Do not expect major policy changes from Pentagon leaders amid worries about pro-white extremists within the military’s ranks after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Across the Pentagon, FBI agents have descended to help define the meaning of extremism for members of the military and civilian employees. Defense Department policy provides that service members may hold extremist ideologies but not act on them. At a Tuesday press gaggle, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby described his own extremism briefing earlier in the day and explained Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hopes for the 60-day forcewide extremism “stand-down” that will wrap up Monday.
The Office of the Secretary of Defense extremism initiative consisted of briefers from the FBI and a Pentagon intelligence directorate member giving presentations before dividing the group into small discussion sections. Kirby said he listened in to each of those sessions as members of the military and civilian employees discussed their experiences with extremists in the military.
“It was not a data-collection exercise,” Kirby told the Washington Examiner about the departmentwide extremism effort.
The retired Navy rear admiral said the purpose of the stand-down was to reinforce DOD values and conduct a listening session with service members and employees.
LLOYD AUSTIN CALLS FOR 60-DAY ASSESSMENT OF EXTREMISM WITHIN MILITARY AFTER CAPITOL RIOT
“To listen, to get a sense from the men and women of the workforce about how they view this issue, if they have any lived experiences that they would be willing to share, and to solicit their ideas and thoughts,” Kirby explained. “People spoke about their views on this issue and some of the experiences that they had with extremists over the course of their years of service.”
Austin often reflects on his time commanding the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg, when he learned there were skinheads among the ranks who had committed murders off base.
“This tears at the fabric, the very fabric of cohesion,” Austin said of extremism in the ranks at his only Pentagon press briefing Feb. 19.
He later said he expected that “99.9%” of the force is committed to their oath to the Constitution.
“We don’t have specific data about numbers right now, but quite frankly, as I said earlier, you know, small numbers are going to have an incredible impact on a great force,” he added.
And the department still will not have numbers come Monday, a question that members of the House Armed Services Committee addressed last week.
“This is far from the largest military justice issue facing our armed services,” ranking member Mike Rogers of Alabama said. “If this committee is going to attempt to address this issue, we need to be clear about what examining extremism means.”
Roger stated that nine soldiers had been separated from the Army for misconduct for cases in which extremism is a factor out of nearly 1 million. And since 2018, 17 Marines have been separated for extremism, gang, or dissident activity out of over 200,000.
Rogers warned that First Amendment and religious rights would be threatened if the military or Congress attempted to impose new restrictions on service members.
“Legislative attempts to further crack down on domestic terrorism is going to run headlong into the First Amendment rights of our service members, and doing so may have other consequences,” he said.
Kirby said Tuesday Austin had yet to disclose what actions he might take after he is briefed by service secretaries in the coming days.
“I’m not going to get ahead of the secretary,” he said. “He’s going to make this a concerted leadership issue every day that he’s the secretary. How that manifests itself, what decisions he might make as a result of what we’re learning, I’m not going to get ahead of, but I do think you’ll hear more from him in coming days and weeks.”
In the congressional testimony, American University professor Audrey Kurth Cronin said the DOD lacks definitions and data to make accurate statements about extremism in the ranks.
“The most immediate problem is an absence of good data,” she said. “DOD officials repeatedly claim that the number is small. No one truly knows. No serious plan can be built without defining the scope of the problem.”
Cronin called for common standards and rules across all the services and a definition of domestic violent extremism, along with a list of organizations.
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Reporters requested the same briefing given Tuesday and the list of extremist organizations that was shared by the FBI. That request is pending with the Office of the Secretary of Defense.
For now, Kirby said the Defense Department is moving forward with simple steps, reminding service members of the oath they took to the Constitution and getting their feedback.
“We don’t have a perfect understanding of the scope of it,” he said. “The stand-down was just the first step in doing that, and we’ve said that before, too. It is just the first step, not meant to be a panacea, not meant to solve all the problems, just to reorient everybody.”
