Bush FBI: Military Personnel Frequently Occupy Leadership Roles In Extremist Organizations
We've reported on the conservative anger over this Department of Homeland Security report (pdf). Note that the reaction hasn't just been unnecessarily partisan (the report wasn't commissioned by President Obama, and was written under the auspices of a Bush appointee), it has also been curiously sensitive. The report, after all, isn't about the conservative movement in any way, but rather about the potentially growing ranks of radical right wing groups.
In response, conservatives have largely ignored the true origins of the report, and, enabled by the mainstream media, continue to direct their outrage at the new administration. But on the second point--the curious sensitivity--they've countered that their real anger has more to do with the fact that the DHS assessment suggests that veterans are particularly susceptible to the allure (whatever it is) of such groups when they return from service.
Well, lest those conservatives continue to think that the "vets are susceptible to fringe groups" trope is a fodder for Democratic partisans, here's a 2007 FBI report (pdf) on "White Supremacist Recruitment of Military Personnel since 9/11" which says, in part, that "[a]lthough individuals with military backgrounds constitute a small percentage of white supremacist extremists, they frequently occupy leadership roles within extremist groups and their involvement has the potential to reinvigorate an extremist movement suffering from loss of leadership and in-fighting during the post-9/11 period."
Josh
Matt
Eric
It's also important to note that the Bush Admin relaxed standards for recruitment, allowing many people with extremist ties to join the army.
April 17, 2009 10:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
There is a current court-martial going on in K-Town where an airman at Ramstein AB, Germany is being court-martialed over his involvement in an initiation of a solider into a gang.
So what happens when these gang-members who fly under the radar get out and rejoin civilization? They have the latest and greatest training and hands-on experience in urban guerrilla warfare! And Bu$h was aware of it. Why else did he make changes to the posse commititus act for the creating an active military command within the US and allowing active duty military to engage in police actions within the US?
April 17, 2009 1:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Two words: Timothy McVeigh.
April 17, 2009 11:10 AM | Reply | Permalink
The media tends to stir outrage over the obvious. Vets are going to be recruitment targets for fringe groups. They lend credibility. They lend training. Those with less than honorable discharges will have a harder time adjusting to civilian life.
Right wing tropes dominate the military environment. Further, the intense uniformity and regimentality that informs military life is hard to escape. Finally, those who have experienced war can come away with an intense dislike for the enemy (obviously) and for the status quo.
You come back home to what feels like the end of the world as you've known it. You've been exposed violently to a foreign land and culture for many months. If you turn on Fox News and other right wing media sources, you can't decompress from the combat stress. Every day is another source of outrage. Fox and cohorts use war language and patriotic tropes that foment outrage with bureaucracy, liberals, and the new world order.
Of course you would be vulnerable to recruitment. You can keep the war going against the enemy within. The conservamedia is complicit and are squirting squid ink in an attempt to disguise this complicity. Screw them. I lay any and all veteran membership in fringe groups squarely at their feet. There is so much soldiers' blood on their hands that caskets should be delivered under their responsibility.
April 17, 2009 11:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm holding my breath for Fox to discuss this 2008 report.
April 17, 2009 1:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Three more words: Eric Robert Rudolph
April 17, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Four more words George Herbert Walker Bush.
April 17, 2009 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink