Thomas Caldwell, a Navy veteran who has an apparent leadership role in the Oath Keepers, a far-right extremist militia group, has held a “Top Secret” security clearance for more than 40 years, according to a legal filing from his attorney. Other rioters were overlooked in more egregious ways. While inside the Capitol, he filmed himself saying “the revolution will be livestreamed.” Hale-Cusanelli managed to pass a background check despite posting “extreme political opinions and viewpoints” on YouTube and being unrestrained in his desire to foment another civil war, according to Justice Department filings. “What I’m asking for is what’s done on a regular basis by companies across the country as part of their HR function.” In the days following the insurrection, social media provided clues for federal investigators to home in on the rioters who stormed the Capitol, including at least two active-duty service members. Army reservist Timothy Louis Hale-Cusanelli, who was described in a Justice Department filing as “an avowed white supremacist and Nazi sympathizer,” worked at a naval base in New Jersey where he maintained a “Secret” security clearance. “What I’m asking for is what’s done on a regular basis by companies across the country as part of their HR function,” Speier told me. Speier wants the Biden administration to standardize social media checks for applicants by having them “disclose all social media platforms on which they participate and all social media handles used and to grant permission to share nonpublic social media information with investigators.” The review would only look at public information and not “go behind passwords” or enter “private chat rooms.” Reid said the military doesn’t check social media “for every background investigation right now,” but has the “ability to do it if there are investigative leads.”
Military recruits-and a range of other government employees in national security positions-have to fill out a questionnaire, known as the SF-86, that asks if they have ever had “associations” with a terrorist group or have ever tried to “affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.” Anyone filling out the form grants consent to what Director for Defense Intelligence Garry Reid called “limited social media monitoring” in testimony before Congress last year.
The military does not systematically review social media activity as part of the background check that new recruits go through, “despite collection and reporting of other intrusive, private data, such as financial and behavioral health information,” Speier wrote. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a House Armed Services Committee member, sent a letter urging Austin and other national security officials to more proactively hunt for signs of extremism among new recruits. While the Pentagon figures out how it wants to approach the problem, Democrats in Congress already have some ideas. The military has not commissioned a formal study on extremism in the ranks in more than two decades, but recent outside polling suggests that the problem is on the rise again throughout the ranks. Last year, a Military Times survey found that 36 percent of troops had “seen evidence of white supremacist and racist ideologies in the military,” a 14-point increase from the previous year.
“We don’t know how we’re going to be able to get after this in a meaningful productive tangible way,” he said, adding “that’s why” Austin ordered the stand-down in the first place. Kirby acknowledged as much last week after announcing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s decision to order service members across the ranks to “stand down” from their normal duties at least once over the next 60 days to discuss extremism as a group. The insurrection was a “wake-up call” for the department, spokesperson John Kirby said last week. But while identifying the problem may be a positive step, solving it will be a different-and far more complex-matter.
PENTAGON ROOT OUT EXTREMISM RANKS FREE
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Įxtremism in the military is not a new problem, but the involvement of at least two dozen veterans and active-duty service members in the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6 gave the issue more urgency with Defense Department leaders.
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