MOBILE, Ala. - The number of neo-Nazis and skinheads in the armed forces
is increasing, according to a watchdog group that claims the military is relaxing standards amid pressure to sign up recruits
during the Iraq
war.
The Southern Poverty Law
Center said in a report Friday that the Pentagon is violating its zero-tolerance policy against hate groups and called on Defense Secretary Donald
H. Rumsfeld to put a stop to it.
But Pentagon officials said
they continue to try to weed out supremacists and those who advocate forms of discrimination.
"This is a serious issue,
but we don't see an increasing trend," said Army spokesman Paul Boyce.
The report, posted on the
Montgomery center's Web site, says recruiting shortfalls caused by the Iraq war have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead
extremists" to infiltrate the military.
"We don't know the real
number," said Mark Potok, the center's Intelligence Project director.
He estimated it could be
thousands based on the investigation, which found racist Web sites giving advice on how to engage in white supremacist activity
in the military while avoiding detection.
Potok contends there's been
a relaxation of the recruitment rules amid pressures to sign up recruits during the Iraq war. "Recruiters are saying that," he said Friday.
In a letter to Rumsfeld
dated on Friday, SPLC President Richard Cohen warned that any extremist in the military could turn out to be the next Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber
who was executed in 2001.
McVeigh had advocated far-right
ideology when he was in the Army and recruited two fellow soldiers to aid his 1995 bomb plot. In 1996, then-Defense Secretary
William Perry imposed a crackdown on extremists.
Despite Perry's intentions,
Cohen claims members of neo-Nazi and other extremist groups are still infiltrating the ranks.
"Even when their activities
are exposed, they often are allowed to continue in uniform," his letter says.
Pentagon spokeswoman Lt.
Col. Ellen Krenke said Defense Department policy requires that "military personnel must reject participation in organizations
that espouse supremacist causes; attempt to create illegal discrimination based on race, creed, color, sex, religion or national
origin; advocate the use of force or violence; or otherwise engage in efforts to deprive individuals of their civil rights."
Boyce said the Army sponsors
gang-identification and gang prevention classes for its members worldwide. And Army recruiter Capt. Brian Bettis of Mobile said he screens recruits with police background checks and looks
at tattoos for any sign of racist leanings.
"I've become an expert at
tattoos. We take it very seriously," Bettis said
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