WEBVTT 00:00.000 --> 00:04.400 JUDY WOODRUFF: Today, the Pentagon announced new initiatives and a new working group 00:04.400 --> 00:07.120 to counter extremism in the ranks. 00:07.120 --> 00:10.960 As Nick Schifrin reports, the military admits there's a problem, 00:10.960 --> 00:15.920 but advocates say it hasn't taken the necessary steps to tackle it. 00:15.920 --> 00:17.440 MAN: This is going to be the stand-down training for extremism. 00:17.440 --> 00:22.000 NICK SCHIFRIN: From a Marine Corps base in California to an Air Force base in Texas. 00:22.000 --> 00:27.000 MAN: Our purpose is to address a concern that has likely been around for decades, 00:27.280 --> 00:29.840 and has either been dormant or simply ignored. 00:29.840 --> 00:34.080 NICK SCHIFRIN: The military's two million active-duty and reserve men and women were 00:34.080 --> 00:39.080 all recently ordered to pause their day jobs and stand down to admit they had a problem. 00:39.120 --> 00:44.120 MAN: Never has this been more important than now, as we face potential threats from within. 00:44.400 --> 00:47.040 LLOYD AUSTIN, U.S. Secretary of Defense: Hello, everyone. I'm Lloyd Austin. 00:47.040 --> 00:48.960 NICK SCHIFRIN: In February, Defense Secretary 00:48.960 --> 00:52.480 Lloyd Austin required every unit to discuss extremism in the ranks. 00:52.480 --> 00:56.000 LLOYD AUSTIN: Views and conduct that run counter to everything 00:56.560 --> 01:01.560 that we believe in, and which can actually tear at the fabric of who we are as an institution. 01:03.920 --> 01:08.720 NICK SCHIFRIN: The stand-down was sparked by the January 6 insurrection. 01:08.720 --> 01:11.200 But the military's problems run deeper than the 01:11.200 --> 01:15.200 15 percent or so of insurrectionists who were current or former military. 01:15.200 --> 01:16.320 CAPT. GEOFFREY EASTERLING (RET.), U.S. Army: The reaction that you 01:16.320 --> 01:19.440 get just when you tell somebody you're a Black West Pointer, they're like -- one, 01:19.440 --> 01:21.440 they're like flabbergasted, like, how did you make it? 01:21.440 --> 01:25.040 NICK SCHIFRIN: Former Captain Geoffrey Easterling was a West Point graduate and 01:25.040 --> 01:30.040 Army field artillery officer who deployed to Afghanistan. He left the military in 2019. 01:30.720 --> 01:35.360 Easterling remembers confronting a fellow officer wearing a patch for the Three Percenters, 01:35.360 --> 01:38.720 the far right militia group whose members were among the insurrectionists. 01:38.720 --> 01:41.680 CAPT. GEOFFREY EASTERLING: I was like: "That seems to be like an extremist group." 01:42.240 --> 01:45.200 And he's like: "Oh, that's just what people say, but it's not extremism." 01:45.200 --> 01:47.920 If I had a Black Panther anything, there'd be a lot of questions, 01:47.920 --> 01:52.920 if not some outright fix yourself. But name your favorite white Oath Keeper-type 01:53.840 --> 01:57.840 organization don't get policed, or at least they didn't when I was in the military. 01:57.840 --> 01:58.640 RICHARD BROOKSHIRE, Executive Director, Black Veterans Project: You're going to 01:58.640 --> 02:03.640 the military for an opportunity to grow. These microaggressions can tear at you. They're like 02:05.200 --> 02:10.200 psychological whippings. And they're really meant to pacify you, to kind of put you in your place. 02:11.280 --> 02:15.040 NICK SCHIFRIN: Richard Brookshire is a former Army sergeant and combat medic. 02:15.040 --> 02:16.640 RICHARD BROOKSHIRE: Hello, I'm Specialist Brookshire with the 02:16.640 --> 02:19.600 218 Infantry deployed to Northern Afghanistan. 02:19.600 --> 02:23.280 NICK SCHIFRIN: He says the military never welcomed him as a Black gay man, 02:23.280 --> 02:28.280 and he calls the racism, homophobia, and sexism he says he witnessed stepping-stones to extremism. 