“This needs to be rooted out of our military,” Senator Tammy Duckworth, Democrat of Illinois and an Iraq war veteran, said in an interview last week. Austin III is poised to become the nation’s first Black defense secretary, an ascension that, depending on how General Austin decides to proceed, could either sharpen or blur the American military’s decades-long battles with racial inequality and white supremacy. The reckoning at the Pentagon comes as retired Gen. The Defense Department inspector general announced an investigation last week into the effectiveness of Pentagon policies and procedures that prohibited service members from advocacy of or participation in supremacist or extremist groups. Biden would soon be their commander in chief and that they were duty bound to defend the Constitution. Last Tuesday, General Milley and the rest of the Joint Chiefs of Staff sent an extraordinary letter to all military personnel, reminding them that Mr. and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will receive additional background checks, a standard procedure to counter insider threats that was also taken before President Trump’s inauguration in 2017.ĭefense Department officials say they are looking into stepping up the monitoring of social media postings from service members, in much the way companies do with their employees. Of the 21,500 Guard personnel who had arrived in Washington by Monday, any who will be near President-elect Joseph R. Constitution.”įederal officials are vetting thousands of National Guard troops arriving to help secure the inauguration. He said most active-duty troops and veterans “continue to serve honorably and uphold their oath to protect and defend the U.S. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an interview. “These people are not representative of our country’s military,” Gen. The military’s examination of its ranks marks a new urgency for the Pentagon, which has a history of downplaying the rise of white nationalism and right-wing activism, even as Germany and other countries are finding a deep strain embedded in their armed forces. Another person with military service was shot and killed in the assault. They include a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel from Texas, an Army officer from North Carolina and an Army reservist from New Jersey. investigation into the Capitol siege, still in its very early stages, has identified at least six suspects with military links out of the more than 100 people who have been taken into federal custody or the larger number still under investigation. 6, senior leaders of the 2.1 million active-duty and reserve troops have been grappling with fears that former or current service members will be found among the horde. In the days since a pro-Trump mob breached the Capitol on Jan. The Pentagon is intensifying efforts to identify and combat white supremacy and other far-right extremism in its ranks as federal investigators seek to determine how many military personnel and veterans joined the violent assault on the Capitol.
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