Neo-Nazis are in the Army now

[babylonsister]

Neo-Nazis are in the Army now

Why the U.S. military is ignoring its own regulations and permitting white supremacists to join its ranks.

Editor's note: Research support for this article was provided by the Nation Institute's Investigative Fund.

By Matt Kennard

Photo: Matt Kennard

Iraq veteran Forrest Fogarty sailed through recruitment despite his neo-Nazi tattoos.



June 15, 2009 | On a muggy Florida evening in 2008, I meet Iraq War veteran Forrest Fogarty in the Winghouse, a little bar-restaurant on the outskirts of Tampa, his favorite hangout. He told me on the phone I would recognize him by his skinhead. Sure enough, when I spot a white guy at a table by the door with a shaved head, white tank top and bulging muscles, I know it can only be him.

Over a plate of chicken wings, he tells me about his path into the white-power movement. "I was 14 when I decided I wanted to be a Nazi," he says. At his first high school, near Los Angeles, he was bullied by black and Latino kids. That's when he first heard Skrewdriver, a band he calls "the godfather of the white power movement." "I became obsessed," he says. He had an image from one of Skrewdriver's album covers — a Viking carrying a staff, an icon among white nationalists — tattooed on his left forearm. Soon after he had another white power symbol, a Celtic cross, emblazoned on his stomach.

At 15, Fogarty moved with his dad to Tampa, where he started picking fights with groups of black kids at his new high school. "On the first day, this bunch of niggers, they thought I was a racist, so they asked, 'Are you in the KKK?'" he tells me. "I said, 'Yeah,' and it was on." Soon enough, he was expelled.

For the next six years, Fogarty flitted from landscaping job to construction job, neither of which he'd ever wanted to do. "I was just drinking and fighting," he says. He started his own Nazi rock group, Attack, and made friends in the National Alliance, at the time the biggest neo-Nazi group in the country. It has called for a "a long-term eugenics program involving at least the entire populations of Europe and America."

But the military ran in Fogarty's family. His grandfather had served during World War II, Korea and Vietnam, and his dad had been a Marine in Vietnam. At 22, Fogarty resolved to follow in their footsteps. "I wanted to serve my country," he says.

Army regulations prohibit soldiers from participating in racist groups, and recruiters are instructed to keep an eye out for suspicious tattoos. Before signing on the dotted line, enlistees are required to explain any tattoos. At a Tampa recruitment office, though, Fogarty sailed right through the signup process. "They just told me to write an explanation of each tattoo, and I made up some stuff, and that was that," he says. Soon he was posted to Fort Stewart in Georgia, where he became part of the 3rd Infantry Division.

Fogarty's ex-girlfriend, intent on destroying his new military career, sent a dossier of photographs to Fort Stewart. The photos showed Fogarty attending white supremacist rallies and performing with his band, Attack. "They hauled me before some sort of committee and showed me the pictures," Fogarty says. "I just denied them and said my girlfriend was a spiteful bitch." He adds: "They knew what I was about. But they let it go because I'm a great soldier."

more...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2009/06/15/neo_nazis_army/

[PDJane]

1. Which may be why

Sy Hersh claims that the US has, in Iraq and Afghanistan, the most brutal army in the field that they have ever had.

[natrat]

4. yesb and when the junta brings that military here to clean up it will indeed clean up

[tom_paine]

7. Seems to be happening pretty much as I foresaw it years ago, with the exception of the Obama victory

Which IS a pretty big exception, except if, in the long run, as with the Clinton Admin., not enough pushback and enabling Bushie economic policies, while being threatened by increased domestic terroism activities on the right to hem him in from going too far with reversing Bushevism.

And thus, in the long run, with the continued support of the Corporate M$M, Bushevism will not die, and will in fact grow stronger in power relative to it's numbers, as it already is.

Until the next Bushie Emperor sits upon the throne, which is almost certain to happen in the next 20 years. Probably, given the Bushie penchant for manual and electronic voter suppression, within the next 12 years it IS a certainty. They'll go back to stealing presidential elections when we're ready to accept them more easily again.

