Pentagon publishes report on extremism in the ranks
More than a year and a half after completion, the Department of Defense has finally published a report into extremism in the ranks.
The report was commissioned by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in 2021 as one of four “immediate actions” announced in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. Dozens of current and former members of the military have since been charged with Jan. 6-related crimes.
Earlier this year, a USA TODAY investigation found the military had little progress to show on its efforts to combat extremism, and that many important initiatives appeared to be stalled or incomplete.
One such effort was that “Study on Extremist Activity within the Total Force.” The study had been completed by the Institute for Defense Analyses back in June 2022, USA TODAY first reported, but had never been released.
On Tuesday, in response to renewed requests to the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, that report was provided to USA TODAY for the first time.
Its 262 pages will be subject to further expert examination and review, but the report offers some quick insight into what the analysis did – and did not – find.
Scant new data on extremism in military
Experts on extremism have been waiting for this report, hoping it will shed new light on how bad the military’s extremism problem is.
The report’s primary focus was to gain “greater fidelity on the scope of the problem,” according to Austin’s April 2021 memo.
“I just want good data − small, big, minute, whatever, so that we can address the problem,” Heidi Beirich, cofounder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism told USA TODAY earlier this year. “
But the report appears to offer almost nothing in terms of new data on the scope of the military’s extremism problem. Instead, it collates existing data from sources including the military’s Inspector General.
The authors of the report did research court martial judgments to search for data on extremists – finding 10 such cases. But they acknowledged court martials only represent a tiny sliver of extremists – because most cases don’t end in a court martial.
“Nearly all of these cases were addressed through administrative action, nonjudicial punishment or referral to command for appropriate action,” the report notes.
Researchers from the Institute for Defense Analyses did not respond to requests for comment Tuesday.
Extremism becoming more common in military
The report concludes that extremism in the military is rare, but dangerous.
“The participation in violent extremist activities of even a small number of individuals with military connections and military training,” it notes, “could present a risk to the military and to the country as a whole.”
The researchers used publicly available data on extremism, including the Profiles of Individual Radicalization in the United States database maintained by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism at the University of Maryland.
The Department of Defense report makes the same conclusion START researchers have made: “participation rates for former service members appear to be growing,” it states.
Clearance process doesn’t take domestic extremism into account
The report says the military’s process for giving security clearances to military and civilian personnel is outdated and inadequate: “DOD’s processes for awarding security clearances, assessing suitability, and granting access to facilities still focus to a significant extent on Cold War threats and threats related to the Global War on Terrorism rather than the threat of home-grown extremism.”
The researchers recommended updating and standardizing security and suitability questions across the military to ask directly about prohibited extremist activities.
Military security clearances have been much discussed this year after Air National Guardsman Jack Teixiera was arrested and charged with posting hundreds of classified documents on a Discord server.
In addition to Teixeira, three activeduty Marines were charged for their alleged role in the insurrection in January. All three Marines worked in intelligence. One was assigned to the National Security Agency headquarters.
Without updating the security clearance process, “the Department remains at risk of unknowingly permitting persons who may have engaged in violent extremist conduct to enter and encumber privileged positions as civilian employees or contractors in the military community,” the report concludes.
“The participation in violent extremist activities of even a small number of individuals with military connections and military training could present a risk to the military and to the country as a whole.”
Department of Defense report on extremism