12.Dec.2012 - 11 Secret Documents Americans Deserve to See, the Normalization of Treason, Michigan Protesters' Angry Chants, IDF Targeted Gaza Civilians, 9/11 the Great Conspiracy, Inequality is Undermining our Democracy, Christian Privilege in U.S., GMO Labeling, Into the Fire, more....

11 Secret Documents Americans Deserve to See

Many documents produced by the U.S. government are confidential and not released to the public for legitimate reasons of national security. Others, however, are kept secret for more questionable reasons. The fact that presidents and other government officials have the power to deem materials classified provides them with an opportunity to use national security as an excuse to suppress documents and reports that would reveal embarrassing or illegal activities.

http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/mena/253073-11-secret-documents-americans-deserve-to-see

Wikileaks Whistleblower is Person of the Year

The Normalization of Treason

How did right-wing politics in the United States survive the 1960s and 1970s and thrive beyond?  Not only did the wealthy invest in the corruption of politics, but the politicians invested in the normalization of treason.

http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/violence/253269-the-normalization-of-treason

Chart Of The Day: US-China Trade Deficit Hits Record

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-11/chart-day-us-china-trade-deficit-hits-record

Climate Change, Economic Crisis and the Violence of War

Why does Barack Obama not pursue the battle against climate change with the same intensity he pursues war? Why does he not seek to punish the American bankers and stockbrokers responsible for the financial calamity as much as he seeks to punish Julian Assange and Bradley Manning?

http://rebel-institute.org/opinion/violence/253273-climate-change-economic-crisis-and-the-violence-of-war

Over protesters’ angry chants, Michigan lawmakers give final approval to right-to-work bills

LANSING, Mich. — As the chants of angry protesters filled the Capitol, Michigan lawmakers gave final approval Tuesday to right-to-work legislation, dealing a devastating and once-unthinkable defeat to organized labor in a state that has been a cradle of the movement for generations.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/job-creation-debate-illustrates-volley-of-claims-over-right-to-work-as-michigan-decision-nears/2012/12/10/9f780f72-4330-11e2-8c8f-fbebf7ccab4e_story.html

How the IDF Targeted Civilians Shattered Lives in Gaza
The father of the family, Jamal Mahmoud Yassin al-Dalu, was praying when the missile struck.  It was the afternoon of November 18^th, the fifth day of the Israeli attack against Gaza misnamed “Operation Pillar of Defense”.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article33283.htm

Inside the shadowy and sometimes surprising world of the Koch brothers

Homeland Security increasingly loaning drones to local police

Far from the battlefields of Afghanistan, a Predator drone was summoned into action last year to spy on a North Dasakota farmer who allegedly refused to return a half-dozen of his neighbor’s cows that had strayed onto his pastures.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/dec/10/homeland-security-increasingly-loaning-drones-to-l/

FBI: Anti-Muslim hate crimes still up
Statistics released today suggest that the numbers haven't dipped since an unprecedented 50 percent spike in 2010
http://www.salon.com/2012/12/10/fbi_anti_muslim_hate_crimes_still_up/

9/11 THE GREAT CONSPIRACY (full length)

How U.S. Taxpayers Are Paying the Pentagon to Occupy the Planet
Picking Up a $170 Billion Tab

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/11-3

Why Does Obama Want to Spend $8 Trillion on Defense in the Next Decade?

Washington is in a fiscal panic, yet surprisingly few people are asking an obvious question: Why in the world is the Obama Administration proposing to spend $8 trillion on security over the next decade? Included in that giant sum is not just Pentagon spending, but also outlays for intelligence, homeland security, foreign aid, and diplomacy abroad. 

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/12/11-8

Eugene Jarecki: When Will the Drug War Finally End?