What we are seeing, the Bushification of Military and Law Enforcement, means the Bushies, who I believe still at least partially control much of the military and law enforcement, even though they are out of power ostensibly, continue their long-range plans, in spite of the fact that they puished us so hard and looted us so bad not to mention stole so many elections in a 4 year period 2000-2004, they had to let Obama win or perhaps suffer what is happening in Iran NOW.

But lowering standards and letting in these Extreme Bushies, who will happily join the Bushies when the time comes (IF it comes, it still may not though the ramping trajectory now seems even clearer), the Bushies make it easier for themselves to turn the military upon the domestic population of citizen-consumers.

The more Fogertys, the easier it will be for the Bushie Commanders to execute such orders.

[tabasco]

2. Typical - a fucking military police asshole.

Dirtbag didn't have the guts to sign up for infantry.

This is an utter disgrace.

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Here's the reality

1. Nazis with deadly weapons in a sanctioned institution.

2. Nazis in the military, ready for martial law at your doorstep.

3. Nazis in the military who will not recognize President Obama as THEIR commander in chief.

4. Nazis in the military who will attack their military brethren for not being white and Christian -- and Nazi, of course.

And the military is obsessed with keeping gays out of the military because of the potential of disrupting operations. Compared to THIS????

[unpossibles]

5. This is insane and not very surprising

It just seems like such a bad idea to send white power assholes to a region full of non-white people who they will want to kill.

[T Wolf]

6. Neo-Nazis are __ the Army now. There, fixed it. nt

[babylonsister]

8. Broad brush you have there. nt

[sweetpotato]

9. Support our troops! with a big old sarcasm tag

Makes me ill to hear the never ending "support our troops" and then see this.

Support our troops, indeed.

[Still Sensible]

10. I was an Army brat and

I can assure you neo-nazis and other flavors of right wing bigots, minority haters, and all sorts of fringe folks have been in the services forever. While they did not necessarily identify themselves as such, there were folks I would describe as neo-nazi in the Army when I was a kid 40 years ago.

The services are just microcosms of society. It is no more shocking to see skinheads and bigots in the service than anywhere else. It certainly would not be fair to broad brush the services, either. But with all of the hate speech--which IMO has become much worse and more mainstream in the last 20 years--it is not surprising that many who have been raised in bigoted environments would see the military as a place to go. It's probably balanced somewhat by the fact that many of these haters are so anti-U.S. government that they don't even consider it.

The biggest problem is that after a couple decades where people like Limbaugh and Hannity and Dobbs and Coulter on the airwaves spewing various degrees of bigotry and hate, this has become more mainstream. Don't get me wrong, my childhood was the 60s and we saw plenty of unfairness,segregation and bigotry, but the hate seemed to be on the fringes with klan groups, aryan brotherhood and the like.

[winyanstaz]

11. Its not just neo-nazies they are taking now...

They are taking felons out of prison to serve in the forces. Also they are giving green cards to illegal aliens with a promise of citizenship if they serve in the forces.
They are also making American service personal serve over and over and over again (hopefully until they drop dead so that they wont have to help them when they get home) and have even sent the National Guard (who are SUPPOSED) to be the ones to help the people here at home in times of crisis) half the world away!
I guess they wont have to worry that the military will hesitate to shoot American civilians or round us up when they are ordered to.
This is happening at a time that they are also gearing up to use the military on the American people here at home if or when we get too mad about all the crap.
I hope I am wrong..I hope I am just being paranoid but right now I see real trouble coming.

[monkeyshines]

12. Gangs in the military are

a much bigger problem than these nazis. Crips, Bloods, Mexican Mafia, Folk Gangsters. They go in to learn urban warfare. Then they come back to our streets to practice their new skills. While the white supremacists seems to garner most of our concern, they're really the least of the problem. I base this on my years in the Marine Corps.