A Danger to the Republic: Neo-Nazis and other Militants Embedded in the U. S. Military

Friends of Padre Steve’s World,

On February 15th a U.S. Coast Guard Lieutenant, who had served as an enlisted man in both the Marines and the Army National Guard was arrested. The man, Lieutenant Christopher Hasson has been charged with relatively minor gun and drug possession charges and will likely be charged with much more serious terrorism charges.

Hasson was caught because of how he used his work computer to research mass murders and was caught by a Coast Guard investigators using a program which monitors work computers for searches and activities to identify potential insider threats.

I read the news reports but did not write anything until today when I read the Court Filing by prosecutors from Justice Department in the District Court for Maryland. The filing https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/625-us-v-hasson/be7a4841596aba86cce4/optimized/full.pdf#page=1 is quite specific in what it alleges that Hasson was researching, preparing for, and his ultimate goal of a White Homeland and extermination of all potential enemies:

In one letter referenced in the court filing sent from his work email and signed with his title and position in the Coast Guard he wrote:

Have to take serious look at appropriate individual targets, to bring greatest impact. Professors, DR’s, Politian’s, Judges, leftists in general.

Look up tactics used during Ukrainian civil war. During unrest target both sides to increase tension. In other words provoke gov/police to over react which should help to escalate violence. BLM protests or other left crap would be ideal to incite to violence.

Gun rights people will never rise, need religious to stand up. Please send me your violence that I may unleash it onto their heads. Guide my hate to make a lasting impression on this world. So be it. I don’t know if there truly is a “conspiracy” of ((((People)))) out to destroy me and mine, but there is an attack none the less. For that reason I will strike, I can’t just strike to wound I must find a way to deliver a blow that cannot be shaken off. Maybe many blows that will cause the needed turmoil.

The filing also documented a draft letter to be sent to the notorious neo-Nazi leader Harold Covington from his private email in the aftermath of the Charlottesville protests and violence unleashed by neo-Nazi, KKK, and other White Supremacist groups. He wrote:

I am writing you regards to your ideas behind North West migration. To date I have read most of your books and briefly looked at your website. I am a long time White Nationalist, having been a skinhead 30 plus years ago before my time in the military. I have served in 3 branches currently serving as an Officer (never attended college) with 2 years till I hit mandatory retirement at 30. . . While I fully support the idea of a white homeland, my friends who still play at being a skinhead at 40 plus years old say that you are an informant. That is neither here nor there it is not an accusation the person who told me this served a 12 year prison sentence and never ratted me out so I will not dispute him nor will I accuse you. I never saw a reason for mass protest or wearing uniforms marching around provoking people with swastikas etc. I was and am a man of action you cannot change minds protesting like that. However you can make change with a little focused violence. . . The government has expertly infiltrated and destroyed from within most if not all Pro White organizations. . . . We need a white homeland as Europe seems lost. How long we can hold out there and prevent niggerization of the Northwest until whites wake up on their own or are forcibly made to make a decision whether to roll over and die or to stand up remains to be seen…

Hassan also used his government computer to research the tactics of the 1996 Atlanta Olympic bomber, Eric Rudolph, the Unibomber, Theodore John Kaczynski, and most importantly the Norwegian terrorist Anders Behring Breivik who killed 77 people, mostly children in 2011. He not only researched potential targets, he was taking Breivik’s advice on how to prepare for an attack. On his computer he had a list of prominent Democrat politicians and journalists targeted for assassination. He had even looked up their home addresses.

I would like to say that Hossan is an anomaly in the American military. He is not. While the vast majority of American servicemen and women are honorable people who would not resort to breaking their oath or terrorism regardless of their political ideology, there is a minority who support militant organizations, or actually belong to organizations identified as Hate Groups. These are not limited to Neo-Nazi or White Supremacist groups. Also included are some Islamic extremists, and Black Nationalists, members of various violent criminal gangs, and very interestingly members of various Traditionalist Catholic groups, many of which embrace Catholic European Fascist parties who allied themselves with the Nazis in the Second World War. But most tend toward White Nationalism and the anti-government III Precent Militia movement.

I actually encountered and helped to “out” one of these men, a young Marine to the Marine Corps on Twitter this evening. His posts were racist, religiously exclusivist, violent, and praised the actions of traditionalist European Catholics who signed aboard the Nazi cause, including the Belgian Fascist Leon Dagrelle.

I know this because in 1999 and early 2000 when serving as a Navy Chaplain with a Marine unit at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina. We had a small group of White Supremacists get caught in their barracks room, assaulting a fellow Marine and marking his unconscious body with Nazi symbols. Following the investigation and trials, in which they were found guilty and I got to know their leader, a young Corporal from a southern state fairly well. At first he was unrepentant but as he began to look at his actions he recanted those views and after serving his sentence, started anew and changed his life, becoming a spokesman against racism and White Nationalism. I saw him one last time as I was getting ready to leave Camp LeJeune in December 2001, he had regained his rank and had been promoted to sergeant. He thanked me for my part in his life and told me of his future plans, all very honorable. Since my encounters with him were all pastoral I have been quite vague in order not to make him a target of White Supremacists even twenty years later for his defection from the movement.

But apart from that I was tasked with providing an education program on extremist groups for our unit of over 1000 Marines. To do so I needed to research them, and I needed special permission and access to go to their websites on my government computer as they were blocked sites.

I had studied the Nazis of the Hitler regime in college and seminary and during my time in the Army serving in Germany, but until then I had not studied the Neo-Nazi and other White Nationalist groups until then. I had never heard of the Stormfront site or other websites associated with these groups. I found the common symbols used by them and was surprised at how often I had encountered them over few years before in both the Army and my service with the Marines, mostly as tattoos on the arms of these men. But unless you knew the movement and the symbols you wouldn’t even think about them.

So over the period of about a month I prepared a teaching lecture for our unit. Most of the Marines were unaware of these movements, and many talked with me about them later. However, in the wake of Charlottesville, Marines from Camp LeJeune and surrounding bases have been caught putting up signs for and participating in White Nationalist rallies in North Carolina and Virginia.

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/marines-open-investigation-into-active-duty-white-supremacist/

Now, twenty years after that I am preparing to retire from the Navy, and I see evidence of a resurgence of Neo-Nazi, White Supremacist, and anti-government militia paraphernalia on base. I even saw t-shirts emblazoned with the III Percent militia movement on sale at the Navy exchange with a collection of other combat and patriotic wear. I will bet that the buyers at the Exchange had any idea of what they were selling. They sold out and haven’t returned to the shelves, but they are available locally and on the internet.

https://nomattimen.wordpress.com/2016/04/09/recognizing-white-supremacist-symbols-in-the-us/

Sadly, those in the military who have turned to these movements are dangerous, and coupled with a President who echoes and amplifies their views they are dangerous. Who knows how many are capable of following and fulfilling the terroristic visions of Lieutenant Hasson. Many have much better training and connections than Lieutenant Hasson, and they are also smart enough not to use government computers to propagate their message.

History shows us that disgruntled, ideologically motivated, or nationalistic military personnel and veterans are very capable of doing great damage and committing violence regardless of the ideology they espouse: Left Wing, Right Wing, Fascist, Nazi, Communist, or Religious.

All people who believe in the ideals of the American experiment, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, The Gettysburg Address, the Four Freedoms, and Dr. King’s I have a Dream speech need to resist these threats to our Republic.

So, until tomorrow,

Peace,

Padre Steve+