Inequality is Undermining Our Democracy

ashington has a way of focusing the nation's attention on tactical games over partisan maneuvers that are symptoms of a few really big problems. But we almost never get to debate or even discuss the big problems because the tactical games overwhelm everything else.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/279-82/14967-inequality-is-undermining-our-democracy

Six Things That Will Change The World

12 Essential Elements of Strategy to Get Money Outta Politics (MOP)
This article condenses the essential elements of an evidence-based strategy to get Money Outta Politics (MOP) into the following 12 precepts. This is a bare-bones skeleton on which hangs the much fuller analysis largely fleshed out in the linked material. Discussion is invited on the proposition that omission or distortion of any of these 12 elements would cripple any strategy to get money out of politics.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/12-Essential-Elements-of-S-by-George-Flower-121210-581.html

Christian privilege in U.S. reinforces prejudice against non-religious: report

Though atheists face less persecution and discrimination in the United States as compared to many other countries, nonbelievers are still often viewed as “lesser Americans,” according to a new report released by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU).
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/10/christian-privilege-in-u-s-reinforces-prejudice-against-non-religious-report/

US military targets green energy

Christian radio host: Punch atheists ‘in the mouth’ for their ‘war on Christmas’

Conservative Christian radio host Matt Barber says that an atheist group should be punched “in the mouth” after they filed a complaint that sought to stop a Michigan man from erecting a nativity scene on public land.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/12/10/christian-radio-host-punch-atheists-in-the-mouth-for-their-war-on-christmas/

Conspiracy Theory – Season 3, Episode 4: “Manimal”


Mentally ill murdered by police

A SURGE in activism against racist violence, starting with the protests against the murder of Trayvon Martin in Florida, has cast a spotlight in different cities on the main organized purveyor of such violence: the police.

http://socialistworker.org/2012/12/11/mentally-ill-and-murdered-by-police

WTFographics: GMO Labeling

EU Countries Denounce Israeli E1 Plan (“Settling” is a Warcrime)

Foreign Ministers of the European Union issued a statement, after holding a meeting in Brussels Monday, denouncing the Israeli E1 illegal settlement project that will lead to the total isolation of the West Bank from occupied East Jerusalem. They said that the Israeli settlement project will also isolate the northern parts of the West Bank from the southern parts.

http://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/2012/12/10/eu-countries-denounce-israeli-e1-plan-settling-is-a-warcrime/

Nazis, UFO, and Antarctica (with English subtitles)


DOCUMENTARY OF THE DAY:

Into The Fire

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Press for Truth presented in the fire. World leaders and activists from around the world gathered at the Summit of the G-20.

With more than 19,000 police officers and security personnel on hand, the results lead to more than 1,100 arrests, martial law in downtown Toronto, and the most massive violation of civil liberties in Canadian history.
Here’s an interesting comment from YT: So they spend billions? dollars to protect 20 types. These 20 guys could have stayed home and use Skype or something. Meanwhile, discuss how we are going to take money from ordinary people to keep the system running.

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25.Sept.2012: The Cost of Cybercrime, Western Exceptionalism, No Longer a Free Country, Counterproductive Drone Terrorism, Free Speech, Police and OWS, Footage of NYPD's Brutality, 2012 Election Inside Job, Secular Government, Protests Not a Waste of Time, Green Awareness, Reinventing Ethics, Harvest of Empire, Hacktivists Documentary, Woman Tased and Evicted, Future Intelligence

Steve Dustcircle can be found at: http://www.dustcircle.com

The no-jobs generation

Elizabeth Schulte, Leela Yellesetty and Gary Lapon document the nightmarish job prospects for the Class of 2012--and explain what's to blame.

http://socialistworker.org/2012/05/29/the-no-jobs-generation

Rekindling the human spirit

Under capitalism, most people have no control not only over what they produce as workers, but over the very process of producing itself.

http://socialistworker.org/2012/09/25/rekindling-the-human-spirit

The Cost of Cybercrime: 1.5 Million Victims Every Day

Two-thirds of online adults already have been Cybercrime victims at some point in their lives, and 46% of online adults have been victims within the past year. The annual cost of Cybercrime is a whopping $110 billion.

