of the 1995
Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people, was radicalized during his
experience as a soldier in the first Gulf War.<br>
<br>
Sobibor's SS included enough biographical details in his various posts to
Forum 14 over the years, including that he's a single father from the
small town in southern Alabama, that a military investigator with access
to enlistment records for recent months should have little trouble
determining whether the Army may actually be teaching a skinhead with
genocide on his mind about tactical bomb-making.<br>
<br>
But there's little reason to expect that will happen.<br>
<br>
Two years ago, the Intelligence Report revealed that alarming numbers of
neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacist extremists were taking
advantage of lowered armed services recruiting standards and lax
enforcement of anti-extremist military regulations by infiltrating the
U.S. armed forces in order to receive combat training and gain access to
weapons and explosives.<br>
<br>
Forty members of Congress urged then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
to launch a full-scale investigation and implement a zero-tolerance
policy toward white supremacists in the military. "Military
extremists present an elevated threat to both their fellow service
members and the public," U.S. Senator Richard Shelby, an Alabama
Republican, wrote in a separate open letter to Rumsfeld. "We
witnessed with Timothy McVeigh that today's racist extremist may become
tomorrow's domestic terrorist."<br>
<br>
But neither Rumsfeld nor his successor, Robert Gates, launched any sort
of systemic investigation or crackdown. Military and Defense Department
officials seem to have made no sustained effort to prevent active white
supremacists from joining the armed forces or to weed out those already
in uniform.<br>
<br>
Furthermore, new evidence is emerging that not only supports the
Intelligence Report's original findings, but also indicates the problem
may have worsened since the summer of 2006, as enlistment rates have
continued to plummet, and the military has struggled to meet recruitment
goals in a time of unpopular war. Asked about the latest developments,
military officials this fall declined to comment.<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
"Looking ahead, current and former military personnel belonging to
white supremacist extremist organizations who experience frustration at
the inability of these organizations to achieve their goals may choose to
found new, more operationally minded and operationally capable
groups," the report concludes. "The military training veterans
bring to the movement and their potential to pass this training on to
others can increase the ability of lone offenders to carry out violence
from the movement's fringes."<br>
<br>
In May, Army Cpl. Adrian Petty, a member of the Vinlanders Social Club
(VSC) skinhead gang, posted several photos to his MySpace page showing
himself in uniform serving in Iraq. One, depicting him riding in a
Humvee, was captioned, "On Another VSC Recruiting
Mission."<br>
<br>
Currently, 46 members of the white supremacist social networking website
Newsaxon.com identify themselves as active-duty military personnel. Six
of these individuals are members of "White Military Men," a New
Saxon sub-group.<br>
<br>
Earlier this year, the founder of White Military Men identified himself
in his New Saxon account as "Lance Corporal Burton" of the 2nd
Battalion Fox Company Pit 2097, from Florida, according to a master's
thesis by graduate student Matthew Kennard. Under his "About
Me" section, Burton writes: "Love to shoot my M16A2 service
rifle effectively at the Hachies (Iraqis)," and, "Love to watch
things blow up (Hachies House)."<br>
<br>
Kennard, who was working on his thesis for Columbia University's Toni
Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, also monitored claims of
active-duty military service earlier this year on the neo-Nazi online
forum Blood & Honour, where "88Soldier88" posted this
message on Feb. 18: "I am in the ARMY right now. I work in the
Detainee Holding Area [in Iraq]. I am in this until 2013. I am in
the infantry but want to go to SF [Special Forces]. Hopefully the
training will prepare me for what I hope is to come."<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
The Army is currently investigating war crimes allegations leveled
against Iraq combat veteran and active-duty Army soldier Kenneth
Eastridge, 24, who in November was sentenced to 10 years in prison for
the December 2007 murder of a fellow serviceman. After Eastridge was
arrested for that killing, National Public Radio publicized his MySpace
page, which showed Eastridge displaying a tattoo of SS lightning bolts, a
common neo-Nazi insignia.<br>
<br>
Another member of Eastridge's company recently told Army investigators
that Eastridge used a stolen AK-47 to fire indiscriminately at Iraqi
civilians from his moving Humvee on the streets of Baghdad. "The
military is to some extent desperate to get people to fight, soldiers who
are not fit, mentally and physically sick, but they continue to send
them," Eastridge's attorney told Kennard. "Having a tattoo was
the least of [Eastridge's] concerns."<br>
<br>
As part of the research for his thesis, "The New Nazi Army: How the
U.S. military is allowing the far right to join its ranks," Kennard
used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain from the Army's Criminal
Investigative Division investigative reports concerning white supremacist
activity in 2006 and 2007. They show that Army commanders repeatedly
terminated investigations of suspected extremist activity in the military
despite strong evidence it was occurring. This evidence was often
provided by regional Joint Terrorism Task Forces, which are made up of
FBI and state and local law enforcement officials.<br>
<br>
For example, one CID report details a 2006 investigation of a suspected
member of the Hammerskins, a multi-state racist skinhead gang, who was
stationed at Fort Hood, a large Army base in central Texas. According to
the report, there was "probable cause" to believe that the
soldier "had participated in a white extremist meeting and also
provided a military technical manual 31-210, Improvised Munitions
Handbook, to the leader of a white extremist group in order to assist in
the planning and execution of future attacks on various
targets."<br>
<br>
The report shows that agents only interviewed the subject once, in
November 2006, before Fort Hood higher-ups called off the investigation
that December.<br>
<br>
Another report, also from 2006, covers an investigation of another Fort
Hood soldier who was posting messages on Stormfront.org, a major white
supremacist website. One CID investigator expresses his frustration at
the muddled process for dealing with extremists. "We need to discuss
the review process," he writes. "I'm not doing my job here.
Needs to get fixed."<br>
<br>
A third CID report, regarding a 2007 investigation, notes the termination
of an investigation of a soldier at Fort Richardson, Alaska, who was
reportedly the leader and chief recruiter for the Alaska Front, a white
supremacist group. According to the report, the investigation was halted
because the solider was "mobilized to Camp Shelby, MS in preparation
for deployment to Iraq."<br>
<br>
<i>Editor's Note: As this story went to press, Southern Poverty Law
Center Chief Executive Officer Richard Cohen wrote Defense Secretary
Robert Gates, reiterating the request that the Department of Defense
adopt a zero-tolerance policy with respect to extremists in the military.
As the article notes, a similar letter, addressed to Gates' predecessor,
Donald Rumsfeld, produced no action by the Pentagon.<br>
</i><b>© 2008 Intelligence Report All rights reserved.<br>
View this story online at:
<a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/112770/" eudora="autourl">
http://www.alternet.org/story/112770/<br><br>
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