December 2023 — M2CC Newsletter

WWW.M2CC.US Monthly Newsletter | 5
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 courtmartial.
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.