Pentagon Reduced to Recruiting Neo-Nazis

"Ten years after a scandal over neo-Nazis in the armed forces, extremists are once again worming their way into a recruit-starved military."
-- by David Holthouse, Intelligence Report, AlterNet July 8, 2006

Here's another article on the same scary situation:

Group says racists joining military

By JOHN KIFNER New York Times
A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.

"We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. "That's a problem."

A Defense Department spokeswoman said officials could not comment because they had not yet seen the report. The center called on Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to appoint a task force to study the problem and declare a new zero-tolerance policy.

The report quotes Scott Barfield, a Defense Department investigator, saying, "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members."

Barfield said Army recruiters struggled last year to meet goals.