02:29.200 --> 02:32.800 RICHARD BROOKSHIRE: There's building blocks to get to extremism, right? And, certainly, 02:32.800 --> 02:36.720 if you become -- if you're xenophobic, if you're -- if you hold racist proclivities, 02:36.720 --> 02:41.720 if you are a fascist, and you're kind of building toward actually activating around those issues. 02:45.600 --> 02:49.840 You know, by way of January 6, I wasn't surprised at all. When I served, 02:49.840 --> 02:54.840 conspiracy theories were rife, right? It's this open -- this openness and this kind of is 02:56.000 --> 03:01.000 tolerance that I think is most damning on the military's part. 03:01.200 --> 03:05.760 NICK SCHIFRIN: Last month, the Pentagon made public a 2020 report that admitted: 03:05.760 --> 03:09.840 "White supremacy and white nationalism pose a threat to the good order and discipline 03:09.840 --> 03:14.840 within the military and individuals with extremist affiliations and military experience 03:15.120 --> 03:17.760 are a concern to U.S. national security." 03:17.760 --> 03:21.600 But it also concluded: "We believe we have been effective at screening 03:21.600 --> 03:25.360 for individuals who possess or advocate extremist ideologies." 03:25.360 --> 03:27.360 LECIA BROOKS, Chief of Staff, Southern Poverty Law Center: We're happy to see that the Pentagon 03:27.360 --> 03:31.840 agrees that there's a problem, but we completely disagree that they're doing anything about it. 03:31.840 --> 03:36.080 NICK SCHIFRIN: Lecia Brooks is the chief of staff for the Southern Poverty Law Center. 03:36.080 --> 03:40.800 Her father joined the military shortly after it was desegregated and deployed to Korea. 03:40.800 --> 03:45.800 LECIA BROOKS: In joining the military, he wanted something other than the experience that he had 03:46.400 --> 03:48.880 as a Black man growing up in Mississippi. 03:48.880 --> 03:51.520 NICK SCHIFRIN: The military is proud of the history it's 03:51.520 --> 03:54.160 tried to provide Black enlisted service members. 03:54.160 --> 03:58.560 But it hasn't always lived up to promised opportunities. And the SPLC has been 03:58.560 --> 04:03.200 calling out extremists in the ranks for decades. In 1986, a letter to Secretary 04:03.200 --> 04:08.200 of Defense Caspar Weinberger said active-duty troops were rallying with the Ku Klux Klan. 04:08.240 --> 04:10.960 The SPLC has sent letters warning of white supremacy 04:10.960 --> 04:13.840 in the military about every five years since. 04:13.840 --> 04:17.840 LECIA BROOKS: The military seems to respond when something horrific happens. 04:18.400 --> 04:23.400 They feign interest, and then do not implement the recommendations that we offer. 04:23.840 --> 04:27.200 NICK SCHIFRIN: The military admits it doesn't even know the scope of 04:27.200 --> 04:32.080 the problem. It has no centralized system for monitoring extremism-related incidents. 04:32.080 --> 04:36.960 And advocates argue recruits aren't screened well enough and regulations are inconsistent. 04:36.960 --> 04:41.960 LECIA BROOKS: We should know how many people have been separated from military service 04:42.320 --> 04:46.160 based on their extremist activity. We don't know. There's also 04:46.160 --> 04:51.160 inconsistencies among command in terms of taking this problem seriously, 04:52.720 --> 04:57.720 and just buying into the romanticized notion that all is equal in the military. 04:59.760 --> 05:03.520 NICK SCHIFRIN: Right now, the military doesn't prohibit service members from 05:03.520 --> 05:08.520 belonging to extremist organizations, so long as they don't conduct prohibited activities. 05:09.840 --> 05:13.520 When Brookshire was deployed to Germany, he was stationed on a former Nazi base 05:13.520 --> 05:18.520 and noticed his fellow soldiers' fascination with Nazi culture. After he separated, he realized a 05:19.040 --> 05:23.840 veteran who'd killed a Black man hoping to start a race war had been in his brigade. 