http://blogs.findlaw.com/technologist/2012/09/there-are-15-million-cybercrime-victims-every-day.html

Western Exceptionalism

Today, we see Washington on a rampage to realize these words from historian Gordon Wood: ‘our beliefs in liberty, equality, constitutionalism, and the well-being of ordinary people came out of the Revolutionary era; so too, did our idea that we Americans are a special people with a special destiny to lead the world toward liberty and democracy’. This fallacious sentiment, coined ‘American exceptionalism’, has become Washington’s mantra; it has wrought death and misery on billions.

http://www.countercurrents.org/aziz250912.htm

30 Examples of Why America Is No Longer a Free Country

From people being harassed for paying by cash or having a food garden, to Americans being arrested for letting their children play outside – innumerable examples over the past few months alone illustrate that the United States is no longer a free country.

http://therebel.org/opinion/tyranny/35527-30-examples-of-why-america-is-no-longer-a-free-country

The Declining Economic Freedom Of The United States

The United States, long considered the standard bearer for economic freedom among large industrial nations, has experienced a remarkable plunge in economic freedom during the past decade. From 1980 to 2000, the US was generally rated the third freest economy in the world, ranking behind only Hong Kong and Singapore. The ranking of the US has fallen precipitously; from second in 2000 to eighth in 2005 and 19th in 2010. 

http://therebel.org/opinion/americas/35533-the-declining-economic-freedom-of-the-united-states

How Can We Stop Pedophiles?

Stop treating them like monsters.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2012/09/stop_childhood_sexual_abuse_how_to_treat_pedophilia_.html

Mitt Romney Adds the Uninsured to His List of Americans He isn’t Concerned About

Many people will admit that they never appreciate good health until they are sick or injured, and if they do fall ill, their first thought is getting immediate treatment to alleviate their discomfort.  For people fortunate enough to have healthcare insurance, their first point of consultation is a primary care provider who can diagnose and treat their condition, and more than likely provide guidance for how to prevent a recurrence unless their health issue is an injury. 

http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-adds-uninsured-list-americans-concerned.html

Can America Be Great Again?

Learning the cynical realities of America's evolving monarchical chief executives, their active-positive passions and passive-negative ennui made us all begin to wonder if we were plotting careers in politics at the wrong time. Carter won, but seemed incapable of throwing the necessary levers and switches of political power to advance his agenda. After Johnson, then Nixon, the American press was accustomed to a president with every golf club in his bag and the skill to use them. Carter, rightly or wrongly, was portrayed as a president with only a sand wedge and little passion for the game overall.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alec-baldwin/obama-reelection-2012_b_1911460.html

Pakistani civilian deaths in US drone war ‘in vain’ – report

A study at Stanford and New York University titled ‘Living Under Drones’ claimed that only two percent of drone strike casualties in Pakistan are top militants, and that the large number of related civilian deaths turn Pakistanis against the US.

http://therebel.org/politics/americas/126-united-states/35388-pakistani-civilian-deaths-in-us-drone-war-in-vain-report

Report: "Counterproductive" US Drone Program "Terrorizes" Pakistan

Rejecting the dominant narrative that insulates most Americans from the reality of the US drone program in Pakistan—a narrative that says drones are a surgically precise and effective tool that makes the US safer from "global terrorism" with minimal downsides—a new reportby researchers at the Stanford and NYU schools of law says that the program itself is "terrorizing" and that its overall impact is "counterproductive" when it comes to addressing international law, security, and human rights.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/25-0

Scientists: No to Genetically Modified Crops, Yes to Paradigm Shift

A group of scientists said that ecological farming and a shift towards a holistic paradigm, not genetically modified (GM) crops, are the answer for India's future agricultural needs.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/09/25-5

Drones: The West's New Terror Campaign

Living Under Drones, a new report from Stanford and New York universities, was a difficult piece of fieldwork – I was with the law students in Peshawar as they tried to interview victims of the CIA's drone war. But it has made an important contribution to the drone debate by identifying the innocent victims of the CIA's reign of terror: the entire civilian population of Waziristan (roughly 800,000 people).

