December 2023 — MHCE Newsletter

26 | MHCE - News www.mhce.us DECEMBER 2023 EDITION
fact that no one was paying attention at the standdown
briefing he attended, the commander giving
the lecture was "talking about what he thought were
radical groups like Black Lives Matter."
The idea that far-left groups are just as problematic
as far-right ones is a popular talking point among
conservatives and Republican lawmakers. However,
law enforcement officialsand experts who study the
topic have consistently noted that far-right groups
espousing anti-government and white supremacist
views are the biggest threat to the U.S. today.
The report also revealed that other efforts such as
screening prospective recruits before enlistment are
not working as well as intended.
Some recruiters did not complete all of the screening
steps and "as a result, military service recruiters may
not have identified all applications with extremist
or criminal gang associations," according to the
inspector general report.
"Further, the audit found that one military service
entered data indicating applicants disclosed extremist
or gang associations even though the applicants had
not made such disclosures," the IG said, but it did not
reveal which of the services falsely accused some of
its recruits of having extremist ties.
What the report does make clear, however, is that
when allegations are made, they are being referred for
investigation, and when allegations are substantiated,
some action is taken.
Of all the extremist and gang activity allegations, 135
were reported to military or civilian law enforcement,
and 109 of the allegations were reported to another
DoD organization or official.
Furthermore, 69 of all the allegations were
substantiated at the time the report was written and
the vast majority of those -- 50 -- were handled
through administrative actions. That included
involuntary discharge for 19 and counseling in three
instances, while 17 more were handled by nonjudicial
punishment and two went to court-martial.
There were no substantiated cases of extremism or
gang activity where no action was taken.
While these figures, compared with the overall size
of the services, are small, research and experts say
that military service members and veterans pose
an outsized danger to communities when they go
down the path of extremism, given their increased
familiarity with firearms and ability to organize and
plan effectively.
In 2020, an Air Force sergeant at Travis Air Force
Base in California pulled up to a federal courthouse
in Oakland, California, in a white van and opened
fire on security guards, killing one before going on
the run and murdering a county sheriff's deputy a
week later as part of a larger plan to incite a civil war.
Also in 2020, members of a group that included
two Marines and styled itself as a "modern day SS"
were arrested on allegations that they were plotting
to destroy the power grid in the northwest. U.S.
court records in that case say members discussed
recruiting other veterans, stole military equipment,
asked others to buy explosives, and discussed plans
to manufacture firearms.