05:23.840 --> 05:27.680 RICHARD BROOKSHIRE: It kind of brought home the point that these things these -- these things 05:27.680 --> 05:31.840 weren't just being made up in my mind. There were people being radicalized right alongside me. 05:31.840 --> 05:35.920 NICK SCHIFRIN: This stand-down was held at a chapel on Fort Lee, 05:35.920 --> 05:38.160 named for the Confederacy's top general. 05:38.160 --> 05:41.600 CAPT. GEOFFREY EASTERLING: It starts at the top. If a post is named after an extremist, 05:43.440 --> 05:45.280 Fort Hood, Fort Bragg, Fort Lee, 05:47.120 --> 05:52.120 it kind of sets the tone that a radical with the right morals can still be honored. 05:52.640 --> 05:54.160 WOMAN: Against all enemies... 05:54.160 --> 05:55.360 MAN: ... foreign and domestic. 05:55.360 --> 06:00.000 NICK SCHIFRIN: The Pentagon says the stand-down has focused on the morals of its mandatory oath. 06:00.000 --> 06:01.120 MAN: That I will support... 06:01.120 --> 06:01.760 MAN: ... and defend... 06:01.760 --> 06:03.520 MAN: ... the Constitution of the United States... 06:03.520 --> 06:04.640 MAN: ... against all enemies... 06:04.640 --> 06:05.840 WOMAN: ... foreign and domestic. 06:05.840 --> 06:07.840 JOHN KIRBY, Pentagon Press Secretary: the number ought to be zero, 06:08.480 --> 06:11.840 given the fact that you take an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States, 06:11.840 --> 06:15.760 that you make a promise to the American people about what you stand for. 06:16.480 --> 06:20.320 But even though the number is small, it can have a corrosive, outsized effect. 06:20.320 --> 06:23.760 NICK SCHIFRIN: Today, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby unveiled new steps, 06:23.760 --> 06:27.360 including a new military-wide definition of extremism, 06:27.360 --> 06:31.440 standardizing extremism screening among recruits, and training service 06:31.440 --> 06:35.600 members as they leave the military on extremist groups that recruit veterans. 06:35.600 --> 06:38.560 JOHN KIRBY: More needs to be done to educate and inform 06:39.360 --> 06:44.360 transitioning members about who and what are waiting for them on the other side. 06:46.160 --> 06:51.160 We have evidence that some extremist groups are actively recruiting 06:52.240 --> 06:54.560 active-duty members as they get ready to transition, because 06:54.560 --> 06:58.160 they value their leadership capability, their organizational skills, their weapons training. 06:58.160 --> 07:02.080 NICK SCHIFRIN: Richard Brookshire's organization, the Black Veterans Project, 07:02.080 --> 07:06.800 uses advocacy and storytelling with famous veterans to organize and support 07:06.800 --> 07:11.120 Black veterans. And he fights what he calls systemic bias and exclusivity. 07:11.680 --> 07:15.600 Geoffrey Easterling believes solutions should also focus on veterans who don't 07:15.600 --> 07:17.680 feel supported when they leave the military. 07:17.680 --> 07:21.200 CAPT. GEOFFREY EASTERLING: How could you feel so rudderless and so unheard 07:21.920 --> 07:26.240 in a society that you helped create, you helped defend? How are we ensuring that 07:26.240 --> 07:31.240 they have the tools and resources to have community, financial stability, and family 07:32.000 --> 07:37.000 stability for the rest of their lives, so they're less likely to buy into conspiracy, insurgency, 07:37.040 --> 07:40.800 NICK SCHIFRIN: And ensuring that all who've served are less likely to buy 07:40.800 --> 07:45.440 into extremism's building blocks won't be accomplished in a single stand-down. 07:46.080 --> 07:51.080 For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Nick Schifrin.