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/09/25-2

What exactly is free speech?

The Supreme Court declared that money is speech. Pictures, movies, advertising is speech even it what is "spoken" is provocative, misinformation, or a lie, but always meant to influence the viewer, listener. That is Democracy we say piously. Those Muslims must understand that our government does not necessarily approve of a dirty movie but we have free speech in this country. Anybody can say, write, make movies about anything they want. Oh yeah?

http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-exactly-is-free-speec-by-robert-wolff-120924-986.html

Police and OWS -- A Personal Perspective

I made a conscious decision to approach the situation in New York with optimism and an open mind. What I experienced during my time there, was in many ways a direct reflection of the attitude I approached it with. This does not mean that I did not observe any negativity during the events of the weekend. It does mean, however, that instead of focusing on those negative events, I am able to appreciate the positive experiences such as the following story.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Police-and-OWS--A-Person-by-Michael-Stedman-120923-502.html

Plutocracy Ignores Purpose

Nobility means dignity.   Because of the possible beneficial effects, any work done well can lead to dignity.   In our time, every citizen can feel a sense of mission, purpose and importance.   Every task can be considered an act of service to our nation when that task is done well.   In this way every act can be an act of public service.   And in this way every kind of work can be noble.   This is the message if you believe individuals have an inherent purpose.   But this is not the message of Plutocracy.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Plutocracy-Ignores-Purpose-by-Eric-Lucas-120924-902.html

Education and Democracy

Democracy and an educated citizenry go hand in hand. Public education is the great equalizer. America's founders believed it was insurance against loss of liberty.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Education-and-Democracy-by-Stephen-Lendman-120925-118.html

 Why Your Brain Is Irrational about Obama and Romney

Before the election, I urge you to read Leonard Mlodinow's new book, Subliminal: How Your Unconscious Mind Rules Your Behavior (Pantheon). You will gain such insights as that higher-pitched voices are judged by subjects as more nervous, less truthful and less empathetic than speakers with lower-pitched voices and that speaking a little faster and louder, with fewer pauses and greater variation in volume, leads people to judge someone to be energetic, intelligent and knowledgeable. Looks matter even more.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-your-brain-irrational-about-obama-romney

Footage of NYPD's Brutal Raid That Ended 2-Month Occupation of Zuccotti Park Released

This release of the footage is the first major public documentation of the raid on November 15, 2011, when the police arrested an estimated 200.

http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/footage-nypds-brutal-raid-ended-2-month-occupation-zuccotti-park-released

The Climate Clock Is Ticking, Obama Can Help

ith 42 days to go until the US presidential elections, now is the time to put climate change at the top of the political agenda. We are at a critical moment in history. This year we have witnessed record levels of carbon in the atmosphere, unprecedented melting of ice in the arctic, alarming spikes in global temperature and extreme weather conditions.

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/271-38/13655-the-climate-clock-is-ticking-obama-can-help

Why the 2012 Election Will Be Another Inside Job

ast week, Mitt Romney and President Obama traded insults in a most amazing way, reminding us that success in American politics these days requires two things: saying the most absurd things with a straight face, and maximizing the appearance of differences with your opponent, while minimizing their reality. 

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/13649-focus-why-the-2012-election-will-be-another-inside-job

GAO: DoD civilian workforce assessment flawed

The Defense Department's plans to reduce at least 150 civilian senior leadership positions, the cap on civilian personnel numbers and the existing pay freeze threaten the department's ability to achieve its mission, and according to a Sept. 19 report (.pdf) from the Government Accountability Office, its analysis of possible workforce gaps is inaccurate.
http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/gao-dod-civilian-workforce-assessment-flawed/2012-09-25

