(NAME-MCE) White-power groups recruiting from military

[Bill Howe]

White-power groups recruiting from military
 
 
By Jim Popkin, NBC News Senior Investigative Producer
 
White-supremacist groups have recruited 203 people who served in the U.S.
military or who claim to have U.S. military backgrounds, according to a new
report by the FBI. The unclassified FBI Intelligence Assessment, issued last
week and obtained by NBC News, cautions that white-power extremists are
trying hard to recruit active-duty soldiers and recent veterans of the wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan. 
"White supremacist extremists hope to revitalize the white supremacist
movement by exploiting antigovernment sentiment among opponents of the
overseas conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan," the FBI report states. It adds,
however, that the effort is not going particularly well. "Although some
veterans of these conflicts have joined the extremist movement, they have
not done so in numbers sufficient to stem declines among major national
extremist organizations, nor has their participation resulted in a more
violent extremist movement," the FBI writes.
The report, titled "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel
since 9/11," compiles statistics from hundreds of FBI cases from October
2001 to May 2008. It finds that U.S. military experience "is found
throughout the white supremacist extremist movement." It adds: "FBI
reporting indicates extremist leaders have historically favored recruiting
active and former military personnel for their knowledge of firearms,
explosives, and tactical skills and their access to weapons and intelligence
in preparation for an anticipated war against the federal government, Jews,
and people of color." 
And it's not just veterans who are drawn to the cause. "FBI cases also
document instances of active duty military personnel having volunteered
their professional resources to white supremacist causes," the report
states. The FBI finds that "an estimated 19 veterans (approximately 9
percent of the 203) have verified or unverified service in the ongoing wars
in Iraq and Afghanistan."
Reaction from Watchdog Groups:
NBC News shared the bulletin, prepared by the FBI Counterterrorism Division,
with Mark Potok of the Southern Poverty Law Center.
<http://www.splcenter.org> Potok is an expert on extremist groups, and
helped prepare a report
<http://www.splcenter.org/intel/news/item.jsp?aid=66>  called "A Few Bad
Men," on how "extremists are once again worming their way into a
recruit-starved military."
"This is a genuinely important report," Potok said. "The FBI has confirmed
what the Southern Poverty Law Center disclosed in a major investigation --
that radical right-wing extremists have infiltrated the military in a bid to
gain weapons and other specialized training, and that many former military
members are a part of organized white supremacist groups."
"The fact is, even if their numbers are small, violent white supremacists
armed with the best military training in the world are a real presence in
hate groups today. It's important to remember that Timothy McVeigh, who
murdered 168 people with a truck bomb, got his training in the military," he
added.
FBI Stats:
Skinhead groups and the extremist organizations National Alliance and the
National Socialist Movement account for 72 percent of the total number of
successfully recruited veterans (or men who claim to be U.S. veterans.)
"According to sensitive and reliable source reporting in October 2006, the
National Socialist Movement received a number of queries from active duty
Army and Marine personnel stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan expressing
interest in joining the organization or inquiring about chapters located
near domestic US military bases," the FBI states. "Whether as a result of
group recruitment efforts or self-recruitment by active military personnel
sympathetic to white supremacist extremist causes, FBI information derived
from reliable, multiple sources documents white supremacist extremist
activity occurring at some military bases."
The authors also state that supremacist leaders have encouraged followers
who lack histories of neo-Nazi activity to infiltrate the military as "ghost
skins," in order to recruit and receive training for the benefit of the
extremist movement. 
 
 
Bill Howe
http://www.billhowe.org <http://www.billhowe.org/> 
http://www.multiculturaldimensions.org
<http://www.multiculturaldimensions.org/> 
http://apaact.com/
http://www.necme.org <http://www.necme.org/>