A new analysis by the Anti-Defamation League alleges that 128 active-duty and reserve troops were members of the Oath Keepers in the months before and after the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol, and offered either their military training or access to fellow service members to the extremist group.
The Oath Keepers, founded and run, until recently, by Army veteran Stewart Rhodes, branded itself as an education and veterans support group. Instead, experts say it is a right-wing militia. Eleven members of the Oath Keepers, including Rhodes, have been indicted on sedition charges over their alleged plans for an armed takeover of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Five of the 11 are veterans.
The ADL's analysis comes from a hacked dataset that contained about 5 gigabytes of emails; chat logs; the names of more than 38,000 Oath Keeper members; and donor lists. The data was originally made public in September 2021.
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The ADL said that, in poring over the data, it "identified 117 individuals who we believe currently serve in the U.S. military, an additional 11 people who serve in the reserves, and 31 individuals who hold civilian positions or are military contractors."
Military.com asked the organization to share the findings so that its conclusions could be independently verified. It declined, citing privacy concerns of the individuals in question.
However, the group also noted that many of the people it identified -- ranging from privates to majors and including every branch and a variety of jobs -- gave the Oath Keepers "military base addresses, entered military email addresses, or identified themselves on social media as being service members."
In making its report, the ADL highlighted comments and posts that military members made in emails and Oath Keepers private chat rooms and noted that many of them involved belief in conspiracy theories, demonstrated some level of disregard for the chain of command, or hinted at violence.
One person the ADL highlighted "listed an address on an Air Force base" and described himself as a "[v]ocal advocate of instilling among junior officers and NCOs their allegiance to the Constitution and the American people, NOT the government, especially the President."
An Army executive officer told the Oath Keepers that he is "surrounded by well meaning Soldiers [sic] who are totally ignorant of the Oath, the Constitution, and the concept of natural liberty." The ADL noted that it couldn't verify his current status.
Several other Oath Keepers members readily volunteered their access to other service members to help spread the group's ideas.
"I currently coordinate ground movements, I have influence on nearly 46,000 Marines and sailors," a member of the Marine Corps wrote on the group's site.
An Air Force sergeant noted in his membership paperwork that, "due to being at an active training base, and as an E-5 i [sic] have been able to influence and inform those new to the service about all opportunities and what their responsibilities are and what their oath actually does mean."
Again, the ADL noted that it couldn't determine whether the person was still serving.
Other military members readily highlighted skills such as having "a license to drive almost every vehicle in the army" or being trained in "the latest forms of combat/emergency medicine, infantry and police tactics."
One person, presumably a Navy sailor, wrote that they were "training to be a nuclear electricians [sic] mate onboard [sic] a nuclear submarine or aircraft carrier." The ADL added that "according to open-source resources, this individual did end up working with nuclear submarines as an engineer."
The ADL also cautioned that someone's remarks showing up in this tranche of data is not proof that any one person may "hold or held all or some of Oath Keeper ideology or viewpoints, or that they ever actively participated in Oath Keeper activities."
"When reviewing this information, you should bear in mind the possibility that the individual misunderstood the nature of the Oath Keepers," the group added.
Since the organization did not share the names of the people it highlighted, Military.com was not able to identify or contact anyone quoted for comment or reaction.
The snippets highlighted by the ADL, however, do appear to show that military members -- some apparently making posts mid-deployment -- were eager and willing to put their military training and skills to use for the militia.
Experts have long noted that, while there's no evidence suggesting veterans or active-duty service members are more or less likely to join extremist groups, they are more likely to be targeted for recruitment because of their tactical knowledge and the inherent social credibility they carry. When recruited, they also tend to assume leadership positions quickly.
This trend can be seen in a breakdown of the Jan. 6 arrests. According to data from George Washington University's Program on Extremism, out of 866 arrests stemming from the insurrection, just over 100 defendants, or about 12%, had some level of military service. Veterans make up about 7% of the overall U.S. population, according to the Census Bureau.
Yet among those facing charges of seditious conspiracy, one of the most serious accusations to date, the previously mentioned five out of 11 Oath Keepers as well as four of the five Proud Boys, another far-right group, have some level of service.
While military leaders have started to look at ways to deal with extremism, they have also begun to face pushback from Republicans in Congress who don't see the issue of extremism in the ranks as a pressing matter.
As the annual National Defense Authorization Act legislation makes its way through Congress, every single House Republican voted against an amendment to the House version of the bill that would have called for the heads of the FBI, Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense to produce a report that looks at how much white supremacist or neo-Nazi activity is going on in the military.
In the Senate, the Armed Services Committee issued a report on the policy bill that called Pentagon efforts to root out extremism "an inappropriate use of taxpayer funds, and should be discontinued by the Department of Defense immediately." Because the language is in the report, not the bill itself, it would not carry the weight of law if it survives House-Senate negotiations on a final version.
"The committee believes that the vast majority of servicemembers serve with honor and distinction, and that the narrative surrounding systemic extremism in the military besmirches the men and women in uniform," the language said.
In contrast, extremist researchers like Amy Cooter, who specializes in studying militias at Vanderbilt University, noted in a metaphor that groups like Rhodes' Oath Keepers are like "multiple trees on the same small plot of land … separate entities, but their roots grow in the same soil."
Cooter warns not only that "the danger has not abated" but that, in reality, it's "quite the opposite: Militia emotions and activity could be easily exacerbated by another political leader who encourages exclusionary thinking and paranoia or by a foreign terrorist attack that nostalgic groups perceive as threatening to America's safety or culture."
-- Konstantin Toropin can be reached at konstantin.toropin@military.com. Follow him on Twitter @ktoropin.
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