Department of Defense investigation: Over 75 active service members wanted to see U.S. overthrown

Report part of efforts to uncover extremism in military’s ranks.

The Defense Department investigated 183 allegations of extremist activity among service members in the past year, including 78 cases of service members advocating for the overthrow of the U.S. government, according to a Pentagon audit published.

In addition to the 78 allegations involving troops wanting to overthrowthe U.S. government,the inspector general for the Defense Department reported 44 instances of service members advocating for terrorism and 22 cases of service members advocating for or committing violence to achieve political, religious or discriminatory goals.

Three allegations were made about troops advocating for or committing violence to deprive people of their rights, and 32 allegations centered on troops advocating for widespread discrimination of people based on race, religion, sex, gender identity or sexual orientation.

Four allegations involved service members encouraging other militarypersonnelor DOD civilians or contractors to break the law or disobey orders to disrupt military activities.

The report comes after the inspector general in August released a report that showed military recruiters sometimes skipped steps to screen out enlistees affiliated with criminal gangs or extremist groups. That audit found 53 out of 129 applicants, or 41%, weren’t interviewed about their ties to extremist groups or gangs.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has made extremism a priority within the Defense Department, including efforts to train troops to recognize and report indications of extremism among their fellow service members.

The Pentagon’s focus on extremism came largely in the wake