Atheists, Secularism, Secular Government: Why Atheists Care About Secularism

Importance of Secularism & Secular Government to Irreligious Atheists

http://atheism.about.com/od/atheismatheistantireligion/a/AtheistSecular.htm?nl=1

Son of a bigot

His dad founded the infamous Westboro Baptist Church. Nate Phelps is dedicated to reversing that legacy of hate

http://www.salon.com/2012/09/25/son_of_a_bigot

AIPAC-Drafted US Aid to Israel Illegal

The Israel lobby’s biggest and longest-running Washington boondoggles are the massive annual weapons and economic packages to Israel. Tightly coordinated campaign contributors (both individuals and political action committees) and the Israeli government’s own quiet demands manifest themselves within AIPAC-drafted foreign aid legislation. The U.S.-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012 forces Americans to fork hard-earned tax dollars over to Israel’s coffers on the pretext that it is in eminent danger. 

http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2012/09/25/aipac-drafted-us-aid-to-israel-illegal/

Why Protest Events Are Not a Waste of Time

Let's admit it: Picking up a picket sign and spending hours marching out in the 105-degree heat or the -15 degree frost, screaming your lungs out, does not seem like a particularly natural thing to do. In fact, when people do this sort of thing outside of the context of a protest event, it's usually a cry for help. So why do we protest?

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/historyprofiles/tp/Why-Protest.htm?nl=1

Freedom of Speech in the United States

A Short History

http://civilliberty.about.com/od/freespeech/tp/History-Freedom-of-Speech-United-States-Timeline.htm?nl=1

Taking Atheism To The Next Level

It’s an unfortunate but increasingly difficult to ignore truth: progressives are ignorant, too. Not all progressives, all the time. But more than we’d like to think. More than can possibly be considered acceptable in a healthy sub-culture, let alone one with a stated aim of leading the world into a new enlightenment. Or even one with the humbler hope of living in that kind of world.
http://www.care2.com/causes/enlightenment-has-no-end-point.html

Study: Green awareness is now ‘mainstream,’ but consumers less willing to pay the premium
According to new research from GfK‘s Green Gauge, while aspects of the “green” movement have gone “mainstream,” those willing to purchase the more expensive green alternative products has decreased over the last several years.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/09/24/study-green-awareness-is-now-mainstream-but-consumers-less-willing-to-pay-the-premium/

ACLU files suit for information on automatic license plate readers 
[JURIST] The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the ACLU of Massachusetts(ACLUM) [advocacy websites] on Tuesday filed suit [complaint, PDF; press release] to obtain records and information regarding the use of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) by federal law enforcement and agencies. The suit was filed in the US District Court of Massachusetts against the US Departments of Justice and Homeland Security [official websites] after the federal agencies refused to comply with a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the ALCU [JURIST report] in July. 
http://jurist.org/paperchase/2012/09/aclu-files-suit-for-information-on-automatic-license-plate-readers.php 

Reinventing Ethics

There are plenty of reasons to believe that human nature changes slowly, if at all — all’s still fair in love and war. For millennia, religious believers have attributed our nature to God’s image, as well as to God’s plan.  In recent years, evolutionary psychologists peered directly at our forerunners on the savannahs of East Africa; if human beings change, we do so gradually over thousands of years.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/23/reinventing-ethics/

Top 10 Ways Corporate Food Is Making Us Fat and Threatening Our Food Supplies

It all starts with the collosal power that organized businesses have over Congress.

http://www.alternet.org/food/top-10-ways-corporate-food-making-us-fat-and-threatening-our-food-supplies

Know What GMO’s Are in Your Food

LEAKED: Anonymous' NYPD Footage

Where Do YOU Get Your News?

Gun confiscation reality check

Living Under Drones

"Harvest of Empire": New Film Recounts How U.S. Intervention Caused Mass Latin American Migrations

Announcing 24 Hours of Reality: The Dirty Weather Report

Money in Politics is Destroying Our Democracy

We Are Legion – The Story of the Hacktivists Documentary (2012)

Houston PD Slay Wheelchair Bound Double Amputee: We've Reached A New Low

War Threats! Iran Will Hit US Bases if Attacked

CBS 5 News obtains video of woman being tased, evicted

Ever Wonder What Real Journalists Think Of People Like Bill O'Reilly?

