Neo-Nazis are in the Army now

[sabra]

Source: Salon Investigation

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.

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.

...

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.

...

"I hate Arabs more than anybody, for the simple fact I've served over there and seen how they live," he tells me. "They're just a backward people. Them and the Jews are just disgusting people as far as I'm concerned. Their customs, everything to do with the Middle East, is just repugnant to me."

Because of his tattoos and his racist comments, most of his buddies and his commanding officers were aware of his Nazism. "They all knew in my unit," he says. "They would always kid around and say, 'Hey, you're that skinhead!'" But no one sounded an alarm to higher-ups. "I would volunteer for all the hardest missions, and they were like, 'Let Fogarty go.' They didn't want to get rid of me."

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

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Smirk" - Republicon Homelanders Desirous of American Failing

[CL455W4R]

2. The military is a good place for them

I mean, shit, when was the last time we sent our military out to kill whitey? Only thing that would suck about being a neo nazi in the US Military is that you'd have to deal with the fact that in recent years you are more likely to be defending Israel than America

[cliffordu]

3. Enjoy your stay!!

:hurts:

[AlbertCat]

5. Only thing that would suck about being a neo nazi in the US Military

is that you'd have to deal with the fact that in recent years you are more likely to be defending Israel than America

*************

I dunno. That black boot camp sargent barking orders to a skin head might be too much for him....and hopefully get him kick out.

[pasto76]

14. except that all of MY leaders were mexican

foresee any problems there?

FUCK YOU WETBACK! I mean, Sergeant First Class WETBACK!

[pasto76]

15. the ideal of neo nazism and/or white supremecy do NOT jive with my army values

any more than homophobia is suitable for a soldier to express.

[XemaSab]

4. .

"What about something as obvious as a swastika? "A swastika would trigger questions," Smith says. "But again, if the gentlemen said, 'I like the way the swastika looked,' and had clean criminal record, it's possible we would allow that person in." "There are First Amendment rights," he adds."

:banghead:

[nichomachus]

7. You joke

but I had a friend, a black guy, who had a beautiful hand-made quilt that was just a collection of swastikas. The quilt had been made by his great-grandmother, sweet 90-year-old lady, barely literate. She was an excellent seamstress. She saw a picture of a swastika once and thought it was a nice design. She had no idea what it represented -- and she went ahead and made the quilt. If you could ignore the swastika, it was a beautiful quilt. My friend really hated the idea of throwing it out -- but it wasn't the sort of thing you hung on the wall either.

[Stand and Fight]

16. Actually, before being highjacked by Hitler...

It was a widely recognized holy symbol for centuries.

[KamaAina]

18. Still is, in India

the arms of theirs point in the opposite direction, though. The Nazi one is kind of like the Satanists' upside-down cross.

[nichomachus]

19. You're right

There is a church in Cambridge, MA -- Tip O'Neill's home parish, actually -- that has swastikas among the tiles decorating the entrance.

[bushmeister0]

33. Don't forget swastika park in Miami!

[Hugabear]

30. Wasn't the symbol you speak of a reverse swastika?

I'm pretty sure that I've read the Nazis took that symbol and reversed it.

[XemaSab]

22. If you're ever in the Supreme Court lobby

the ceiling is made up of swastikas.

[nichomachus]

23. But those only went in when Scalia was appointed

:rofl:

[atreides1]

20. What First Amendment Rights???

I don't recall that particular right when I was in the Army!!!

The army was desperate and needed all the cannon fodder they could find, so they dug deep under every rock and took every skinhead, gang banger, or other low life that would be able to get in without too much trouble.

And now the US military has provided them with the training that they'll use against American law enforcement whne they get tired of killing Arabs and other "mud people".

[AlbertCat]

6. 'Let Fogarty go.' They didn't want to get rid of me."

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! He's stupid too!

He should read up on some Jewish History instead of just hating them. Doesn't Saul keep sending David out to fight the Philistines in the hopes David will get killed?

What a maroon!

[Froward69]

9. sssshhhh

that is the plan... the numb-skull, goosestepping shit-stain will get greased in due time. stupid fearful little boy that he really is.

[Lerkfish]

8. "now"?

such was always the case

[okieinpain]

10. that's what I thought. isn't one of the characters in three kings a

skin head.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

13. No, just a regular hick.

[No Elephants]

11. Our "all volunteer" (not counting mercenaries) army is so short of troops that no tattoo is going to

keep anyone from getting accepted. One less stop loss deployment for some troop and his or her family.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. "They didn't want to get rid of me."

If he had the brains of a toothpick he might have figured out that by constantly sending him out on the most difficult missions, maybe they WERE trying to get rid of him.

[ashling]

17. The publicons owe Janet Napolitano an apology

[Politicalboi]

21. He's probably the PLO

Permanent Latrine Orderly



"Last name first, first name last"

[bertman]

24. Boot camp in Bragg in '66. Half the recruits from eastern North Carolina, the other half

from the ghettos in D.C. We had a couple of ugly incidents between some of the racists of both races.

At OCS in Benning, four members of our company were black guys. This was during some of the worst race rioting in American history. Most of us white guys just tuned it out and focused on getting through OCS, but I remember how upset the black guys were. We didn't "get it" and they couldn't forget it.

Vietnam in '68-69. Lots of racial animosity--especially after Martin Luther King Jr was murdered. Black soldiers tended to stick together. The Ninth Infantry Division base camp had a large group of black soldiers who would hang out at night and beat the shit out of any individual white soldiers or small groups of white soldiers that wandered into "their territory". Even though this was a huge base camp, I never could figure out how this was allowed to continue. It was common knowledge that it was going on.

Out in the field everybody seemed to get back into cohesive unit mode for operations, but lots of times the groups were racially exclusive--whites buddying up with whites, blacks with blacks. And, of course, most of us Americans were prejudiced against the "gooks, slopes, slant-eyes".

Sad to say, it sounds like not too much has changed since then.

[tabasco]

29. I was in the Army infantry from 81-95 and activated again for a year 01-02.

I can tell you, without reservation, in every unit I was a part of, racism was not tolerated in any way, shape or form.

The AWOL Bush cabal lowered the standards to allow dirtbags like this to get in.

Those standards need to go back UP.

[bertman]

31. Thanks for the update, Tabasco. You're right about BushCo. They've packed the top

brass with right-wing, Christian fundamentalist fascists and now they're letting anybody serve--as long as they can "do the job". Very sad day for America.

[Thothmes]

36. No lower than Lyndon Baines Johnson

lowered the standards in the late sixtes to fill the billets he could not fill with the draft.

[proteus_lives]

32. My dad said the same thing.

He was at Fort Campbell and there was racial fighting.

He also said that his bases was always unoffically split into black/white areas. They didn't screw each over in the field but it was clear they were not friends.

[western mass]

25. US Army - training RW terrorists of tomorrow!

[David__77]

26. This is nothing new.

There are many nests of far right activists in the US military. Police as well.

[The Stranger]

27. They let them in because they hate the A-Rabs and the "Islamists."

They turn a blind eye because it suits them.

What you sow, so shall you reap.

[Tim01]

28. The military alreadly has lots of lifer gangsters.

I am surprised anybody cares about a racist.

[LostinVA]

34. They always have been -- they were even ALLOWED to be Nazis until a few years ago

[Wednesdays]

35. K&R

:kick: