Pentagon to chase tail for Potok

| April 15, 2010

The Pentagon is about to conduct a witch hunt for “extremists” based on information they were handed by the left wing extremist hate group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the organization of Grand Flea Eagle Arbiter of Hate Mark Potok. This according to Stars & Stripes;

The Southern Poverty Law Center, a civil rights group in Montgomery, Ala., presented dozens of the user profiles to Congress and the Pentagon. The center estimates “thousands” of extremists serve in the ranks and has lobbied the Pentagon for three years to adopt clearer anti-hate measures and more vigorously pursue servicemembers known to be affiliating with hate groups.

I wrote about those profiles which were dredged up by Wikileaks, of “Collateral Murder” fame. Of the emails I examined then, membership in the hate groups was questionable and SPLC didn’t bother to check to see if those claiming to be in the military were servicemembers at all.

To quote Mark Potok; “We can’t verify these things,” Potok said, because his group does not have access to military personnel records. “We feel that clearly military investigators could.” But that certainly doesn’t stop him from blasting military members as a whole for being members of extremist hate groups.

And, of course, there’s no solid basis of research upon which SPLC can rest their estimates of ““thousands” of extremists serve in the ranks”.

“The one worry here is that enforcement of these regulations may be very uneven. It leaves the decision up to local commanders and we’ve really yet to see how that’s going to work,” Potok said. “The hope is that this clarifies that even advocacy of these kinds of ideas is not consistent with being in the military.”

So apparently, Potok and the Pentagon are going to try policing thoughts, since “advocacy” is such a subjective concept. Only a Pentagon under a Democrat Administration could consider anything from Mark “Mighty Hairpiece” Potok and the SPLC anything other than hyperbolic crackpottery.

Category: Military issues, SPLC

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JuniorAG

How is this unelected group of assclowns allowed to do this???

Ben

“So apparently, Potok and the Pentagon are going to try policing thoughts…”

Yeah, the military is pretty good at that. At least they were when I was in. I can’t wait until they repeal DADT and they start to police troops’ opinions on homosexuality!

This post reminds me of the 1996 skinhead scare at Fort Bragg, NC. I wasn’t in the Army yet at that time, but I later served with a guy who was in the SF group in a supporting role. He had a first hand familiarity with the situation.

As you may remember, a black soldier painted a swastika on his own door and reported it up the chain of command. The black soldier was also support (although this was errenously reported) and he had a history of making EO complaints. He sounded like he had a serious case of seeing a racist under every bed.

It didn’t take long before the soldier’s story unraveled and it became known that there was no cryptic nazi conspiracy to take over Fort Bragg. But the story doesn’t end there. My friend in the SF group told me that there was a major crackdown on “hate groups” that might be lurking on post. Only white hate groups of course–Aryan nation, KKK, neo-nazis, etc. Obviously, white soldiers–and only white soldiers–were suspected. They had their barracks rooms raided, etc. White skin automatically made you a suspect.

All because of a swastika painted on a soldier’s door. By the soldier himself. Ridiculous.

Jayson

I was a brand new PFC and got stuck working at the Ft Bragg Replacement detachment in 1996 during that scare and the tattoo inspections that followed. Every week we would had to write up packets on soldiers with questionable tattoos that could be linked to extremist groups. I was there for a year and a half and while gang tattoos were grounds for chapter. I never saw one soldier get chaptered for gang tats (and I typed the paperwork for the commanders sig so I’d know). If you had a gang tat all you had to do was sign a sworn statement saying that you were no longer in a gang and the Army would let you stay. What I did see whas holdover soldiers with gang tats get kicked out for misconduct but none for that tats. I also saw a SSG(P) with almost 18 years in service get chaptered for a iron cross tattooed on his left chest at his first duty assignment in Germany in 1980. He claimed that he was drunk and thought it looked like the marksmanship badge and looked cool so he got the tat. Now I ask; when was the last time we had a VERIFIED skinhead type incident in the military and when was the last time we had a gang related incident?

