SPLC Urges Congress to Investigate Extremism in the Military

MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Southern Poverty Law
Center today urged Congress to investigate growing evidence that racial
extremists are infiltrating the U.S. military in order to ensure that the
armed forces are not inadvertently training future domestic terrorists.

In a letter to committee chairmen with oversight over homeland security and
the armed services, the SPLC said it recently found dozens of personal
profiles on a neo-Nazi website where individuals listed "military" as their
occupation -- the latest evidence of extremist infiltration gathered by the
SPLC. It also cites FBI and Department of Homeland Security reports supporting
the SPLC's concerns.

"Evidence continues to mount that current Pentagon policies are inadequate to
prevent racial extremists from joining and serving in the armed forces," SPLC
founder Morris Dees wrote. He added, "Because the presence of extremists in
the armed forces is a serious threat to the safety of the American public, we
believe Congressional action is warranted."

The letter was sent to the chairmen of the House and Senate committees on
Homeland Security and Armed Services. The SPLC has raised its concerns with
Pentagon officials since publishing a report in 2006, but no apparent action
has been taken.

In recent months, SPLC investigators found approximately 40 personal profiles
that listed "military" as an occupation on the Internet forum New Saxon, which
is operated by the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement. One individual, who
claims to be serving in Afghanistan, lists as his favorite book The Turner
Diaries, which was written by neo-Nazi leader William Pierce. The book served
as a blueprint for the Oklahoma City bombing by Gulf War veteran Timothy
McVeigh. Another individual said he was about to be deployed overseas and was
looking forward to "killing all the bloody sand niggers." Still another spoke
of his hatred for undocumented immigrants.

The SPLC has been involved with this issue for more than two decades. In 1986,
the SPLC presented evidence to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger that
Marines were participating in Ku Klux Klan paramilitary activities and urged
him to prohibit all military personnel from being members of, or participating
in, the activities of white supremacist groups. Although Weinberger issued a
directive addressing extremist activity, it ultimately proved inadequate.

The SPLC again brought the problem to the attention of Pentagon officials
again in 1996, after three neo-Nazi soldiers stationed at Fort Bragg murdered
a black couple in North Carolina in a ritualistic, racially-motivated slaying.
Pentagon regulations were strengthened following an investigation by an Army
task force and hearings by the House Armed Services Committee.

But a decade later, military recruiters, under intense pressure to meet quotas
for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, appear to have lowered recruiting
standards, according to the SPLC's 2006 report. The report revealed that large
numbers of neo-Nazi skinheads and other white supremacists were joining the
armed forces to acquire combat training and access to weapons and explosives.

In 2008, the FBI released an unclassified report that supported the SPLC's
findings. This past April, the Department of Homeland Security issued a report
stating that right-wing extremists currently pose the most significant threat
of domestic terrorism and expressing the concern that they may attempt to
exploit the combat training and experience of returning veterans.

The SPLC letter notes that since 1994 the military has discharged more than
12,500 servicemembers simply because of their homosexuality. "It seems quite
anomalous that the Pentagon would consider homosexuals more of a threat to the
good order of the military than neo-Nazis and other white supremacists who
reject our Constitution's most cherished principles," said Mark Potok,
director of the SPLC's Intelligence Project, which monitors extremist
activity.

The letter also says that "the overwhelming majority of U.S. servicemembers
reject extremism and are dedicated to serving and protecting the highest
ideals of our country" and notes that there will never be a fail-safe system
to weed out all extremists. "But we owe it to our courageous men and women in
uniform, and the American public, to remain vigilant to ensure that the ranks
are as free of extremists as possible," Dees wrote.

TheSouthern Poverty Law Center, based in Montgomery, Ala., is a nonprofit
civil rights organization that combats bigotry and discrimination through
litigation, education and advocacy. For more information, see
www.splcenter.org.

SOURCE Southern Poverty Law Center

Heidi Beirich of the Southern Poverty Law Center, +1-334-956-8200