Jewish Groups: Pentagon Report Downplays Extremism in the Army

Jewish groups have taken issues with a recent Pentagon report that concluded that the influence of hate groups and the other extremists in the U.S. Army is minimal.

They sat that even though the report, titled “The Secretary of the Army’s Task Force on Extremist Activities” and made public March 21, is the first step in the crucial battle against extremism in the Army, it downplays the significance of the number of soldiers found to have participated in exterimist activities or organizations.

Secretary of the Army Togo West Jr. formed the group that oversaw the report after what police say was the racially motivated killing of a black couple in December 1995 in Fayetteville, N.C., home of the Fort Bragg 82nd Airborne Division.

All three soldiers charged in connection with the slayings reportedly identified themselves as neo-Nazis when arrested. After the crime, police fund a Nazi flag and several pamphlets about the Third Reich in the trailer of one of the accused, Pvt. Ist Class James Burmeister II.

According to the report, “The task force found no widespread or organized extremist activity in the Army. It did identity instances of individuals or small, informal groups of individuals who held extremist views.”

Mark Weitzman, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Task Force Against Hate, said upon the report’s release: “We’re very pleased with the effort that the task force put in.”

But referring to the report’s conclusion that the number of extremists in the Army is minimal, he said, “They tend to minimize those numbers as not outstanding. It shows that there is a presence in the military.”

He added, “Those are the one we know about.”

The Wiesenthal Center offered the Army its expertise after it got wind of the Fort Bragg investigation, Weitzman said.

What resulted was a briefing in January at the Pentagon at which officials of the center gave an “overview of extremists in this country.”

The report, conducted during the three-month period, was based on face-to-face interviews with more than 7,600 soldiers and written responses by more than 17,000 soldiers at 28 major installations in 12 states and 12 posts aboard.

In direct interviews for the report, less than 1 percent of soldiers said they knew a soldiers who was an active member in an extremist group. In separate written responses, about 7 percent of soldiers said they knew a soldiers believed to be an extremist.

The task force said 3.5 percent of those surveyed in January and February reported being approached to join an extremist organizations since entering the Army.

The report said the actual number of extremists in the Army is difficult to determine because any soldiers who admitted to being an active member would be in violation of military regulations.

The Anti-Defamation League also met with military officials at the Pentagon to offer its expertise and to make its concerns known.

After the report was issued, Abraham Foxman, ADL national director, said, “This report is an important step in the right direction. We have felt that extremist activity by members of our armed forces represents a serious threat to order in the ranks, and ultimately to the morale and effectiveness of the troops.”

Foxman said he was not surprised that the number of soldiers who belong to extremist groups was small, because that number is small in the general population as well.

But he cautioned, “The armed services need to remain vigilant against attempts by extremists to recruit military personnel, or to obtain weapons or training from contacts in the military.”

Michael Lieberman, associated director of the ADL’s Washington office, said in an interview after the March 21 Pentagon briefing on the report, “There’s always two ways to look at things. How do you determine what’s minimal?”

The task force made a number of recommendations, including the following: * Clarify Army rules on extremist activity and ask the Defense Department to review its guidance for all the services. * Assess the extent of extremist activity in the Army Reserve and National Guard. * Consider giving new soldiers and officers more training on human relations and extremism. * Screen recruits to keep out people with extremist views.

Today, Army regulations explicitly prohibit soldiers from active involvement in extremist groups, including those espousing white supremacist views or advocating violence.

Examples of active involvement are raising funds and distributing literature.

The regulations say passive activities in these organizations, such as receiving literature in the mail, are not prohibited but are strongly discouraged.

However, there is not list of specific groups.

In addition, the report said the Army must make a clearer distinction between active and passive activities.

“They’re on the right track,” Weitzman said. “The key is whether they implement” these recommendations.

“Only time will tell,” he said.