DOCUMENTARY: Future Intelligence

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Criminalizing Dissent

 

By Chris Hedges

I was on the 15th floor of the Southern U.S. District Court in New York in the courtroom of Judge Katherine Forrest last Tuesday. It was the final hearing in the lawsuit I brought in January against President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta. I filed the suit, along with lawyers Carl J. Mayer and Bruce I. Afran, over Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). We were late joined by six co-plaintiffs including Noam Chomsky and Daniel Ellsberg.

This section of the NDAA, signed into law by Obama on Dec. 31, 2011, obliterates some of our most important constitutional protections. It authorizes the executive branch to order the military to seize U.S. citizens deemed to be terrorists or associated with terrorists. Those taken into custody by the military, which becomes under the NDAA a domestic law enforcement agency, can be denied due process and habeas corpus and held indefinitely in military facilities. Any activist or dissident, whose rights were once protected under the First Amendment, can be threatened under this law with indefinite incarceration in military prisons, including our offshore penal colonies. The very name of the law itself—the Homeland Battlefield Bill—suggests the totalitarian credo of endless war waged against enemies within “the homeland” as well as those abroad.

Wisconsin shooting reveals connections between US military and fascist groups

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POST 10 AUGUST 2012

BY ERIC LONDON

A critical element, which has been virtually ignored in all the media coverage of last Sunday’s massacre at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin is the close connections between the US Armed Forces and various fascistic and white supremacist organizations. Wade Michael Page, a neo-Nazi and former US Army service member, murdered six people and critically wounded three others August 5 before reportedly turning the gun on himself after being shot by police.

US Armed Forces recruiters, officers and high-ranking executive branch officials have quietly provided fascist organizations with opportunities to recruit soldiers into the ranks of the National Socialist Movement, Hammerskins, White Military Men and National Alliance.

Page, a self-described member of the Hammerskins, first began to actively sympathize with neo-Nazism during his time in the US military, which lasted from 1992 to 1998. Afterwards, Page made his fascist sympathies clear in hundreds of posts on various neo-Nazi websites and also attempted to purchase goods from the National Alliance in 2000. Both the Hammerskins and the National Alliance advocate a genocidal “racial holy war” and the establishment of a government modeled on Hitler’s Nazi regime.

“He really started to identify with neo-Nazism during his time in the military,” said University of Nebraska criminologist Pete Simi, who met Page during a 2001 study on white power groups. “And specifically, what he told me at one point was that, if you join the military and you’re not a racist, then you certainly will be by the time you leave.”

The Hammerskins, National Alliance, and a variety of other neo-Nazi groups were continuously involved in recruitment efforts at numerous Armed Forces bases across the US during the time of Page’s military service, according to reports by the FBI and the Southern Poverty Law Center. The findings point to especially high levels of fascist activity at Fort Bragg Army Base in North Carolina, where Page was stationed between 1995 and 1998.

Around the time that Page arrived in Fort Bragg, three neo-Nazi members of the 82^nd Airborne Division were arrested for the murder of a black couple in nearby Fayetteville. A subsequent investigation uncovered nearly two-dozen soldiers with connections to neo-Nazis at Fort Bragg.

In 1992, a group of Fort Bragg soldiers organized a white supremacy paramilitary cell called the Special Forces Underground, which was affiliated with the National Alliance. Over a decade later, a neo-Nazi intelligence officer stationed in Iraq was caught attempting to mail weapons back to the United States. In 2006, the Southern Poverty Law Center discovered online groups of neo-Nazis made up of Fort Bragg soldiers.

Currently, “outside every major military installation, you will have at least two or three active neo-Nazi organizations actively trying to recruit on-duty personnel,” explained TJ Leyden, a former neo-Nazi told the Christian Science Monitor.