anon

I signed into 3/325th AIR in early ’98 and the cavity searches for “hate groups” were still on going, as i had to reveal my tattoo (wife’s name, three letters) in order to validate that it wasn’t a swastika. Meanwhile, multiple guys in my unit had a spiderweb on their elblow…but I digress…

Great point about opinions on homosexuality. I was pointing out to my 3 today that, if/when DADT is overturned two things are certain and proven by the current LGBT lobby on campuses, Congress and in CO and CA: (1) the LGBT lobby’s lawyer’s will write the policy and legistation for DOD, (2) no one, from commander to chaplain, will be authorized to voice dissent or disagreement with that “lifestyle.”

Apropo to our conversation, he at one point said “it’s sick” and I replied that that is the exact comment he will be unable to make. Legislation and policy will give an offended soldier some ability to respond; either lawsuit, EO complaint, IG… some vehicle.

If you don’t believe me, I would encourage some study on the influence and power of the LGBT culture on college campuses. Dissenters on LGBT are not treated well.

The few overpower the many.

Is our Army ready for that…

Scrapiron

Hate groups are easy to identify. Simply look for democrat as a political party and Islam as a chosen religion. I haven’t heard of any other groups comitting mass murder in the past 50 years. Well the NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, Black panthers, liberal democrats, and Ayers/Dorn gang can be added as terrorist affiliated.

OldTrooper

Well, you have to remember that the powers that be are ticket punchers that want to curry favor with the man-child in office, so they can get a nice cushy job with the administration after they retire (Eikenberry comes to mind), so it doesn’t surprise me in the least that they are willing to take whatever Potok says as the gospel truth, even though any critical thinking employed unravels his lack of logic.

We saw this with a certain General worried more about losing diversity than the loss of life due to a terrorist attack.

Anonymous

This will be an “extremist” website, not to mention those “tea baggers”… watch. If someone says you can’t be member of any religious group or sect that considers abortion to be murder because of the violence to deny people’s right to have one surrounding the issue, then this’ll be a snap.

Ben

This is a really spectacular development. I can’t wait for the SPLC to decide what constitutes “hate”.

As Bill Clinton mentioned (after the hoax had been revealed):

“We still have too many Americans who give into their fears of those who are different from them. Not so long ago swastikas were painted on the doors of some African American members of our Special Forces at Fort Bragg. Folks, for those of you who don’t know what they do, the Special Forces are just what the name says; they are special forces. If I walk off this stage tonight and call them on the telephone and tell them to go halfway around the world and risk their lives for you and be there by tomorrow at noon, they will do it. They do not deserve to have swastikas on their doors.”

Liberals NEED racism in order to have an enemy to combat!

Here’s another antecdote about the Fort Bragg swastika incident:

“The Pentagon says a group of 350 Army Special Forces soldiers has been restricted to its unit area after swastikas were painted on the doors of eight rooms in the group’s barracks.”

http://www.cnn.com/US/9607/16/briefs.pm/army.swastika/index.html

justplainjason

They boogeyman of rascism is really overdone. Yes there are some racists in the military, but it isn’t the boogeyman that the SPLC needs to exist. I think that Potok must need money for a new rug, or a pedobear costume…

J3

“The Pentagon says a group of 350 Army Special Forces soldiers has been restricted to its unit area after swastikas were painted on the doors of eight rooms in the group’s barracks.”

Maybe the rest of the guys all wanted one on THEIR doors, too. Since it was an Asian and also Native American ( and other indigenous peoples ) symbol long before Adolf came along, I would say Hey, in MY religion this is a sign of blessing, passed down from Tawana Brawnley or whatever her name was.

BTW – did you know that SPLC’s Potok, Dees et al are vehemently anti-Second amendment, yet Dees has bodyguards usually armed with MP-5s to escort him? Did you also know that their organization of cretins, miscreants and dung eaters, pulls in more money than most small businesses, thus their interest in perpetuating the various myths that bring them wealth?
effin’ bastards, all.

TSO

SPLC has more money that Samoa’s GDP I read the other day.

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