Feared Ya, Made Ya Look

Racist extremists active in U.S. military.

"July 7, 2006 -- Under pressure to meet wartime manpower goals, the U.S. military has relaxed standards designed to weed out racist extremists. Large numbers of potentially violent neo-Nazis, skinheads and other white supremacists are now learning the art of warfare in the armed forces.

Department of Defense investigators estimate thousands of soldiers in the Army alone are involved in extremist or gang activity. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," said one investigator. "That's a problem."

Military extremists present an elevated threat both to their fellow soldiers and the general public. Today's white supremacists become tomorrow's domestic terrorists.

"Neo-Nazi groups and other extremists are joining the military in large numbers so they can get the best training in the world on weapons, combat tactics and explosives," said Mark Potok, director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project.

"We should consider this a major security threat, because these people are motivated by an ideology that calls for race war and revolution. Any one of them could turn out to be the next Timothy McVeigh."

- "Under pressure … U.S. miltary … large numbers of potentially violent … supremacists … thousands of soldiers … involved in extremist … activity."

If you trust Wiki, the SPLC (Southern Poverty Law Center) seems to have quite the sleazy history themselves regarding funding and internal accusations of institutionalized racism.

Also weighing in on the issue, the trustworthy NYT (snort, snicker): "The report quotes Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, saying, "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members."

In May '06 Chicago SunTimes: "I have identified 320 soldiers as gang members from April 2002 to present," said Scott Barfield, a Defense Department gang detective at Fort Lewis in Washington state. "I think that's the tip of the iceberg."

Lordy, 320 out of a million man army. (And doesn't NYT's "defense department investigator" sound more uppity and important than SunTimes' "gang detective at Fort Lewis".)

In the same SunTimes article: "Christopher Grey, spokesman for the Army's Criminal Investigation Command, did not deny the existence of gang members in the military, but he disputed that the problem is rampant -- or even significant."

Also in the Sun: "Barfield said most of the gang members he has identified are black and Latino." Huh? I thought they were white supremacists?

Well folks, is it future White McVeighs or Crips and Latin Kings we should fear? Or are these reporters and investigators and the SPLC just picking nits off the 800 pound gorilla in our living room?