LOGO: Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines. A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.   Exclusive Truthdig Merchandise - Gore Vidal signed first editions - Signed Mr. Fish prints
November 22, 2009
Log in / Register

 Choose a size
Text Size

Most Read

Intelligentsia Against Intelligence

Throw the Money Changers Out of the Temple

Obama's Job Approval Slips Below 50 Percent

Claire Wasserman on Europe's Islamic Immigrants

The Afghanistan Speech Obama Should Give (but Won't)

Most Comments
Most Emailed

Reports
Enough G-2 Talk Already
Despite Subsidies, Class Sizes Rise in California Schools

Ear to the Ground

A/V Booth

Arts & Culture
Freedom’s Fight: Part II

Digs
Financial Meltdown 101
Vetting Sarah Palin

Truthdig Bazaar
The Squandering of America

The Squandering of America

By Robert Kuttner
$17.79

more items

 
Ear to the Ground

The U.S. Military Prefers Nazis to Gays

Email this item Email    Print this item Print   
Posted on Aug 15, 2006

That’s the only conclusion we at Truthdig can come to when faced with these facts: Recruiters are increasingly admitting neo-Nazis and skinheads into the military, and the number of soldiers kicked out of the military for being gay rose 11% over last year.

  • Also, allegations of harassment and outright crimes committed by military recruiters are up. (story or .pdf report)

  • A Few Bad Men

    Southern Poverty Law Center:

    Ten years after Pentagon leaders toughened policies on extremist activities by active duty personnel—a move that came in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing by decorated Gulf War combat veteran Timothy McVeigh and the murder of a black couple by members of a skinhead gang in the elite 82nd Airborne Division—large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists continue to infiltrate the ranks of the world’s best-trained, best-equipped fighting force. Military recruiters and base commanders, under intense pressure from the war in Iraq to fill the ranks, often look the other way.

    Neo-Nazis “stretch across all branches of service, they are linking up across the branches once they’re inside, and they are hard-core,” Department of Defense gang detective Scott Barfield told the Intelligence Report. “We’ve got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad,” he added. “That’s a problem.”

    Link


    Discharges of Gays Up Under ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’

    AP:

    ... The Pentagon has said there were 726 military members discharged under the policy last year — up 11 percent from the year before — but did not publicly release base-specific information.

    Link


    Military Recruiting Violations Rise: GAO

    Reuters:

    Allegations of wrongdoing by U.S. military recruiters jumped by 50 percent from 2004 to 2005, and criminal violations such as sexual harassment and falsifying documents more than doubled, a congressional agency said on Monday.

    The Government Accountability Office, Congress’ investigative agency, said the full extent of violations by military recruiters is unknown because the Defense Department does not have an oversight system.

    While the GAO said available information likely underestimated the problem, it showed that allegations of recruiter wrongdoing increased to 6,600 cases in fiscal year 2005 from 4,400 a year earlier.

    Link

    actual .pdf report

    More Below the Ad

    Advertisement


    Elsewhere: .

    Comments

    Are you a Truthdig member yet? Login now, or register with Truthdig.

    By robert puglia, August 16, 2006 at 10:49 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    like unto like, some news.

    Report this

    By kevin99999, August 16, 2006 at 2:19 am #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    And why not? It seems to me that the neo-cons have the same ambition of conquering the world as Nazis did, and is pretty much using the same language.

    Report this

    By John Tibbals, August 15, 2006 at 9:00 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    I’ve read that among those discharged on the basis of sexual orientation, over forty were Arab language specialists!  It reminds me of Peter Ustinov’s remark in his autobiography concerning his own experience in the military to the effect that “you scarcely have time to savor one absurdity before it’s replaced by another!”

    Report this

    By HorrifiedWitness, August 15, 2006 at 8:27 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    And Bush dares to criticize other countries for their religious fanaticism and intolerance.  Never did blacker pot call a kettle.

    Report this

    By R. A. Earl, August 15, 2006 at 7:02 pm #
    (Unregistered commenter)

    It’s not that we don’t feel like commenting… it’s just, “what’s to say?”

    The senseless, hypocritical, prejudiced political and cultural environment in which today’s “authority” operates can lead only to injustice. When people are discarded because of who they choose to love, but welcomed because of who they hate, you know it’s SNAFU all over again.

    Any INTELLIGENT person knows that sexual oriention has nothing to do with ABILITY to perform a tasks in the armed forces… any task. But then, “military intelligence” has always been an OXYMORON.

    It’s so depressing watching the machinations of absurd humanity. I look forward to the next life - it just has to be better than this one because it can’t possibly be worse.

    Report this

    Add Your Comment

    Posts by unregistered readers are moderated. Posts by members
    are published immediately. Why wait? Register today!







    Number of characters remaining: 4000

    Notify you when others comment on this article?


    Are you a human?
    Retype the word you see here.


    Please read and abide by our comment policy.
    By submitting this comment, you agree to this site's terms and conditions.

     
     

     
    Join the Liberal Blog Advertising Network
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

    A Progressive Journal of News and Opinion. Editor, Robert Scheer. Publisher, Zuade Kaufman.
    Copyright © 2009 Truthdig, L.L.C. All rights reserved.