Group Warns of Neo-Nazis in Military
(AP)
The SPLC says it has found "dozens of personal profiles of individuals listing 'military' as their occupation on a neo-Nazi, Facebook-type website." (The site is called New Saxon, and it bills itself as "A Social Networking Site for People of European Descent" and an "online community for whites by whites.") The group complains that the Pentagon has failed to take "forceful action" against extremists in the military despite acknowledging in a 2008 report that the problem has gotten worse.
"While the military has discharged more than 12,500 service members because of their alleged homosexuality since 1994, it has refused to adopt a true 'zero tolerance' policy when it comes to extremists in the military," the group wrote in a letter to supporters.
The group writes that extremists in the military are a threat not just to Americans but to fellow troops.
"The fundamental problem is that Department of Defense regulations prohibiting 'active participation' in extremist groups are inadequate because they can be — and apparently are being — interpreted to allow members of the armed forces to be 'mere members' of hate groups or to engage in unaffiliated extremist activities, such as posting racist and anti-Semitic messages to social networking websites and email lists or maintaining online profiles filled with racist materials," said the SPLC in its letter to Congress.
Stars and Stripes calls the Web site where SPLC found the profiles "Facebook for the fascist set."
