Leo Shane III, Deputy Editor of the Military Times, warned CNBC that extremism in the US military has “been a problem for some time,” as concerns grow after several former and current military members participated in the Capitol uprising. month.
“We know that especially white nationalist groups, extremist groups like to recruit military people because of the skills they bring to the table,” said Shane. “These are desirable things when you have these crazy ideas about how to make a revolution … We’ve seen them targeted by social media for years, with false information.”
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin ordered a “resignation” by all units within the next 60 days to allow military leaders to talk to their troops about extremism in the ranks. Shane told “The News with Shepard Smith” that it will be important for senior military leaders in the next two months to not only discuss extremism among themselves but also to speak to the lower ranks.
“Are they going to go to the individual units … where we hear from people … see signs of tattoos, see things posted on social media that indicate that in some cases people have joined these violent groups, there is even Nazi symbolism, Nazi flags or Nazi paraphernalia showing the people, but that’s not always seen by commanders? ”said Shane.
The FBI produced a report warning of the infiltration of white nationalists into local law enforcement in 2006. A Department of Homeland Security and an FBI review from last year showed that racist terror groups are exhibiting unparalleled activity in the modern era. Shane pointed out that so far the US military has “not done any really good research to find out how many people are affiliated” to extremism.
The Military Times has polled its readers over the past four years about extremism and found that “one third of all active troops and more than half of minority service members say they have personally witnessed examples of white nationalism or ideologically driven racism within the ranks. “
Shane told host Shepard Smith that the military thinks the one-third figure is high, but they don’t have the date to refute it anyway.
“ They haven’t looked at the numbers before, so these 60 days should be a chance for them to really assess that and get a sense of whether we are right, what we think we are, or whether or not they “Are right and it’s a very minor problem,” Shane said.