FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                            Contact:          Corey Ealons

July 26, 2006                                                                                       Phone:             205-254-1960

                                                                                                            Cell:                 202-812-1061

CONGRESSMEN DAVIS, ENGEL, URGE RUMSFELD TO APPLY

ZERO TOLERANCE TO RACIST EXTREMISTS IN OUR MILITARY

-Letter to the Defense Secretary prompted by Southern Poverty Law Center study-

WASHINGTON - U.S. Representative Artur Davis (D-Ala.), along with New York Congressman Eliot Engel and more than 40 Members of the House, this week sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld urging him to adopt a zero tolerance policy against white supremacists and racists in the military. 

The letter, triggered by a Southern Poverty Law Center report on racial extremist activity in the military, will be followed later this week by a resolution introduced in the House expressing the sense that this policy should be implemented immediately to protect our soldiers deployed around the world.

In the letter to Secretary Rumsfeld, Davis and Engel wrote, "We urge you to implement the recommendations of the Southern Poverty Law Center to adopt a zero tolerance policy when it comes to white supremacy and other forms of racial or religious extremism in the military. Like your predecessors, Secretaries Casper Weinberg and William Perry, who issued similar directives, we urge you to confront this problem head-on by showing no tolerance for ethnic hatred among our service personnel."

Scott Barfield, a Department of Defense gang detective, says that after years of investigation, incidents of expression by Neo-Nazis and other extreme groups are on the rise.  Barfield is quoted in the SPLC Intelligence Report, which is available on the Internet at www.splcenter.org.  The report cites individuals such as Oklahoma City bomber Terry McVeigh as examples of how today's extreme racists can become tomorrow's domestic terrorist.

Davis appreciates that the number of radicals with this mindset may be small, but with our troops in harms way in Iraq and Afghanistan, and as other hot spots ignite around the world, we should be ever more vigilant in dealing with of these types of issues in our armed forces.

From the letter: "However small, we must stamp out the scourge of racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hatred whenever they are found.  It is our hope that [Secretary Rumfeld's] expeditious action on this matter will help to ensure that our military continues to uphold only the highest principles."]

- more -

July 25, 2006

Donald H. Rumsfeld

Secretary of Defense

The Pentagon

Washington, D.C. 20301-1000

Dear Secretary Rumsfeld: 

We strongly support the young men and women of our armed forces.  Our nation owes them its deepest gratitude for their service to our nation.

It has, therefore, come as a shock to learn from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) that there has been a growth of racist extremism in our military.  According to the SPLC, military recruiters and commanders have apparently relaxed certain recruitment standards, and the result is that racist extremists are now serving in the armed forces.   While there are no firm statistics on this growing phenomenon, we write to ask you to investigate the matter and to take forceful action to remove extremists from the military. We owe our courageous men and women in uniform nothing less.

 The current policy of the Department of Defense leaves too much discretion to military recruiters and commanders and is not being strictly enforced.  The military should adopt a zero tolerance policy and discharge soldiers who engage in white supremacist activities or who are members of white supremacist groups.

It is also our understanding that the military's own investigators are aware of the dangers.  Department of Defense gang detective Scott Barfield has warned SPLC's Intelligence Report that Neo-Nazis "stretch across all branches of service, they are linking up across the branches once they're inside, and they are hard-core."   He also revealed that there is "Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad."

We urge you to implement the recommendations of the Southern Poverty Law Center to adopt a zero tolerance policy when it comes to white supremacy and other forms of racial or religious extremism in the military. Like your predecessors, Secretaries Casper Weinberg and William Perry, who issued similar directives, we urge you to confront this problem head-on by showing no tolerance for ethnic hatred among our service personnel.   

Hate group membership and extremist activity are antithetical to the values and mission of our armed forces. We are proud to support the men and women in the military who represent the best America has to offer and know that extremists represent only a radical fringe.  Yet, however small, we must stamp out the scourge of racism, anti-Semitism, and other forms of hatred wherever they are found.  It is our hope that your expeditious action on this matter will help to ensure that our military continues to uphold only the highest principles.