Fascists “stretch across all branches of [military] service, they are linking up across the branches once they’re inside, and they are hard-core,” former Defense Department gang detective Scott Barfield told the SPLC in 2006, adding: “there’s plenty of evidence we’re talking numbers well into the thousands, just in the Army.”

Furthermore, “White supremacists have a natural attraction to the army,” says the Military Law Review, the Armed Forces main legal journal. “They often see themselves as warriors, superbly fit and well-trained in survivalist techniques and weapons and poised for the ultimate conflict with various races.”

As Jacob Berg, an active service soldier in Iraq and a member of the fascist Blood & Honour group, explained to Salon journalist Matt Kennard, “There are actually a lot more ‘skinheads,’ ‘Nazis,’ white supremacists now [in the military] than there has been in a long time.” Berg wrote in an E-mail exchange with Kennard, “Us racists are actually getting into the military a lot now because if we don’t every one who already is [in the military] will take pity on killing sand niggers…. I’m so proud of my kills [because] by killing a brown [person] many white people will live to see a new dawn.”

It is apparent that layers within the military value right-wing nationalist groups for adding to the culture of violence and genocide that coincides with the aims of the US military in its neo-colonial wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. With the lies about the “war on terror” in shatters—as the US allies itself with al Qaeda in Libya and Syria to achieve its geo-political aims—the American government and military must increasingly rely on the most reactionary ideological views to justify its imperialist wars, occupations and brutal subjugation of foreign populations.

Officers and administration officials either directly or tacitly support the recruitment of fascists. “Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don’t remove them… even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members,” says former Defense Department detective Barfield.

TJ Leyden explained that officers often are ambivalent to open support for fascism within the Armed Forces. Leyden recalls that when he hung a Nazi flag in his barracks, “the only thing my commander would say was, ‘Hey, can you do me a favor? Can you take that flag down when the CG [commanding general] comes through?’”

In fact, the recruitment of open members of fascist groups is government policy. In response to declining enlistment numbers after the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration removed gang-activity barriers to enlistment in 2005. Since the government does not make qualitative distinctions between fascist groups and street gangs, the decision amounted to an open-door policy for neo-Nazis.

The Obama Administration has upheld this policy decision. Kennard of Salon told Russia Today in June, 2010, that “the regulations that were changed during the war on terror haven’t been changed back. They still have the same legal framework or the same recruitment framework.”

Tom Metzger, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and current leader of the White Aryan Resistance, told Salon that the military was more tolerant of fascists. “Now they are letting everybody in,” Metzger said.

Forrest Fogarty, a neo-Nazi veteran of the Iraq War, told Salon in 2008 that the Army was well aware of his involvement with fascist groups but did nothing to punish him. When Fogarty’s ex-girlfriend mailed the Armed Forces a file of photographs showing him at fascist rallies and performing in a Nazi band, Fogarty explained that, “they hauled me before some sort of committee and showed me the pictures… They knew what I was about. But they let it go because I’m a great soldier.”

In 2005 after being honorably discharged, Fogarty was asked to reenlist.

US Armed Forces officers had a similar response when a photograph showing the I Marine Expeditionary Force in Afghanistan posing with the SS flag surfaced in early 2012. Local commanders had been aware of the photos for months and refused to discipline the soldiers outside of asking them to avoid further photographing sessions with the SS flag.

A military probe claimed that the photograph was not an homage to Hitler’s SS and was only meant to harmlessly identify the marines with the letters SS for “scout snipers”.

These facts provide ample evidence of the incestuous relationship between the US military and fascist organizations. As the murders in Wisconsin and previous experiences such as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing show, the US military—with the tacit or open blessing of the Pentagon brass and representatives of both political parties—has become the incubator of the most politically reactionary elements. Under conditions of growing class struggle in America, such right-wing forces pose an enormous threat not only to those facing US wars and occupations but workers and young people in the US itself.

Source: World Socialist Web Site